Sept. 28 Entrance Slip... Climate Change

Albert Einstein once said, “The only source of knowledge is experience”. As an educator, our end goal is to have students experience as many things as possible so that they can form ideas surrounding certain things. When students mindlessly follow facts, they are not critically thinking for themselves. Thus, they are more likely to be swayed by misinformation as they mindlessly follow the news, whether it is true or not. On the other hand, when students think about what is happening in the world, they are more likely to pause on a questionable report before concluding as they do not solely follow what someone says.

As a future teacher in mathematics, the traditional way of teaching revolves around the teacher giving a lesson, assigning homework and then writing an exam. This traditional method does not allow students to experience more than writing exams, so they only leave math classes with some skills needed to do advanced math. As mentioned by Barwell, as math educators, we can do more than teach them skills; we can look into applying these skills with more practical information, such as climate change. While we do not need to be direct, we can have students analyze data and have them come to their conclusions. When we have students do the hard work of cleaning and analyzing the data, they will have a stronger connection with the experience and, thus, a more solid belief in the fact that climate change is real.

Climate change is, in fact, a severe issue. However, you see on the news that plenty of people say otherwise. With the plethora of misinformation, plenty of young folks get swayed by these articles. I hope everyone bands together to deal with climate change, but a significant global climate issue has to crop up to get everyone on board. (Similar to Covid, where lots of death has to occur.) However, with the rate everything is going, it might be too late by then.

Sept. 21 Exit Slip... Garden Learning

Today's experience helps tie into another class's introduction to universal design for learning (UDL). While this may seem small, I have associated this experience with UDL. I have learned that the best way to memorize things is to have some associations with them. If all the students have is homework and notes to associate with a particular principle, they will likely forget it. Thus, if they associate traditional crafts with some math principles, they can remember it longer. Most of my experiences with math classes are very restrictive to various learnings. As I mentioned in my previous blogs, traditional classrooms follow the cycle of lectures, homework, and exams. 

In most cases, in these lectures, only the teacher talks/does notes with the students. As mentioned in class, having some variety will make a big difference in the classroom dynamic as the students are not doing the same thing repeatedly. While I might need help tying in a math curriculum topic as a teacher, I should always research different ways traditional crafts and skills can be connected to a topic. If I can do that, students will find math more fun as they can apply some math to some hands-on things. I can use these ideas to help introduce a new topic or to review a case to help reinforce specific concepts.

Sept 20, 2023 Entrance Slip.... Kallis and craft techniques

My mom grew up before the major technological booms, and she tells me stories of her going to a tailor to custom-make some of the clothing she used to wear. Then, she compares the drastic difference in quality of the dress she once had to those found in retailers. Unlike my mom, I grew up in an era of consumerism, where everything was fast, but not before the boom in e-commerce. While my friends might embrace e-commerce, I still strongly prefer buying my things instead of online. Maybe my mom has rubbed off on me, but I have seen many friends buy something spontaneously on Amazon only to be disappointed with their purchase, so they refund it or trash it. I have seen technology evolve quickly over the years and seen sudden shifts of consumerism in the quality and quantities of goods being moved. Every mention of consumerism and how it has changed over the years made me stop and think about how it has changed.

While I am not an artsy or crafty person, the experience of trying out those craft techniques will be a lot of fun—another interactive activity to go into my teaching arsenal. 

Sept 16, 2023 Exit Slip.... Learning Gardens

My first week in the Orchard Garden was quite different from the traditional classroom setting. While, initially, I would not say I liked coming outside for class, I have grown to enjoy it. The change of pace from sitting in lectures to standing and exploring the garden is quite an exciting co-teacher. Learning new ways to teach math has made me so excited as I want to change my math classes from sitting in a classroom and listening to me lecture all day to one with some added variation by taking my class outside and learning some math. Similar to how we calculated the angle of the sun using our hands. Learning math this way will help reinforce specific things with students as some hands-on activities go a long way than the usual lecture and homework routine. 

While this is an ideal I want to strive for in my classroom, I also have to be realistic. While I was working at Science World, a co-worker used to be a high school teacher but quit due to conflicting views with the administrators. He explained that administrators might be the bane of exciting new teaching concepts as he constantly had to fight against administrators who tried to keep his class shacked in the classroom instead of letting his biology class take walks around green spaces to explore different local ecosystems around the school. He told me that while some administrators might encourage these new and different approaches to teaching, some have a traditional mindset where classes must only happen in the classroom and nowhere else. Considering this story, I still plan to develop more unique classroom experiences instead of traditional ones where students always sit at a desk listening to me speak.

Sept. 14 2023 Entrance Slip... On Becoming a Reflective Teacher.

Despite being old, Grant & Zeichner's "Becoming a Reflective Teacher" paper resonated with me a lot. It speaks volumes on how important it is for a teacher to be reflective. Compared to the 1980s, much has changed over the years; technology has boomed, and culture has shifted drastically compared to when this article was published. Parts of me cannot wait to see how culture and technology will change over the next 40 years, but that's for another time. As a teacher candidate, I am here to learn more about how to teach and develop my skills to best suit the modern classroom. As a result, my practicum is a significant time to learn, and this article has detailed some essential tips on making full use of the practicum. While this article has many positives, I also saw many ideals I struggled with. One of these ideas relates to the three key characteristics that define reflective thinking: wholeheartedness. 

While volunteering in a classroom, I had the opportunity to have conversations with teachers about student behaviour and classroom management in their established classrooms. During these conversations, I learned that sometimes it is impossible to dedicate and commit to the teachings of all students. As a teacher, I know that you have a limited amount of time and resources available to you, and if you try to meet the needs of all, you will only end up with burnout. While striving to meet all three characteristics of reflective teaching is okay, I also have to realize that some ideals are hard to reach. A teacher aiming to be a reflective teacher is an important goal to reach, and sometimes, you need plenty of experience to be a reflective teacher, so there is no need to strive for it right away. Yet the biggest takeaway from this article is how we should always strive to reflect and think about our actions. While you might not do it on the spot, taking time to reflect on your actions and realizing what other choices you had before that action can help you as a teacher build more teaching experience. Your intuition will take this experience and allow you to make decisions on the spot that best fit the needs of your students.

Sept 07, 2023 Exit Split ... Frank McCourt inquiry

Frank McCourt brought up a meaningful quote: “If you are teaching and you are not learning, then you are not teaching.” It made me ponder a lot about how a teacher should always strive to be better, and with some discussion in class, I left with some takeaways from this quote. Given how a teacher should always strive to be learning while teaching, this perceived hierarchy of the student-teacher relationship should not be too far apart. Teachers and students are learners, so their relationships are much closer than commonly thought. While there is a barrier between student and teacher, if this barrier separates the two significantly, then it will be much harder to build a relationship between one another. Another important point in the discussions is what it means to learn as a teacher. We thought of the traditional sense of learning new things and brought the perspective of culture and time. Teenage culture can drastically change over the years, and as a result, we as a teacher should also learn to adapt to it. The culture shift might result in the need for a teacher to change their teaching style. As time passes, students five years ago might have appreciated your teaching style, but now the current generation might hate the old teaching style. Thus, as a teacher, we should learn new ways to change how things are taught so our teachings are more receptive to the current generation. The discussions in class have led me to think a lot about what defines a teacher and got me to see how we should always strive to evolve our teaching by adapting to the ever-changing needs of our students.

Hello World!

 Hello everyone this is my first blog post. 😁

View from Evens Peak in Golden Ears Provincial Park

The Golden Ears Mountain as seen clearly from Maple Ridge, BC

The High Fin Sperm Whale, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons