We chose a day and do weekly readings of our land acknowledgement. Now, instead of stu- dents just hearing this once in a while during announcements or on special occasions, they hear it weekly. We acknowledge that the land we teach, learn and live on was first home to the Indigeneous people from across Turtle Island, the Missisaugas of the Credit and the First Nation of the Anishinabek Peoples (for our particular school in Orangeville). Use your school board’s equity and inclu-
sion calendar. Using the equity and inclusion calendar exposes your students to celebra- tions and traditions they may not celebrate. There are many short videos on YouTube that provide an explanation of how traditions are celebrated and the importance they hold for the community. Using this format, we’ve highlighted
many important dates such as Every Child Matters, recognizing the impact of residen- tial schools, Bullying Awareness and Pre- vention Week, Transgender Day of Remem- brance (2SLGBTQ+), International Week of the Deaf and World Cerebral Palsy Day (to name a few). Most school boards have developed these calendars. They enable you to plan ahead and allow for the creation of engaging content.
HIGHLIGHTING SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES IN YOUR COMMUNITY
With Earth Day around the corner, the Google Meet forum offers a plethora of opportunities to reach out to local experts. To prepare for Earth Day 2021, I decided to reach out to local town councillor Grant Peters to inquire about the sustainability ef- forts taking place in Orangeville. The results were surprising and encouraging. If I hadn’t reached out, I never would have known what our little town was up to in helping the world do its part. Here are a few of our town’s initiatives:
• The town has an official guiding docu- ment, known as the Sustainable Neigh- bourhood Action Plan (SNAP).
• The Sustainable Orangeville Committee has several ongoing projects, including restaurant waste reduction, urban harvest program, active transportation (bike lanes, etc.) and tree planting events.
• The town also has a Communities in Bloom Committee. The town has competed at the national level. It won the national award for environmental stewardship in 2019.
38 ETFO VOICE | SPRING 2021
• In Orangeville, we hold two tree plantings every year and have a canopy target of 40 percent by 2040.
• The town of Orangeville gives Environ- mental Awards each year and hosts a number of Earth Week events.
During Earth Week 2021, my class and
I intend to find out more about these initia- tives by recording a Google Meet interview with Grant Peters. We are looking at collabo- rating with the town to present classes with eco-challenges.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Here are a few tips that have helped us meet the needs of our school as well as follow board protocols along the way:
• There is a feature on Google Meet that al- lows you to record the meeting you are hav- ing. We do this daily and post the recording on the school’s staff Google classroom.
• Make sure you check your school’s FOI (Freedom of Information) policy before posting anything on a Google Classroom.
• Prewatch, prewatch, and one more time... prewatch any video you plan to use. There are many great educational videos on YouTube, but prewatching is still a must. Regardless of the title or tags claiming the video is intended for elementary audiences, it is still on you to determine if the video is appropriate to show at school.
THE SHIFT BACK TO ONLINE – JANUARY 2021
When the news broke that we would be switching to online learning in January, I knew immediately that I would continue doing an- nouncements for our school. Because we had a format that worked so well, it didn’t matter if we were in school or not. Initially I recorded them on my own but then opened it up to my students and asked if they wanted to par- ticipate. Those who did had time to practice their script, and we would meet during school hours to record. We also had “special guests” – these were some of our French teachers in the school who weren’t regulars in our announce- ments but agreed to join remotely to say our quote of the day in French. To address student privacy, I made sure the students involved had all the proper paperwork signed and the permission settings only allowed students and teachers with our board email addresses to view the video. Continuing with announce- ments was important to me because it had be- come a regular part of everyone’s day. We now
had a format that didn’t need to be watched live; it could still be just as effective now that we had gone to remote learning.
PREPARING THEM FOR THE FUTURE
When I went into this, I knew my students would be up for the challenge and had high hopes that there would be a few classes that took an interest. What I couldn’t initially see were the benefits. The students involved in the roles take them seriously and look forward to preparing for the next day. They give sug- gestions for the script and help their peers by listening to each other and giving feedback on fluency. Before we go live, the students who are not directly involved have a role as well. They watch the door to make sure we are not inter- rupted, work the lights and remind others to stay quiet. This sort of experience allows them to see all the preparation that is involved in a production like this. It allows them to see that the people who do this as a career didn’t start off being able to read a script perfectly. They get to see how far they’ve come. They see their confidence grow and their reading abilities increase, and they become celebrities within their own school! This project did more than build community within my classroom. It did it for the entire school. The feedback from staff, students and parent council has been nothing but supportive. For many teachers it has become part of their morning routine. De- spite these challenging times, these announce- ments prove that we really are “virtually” all in this together. Google Meet announcements cover many
areas of the curriculum. They encourage my students to seek out different areas of knowl- edge and look to experts in our community. The students in charge of presenting the an- nouncements gain new knowledge and the confidence to share that knowledge with oth- ers. Students of all ages are exposed to many celebrations and traditions outside of their own experiences. The community is empow- ered when kids make an effort to learn more about the people who live around them, the traditions that exist and what is being done to ensure that the town they live in is doing its part to protect the environment. These stu- dents are proud to live and learn in their town. I see my students as experts other students will seek out one day. I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this incredible initiative. Person- ally, I will look back on 2020-21 as the year that encouraged me to think outside the box and come up with an innovative way to con- nect with my school. n
Lindsay Mall is a member of the Upper Grand Teacher Local.
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