Inspiring Young Hearts & Minds

The beginning of a child’s educational journey is about the joy of discovery, nurturing their innate curiosity, and inspiring them to learn more about themselves and the world around them in a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment. Join host, Natasha Estey, in conversation with SK teacher, Melissa Hickey, and PYP Coordinator/Director of Curriculum, Kristy Purcell, about their passion for early years education.

Follow Melissa Hickey on Twitter @hickeymmelissa. If you search the hashtag #Yorklearns, you will be able to see a lot of the amazing things happening in our classrooms. You can learn more about academics and wellness at the Junior School by visiting our website. 

Written & Produced by Natasha Estey
Audio Editing by Andrew Scott

Transcript

Natasha Estey: 0:02

Hi there, and welcome to Season 2 of YORK Talks, a podcast for families wanting to learn more about how The York School - Toronto's leading co-ed independent school delivering the IB curriculum from JK to Grade 12 - views education. I'm your host, Natasha Estey. This season, join me in conversation with teachers from the Junior, Middle, and Senior Schools about their craft, and get insights into some of the most progressive approaches to education today. The beginning of a child's educational journey should be all about the joy of discovery, nurturing their innate curiosity, and inspiring them to learn more about themselves and the world around them in a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment. Our first teachers leave a special mark. That's why I am so delighted to be speaking today with Melissa Hickey, Senior Kindergarten teacher at The York School, and Kristy Purcell, our Primary Years Programme Coordinator and Curriculum Director, and past Grade 1 and 2 teacher at York. Melissa and Kristy are passionate about early years education and have advanced IB certifications in the Primary Years Programme. Kristy also has- as I understand - international teaching experience. I'm looking forward to diving into this conversation where we'll learn about their approach to teaching, what it would be like to be a fly on the wall in their classroom, and how they embody 21st Century teaching and learning. Good afternoon, Melissa and Kristy! Thank you for being here.

Kristy Purcell: 1:45

Hi, thank you for having us.

Melissa Hickey: 1:46

Hey, Natasha.

Natasha Estey: 1:48

So a week ago today was the very first day back to school and I just was wondering, how have our youngest learners been settling back into the routine? They must be so loving the new Junior School playground.

Melissa Hickey: 2:01

They're obsessed with the new playground. The Wallholla is huge for them.

Kristy Purcell: 2:08

It's a big hit.

Melissa Hickey: 2:09

It is a huge hit. It's a little bit, it's a little bit scary to look at, because it's so high, like it goes so high. But it's so enclosed, and ends up being insanely safe. Yeah, they're loving it. They're loving it. It's great. It's amazing.

Natasha Estey: 2:24

So, to begin, I would love to hear about both of your journeys to teaching, being early years educators, and teaching in an IB school, because those are all things that I think kind of happen as you go along. And, and I just would like to understand what that journey has looked like for each of you and whoever wants to start.

Melissa Hickey: 2:45

So this is my 8th... 9th... 8th year teaching, I believe. I've been teaching kindergarten for a while now. Kindergarten has always been a topic that I've been very, very interested in teaching. I think I wanted to become a teacher when I was about five or six. And we played school during the summer. And I was always the teacher or the principal. I was never one of the pupils in summer school with my cousins. So it's kind of always been something that I've been super interested in. When I first started teaching, I worked at an IB school as well. I moved to another CIS school, and the ended up at a CIS and IB school So kind of best of both world here at York. And kind of for me, in terms of IB, it fits so b autifully with the k ndergarten programme. So the O tario curriculum that we f llow, PYP and that goes so well ogether, so nicely hand in hand. It's something that I've always been interested in - real y interested in curriculum a d assessment, documentation, nd learning in terms of curricu um and how it's appropriate at he kindergarten level.

Natasha Estey: 4:08

Kristy, what about you? I'd love to hear your journey to being a teacher and into what you're doing now.

Kristy Purcell: 4:14

Mine is fairly similar to Melissa's in that I just also decided when I was six that I was going to be a teacher. My mom was an administrative assistant at the school that I went to. And so sometimes she'd have to work on weekends or bring work home and I was exposed to all that and instantly loved everything about it. And then, as I grew up, I also enjoyed being with kids. So I remember all the neighbourhood kids playing outside, my brother going running out and playing with them, and I just wanted to be in the basement playing school. So it's very similar to Melissa in that sense that I just decided at six and went for it. I didn't really know much about the IB, though. Even in Teachers College and training, I didn't know much about it at all. It wasn't until I was travelling overseas. I came back to live in Ontario because I grew up in Alberta - to be closer to my family - and job prospects were really, really difficult in public education at the time. It was taking me about four years. And I would always have contract work but never a permanent position. So I quickly one day out of the blue saw this posting for an IB school in Singapore, and applied on a whim and had an interview and was accepted. And five years later, still in Singapore, and learning so much about the IB. So I've been teaching IB for 10 years now, 17 years in teaching in total. And I'm really just grateful for that experience, something I did, like I said on a whim, and I just came to learn so much and really developed a love for the programme and the inquiry-based approach.

Natasha Estey: 5:57

What or who inspires you, in your work?

Kristy Purcell: 6:02

We're always learning as teachers, especially with the IB and the PYP. And so I look to a lot of blogs out there, PYP blogs, specifically, which give me good ideas about leadership and teaching and instruction. But also just in our own four walls here at The York School. We have excellent teachers here. And that's not just a plug. I do mean it. And it's really nice to be able to - when we can to go into each other's classrooms or to sit down and discuss and say, Hey, what are you doing? Or what do you think about that? I literally just had a conversation with one teacher today about that, like, Oh, I'm wondering about this, can we sit down and chat for 15 minutes? And so really kind of using each other and checking in with each other and seeing what different things are happening is really inspiring to me and my own teaching. And I think any teacher would say students. I think students every single day can inspire us, and they really do say the darndest things. And there's been countless times that a student has conceptualized or proffered an idea that is completely different or new to me. So you really can find inspiration anywhere, even with the youngest or oldest learners.

Melissa Hickey: 7:18

Yeah, I agree with you, Kristy. I think at the forefront of inspiration is the kids, at the forefront is the learners, for sure. Always inspired by what comes to my classroom every year. And you're right, the collegial nature is massive. I think that's what makes The York School so desirable and such an incredible place to work is because of the collegial nature that we have. Kristy's right, you know, the amount of conversations that we have at the photocopier, the amount of conversations that we have going out for recess passing with another teacher, you're always getting ideas. My partner teacher, we just teach through a doorway. And so many times in a day, we're talking through the doorway about, Okay, let's try this tomorrow. Okay, let's revisit this. Lots of inspiration coming from our admin, especially when it comes to relationship building and wellbeing. And then, like Kristy said, I happen to follow a lot of CIS Early Years Teachers, and have nice relationships with a lot of other CIS Early Years Teachers, and also teachers on social media. I do follow a lot of teachers on social media and get neat ideas and bounce ideas off of those kinds of people, too.

Natasha Estey: 8:36

That's great. Um, how would each of you describe your approach to teaching? I feel in crafting that question, it feels like it's a very loaded question. But I don't know if there's a way that you can articulate that?

Melissa Hickey: 8:52

My main approach to how I teach is through relationships. And that's, you know, something that's actually a big kind of York School thing. Something that Struan says a lot too is that we lead and learn through relationships. Something that's so important in early years is is that relationship building, is that safety in th environment. This feeling of t ese kids, that they are loved, hat they're in a safe space, hat they have agency over wh t's happening in the classroom, the way the classroom looks, hat they'd like to do with the classroom space, what th y'd like to do in terms of learn ng. So really a lot of Septembe in JK and SK is relation hip-building. And, in fact, ou big main IB unit to start the year is who we are. We're t lking a lot about who we are as earners, who we are as a communi y. And so, in kinderg rten especially, we're talking about relationships. I would c nsider myself a fairly calm, c ol, and collected teache. I have been known to play t e ukulele semi-freque tly. I make up a lot of songs, a lot of callback songs, a lot f songs when it comes to using he Mood Meter. I use litera ure a lot in the classr om. So that's kind of my vib as a teacher.

Natasha Estey: 10:24

Sounds great. I'd love to be in your class. Kristy, what about you? How would you describe your approach to teaching?

Kristy Purcell: 10:33

We do a lot of activities like noticing and naming our feelings, just even identifying feelings that we may have that may come up, and how can we train our brain, give strategies to everyone in the classroom, about how they can work through uncomfortable emotions. In my classroom, also, we try to establish growth mindset. So understanding that any and all learning that takes place has to come from figuring out, discovering, and that comes from making mistakes and trying again, and that's where the learning happens. So really encouraging mistakes is big in my classroom. And of course, humour, I think, is huge. It's a huge way to feel safe, and make the kids feel comfortable and start the day off on the right foot. You start with a joke in everyday in the morning. And so it just kind of establishes a nice tone for their day.

Natasha Estey: 11:28

As we know, at this time, due to pandemic related restrictions, restrictions on who can be on campus, families aren't able to visit the the Junior School in person and see our classrooms in action. At this time of year, during a typical time, the school would be abuzz with with tours happening and all that sort of thing. So, Melissa, I guess my question to you would be if I had been able to hang out in your classroom today, what would I have seen? What would I have heard? What would I have experienced?

Melissa Hickey: 11:56

Great question. It is, you know, it's still early days in kindergarten. It is busy, busy. Lots going on all the time. It's voices and questions and songs, and disagreements, resolutions, and wonderings and thoughts, and lots of stories. It's scissors snipping away, it's blocks crashing. We do a lot of exploration in kindergarten, there's a lot of exploratory learning, especially in September in kindergarten. We've got building and construction, which are main focuses in our classroom production and creation, graphic communication, sculpting and forming. And so we're working with fine motor. Technology we're introducing at this stage. We've got sensory activities in the room. We're teaching math concepts through manipulatives as well as a massive use of literature, books and stories always. We have in Oh, yeah? Tell us about that. the kindergarten programme, as you know, agency is really at the forefront. And that's something that we really help to establish right at the very beginning. So we use Learning Areas in kindergarten - traditionally, kind of known as centres or the centre-based kind of programming in kindergarten, we call the Learning Areas. It's a little bit more open-end d language. Centres kind of impl es that it's closed and can only happen at one space. Area k nd of implies that learning an go beyond just that one pace. Learning can mix. So that' some language that we like t use. And so children are com ng in right from day one, we s arted Learning Areas last Thu sday. And they came in and ot to choose where they were le rning and how they were learning right from the beginning. S ever since last Thursday, it' been very, very, very bu y. In kindergarten as well, ther's so much about routines, o you would have seen lots of r utine building, lots of transiti ning, lots of remembering our water bottle, practicing how to pack up our backpack, how to line up, how to use the w shroom safely. And of course, b cause of COVID, a lot of how to nack and eat lunch in a safe ay. What we do with our masks? e make sure that we put our ask on before we stand up - al those kinds of things. S there's there's a lot o routines, transitions and busy busy, busy in kindergarte. Another thing that we did th s morning was we built our Cla s Charte I will. I'll tell you about it. So we use the RULER programme at The York School. It is an incredible programme to help everybody understand how they're feeling and what we can do about those feelings. We give voice to those feelings and live in those feelings. And so part of the RULER program is creating a Class Charter about how we want to feel in our classrooms, how we want to feel as learners, and how we don't want to feel. So I'll just read you mine because I can see it right here. It says- we built this together today. So it says, In our SK class, we are happy. We are kind to everyone. We have energy. When we play and learn, we like to feel calm. We say sorry if we hurt someone. We wear a mask. We wash our hands. We give space. We have fun. And so the kids all came up with that language. We did a thumbs up, thumbs down, agree or disagree with the statement. And so, you can't see it right now, but everyone in my class has signed their signature to agree with this Class Charter, that they've agreed with these statements. So in kindergarten, we all have one in each class. And we'll review that every morning. And we'll talk about that as we move through learning and kindergarten. It is their classroom at the end of the day, right? It's not my classroom. I am a learner just like them. And it's their classroom, it's important that they they come up with how they want to feel. And they even chose where they wanted to put the Class Charter. There was agency over that today. We had a hanging presentation, if you will, where we hung up our Class Charter in the classroom, and everybody clapped. And it's a big thing.

Natasha Estey: 16:20

Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. When I hear Melissa talking about what it was like in the classroom today, I mean, in many ways, it feels so different than the classroom that I grew up going to and being in and experiencing. So when, you know, when you think about what it means to be, like when I say, you know, 21st Century educator, what does that mean to you? What does being a 21st Century educator mean to you, Kristy?

Kristy Purcell: 16:48

For me, it's about sparking interest in the lifelong curiosity and love of learning. That's first and foremost, about encouraging and fostering critical thinking and independent thought, fostering personal and collective reflection, asking difficult questions, taking action, and being the change we want to see in the world. So that's a big part of the PYP programme is taking action. So we have concepts and we inquire into them, and we learn and we do a six week learning cycle of sorting, finding out, asking questions. And then, at the end of our learning, we say, so what? What impact does this have on us? What impact does this have on our neighbours? What impact does this have on the world? So I think that's wonderful about the PYP programme is that it's already sort of leaning into those big ideas and those big themes, which I think are so important for, like you said, 21st Century education and developing citizens who are global and empathetic and who are tuned into the social justice and environmental issues that we're talking about so much more today than we were when I first started teaching 17 years ago. And so helping, exposing the children to those topics, and sitting back and listening, that's hearing their voice, and fostering them through those conversations, and then truly, honestly, stepping back and getting out of their way, because we don't have all the answers just because we're the adults, right? Like, they have their own ideas as well. And so, like I said, it's our job to foster that and to sort of help facilitate them with their questions and their action. And then like I said, step back and get out of their way.

Melissa Hickey: 18:37

You know, the kids are the teachers too. We are the learners, but the kids are the teachers too. We often do workshops in kindergarten. So a child may run their own Learning Area, if they are really interested in, let's say, ocean animals. They run their own workshop and kids sign up to learn with them. Why not?

Natasha Estey: 19:04

I love that. That's amazing. Yeah.

Melissa Hickey: 19:07

The way that, you know, us as teachers, one of the ways that we understand, or that we kind of document understanding of kids, is through them being able to teach others, right? We know what we know. And we can teach because we can teach others. But when kids turn around and can teach what they know, to other kids, that's magic. That's incredible.

Kristy Purcell: 19:31

That speaks to another part of the PYP that you had me thinking about there where it's like, that's when we see their social skills or communication skills or thinking skills develop, right? And like Melissa said, if they can do that, they not only know the concept or have the knowledge that they need, but they're also developing all these important life skills as well, which is so essential.

Melissa Hickey: 19:52

Absolutely. I love it.

Natasha Estey: 19:55

I can tell. I mean, just with the energy in your voices, and it's just, it's awesome. And I wanted touch on - Melissa sort of alluded to this a little bit earlier about, you know, talking about how collegial and collaborative the kind of culture is at The York School. And I know that that's one of the things again, that I've always felt about The York School. It's such a progressive culture, and it's always, you know, you're always asking the question of, you know, how can we be better? And how can we continue to try and create the best educational experiences for our students? And there's a lot of sort of innovation and iteration that's kind of happening, almost like on a daily basis in the classroom. And I'm just curious about whether you could share some examples of some of that innovation and iteration in the classroom?

Melissa Hickey: 20:40

This year, there has been an introduction of a STEAM program at the Junior School, which is pretty incredible, led by our very own Miss Nero. And so that's in the works right now. And we're really, really excited. That's a K through 5 thing. So even the JK is have a STEAM, a dedicated STEAM time with Miss Nero, which is really incredible. I know that they've already had one class with her. And they've already been coding, and coding robots, and that kind of thing. So that's pretty amazing. In the classroom, we have math and language programming that enhances more of what we're doing in the classroom. So we use two programmes, especially in kindergarten. One is IXL which is our math enhancement. And we also use Lexia, which is a language enhancement. And so both of those are actually on the kids' iPads - they have their own iPad in the classroom. And so if they choose technology in the classroom, they are investigating math concepts on IXL, they're investigating language concepts on Lexia. So we've got the STEAM, we've got the IXL, we've got the Lexia. Things are different in kindergarten, but very 21st Century. And then with the RULER programming as well, you know, that's been so wonderful. It's not technology-based, necessarily, although it can be. But it is helping us as teachers and students to understand how we're feeling, why we're feeling, and what we can do with those feelings. Those those expectations now are in our curriculum documents, but they didn't used to be - that kind of talking about yourself, talking about how you feel, talking about how others feel, that was never really part of the curriculum. And now it is truly at the forefront of so much that we're doing. So that is a way that we we are being innovative. And I really think setting them up for success. It's important for everybody, teachers and students, adults, parents, whoever, to know how they're feeling, to know how their actions affect others. And then what to do, when they're, let's say, in the Blue Zone, when they're feeling sad, or when they're feeling embarrassed, or when they're feeling tired. When they have a lot of energy in the Yellow Zone, when they're feeling anxious, or they're feeling excited, what to do with that energy, how to expel it. These are all things that are massive parts of our teaching. And I think, in that way, the teaching that's happening now truly is so innovative. And it's such a shift from even 5 or 10 years ago.

Natasha Estey: 23:31

It's really elevating the whole social and emotional learning piece up with the academic piece. Kristy, do you have any any other examples at all that you'd like to share? When you think about your classroom?

Kristy Purcell: 23:46

I think parents would be shocked to see, like I said, with literacy, let's say, if we're doing a new writing unit about, I don't know, procedural writing, let's say. It's not just a teacher standing up there and being like, okay, this is how you write to inform people. This is how you write instructions. And let's try it together. And let's do one now on your own. We would really see more of a whole bunch of examples laid out across the classroom and the kids digging into it and nothing being told to them at all, actually, and just saying, you know, have a look at these, jot down anything you notice, what are you seeing what do they have in common? What are some things missing compared to others? And they're sort of constructing their own understanding of what's in front of them themselves. So that's pretty different in terms of the approach that we do. Teaching and learning is really, like I said, the kids constructing and communicating together to use their own thinking and their own prior knowledge to come up with their own understanding about their learning, about what's about to happen. So we really, in my classroom, establish that first by figuring out - it's a provocation. It's meant to provoke them with little or no talking from me whatsoever and they work together to really figure out the commonalities of what's in front of them. And then from there, we take that, we jot it all down, and then we take that, and then we build our understanding. And we use it as a reference point as we go throughout the unit and explore more text about what have we learned now compared to the very first day when this was laid in front of us. So it's really developmental in that way. And, like I said, constructivist in that way, and that is something, I think, that sets The York School apart from other schools is that we really follow that belief in our own teaching and our learning.

Melissa Hickey: 25:35

Kristy reminded me of how reflective our practices are, and how reflective the students end up being. That they can look back and say, I didn't know that, and now I know it. Now I know this, or I used to think this way, and now I think this way. And I think that's also a huge part of the PYP is that reflective piece as a learner is new, right? Like, that's not always the way that education has been. Yeah, you know, I think it was, you know, so much based in knowledge and understanding. And now it's so much based in application and reflection. We start off right in JK and SK with the belief that we are authors and we are illustrators. Everybody's an author and everybody's an illustrator. So even though, when we come into JK, many of us can't necessarily form letters yet or don't have an understanding of sound symbols yet, that's okay. Teachers can help us. And we can all be authors and illustrators. So in my SK room last year, we were working on a five senses unit, how the world works unit, kind of based on the five senses, and we had to get a little bit creative, because as you can imagine, we do a lot around tactile work, a lot around using our noses for sniffing, you couldn't really be using your mouth for tastes, we couldn't really do a lot of that with COVID. So we had to get a little bit creative last year. And so we kind of tied our literature and our five senses unit together. My class ended up writing books entitled "I feel" and then inside their book, all the different things that they can feel with their hands, or "I smell" and all the different things that they smell. So they each, I think, authored five or six books. We went through a whole authoring, editing, and illustration process. We had a book party at the end, where everybody's book was on display. I laminated everybody's front cover. And we did end up sending them all home, but they did live in our book nook for some time and were supplemental reading to us at DEAR and when they were visiting the book nook and so that became a piece of - I mean, that's another example of their learning on display, but on display in a way that is appropriate. And in a beneficial, it's not just up on the wall to be up on the wall, it's in the book nook for them to use, for them to see how powerful literature can be for them. To see that what they did matters. And what they did can help teach others and that they are now experts in that area. So that was a huge takeaway last year. I hope to do something like that again this year because they truly love creating around books. And it works so nicely along, you know, with the writing that we were doing at the time, we were talking about uppercase, the use of uppercase and lowercase letters, the use of punctuation, making sure our letters are on the line, making sure our pictures have detail, all those kinds of things. So it really fits so well. It was lovely.

Natasha Estey: 29:10

That's great. What a great example. We've been living in in pretty disrupted times. I mean, with this pandemic, closing schools and moving teaching and learning online, and really changing the way the school kind of operates. And in many ways we've had to pivot and do things differently. And I want to acknowledge that these have been pretty trying times, I think, for teachers on many levels, but I'm curious to know, what are some of the silver linings that you've maybe discovered or experienced with your students over the past year and a half that have kind of come out of this pandemic experience that, you know, we've all just kind of gone through together?

Kristy Purcell: 29:48

Yeah, absolutely. I don't want to just say relationships. I mean, obviously that was at the forefront. We had a lot of conversations as a faculty about prioritizing that, especially when we were into hybrid learning. So prioritizing our relationships with one another, but also with our students and the parents, the whole school community. But really, truly going further than that, and developing deeper connections. It was a time - and still is, really - when we needed to be closer and understanding more than ever with one another. And so, for example, when we were doing hybrid learning, and I was teaching Grade 2, we would set up - all teachers set up check-in meetings. And it wasn't necessarily even a time for academics. I mean, you could get into that. But first and foremost, we were really just having conversations with our students. How are you? What's new today? How are you feeling? Is there anything you want to talk about? One time I remember last year, I was sitting on a Google Meet for 45 minutes hearing all about Star Wars, because that's, you know, what the child needed and wanted at that time. So really, for me coming out of that was about how important relationships are, but how important deep connections are. And from a technical, logistical perspective, I would even say, realizing how adaptable we all are, as humans, and resilient we can be. Even our youngest youngest learners. And that it's a reminder that learning can happen anywhere. It doesn't just have to happen in four walls. I mean, of course, it's more optimized and enjoyable when we're all together. But we can learn anywhere, and we can still be together and we can still support each other, and to question and discover the world around us as a community. And also an important lesson for me personally, was to remember that if the changing my perspective, I guess, my mindset that change can be a new opportunity to develop new skills. Like with me and hybrid learning, for example, if someone told me 17 years ago, when I got in the profession, that I'd be at home, you know, teaching on the computer, I wouldn't have believed it. Personally, it was just a reminder that we can see change as an opportunity and not necessarily a loss and what new learning might come out of this unexpected moment.

Natasha Estey: 32:20

That's awesome. Thanks, Kristy. Anything you want to add to that, Melissa?

Melissa Hickey: 32:24

How quickly my dining room table could become an SK classroom. It's funny, you know, like, all of a sudden, I've got, you know, three types of Playdough, my banjo, and, you know, we're ready to roll with SK with Miss Melissa from the dining room table. I agree wholeheartedly with Kristy. It illustrated to us how adaptive kids can be, but also how adaptive we can be. And we need to be. I think it was, you know, unfortunate, but it all happened. But I think, in a way, a huge, huge learning piece for teachers in Canada, to pivot in that way. I know that pivot is kind of a trigger word for some of us now, but we all took on a huge amount of learning - kids, teachers, parents, everybody - in a very, very short amount of time. And so our flexibility, all of our flexibility, all of our adaptivenes, has been pretty eye-opening.

Natasha Estey: 33:38

We have a lot to maybe feel optimistic about, excited about, as we look ahead to the future of early years and primary education. And I just would like to know what do you see that future looking like what what excites you?

Kristy Purcell: 33:53

The DI initiatives that The York School is dedicated to taking on with staff, with parents, with our students, and the conversations and the material and the resources, the text, everything that our students are exposed to today. And they're not only being exposed, but they're also involved in the conversations, and the action of these really important issues today. What does that mean for them in the world 10, 15, 20 years from now? And there's so much learning on learning, relearning, undoing, doing right, that has to take place and I am no means trying to say it's gonna be all "fixed" 15, 20 years from now, but I am encouraged that this has become a priority. And we realize now that we have to do more, and we're starting with the youngest learners and these conversations are happening and taking place in the fabric of everything that we're doing every day. So for me, that's what I'm most excited about that such important dialogue is taking place at such influential ages and what the outcome of that might be in the future.

Melissa Hickey: 35:12

And so much of it is coming from, you know, we're teaching it through literature, we're teaching it through stories, which is the way to all of our children's brains and hearts is through stories. And we have been able to reach so many of them and have so many meaningful conversations through stories, which is pretty incredible. We've got a wonderful indigenous educator now at The York School who we've paired with, Dr. Pamela Toulouse. And she shared some wonderful texts with us, kind of K through 5 or K through 6 texts that we're using now to teach about safety, about community, about what family feels like. And that kind of thing. So it's been really eye-opening, and really, really wonderful to be to be a teacher right now, teaching innovative, current, global issues.

Natasha Estey: 36:17

Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. This is great. Well, I just I want to thank you both so much for your time and your candour today. I mean, this, like what an interesting and insightful conversation. I know we covered a lot of ground. I've learned a lot.

Kristy Purcell: 36:35

It's interesting to think about the future of The York School and where we're going to go next. So thank you for inviting us and giving us this opportunity to sort of think more deeply about what we're doing here and getting to do it together.

Melissa Hickey: 36:49

After, you know, spending eight hours a day with five year-olds, it is very nice to to talk about why we do this and to talk about why we're passionate about it, and what's important to us. You know, when we talk to colleagues throughout the day, we're not having these kinds of conversations. We're having conversations like, Hey, did you pick them up from recess? It's really nice to be able to talk so passionately about what we love so much.

Natasha Estey: 37:20

I have such a deep respect for educators, and our students are so lucky to have teachers like you inspiring their hearts and their minds every day.

Kristy Purcell: 37:30

Thank you very much.

Melissa Hickey: 37:31

That's so kind.

Kristy Purcell: 37:33

Much appreciated. We're lucky to have them.

Melissa Hickey: 37:36

Yes.

Natasha Estey: 37:37

Yeah. Okay, I think this has been one of my favourite conversations so far on YORK Talks. I loved Melissa's description of what it would be like to be in her classroom and how she and Kristy spoke about students' agency. It was also really interesting to learn how the Class Charter was co-created. I know we'll be hearing more about the RULER approach and social emotional learning in upcoming episodes. You can follow Melissa Hickey on Twitter @hickeymmelissa. If you search the hashtag #Yorklearns, you will be able to see a lot of the amazing things happening in our classrooms. You can learn more about academics and wellness at the Junior School by visiting our website. Visit YORK Talks online at www.yorkschool.com/YORKTalks. Subscribe to YORK Talks where you get your podcasts and tell other families wanting to learn more about how The York School approaches education. I'm your host, Natasha Estey. I hope you enjoyed the conversation today. Please join us again for more YORK Talks.