An Acquired Taste (with bonus design challenge)

Like the Grateful Dead, adding a slice of cheese to Ichiban, or Crocs (okay, maybe not Crocs), I am an acquired taste. 

This week, I presented at a conference, and days before, only five people had registered for one of the sessions (eleven for the second session). I was not too surprised because, as I said, I am an acquired taste. In fact, especially in some of my earlier presentations when I was presenting with a small team, we the presenters out-numbered the participants. (I did cancel another workshop back then because only two people signed up. I have no problem presenting to two people, but I could not justify the expense of the conference flying me up to present to two people who might or might not show up).

At this recent conference, the day of the conference the number of registrants for my sessions went up to ten for the first session and sixteen for the second. These were perfect numbers for me because, especially at the beginning of the session, there is a lot of interaction with me and the participants, so having the numbers below 20 is ideal.

Design Challenge

The biggest challenge of the day was actually the room I was assigned. Because my sign up numbers were low, the conference gave me a Learning Centre room (where, typically, teachers work with individuals or small groups). The room was small and odd shaped; think two bowling lanes wide with a knee-break angle. One half of ankle pants shape.

There were two standard-sized whiteboards I could project onto, though one had scheduling on part of it that I should not erase. Speaking of projection, the projector looked like it had never been used because it was dusty and still had the blue packaging tape on it. The projector was on a low cart with an extension cord that was two hole; the projector was three-prong, but I always bring a long three-hole extension cord (and an HDMI cable) with me, just in case. There was a pull-down screen but it was so far away from the wall and so far to one side of the classroom that only three people would have been able to see it. 

In front of one of the whiteboards was a big teacher chair surrounded (rainbow-table style) by three rectangular tables. In front of the other whiteboard was another rectangular table and a couple of large round tables. In the second half of the room were a few rectangular tables, another round table, four full-sized teacher desks, and a couple of computer workstations for students.      

When I saw the room and the arrangement, I was stunned. As a learning centre, it was an excellent room and arrangement. But as a presentation room? .... How was I going to fit 16 participants so they could all see the projected slides and hear my low voice in this kinky bowling alley space? 

Then I realised: "Wasn't I the guy who liked to teach in irregular spaces and who liked the challenge of making spaces work for my style?" I looked at what I had to work with, and then I literally rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

Here is what the room looked like when I arrived:

Yeah, not to scale, but you get an idea of proportions. 

What would you do with this space for a presentation?

Some things to consider:

• I needed at least 10 spots for the first session and 16 spots for the second.
• I needed everyone to see my slides.
• I needed to see everyone's faces.
• I wanted people to be able to write, so tables were necessary.
• The rectangular tables could fit two adults on one side, comfortably.
• The projector was short throw and no adjustable zoom (meaning in order to get a decent-sized, viewable image the projector needed to be about 1 metre away from the wall).
• I wanted to respect the teachers' desk area so I kept everyone away from that zone (cross hatched).

Scroll down if you want to see what I did.

The Slim, Kinked Presentation Room

1. Projector. Job 1 was to figure out where the projector was going to go. I decided on Whiteboard 1 because it had the deepest space in front of it. (I tried Whiteboard 2 first, but I realized because the room was long, narrow and kinked, I was going to have to swivel my head back and forth to talk to both sections of the room! I also tried the space in between the two whiteboards, but it was too small and was where the kink in the wall was, so my projected text and pictures looked you had taken mushrooms or something). Whiteboard 1 had some spots (dotted area) where participants would not be able to see the images. 
2. Me. I positioned the projector (brown square) so it would project on the right half of Whiteboard 1 and made the image as big as I could on the whiteboard. I put my laptop on the low round table (green) and mostly stood to the right of it when I was presenting, so everyone could see and I could point to things when needed. I did move around the room to run games, discussions, and activities, and used my remote clicker to advance slides.
3. Participant Tables. I moved the rectangular tables in front of Whiteboard 1. I was able to get two rows by sliding them together or angling them so everyone had good sightlines. For the morning session, I moved two tables (x tables) out into the dotted area to keep my audience in one small, intimate section. The round tables were really inefficient because they took up too much space and had at least two participants' backs to the viewing area, so, as much as possible, I kept the round tables in the no view zone (dotted area). 
4. Other tables. I put student samples and recommended resources on the other round tables (m tables). At this particular conference, people had to sign an attendance sheet, so I moved one of the small student desks beside the door. It had the sign in sheet and some hand sanitizer. 
   
   

The space and arrangement ended up working really well. The room ended up doing everything I needed it to do. There was visibility, flow, and interaction. Everyone was engaged and I think they enjoyed the sessions.

Recap

So, to recap in reverse chronological order:

4. I had to rearrange the room to accommodate my presentation and my audience.

3. I was given this little space because my sign-ups were so low.

2. My signups were so low because I am an acquired taste.

1. I am an acquired taste, especially outside my own district because a lot of what I do and present is both divergent in variety and narrow in audience scope.

Like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes or Angine de Poitrine's microtonal tunes, not for everyone, but, if you know, you know. 

Storyworth excerpt 4: The Total Gym

 My Total Gym story

  I needed to exercise and was looking for a way that I could work it into my day. I am not a gym guy and like to exercise on my own. Just before COVID, I bought a magnetic rower which was a good way to keep fit but got monotonous and did not help my occasional lower back problems. Remembering the Chuck Norris infomercials for the Total Gym, I thought it might be good for me because unlike the rower, the Total Gym could do many different kinds of exercises, not just rowing; plus, because you lie on the sliding platform, it supports your back as opposed to free weights or exercise bands. But new Total Gyms were about $1000. What if I did not like it or use it?

  I got a Facebook account, just so I could use Marketplace to buy a cheap, used Total Gym. There were a lot of TGs for sale. I tried to contact several sellers to set up a buying meeting, but because my account was new and blank with no personal information or posts, I think people wrote it off as a scam account and never e-mailed me back. When a guy in Burnaby had a Total Gym for sale for $50, I wrote to him that I was interested, told him my account was legit and even included my cell phone number in case he wanted to call me to verify. He contacted me right away and we set up a time the following evening.

  The seller, Steve (not his real name), had an address that was just down the street from my parents’ old house. I drove there and backed in at the foot of his driveway. Steve greeted me and welcomed me into his house. Right in his living room sat the Total Gym fully set up, just like in his pictures on the post on Marketplace. It was off to the side in his living room, but I got the sense that is where it lived all the time. Steve admitted that he bought the TG in the middle of the night during a Chuck Norris infomercial and it had sat in his living room for the last 20-odd years. He hinted that with the amount of room it took up in his living room (think 7-foot long ironing board) and the few times he actually used it, his wife wanted it gone.

  As Steve talked, I checked the Total Gym over and thought that though it was old, it was in excellent condition, probably from lack of use. I handed the $50 to him and he seemed happy with the money, happy to have the Total Gym gone, and happy to restore harmony with his wife. As he pocketed the money, Steve said, “I’ll help you take it out to your truck.” I told him that I did not have a truck, but my back seat folded down. Steve was doubtful it would fit because, though he could get the Total Gym flat, it was still over 7 feet long. Still, he grabbed an end and I grabbed an end and we took it out to my car.

  We tried sliding the Total Gym in through my trunk but it was too long. Being a really nice guy, Steve offered to drive it out to my place in his truck! I told him, “It is kind of you to offer, but why don’t we just fold it?” Steve just looked at me blankly, and said, “It folds?” I said, “Yeah, like this.” The TG was lying on his driveway, and remembering the Youtube videos I had watched, I pulled it up from the middle where it jack-knifed and folded in half, then I slid it into the back of my car. Steve's face scrunched up and he repeated disbelievingly, “It folds?” Then I think he swore under his breath, thinking he would have kept it if he had known it folded, perhaps remembering the battles he had with his wife over the space-eating eyesore in his living room.

  Now, the Total Gym resides, folded and on end, hidden behind the hutch in my dining room. I pull it out at least four times per week when I do resistance training or Pilates reformer workouts and put it back when I am done. The Total Gym turned out to be the perfect exercise tool for me. And my marriage is still intact.

My unfolded Total Gym
with my Pilates foot bar mod

Storyworth excerpts* 3: Maureen

*This post is a collection of my excerpts from different Storyworth chapters. I put some of the bits about Maureen together here.

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Maureen

2005: Director of Instruction

      Maureen Dockendorf had a way of making things happen. In 2005, she was the Director of Instruction for my district. Though I had known about her for years, I distinctly remember her talking at a packed Winslow Gallery just after she was made Director. She was talking passionately about the importance of teachers and the difference we were making every single day in kids’ lives. As she was talking, my palms were getting sweaty, my heart was beating faster, and this giddy warm glow was spreading through my body. “Omigod,” I realised, “I am in love with Maureen Dockendorf.” Not wanting to keep this from my wife and being fully secure in my marriage, I went home and told Brenda my feelings for the new Director of Instruction. “Oh yeah,” Brenda said, “I’ve heard Maureen speak before. I know how you feel.”

      Maureen was so inspiring. It was like Obama or Oprah speaking. You wanted to do your best because Maureen told you you could. Maureen did not just have followers or admirers, she had disciples. My friend David told me he knew what a “cult of personality” meant after working with Maureen. People say that I am like a chameleon: I can walk into a room and blend in with the background. Maureen was like a reverse chameleon: she would walk into a room and the room changed. Tom D said that Maureen could tell an auditorium full of administrators that they were going to pick up the dog droppings after the meeting and everyone would jump up and say, “That sounds like a great idea!”

    When Maureen became Director of Instruction, she overhauled Winslow Centre and the way professional development was done in our district, (and later the province). I worked for Maureen as a district Literacy Support Teacher (LST), and Maureen was as I thought she would be—amazing to work for. Because she was running the whole Staff Development department, the LSTs did not get as much time with her as I thought we would. The times we did, though, were impactful.

    Below is a page from a picture book I wrote, a primer about the LSTs. I thought this page captured Maureen. (She loved it).

    There was this one time during an LST team meeting and we were all a little stuck. Maureen brought out a magic wand (seriously) and asked, “What do you need?” And we would ask for things like “more time in this school” or “some funds to buy that resource.” Maureen would tap her magic wand with a “ting!” and say “Done!” She was our Fairy God Momo and in an Oz kind of way, she gave us permission for things we did not know we could ask for.

Back to the 1990s: Meeting Maureen and Action Research

I had actually met Maureen years before. During a winter break in the 1990s, I was invited by some friends of friends to go cross-country skiing at Lac Lejeune at a little lodge called Woody Life. It was great. We stayed in quaint log cabins, skied all over, then dined at the lodge, buffet-style. It had a family-run feel and catered to families.

  During one of the dinners, I was standing in the lodge near the entrance, waiting in the bar line and I noticed a family come in. The boy, who was about 10 years-old, came in like he owned the place (he didn’t) and headed straight for the buffet, followed by his sister who was in her early teens, then the non-descript mom with her hair pulled back in a frizzy pony tail, and the dad. The dad had the bluest eyes I had ever seen. He took his place in line for the bar behind me. I smiled at him, and after a pause he said, “Great skiing today, eh?” and I said, “Yeah.” He followed up with “Great place, eh?” and I said, “Sure is.” Then the line at the bar started moving, and we did not talk to each other again the whole trip, but would nod to each other once in a while.

  Yeah, it does not sound like much, but in another one of those odd coincidental moments, a year later, I was photocopying something at back at school, and I happened to see a notice pinned for teachers who wanted to look at their practice a little differently. I went to the first meeting and found out it was a grassroots group of teachers who were starting something called “Action Research” (later “Learning Teams”). It involved doing personal, qualitative inquiry into something we wanted to develop or explore in our teaching. The people in this group were amazing: Nadine (future Superintendent) who started the group, my old friend Gloria (future coordinator), Elspeth (future principal), Jill (future principal), Louise (past coordinator), Colleen (future mentor), and a few others.

  The facilitator for this Action Research group was someone named Maureen. Towards the end of the session, I realized that I had “met” Maureen at Woody Life. We had never spoken, but she was that (non-descript!) mom of the family with the blue-eyed dad in the bar line. After the session, I asked Maureen if she had been to Woody Life, and she had. And that was my real introduction to someone who would later be a massive influence in my professional life.

2011: CR4YR

    In 2009, Maureen was the Assistant Superintendent who partway through the year, gifted my school with a 1.0 teacher. This triggered a series of events that led to my journey with classroom design and this blog. (Class share -> storing my teaching stuff in a storage room -> revamping the storage room so much that teachers sought a quiet oasis there -> wondering how classroom environments would affect students).

    Then around 2011, I was involved in this brilliant provincial project called Changing Results for Young Readers, or CR4YR. The Premier of BC at the time promised that ALL students in the province would be reading by grade 4. Maureen being Maureen, wondered what we as teachers could do differently to make this statement a reality. CR4YR brought together teachers from all over BC, asking each teacher to focus on a struggling reader and to observe that child and then try something new to improve the student’s reading.

     At first, Maureen started the pilot project with about eighteen primary teachers from Coquitlam, Surrey, and Maple Ridge. I was one of the six teachers from Coquitlam, along with my buddies, Kyme and Deb. In the end, the pilot project was incredibly successful. We started small and manageable, and grew our “interventions” organically from the observations we made of our target child.

Somehow I got to be the poster child for CR4YR

    The next year, CR4YR scaled up, across the province. I was still a participating teacher, but I was also facilitating the project in schools in my district. I attended these huge meetings organized by Maureen with districts across the province. At one of those big sessions, one of the other teacher-participants noticed I was from Coquitlam, (at that time, we were known for innovation and inquiry), and asked me a bunch of questions about the learning team/CR4YR process. Maureen overheard us talking, liked my answers, and pulled me aside, asking if I wanted to take on facilitating some remote districts. I was flattered but deterred by the thought I would be replacing Maureen as their facilitator. Maureen. There was no way I could fill those stylish stilettos.

    Then she asked a question that would change my life for two years. “Seeing as you don’t want to be a facilitator or a coordinator,” Maureen asked, “what would your ideal job be?” which led to...

2012: Bright Ideas Gallery

  A couple of days later, I pitched the idea of an online innovation magazine to Maureen. I kept running into colleagues from my district who were telling me about these amazing things they were doing or trying, and I wondered why I had not heard about these ideas before. Coquitlam was known as an innovative district, so why not share these innovations with each other and try to spread more innovative practices? I would go into schools, talk to teachers who were trying different, promising techniques, then write up these ideas in a blog-like site that I would send to every teacher in the district each month.

I loved doing the Bright Ideas Gallery. There were so many exciting things being tried in SD43: cutting-edge technology, environmental and gardening initiatives, collaboration and inquiry-based learning, design thinking, SEL techniques, etc. 

But doing B.I.G. did mean that technically my contract at my home school was down to 0.4 FTE. I was worried that this reduction would have job implications for me in the future. I must have mentioned this concern to Maureen. She counseled: “You know, Greg, sometimes people like us have to take some chances and make our own opportunities.” It was not until later that I realized that when she said,“people like us,” she was including me.

After the Bright Ideas Gallery, I went back to the classroom and Maureen went on to be the Superintendent of Learning for the province. I owe Maureen so much; so many opportunities, so many experiences, so many good times, and introducing me to so many great friends.  

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Storyworth excerpt 2: Central

Here is the second excerpt from my Storyworth accounts. 

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 Central was actually my third school my first year because I did three temporaries in a row. My interview there was weird. Back in those days, principals had a lot more discretion about hiring. Central was offering a grade 3 class with Music instruction for the grade 6 and 7 classes. When I arrived at my interview time, I totally bulldozed over the poor principal with my talking. I was still processing how my last job was ending and blurted everything about it instead of letting this nice principal, D, ask her usual questions.

    I also kind of talked her out of hiring me because a big part of the assignment was Music. I told her I was not a classically trained musician nor was I trained in any kind of method of musical instruction. I just liked to play the guitar. She told me that the position was teaching a grade 3 classroom and that I was going to be teaching guitar to the grade 6 and 7 classes as their teachers’ preparation time. Even though I fire-hosed D with information, she told me after our brief “interview” that she would be recommending me for the job.

    My assignment at Central started in January 1990 after Christmas break. During that break, I went away with some friends to Mexico and caught a bad cold. On the first day back at school, the Tuesday, I dragged my sluggish self into my school to meet my new class. They were angels! Maybe it was because I was new or young or because I looked like I was at death’s door, but they treated me really well.

    Because I was so sick, I ended up not coming to school for the rest of the week, and also because I was so new, I did not know to book a replacement teacher (TTOC in my district) for the rest of the time, so I ended up getting three different people: Rob, Sara, and Don (not their real names). I remember them because I talked to each of them on the phone to see how things went and to talk about the next day.

    An odd thing happened with all three phone conversations; all three of these people asked if I had any special qualifications, especially in music instruction. I told them that I did not, and all three of them admitted nicely that they had applied for my current job, they did have actual music instruction training or experience, and they were wondering what made me stand out enough to get hired. 

    “Enthusiasm?” I might have croaked weakly.

    Feeling guilty about my lack of qualifications, I looked for ways to get trained in musical education. As luck would have it, I noticed on a professional development flyer that the district was offering a free workshop for “people who had to teach music who had no training.” Perfect!

    Well, it was perfect until I showed up for the workshop and the instructors were Rob, Sara, and Don.

    Overall, I think I did a perfectly adequate job at Central. I loved my grade 3 class, and my grade 6 and 7 guitar students seemed to enjoy Music class. Though I did get to stay at Central the next year, D did hire a qualified and experienced Music teacher. 

 

Storyworth excerpt: 1. Preteaching

    In my last post, Origin Stories, I talked about being gifted Storyworth and how I was using it to document my time in schools. I decided to include some excerpts on this blog for the next couple of posts.

    This chapter was about just before I became a teacher.

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