Okanagan-Skaha: Through a Different Lens

When I first came to the district I got together with a group of secondary teachers and we started a research project, an inquiry project that was focused on if we offer kids alternatives to showing what they know, will it make a difference to them as learners? And even in the first year there was remarkable changes. There were kids who had never passed a test before, had never, never written an essay on the test, they would just look at the paper, they wouldn’t even bother trying, started to draw, things like, well one of them was inventions during World War 2, so it was a whole page covered with inventions and then little labels showing what everything was. And the kids started getting like 70% on their tests. These are kids that never passed their test, right?

Naryn Searcy, Princess Margaret Secondary

The overall focus is that we’re trying to find alternate ways of teaching and assessing in order to reach all of our kids and provide more ways for all of our students to be successful.

Naryn Searcy speaking to class

…with your partner, and then you’re just going to put the correct letter order.

Naryn Searcy

We weren’t sure how it was going to look when it began, the first year was a lot of figuring things out as we went, but also getting some pretty inspiring results quite quickly. And now this is our second year and so we’re taking what worked last year and expanding on it.

Naryn Searcy speaking to class

… you need to find five other people to dress up…

Naryn Searcy

We have students that are now being successful that would not have been successful in the past, in the same subject areas, in the same school. This is making a difference. And just today in our collaborative group one of the teachers mentioned how she ran into two parents who said, I cannot believe your school! You know we’re getting a reputation as a school, just that as a group we’re going out of our way to connect with these kids and look out for them, it’s not just one person anymore it’s everyone working together.

Judith King

Our motto is start small and try something. So we, when we started the project we produced a page and one side of the page it says low-prep ideas, and on the other side it’s high-prep ideas. Low-prep ideas can be as easy as turn to your partner and talk. Draw instead of write. High-prep ideas are doing things like scavenger hunts, or Comic Life, or putting together graphic novels, or. So what we do really, is we have an inquiry group at each of the schools that is part of the project, we meet once a month, and teachers share ideas and they just pick them up from each other. And we’re really not trying to do a certain thing, we’re trying to look at three main areas. How do you build a culture so kids feel like they belong in your classroom, how do you establish a relationship with them, how do you make it positive, how do you teach differently in all sorts of different ways, like dramatizing things instead of lecturing, or showing video clips, or having kids teach, and then how do you assess differently, keeping the standards high.

Nick Korvin, McNicoll Park Middle

I think that Through a Different Lens is just looking at set ways of doing things and trying to do them differently. Not necessarily showing them new things, but giving them new opportunities that they haven’t had in the past. Right? So, playing games to do coordinate grid geometry. Looking at models to describe relationships. Seeing that real world kind of application. And just, getting kids out of seats. I think it’s important.

Tim Haberstock, Princess Margaret Secondary

This class that we’ll be going in today has lots of challenges. I have 11 different kids that have IEPs in it, and I’ll actually have 2 EAs in there as well. So I have to have a variety of different things that kids can do, you know my high end kids can just read out of the text book and learn if they needed to, but I have to really design my classes for some of these less abled kids, so they can accomplish the same things.

Madison, Princess Margaret Secondary

Well we’re just testing like different, like glass and wood and then we’re taking like wool and plastic and we’re doing electricity. Static and current. So we’re trying to see what attracts and what repels the best.

Tim Haberstock, Princess Margaret Secondary

When I look back to when I started teaching, there wasn’t nearly the inclusion that we have now. And that’s a big difference because kids that are in life skills programs here are still taking academic subjects like science 9. And we’ve been focusing on a small number of kids but what we’ve been finding is that the techniques we’re using with these kids are actually applicable to all the kids in our class, and I think that’s what I’ve found is the most successful is that although we’re trying things for certain kids it’s helping everybody.

Lewis, Princess Margaret Secondary

In here, it’s a lot easier because Mr Haverstock’s a good teacher and just helps me learn lots of stuff

Tara, Penticton Secondary

It makes it easier to retain it because we make so much fun of it.

Ellie, Skaha Lake Middle

It just makes a difference in your work ethic I think because like when you’re happy and everyone else is happy, you want to do your work and you want to get finished so you can have, like, do more.

Jeff Fitton, Skaha Lake Middle

And to see their passion and enthusiasm it makes a teacher more passionate. The best part of that, the project as well for teachers is it’s collaborative. People often work in silos. I’m in my room, I might not see the other teacher teach for five years even though we’re next to them. Here we get into a room with four or five creative minds and it’s amazing the synergy.

Judith King

Teachers have a wealth of knowledge, right? So what the project’s done is give them a chance to share what they know. So they try something new, the other person hears it and says oh I like that, I’m going to try it, and they go off and try it and make it better, and then they come back to the next meeting and share it back out.

Naryn Searcy

I think personally for me that’s been one of the number one benefits of the whole Different Lens project. Not just to bump ideas off, but moral support as well, like, keep trying keep doing these things, sharing success stories, working through struggles.

Jeff Fitton

We’re looking at whole new interesting ways to teach using things we’re finding on the internet. Resources, other teachers, and connecting with them. And all of a sudden you’ve got this holistic approach to education that is far less boring for the teaching and the students.

Dave Searcy, Penticton Secondary

It comes from everybody. We learn from each other. You have to have a learning community. If you don’t have a learning community in your classroom then it’s a job. If it’s a learning community, we all look forward to class.

Jeff Fitton

When you have humour, fun, enjoyment, shared experiences, kids will talk about it. And I find there’s more a sense of community.

In the Through a Different Lens Project, we don’t want to scare people away. If you tell people, okay, all of a sudden, oh we’re making videos, there’s teachers that are going to go oh forget it! I don’t want to learn videos, I’ve got a family at home, or I’ve got part time jobs, or I’m barely surviving. And so we divide what we do into high prep and low prep. Some people, they just need a small, quick little change that’s going to help create that snowball effect for creativity. And we might say okay, instead of writing notes on the board and getting kids to copy them, why not post them around the room? Let those kids, like young boys in particular at middle school, let’s get them up walking around and taking notes. And so it might start with something as simple as that,

Dave Searcy

I fail sometimes. Sometimes my classes don’t work at all, and I tell my students that at the start of the year, I say I’m going to try some different things and they may not work. But when they work, they’ll work for all of us. To me, try something new, if you don’t, you’re never going to be able to move forward and have more fun.

Tim Haberstock

And I think that’s the neatest thing about it is when you can see them demonstrating their understanding.

Naryn Searcy

I mean overall in general as I said, I think we’ve had students who are being more successful and have been more successful. We do have some clear cut cases where we have the same student, similar subject area, two different classes, being taught two different ways, different kid.

Judith King

I think for me what this has done has helped teachers see the potential in kids. Helped all of us see the potential in kids. And it’s given kids a lot of hope that they can be learners and they can succeed. And it’s just really time.