The title of the included poem recording is Cwelelep. I learned this word from Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser’s book, Spirals of Inquiry for Equity and Quality. The word, from the Lil’wat language “suggests being in a place of dissonance and uncertainty in anticipation of new learning.” As a Vancouver Island University MEd student under their tutelage this word arose a number of times and makes sense to me as the experience of education. The poem is a reflection on my own and my school’s inquiry work and experience of the previous year. It was written in June 2017. I hope you may find something meaningful in it.

 

I am trying out including some audio on my blog and also daring greatly with the spoken word recording. The text of the poem is below.

 

To find a vision and build learners

It takes stretch, for thoughtful, dedicated practitioners

The opportunity for this viscosity

Presented itself with intellectual curiosity

 

The doors were open and the new and old

The purpose, dare to be bold

Brought an energy and search for clarity

To a goal including viewpoint disparity

 

Looking to harness the enthusiasm from the start

Contemplating the possibilities of limitless art

We looked upon the vast landscape of edu-theory

Imaginative ideas and pushing out the dreary

 

Lots to do, flip through, see and to explore

This spinning wheel of inquiry to underscore

Growth Mindset, universal design, AFL and the spiral, the spiral

What would become the work of the year’s arrival

 

How to chop it down, what to look for so efforts aren’t in vain

Jumping on board the scanning train

How to organize, develop and synthesize

A locomotive at your platform does materialize

 

What is going on for these guys?

Let’s show them limitless skies

But what do they need and what do we

I’ve got a hunch, so let’s see

 

This school is growing and pushing out the walls

Nothing but vibrant and crowded halls

The abundant energy causing difficulty

Up and down on branches of the self-regulation tree

 

What do we see?

Not knowing how to make a choice or three

Or four or more, that let them walk through the door

And set themselves, to the business of more

 

Choices and voices in spades

Decisions have to be made

How do we be, socially, emotionally

Creating conditions focally

 

Let’s step in and see what difference we can make

What structure for them to co-regulate

Adjusting schedules and flipping breaks around

Being with, so understanding can be found

 

And as our focus hones in on the structures we provide

Collaboration and Wonder Wednesday coincide

The ball is rolling around the spiral

I think this change might go viral

 

The best laid plans to fruition

Encouraging growing ambition

Impact from collective discussion of the ways

We were shifting in early days

 

Then BANG, head over boots

Unforseen and shaken to our roots

A little Paisley in the middle gone

How, do we move on

 

A month or more looking through the door

Only seeing, eyes on the floor

Not able to speak the right words, not wanting to see

The broken father before me

 

And still my words have not been spoken

Music in the playground to heal I’m hopin’

The monument to whisper in the ear

Continue on, have no fear

 

 

 

 

So we did and shall keep asking

What are we unmasking

What do these youth now need to help them steer

Knowing, no matter what, I am here

 

This reinforced the building mantra

We would inquire on, with skill like super Contra

SEL and SRL we would investigate

And so, Butler et al, filled our plate

 

And Halbert and Kaser’s work did inspire

To work together through muck and mire

To keep asking the one plus three

Growing trust a priority

 

 

Nurturing a safe space to share

More SRL needs came to bare

Our youngest learners missing skill

Let’s support a bucket fill

 

Where to go, where to find the right fit

Let’s look at the OECD, 7 principles a bit

And the ILE project to inform potential action

The Valby School in Norway, might give us some traction

 

From the ground up inclusion

Early learners together with all, to avoid confusion

The evidence they had, was pupils ready

To transition and be steady

 

So let’s link things together

Strongstart and K/1, with a sharing feather

Wind in the jib to start

Captain and first mate all a part

 

 

 

 

The boat set sail and the storms did quell

Our youngest learners demonstrating SRL

This was a ship floating on inquiry seas

Questions, navigating the breeze

 

What is out there in the oceans of change

Seeking the new no longer strange

Strongstart kids now dictate the terms

They want in where everyone learns

 

A conversing three parties

Back and forth, reconciling priorities

Demands on flexibility, pushing the longevity

A pants-less kinder does add some levity

 

With the wind up, a how do ya do

Were parents as optimistic too

How do we now know where to go

Please don’t refrain, let ideas flow

 

There it was said in resounding fashion

We are thankful, informed and ready for action

Our children are safe to learn and explore

As summer approaches we have a resource store

 

 

This is the lifeblood, the pursuit of change

Move forth in future and find ways to arrange

Learning that benefits the whole community

Weaving together the way to equity

 

So we are left with more to know

And potentially a thousand places to go

What is it again that engages and inspires

Let’s return to that which lights fires

 

 

 

 

Of our students and parents and partners we must ask

In what learning for you is glorious to bask

The locomotive returns with the freight cars of info

Telling us get back, to the land and the people

 

A growing interest in food and our connection

Brings our outdoor classroom a resurrection

It is this life that asks for expansion

What do you want from the creator’s mansion

 

Eyes looking wide to view

What connects you and you

For this school, an ILE act of enormity

The Fiskars model to shape identity

 

In our purview it does stare

John Devereaux and the where

Our place reincarnated

Shaping our space, in effort calculated

 

To the ateliers of agricultures labourers

And to the indigenous wayfarers

The path to follow is before

To understand I must implore

 

Let’s look to the potential of growth mindset

The path still dark, not clear yet

Light may shine through with thoughtful feedback

Our stories’ have potential, as does that of Charlie Wenjack

 

Searching out our whole history

Ways of knowing so we can see

So all the stories that surround us

Deep learning they do encompass

 

The bonds of trust on the journey too

Relationships to see us through

The potential there for many missteps

Gaining comfort with Cwelelep