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Last Thursday (December 28, 2017), I was invited to join #ONedMentors to chat about #OneWordOnt. I had given my word lots of thought...

But at the time of the invitation, I had not definitively chosen my word. I was leaning towards "empower" because the students' feedback shone a light on their fears and showed me where I to focus my efforts. I need to work at building their confidence and empowering them.

So far so good, right?

What I hadn't yet done though was complete the process of vetting the word. I think I know what the word means, but I am keen to discover how others 'see' the word. Like Jen Aston, I want to consider to what contexts my word connects. Like Derek Rhodenizer and his guests (on his weekly voicED podcast, "A Word in Progress with Derek"), I want to 'poke and prod' the word to see what it will give up. Like Stephen Hurley, etymologist extraordinaire, I want to dig a little deeper into the word because my knowledge of the word may only reflect current usage and not its historical meanings or connotations.

While "empower" means

it also means to "boost confidence or enable", which is the way I was thinking about the word until I did Google Image search on the words "empower education quotes". To my surprise, the page returned did not support many ideas about enabling. Rather, it reflected back to me a word that emphasizes power and societal/class struggle. There are contexts where this understanding of "empower" is necessary and right, but this is not what I am after.

I kept digging.

I find John Wenger's article on empowerment revealing. His audience is the workplace leader or manager, but I don't think that matters because as a therapist he comes at the challenge of motivating and engaging others with much the same perspective as do educators. Here he unpacks his thinking about the word and why you can't empower anyone.

I bring my understanding of the word "empower" from my days as a therapist when I was working with clients whose lives were characterised by a deeply felt lack of power, or potency, in their lives. They were not the star of their own life stories, in other words. They were subject to decisions made by child protection authorities or social service authorities or parental authority or some other kind of powerful person or statutory body which held sway over important aspects of their day-to-day lives. While it is true that so many people in their lives were the agents of disempowerment, it seemed to me that to presume that I could empower them was just the opposite side of the same coin ... Empower, to me, presumes that the one who empowers has the power to begin with and grants it to the other; it reinforces a paradigm of power and control to which the other person is subject. If I am the granter of power, there is still a power imbalance. This relationship presumes that I hold some kind of hierarchical authority over you and that, only by my good grace, are you exercising any authority. While I am in the position of granting power, I remain in the position of taking it back.

"Empower" is not the right word for me. I want to provide the means by which my students can develop the courage to take on their fears. I want to equip my students with the tools that can support their courageous decisions and actions. I want to encourage them to set goals, prioritize their studies and focus on personal progress. I do not want to leave any doubt as to where the power lies.

Wenger argues for the use of "enable" over "empower", teasing out the subtle differences between the words to make his case. And although this word can have some negative connotations, I am compelled by Wenger's thinking. To "enable" is to emphasize "capability development and a worldview that, when fully able, people can put their abilities to good use." And to enable,

encompasses what someone does to ensure that others have the requisite capabilities and skills to carry out a job well, to take up their own power (potency) and when necessary, showing them the door to gaining new capabilities and skills. It seems to be more akin to equipping and supplying than conferring power. Once equipped, the enabler can then get out of the way and let the person access their own power to get on with it.

Enable->faciliate, make possible, provide the means. This is a good place to start.

Last year, I believed that providing opportunities for students to make choices in their learning would help them become persistent and productive learners. I was wrong. As one student clearly stated in her feedback to me,

Choices revolve around one of the worst phrases anyone could ever be told, 'It's up to you.'

This year I hope to enable my students to overcome their academic fears and to then be in a position to make decisions about their learning.

And in the spirit of making this process (of enabling) as open as possible, I'll begin the year with a post on academic fear and academic courage. What is academic fear? Is academic courage grit by another name? Or growth mindset?

Stay tuned, and thanks for stopping by!
#OneWordOnt 2015- Innovate #OneWordOnt 2016- Discipline #OneWordOnt 2017- Choices

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Last Thursday (December 28, 2017), I was invited to join #ONedMentors to chat about #OneWordOnt. I had given my word lots of thought... I re-read my 2017 post I re-read another take on my 2017 word, "Choices", and how it connects to the idea of hope (an approach similar to Jen Aston's) I asked my students...

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My first grandchild was born on January 29, 2017, and she has been born into a family of readers! That she would receive many, many books from me was never an issue. BUT having an event like #pb10for10 to focus my thinking about what to get her when is terrific. For #nf10for10 last February, I choose 10 non-fiction board books as a foundation for my grand-baby's library. This time around I have added 10 fiction board books to that foundational shelf. So without further delay, let's begin to build a library for baby!

Some old.

And when I say "old", I simply mean that the book has been around for awhile in general and in my home specifically.

My kids LOVED Carl and his antics. While I was getting ready to write this post, my husband re-read the book and laughed just as hard this time. Baby is sure to make this a favourite since she is from families who LOVE their dogs.

No Matter What is a gorgeous book. It's the story of Small, a mischievous fox cub, and his mother Large, who tries to explain the unconditional love a parent has for his or her child. This book is not one that will be out grown soon. With stunning illustrations and witty details, this story will be pulled out and re-read for years. While the lyrical rhyming text will grab hold of baby's ear and her attention, the need for assurance that "no matter what I will always love you" is ongoing. Munsch may tell baby that mommy and daddy will love her forever, but Gloiri provides the assurances that it's true.

Some New

Obviously, these titles are new to our family. Published long after my own children had grown past picture books (some of us never do though!), I have read these books to children in classrooms while working as a literacy coach.

Olivia by Ian Falconer is a terrific match for my granddaughter. Olivia is big in spirit and life is grand! Falconer's minimalist approach (dark lines on white background with accenting red) combined with his deadpan humour is sure to get mom and dad smiling as baby explores her world.

For one such spread, demonstrating ""She is very good at wearing people out,"" Falconer shows Olivia engaged in a variety of activities in 13 black-and-white vignettes, using red sparingly-for a hammer handle, a yo-yo, a ball, a mixing bowl spatula and a jump rope-as she progresses from energetic to spent. Against a completely white background, these vignettes seem to bob on invisible undulating waves, with the intermittent splashes of red creating a sense of movement and urgency-until Olivia's collapse at the lower right-hand corner of the spread beneath a single line of text (""She even wears herself out""). Publisher's Weekly

Now, some will say that the next two books are a bit ahead for our little one, but like baby clothes, you never know exactly what books you'll need when. AND I think we can often underestimate when children are ready to listen to longer stories with bigger ideas. So, I'm including 2 Jeffers' books because they are fun and the brightly illustrated pages draw you in.

Up and Down does a great job involving the parent and child with sharp visuals and a story that gets the child thinking about why things are the way they are. Why do penguins have wings, if they don't fly? What's your theory?

In A Little Stuck, Floyd gets his kite stuck up a tree. He throws up his shoe to shift it, but that gets stuck too. So he throws up his other shoe and that gets stuck, along with... a ladder, a pot of paint, the kitchen sink, an orang-utan and a whale, amongst other things! Will Floyd ever get his kite back? A hilarious book with a wonderful surprise ending that Like Up and Down can generate conversations about predictions and solutions to the problem. Both books help parents and baby think about the world and ask questions to understand it better.

In 1995 my mom passed away and the son whose daughter's library I'm building never knew her. She was inimitable, but today her great-granddaughter carries her name and already I can see my mom's love of life in her. My mom's favourite song was "What a Wonderful World" and this lovely version of the song is a must. Look at the richness of the illustrations and of course, the lyrics will never grow old.

I would be completely remiss not to include a sing-a-long book on this picture book shelf. Pete, of course, is just too much fun. James Dean brings us a groovy rendition of the classic favourite children's song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," sung by cool cat Pete and perfect for sing-a-long time with baby. Our girl is growing up near farms and we have farming friends, so she'll be able to make some strong connections to the book and the song. Oh, and daddy loves to sing, too!

Balloons love the moon, and a tuba loves a tune, but these don't compare to the love we have for you. Canadian poet Lorna Crozier uses evocative rhyme, complemented by Rachelle Anne Miller's whimsical imagery, to provide babies and toddlers with common concepts that explain just how great love is. Reading poetry to our kids helps them hear what language can do; how it dances and stretches and shrinks. More than Balloons is a treat.

Comparisons are creative and lovely...The constancy of the rhyme scheme is remarkable...The artwork is exquisite: simple, yet elegant lines, delightful animal characters, warm washes of color, and plenty of details to build young vocabularies. ( Kirkus Reviews 2017)

Some tried and true.

My mom was a grade three teacher, and when Dennis Lee's first anthology, Alligator Pie, was published she bought it and taught with it every year until she left teaching. I was a teenager then, and I can still recall her reciting the title poem at home. It gave her such great delight. I never forgot the poem and Alligator Pie was the first anthology I bought when I became a mother. This book is just the title piece, on its own. It's a board book and it's awesome. Like the illustrations in Olivia, Sandy Nichols uses dark lines and sparse colour allowing the vignettes to pop off the page at us.

Finally, here is Are You My Mother? for my son because this was one of his most favourite books. Are You My Mother? follows a confused baby bird who's been denied the experience of imprinting as he asks cows, planes, and steam shovels the Big Question. In the end, he is happily reunited with his maternal parent in a glorious moment of recognition. We want to find lots of ways to let our children know that we love them and that we will continue to love them "no matter what".
Here's how you can participate:
#PB10for10 Information

1. Grab a Badge (just copy the URL address of the one above or take a screenshot)

2. Join the #pb10for10 Google Community

3. Choose Your Favorites: All you need to do is choose ten picture books you cannot live without for whatever reason. In the first days of this event, everyone shared their ten very favorite titles. This still works. You will notice, however, that many past participants choose some type of theme to determine their selections. We'll leave this up to you.

4. Narrow Your List to Ten: It isn't easy, is it? We've seen some crafty ways to get around that number.

5. Write Your August 10th Post: Write a post about the ten books you cannot live without. Share your post on August 10th and link it to the Picture Book 10 for 10 Community.

6. No Blog? No Problem: If you don't have a blog, this might be the perfect time to start one - or there are a million digital ways to join (see post below). Of course, now with the Google Community it is quite easy to just post your favorites directly into the community without a blog. We will also be tweeting from the #pb10for10 hashtag.

7. Comment: On August 10th (and maybe for a week - there are a lot of posts) take some time to read posts from other participants. Please comment on at least three.

So...

Pull out your library cards, load up your Amazon accounts, or better yet - plan a trip to your local bookstore on August 11th because you're going to be unable to resist checking out (or purchasing) a few new picture books. We hope to see you on the 10th!
A Few Historical and Informational Posts:

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My first grandchild was born on January 29, 2017, and she has been born into a family of readers! That she would receive many, many books from me was never an issue. BUT having an event like #pb10for10 to focus my thinking about what to get her when is terrific.