One of my jobs as a Reading Specialist is to help build capacity. I know that this is often done through more formal ways, such as professional development sessions, but I think that it can also be done in some informal ways. I’m a fan of the latter, as I normally find that these less formal ways result in … more targeted conversations with educators, smaller chunks of new ideas, a responsive approach, and the added bonus of seeing the ideas in action. Recently, someone asked me how I build capacity, and so I decided to blog about some of my favourite ways. Literacy in the Loo – This is a n ..read more

Today, I was up in the hallway during second nutrition break, and a Grade 5 student stopped me. I don’t know this student well, but her class is reading buddies with one of the kindergarten classes that I support. She asked me, “Is today our reading buddy day?” It is. It was what she said next that stopped me. She asked, “Is [Name (one of the JK students)] here today?” I wasn’t sure, but I asked her why. She said, “Because she’s my reading buddy and yesterday was her birthday. I made her a card. It’s blue because her favourite colour is blue, and it has a sparkly butterfly on it because she lo ..read more

Yesterday was hard. The first week back after March Break can be a challenge. Both staff and students are out of routine, and coupled with a time change, adjusting to being back is not always easy. I will admit that by the end of the day on Tuesday, I wondered if it was Friday. It wasn’t. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t have all kinds of joy this week because I definitely did, but I could relate to the educators who were feeling ready for an extra long sleep this weekend. Then yesterday, I had a really challenging group. The classroom educator has been away, and there have been different gues ..read more

Today is the last day of March Break, and I can’t help but think back to the last day of school before March Break. March 8th. International Women’s Day. And my birthday. I was overwhelmed with the love and kindness from staff and students on this day. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aviva (@avivaloca) I keep thinking about these two card comments from a Grade 1 student. “You make all of us smile.” “You are the best. Everybody is talking about you nice stuff.” While on one hand I will say that if you ever want to feel great about yourself, spend some time connecting with kid ..read more

When you teach in an elementary school and you say that it’s almost your birthday, the first question that kids ask is, “How old are you?” Young children have a really interesting perception of age. For most of them, you are either … 80-100 years old or a teenager. I like to play with ages then. Often times, I get students to guess my age, and then I give them clues to narrow down the number. Before the Winter Break, I finished the Math AQ Part 1 course through our Board. I recently signed up to start to the Part 2 course after March Break. Maybe it’s my thinking around math that inspired me ..read more

This year, I decided to facilitate two book clubs at my school. Anyone who follows my. Instagram account knows that I’m an avid reader, but I tend to read more fiction, mystery, and suspense novels. These professional book clubs are helping to ensure that I’m also digging into and reflecting on academic reads. While I’ve already read both books, I did so on my own and without further discussion about them. Now I can engage in conversation about these texts, and re-look at them from the perspectives of different grade levels. When I first asked my principal about facilitating a book club, I was ..read more

A principal friend of mine, whom I highly respect, once told me that her staff is like her class. I thought about these words this past week, as I was reflecting on some ideas shared by colleagues. This is how the story begins … Back in December, I blogged about my Literacy in the Loo experience, thanks to some sharing by Laura Wheeler and Doug Peterson. As I indicated in this blog post, never before have I received such positive feedback around resource sharing. Best of all, not only is this Loo PD reaching the educators in our building, but also visiting educators who happen to drop by the b ..read more

When I was in the classroom with Paula, I often felt as though I was continually learning through our conversations and reflections. In my current role, so much of my learning happens by conversing, reflecting, and sharing with others. I love how mentorship is a part of the Reading Specialist position. While we might have different assigned roles of mentor and mentee, the lines most definitely blur when it comes to the learning. I certainly found this to be the case on Friday’s Mentorship Day. On Friday afternoon, our Mentor Team went to visit another Reading Specialist at her school. She shar ..read more

As I shared in my blog post last weekend, this week I planned two days of World Read Aloud Day events for the Kindergarten to Grade 6 classes at the school (the Grade 6/7 class also attended). Now that these incredibly long — but also, unbelievably amazing — days are over, I decided to blog about my learning and reflections. Listening To Stories Is A Challenge Since I wanted to use the same text for all of the classes, I decided to choose one that was not too long, but also would provide enough entry points for the follow-up activity options. I know that many classes at the school read The Dot ..read more

A couple of weeks ago, I received a text from Jennifer Marshall. We’re paired up as a Reading Specialist Mentorship Team, and while we only meet in-person once-a-month, it’s awesome when we can find other ways, and times, to connect. Jennifer shared with me that Wednesday, February 7th is World Read Aloud Day. She gratefully shared what she was going to do for the day, along with some of the things that she did for Family Literacy Day at her school. I was at the Board Office on the Thursday before Family Literacy Day, and with Friday being a PA Day and admin out of the building on Thursday and ..read more