Richard Galloway

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving this weekend in Canada. It’s a time to reflect on the year that’s just past and a time to consider what we have to be grateful for. In the Galloway household it’s been a big year of changes both in our personal circumstances as well as in our professional lives.

This knowledge, that learning is a continual journey, is something we need to instill in our children.This idea forms a large part of my philosophy behind my teaching. (I came across this great graphic on the website the image is linked to.)

To recap. In May of 2013 we decided that our photography business was no longer viable (ironic also that ISIS is now the scourge of the world – it was the name of our photography business) in the long term and that we needed to change direction in life. My aim was to return to teaching while Christa wanted to stay with photography but get closer to her photojournalistic roots, and so started our saga. We sold our house, moved in with Christa’s parents, moved to Whitehorse in the Yukon, then relocated to Red Deer in Alberta all in the space of a year. While we were in The Yukon I returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher, and Christa became a flight attendant for Air North while our little guy started at a new Daycare. In Red Deer Christa has the challenge of being a full time mum while I am a full time student.

So what then does the Never Stop Learning graphic have to do with all this? When I was younger, I never imagined that at my age I would be studying as hard as I have been. It has been a bit of a revelation not only how much I have enjoyed it but also how the notion of continuing my studies once I have a job will not go away. Christa’s learning has been different but equally revelational as she spent an intense, and I mean intense, four weeks with Air North learning how to become a Flight Attendant. This not only led to knowledge about the job but also personal growth which has given her a confidence that she didn’t have before. And of course the little guy is a continual learning machine. He’s learning numbers, letters, as well as pushing his boundaries as far as he can. Most of all it is in him that I wish to instill this Never Stop Learning idea because in order to succeed it is and will be more and more a necessity of a life fulfilled.

Finally then what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? Many things if truth be told.

First and foremost family. Both Christa, my son, as well as Maggie – as well as my family back in the UK and Christa’s family in Ontario. It is very true that without their support things would have been much harder than they have been.
My health – having seen first hand the consequences of bad health it’s nothing to be taken for granted.
For friends. Without friends life is not much fun. Friends add colour and depth to your existence. They also help you out when you need it without asking anything in return.
The people who have helped me so far on my journey back into the classroom – my tutor from Athabasca University, my tutors from University of Alberta and the countless others who helped me get there.
For Broadstreet (the company who we rented our apartment from) without these guys it’s a possible we’d still be in a tent… they bent the rules a little so we could move in with our dog.
Our vehicle which over the last year has driven us almost 50,000kms in safety, 10,000kms of which it was pulling a fully loaded trailer.
And as is my want leaving the best until last, I am thankful for my good fortune in meeting Christa – she’s awesome and I can’t imagine my life without her.

So there it is, my list of things to be thankful for. Sometimes it is good to reflect on what is good in your life because life can become heavy at times. Not today though, not today.

University of Alberta

If you check out my wife’s blog , you will be able to catch up on our latest news as a family. It’s been an interesting few months. Four weeks in a tent sounds romantic but I can tell you once it gets cold and wet it’s anything but.

The main reason that there’s been so little action on my blog, even for me, is since the 3rd of September I have been beavering (Canadian for working hard eh?) away at the University of Alberta. Arriving around 7am (trying to get space in the park and ride at Century Park LRT station after 6.30am is nigh on impossible) and leaving between 6pm and 7pm. There’s four hours of lectures on subjects as diverse as Historical Thinking and contour drawing, puppet making to Constructivisim and it’s place in Social studies. That’s not to say there’s isn’t any academic studies in art, far from it but it’s a much more practical course and provides a nice balance to the theory in Social Studies.

I can’t speak for the other departments, and indeed can’t really speak for the whole education department, but those professors I have been in contact with, namely my Art and Social Studies profs, have been great. We are doing condensed versions of these courses. Essentially trying to fit a fourteen week course into four weeks. As you can imagine, it’s a lot of work. I’m sure that the profs don’t really like it as there is obviously a whole heap more they could and would like to say.

Now we’re into the last week, and there is a lot of work to do. Unit plans for Art, revision for our Social Studies final, art journals to complete, art assignments and on top of all that we need to start thinking about our practicum, which starts on the 14th of October. We’ve just received our placements. Mine is here in Red Deer at the Glendale Science and Technology School. It sounds rather impressive and I am excited to be learning there. I have a G2 class. So one more week at University, and I know Christa is looking forward to having me home, and access to a vehicle, then an intense week prepping for my AFX (which is short for Advanced Field Experience I think) before into school.

Road Trip

One of our favorite things to do is road trip. We purchased a Toyota 4Runner in part because we were pretty sure that it would take us just about anywhere. We’ve put her to the test this last three days with a trip in torrential rain that took us over the ‘top of the world’. It was both exhilarating and at times terrifying with zero visibility and often very little in the way of saftey. Oh and muddy roads that we’re slippery even in 4WD. Fun times. Now we are back and heading towards Whitehorse before we set forth on our trip to Red Deer and a new life in Alberta. (Until December anyway.) Both Christa and I will have more to post and say about the trip when we have more time. For now let me end by saying that if you haven’t been to the Yukon and you are a Canadian, especially if you are a Canadian, you should come visit her, she’s something to be mighty proud of.

Waiting

The little guy and I are sat at Edmonton Airport wondering if we will get home today. We’re on standby and flights home look fully booked. If so we’ll have another night here. In which case a bit of a rubbish end to what’s been a useful couple of days.

We drove to Red Deer this morning. Discovered it’s a place we’re probably going to like. Found a list of management companies that specialize in short term rentals so we should be good on the home front. Yesterday we also found a campsite 10 minutes from the University which means that I’ll be able to stay there – now if we can get home today it will nicely round off a productive stay.

Update

We didn’t make it. It was too tight to call so the little guy and I are spending another night in Edmonton. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Using other people’s photography for blog posts

This is strange place for me to be. I have noticed that quite a number of my posts are without images. Which is a problem in so far as it is well known that images make a huge difference to audience engagement. The challenge that I have, as do many bloggers (I use that term loosely in my case), is that I don’t always have an image on hand that fits the topic of my post.

As a photographer it is always vexing when people use your images without permission, even for piddling little blogs like this one. On the other hand it can be a real pain trying to get permission to use photographs and even harder to use them for free. (And I remember well the pain of being a full time photographer, whose sole source of income is from photography, being asked for free use of your images.) Fortunately there is a solution.

Creative Commons was born in 2001 and is a way for people to give permission for their work to be shared in specific ways that they are comfortable with. You can read all about it here. It really is a great idea, especially if you want your work to get out there without it being used by people who could afford to pay you for your efforts.

creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-SA ) flickr photo shared by Nick Kenrick .

There are lots of great resources to help people find images they want to use. Flickr is one of them. A massive pool of photography that has many images licensed in such a way as you can use them without having to pay. If you use flickr then there is also a great tool I came across via Free Technology for Teachers. It’s called the Flickr CC Attribution Helper, which makes it very straight forward for you to extract either the html for blog use or correct credit when using images in in a presentation for example. I used it for this post.

So if in future you either need to use images or you would like to share them then check out Creative Commons.

My blog is evolving

I’ve deleted FB from my phone, mainly because of their ridiculous Messanger app and it’s insidious and outrageous terms of use. The only problem is that I did enjoy sharing pics and thoughts on the go. That is no longer really possible – though Instagram can help a little. A thought occurred to me last night that I could use my blog and make it a little bit more personal. Upto now it’s been exclusively a professional space but it’s not getting as much use as it should so by combining personal and professional thoughts and photographs it should see more use. We’ll see.

Is Standardized Testing Killing Innovation in Education?

Standardized testing, (amongst other things) isn’t making our schools better, it’s killing innovation and stopping the adoption of best practice. If this is true, and who am I to say either way frankly, but if it is true, then it needs to be changed.

I’m writing the final essay for my course at Athabasca University. I’ve done rather well so far, good marks and all that. I’ve also learnt a thing or two, as well as realizing there’s a whole heap I don’t know. As Einstein said “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” So as the assignments have gone on I have found them harder to write not easier. Probably because the more I read and write about education, the more there is to think about, to the point where there’s almost too much to think about. This final essay is a case in point. It’s a pretty huge subject area touching on equity and social justice, inclusive education, multiculturalism and how best to educate students, particularly those who have been traditionally disadvantaged. One of the big questions it poses is how to get rid of barriers and biases?

Turns out that one of the biggest hindrances to an equitable education is standardized testing. Standardized testing is a massive issue across the western world. Educators tend to be against, politicians for and we all know who wins that one, but I digress.

Now bear with me. I recently read this fascinating article in the New York Times by Elizabeth Green titled “Why do Americans stink at Math?” It basically tells the story about a Japanese teacher who in the late 70’s came across a different way to teach math, idea’s that had coincidentally been created / discovered in America. Anyway long story short (and it’s worth reading the whole thing here), the Japanese embraced these methods and consequently their students score well in international math comparisons. America didn’t embrace them and as we know have some of the lowest scores in the developed world, scores which are only getting worse.

What then you ask does this have to do with standardized testing? Well, it got me thinking. Back to the math. Most of math teaching in the US is of an “I, We, You,” order. That is to say the teacher shows the class an example (I), the class then works through a problem on the board led by the teacher (We), and then the students get to work though a worksheet of problems by themselves (You). This is the way most of us remember Math and I for one can attest to it being pretty useless for me. But there is another way. One that could be called “You, Y’all, We.” Rather than showing the students how it is done, they have a go themselves, then in peer groups and then finally as a class. In this way, it has been discovered that students get a much better understanding of the subject as well as being more excited about it.

The problem is teaching math like this, involves a very different skill set from the first, more traditional method. A skill set that would need to be learned. My point is while it was being learned what happens to the standardized test results? What happens when the scores for your school dip while the teachers and staff gets up to speed with this new approach to teaching math? Who would want to change in the first place if your school was doing fine with its test scores? Perhaps if your scores were bad and you had nothing to loose then why not try, but really that’s no way to approach education. If there is best practice out there, that is known to improve outcomes then we should be using them. If standardized testing is getting in the way of better practice then, it’s another reason why the whole common core, standardized testing, neo-liberal, market-driven education reforms should be hung out to dry.

In short, here’s the thought that occurred to me. Standardized testing, (amongst other things) isn’t making our schools better, it’s killing innovation and stopping the adoption of best practice. If this is true, and who am I to say either way frankly, but if it is true, then it needs to be changed. It doesn’t have to be this way. Finland doesn’t have any standardized tests until students are 16 and their education system and the achievement of their students is the envy of the world.

What I have learned so far

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much on my blog is that I am trying to study. I’m studying Educational Issues and Social Change: Current Debates. It’s a course that many teachers get to do while at university, in fact I think it’s pretty much required. It’s also required for me in order to get my teaching certification. So I have been reading and writing essays. Essay’s on Ideology and the Neoliberal Reforms, Professionalism and Proletarization in teaching, Equality of Opportunity and the Feminization of Poverty which are all done, leaving me with multiculturalism to navigate. It’s a lot of reading, and I have to say that I’ve been a pretty good student managing to study, most days, three hours or so. As I head into my final unit I thought I would share a few of the interesting things I have discovered over the last ten weeks.

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much on my blog is that I am trying to study. I’m studying Educational Issues and Social Change: Current Debates. It’s a course that many teachers get to do while at university, in fact I think it’s pretty much required. It’s also required for me in order to get my teaching certification. So I have been reading and writing essays. Topics which have included: Ideology and the Neoliberal Reforms, Professionalism and Proletarization in teaching, Equality of Opportunity and the Feminization of Poverty which are all done, leaving me with Multiculturalism to navigate. It’s a lot of reading, and I have to say that I’ve been a pretty good student managing to study, most days, three hours or so. As I head into my final unit I thought I would share a few of the interesting things I have discovered over the last ten weeks.

About Myself

Things have either gotten easier or I am smarter than I gave myself credit for. Paper 1: 94% Paper 2: 100%. It may not be that I am smarter but that I am putting some effort into a subject I do find really interesting. I’m also somewhat more focussed than the last time I was writing papers, when beer, women and finding out who I was kind of got in the way. It does go to show though that it’s never too late to improve your education or your mind.

That having a three year old on your lap pretty much means an end to any meaningful studying – though it is good for giggles.

About Education

If you come from a poor background you are a lot less likely to succeed than someone from a privileged background. I love this quotation.

To be born poor is to face a greater likelihood of ill-health in childhood and throughout your adult life. To be born poor is to face a lesser likelihood you will finish high school; lesser still that you will attend university. To be born poor is to face a greater likelihood that you will be judged delinquent in adolescence and, if so, a greater likelihood that you will be sent to a correctional institution. To be born poor is to have the deck stacked against you at birth, to find life an uphill struggle ever after. ( Poor kids: A report. (1975). Ottawa: National Council of Welfare.)

The biggest indicator of how you will do in life is not your ability or your effort at school but what your parents do.
More women live in poverty than do men. In Canada if you are a woman you are 50 percent more likely to be living in poverty.
The neoliberal agenda in education is as pernicious as it has been successful in getting people to believe that their narrative is the only narrative.
That 41% of children are born out of wedlock, 22% of which are in single parent households.
That poverty is becoming generational and social mobility is pretty much a fiction. (There is some but not much – far less than you have been led to believe.)

Of course it’s not all gloom and doom but it does have to be said that teachers do an amazing job in-spite of governmental interference.

One of the promises I made myself as I got into education for a second time, is that I would concern myself with my classroom, my students and leave the big picture stuff alone. Of course having to think about these things this intensely for weeks on end does get to you, but the end is now in sight. After that I am off on a weeks road trip, with my family, before we all head SE to Alberta and Red Deer. I’m looking forward to that and my time at UofA.

Countdown is on.

June has come and gone. In that time my wife had her birthday, my in-laws came to visit, school ended, my son finished daycare, I discovered that I wouldn’t be eligible for EI and I had my place CONFIRMED at the University of Alberta. So it’s been a busy four weeks. Another four weeks where I realise that one blog post a month won’t cut it. But then on the other hand, I have finished assignment 2 and well on the way to completing the reading for assignment 3. So it’s not like I have been idle. (Did I mention my wife is away more than she is here now that Air North is so busy?)

The view from our front room. Summer is here, the solstice past, which means that we are now heading towards fall and the end of our stay, for now at least, in The Yukon. What a magnificent place it is, full of wilderness, amazing vistas and great people. There is certainly something about Northerners, whether you are in the UK or Canada. They can be a taciturn lot but once you get to know them there isn't anything they won't do to help. I'm going to miss this place for sure. — The view from our front room. Summer is here, the solstice past, which means that we are now heading towards fall and the end of our stay, for now at least, in The Yukon. What a magnificent place it is, full of wilderness, amazing vistas and great people. There is certainly something about Northerners, whether you are in the UK or Canada. They can be a taciturn lot but once you get to know them there isn’t anything they won’t do to help. I’m going to miss this place for sure.

We’ve also given an end date to our landlords. We move from here on August 16th so if anyone is looking for a great place to call home then we heartily recommend here. We tried so hard to stay but it just wasn’t possible. We’re planning a weeks camping in the North before heading East to Edmonton.

I have signed up for my courses at UofA, that run from September 3rd to October 3rd. Art and Social studies, which I am ridiculously happy about. I love both of those subjects and while Math and Language of course are a priority, these courses will be an opportunity to learn something different. Besides if what I am reading in the news is right, there is a good chance in the next few years how Math is taught in Alberta will likely change. One of the great things about Art and Social studies, because they aren’t the priority they should be, is that they don’t get messed around with every time the government changes.

Now I have to try and get a teaching placement organised. I’ll be in a classroom from October 14th until December 12th. While I am not worried about the the teaching aspect of that, I am somewhat nervous about the planning aspect. Fortunately I have only 3 hours of lectures a day in September, so I should have plenty of time to get organised.

There is no doubt that I am getting excited about the whole prospect of being qualified to teach again. It has been a much more involved process that I thought, and I thought it would be long. But you know good things are worth working for so hopefully this time in six months I will be, fingers crossed, certified and teaching full time.

June Update.

We escaped for a night down to Atlin. This was the view when we drove down to the water. Breath taking.

University Update

After a lot of faff my application was finally accepted at the University of Alberta. For a while it looked like they wouldn’t accept my ‘transcript’ from the University of Liverpool. But after a phone call it was all cleared up and it went through. There point to all this and that is when you need to get things sorted the best way is still to talk with people. Go figure.

On A Personal Note

It has become glaringly obvious that my website is, for the moment, definitely a vanity project for me. I think I have one or two visitors a week. Which is not surprising considering how little I have been posting or getting around. This isn’t due to a lack of desire but a serious lack of time on my part. Juggling work, studying and family is something that I am getting used to. I also have the handicap of being a male making the multitasking thing even harder. Unlike my super talented wife who seems to juggle work, family and her blog just fine.

I am now into assignment 2 of my Athabasca course. I am trying to do a minimum of three nights a week studying, which leaves little time for anything else. On top of that I have been lucky enough to have been working almost full time at Jack Hulland and Selkirk Elementary Schools in Whitehorse. Of course all that will come to a stop in a few days as school is finished here on the 10th of June. So I now have six weeks to really finish my Athabasca course and hoping that now school is winding up I will be able to get that done.

We intending to get a fair bit of camping in over the next month, Christa’s job allowing, before we have to think about relocating to Edmonton. That will be happening mid August.