Urgent vs Important – Reflections on the return to school

Question 1: During the first face to face we used the language of Urgent vs Important to help frame our thinking around our use of TIME. Reflect on why you joined Cohort 21 and your professional goals for this year. Now that the year has begun and you have met your students what IMPORTANT  goal might you like to address and leverage this community to get support with?

I joined Cohort 21 this year at the urging of @gjones, a friend and colleague at Bayview Glen. Over the course of the last school year, I frequently observed and inquired into his Grade 5 Bank of BVG project, which I learned was a major component of his Action Research. He spoke of his own experience with Cohort 21 last year and how it helped shape his research. We discussed the potential and possibility of expanding the Bank from Grade 5 into Grade 4, which I teach, and making it part of a larger, longitudinal study into embedding the financial literacy objectives of the Math Curriculum into the entire school year. We both agreed that a cross-curricular, multi-year approach to teaching financial literacy would foster a much deeper understanding of and appreciation for the value of money and the possibilities it represents. My goal this year is therefore to collaborate with Greth and dovetail off his work and research thus far and further devellop and expand this program into the Grade 4 curriculum at BVG, as well as begin looking at longitudinal data gathering through interviews and surveys with students in the Prep and Upper School as these early “Bank cohorts” continue their journey through the school.

Question 2: Which of the Season 13 Strands resonates with you and why? Share what you feel is both urgent and important about it for you and your school at the moment and some of the questions you have about moving forward.

Of the 4 strands, I believe my goals very clearly align with JK-6 Pedagogy, Belonging and Wellbeing. Reflecting on my own learning and relationship with money, there are many topic we can address through the lens of the Bank of BVG project which will provide tangible benefits to students as they grow older and grow increasingly more responsible for managing their own finances. We also want to empower students to advocate for themselves, and to be able to identify areas of financial needs vs wants, opportunities for savings and investments in order to be prepared for the often harsh economic realities of adult life. I also foreee an opportunity to expand this project into the domain of EDIJ. It is a well understood fact that the majority of students at BVG, and in fact most CIS schools, have access to immense privilege. In instilling a better understanding of and appreciation for money, we will also create opportunities for our students to examine and leverage their priviledges for the betterment of their communities, thereby empowering them to be better and more well rounded global citizens. This also happens to align well with BVG’s updated mission statement of Whole Child, Purposeful Life, Better World.