Hello and Goodbye

In this final blog I would like to emphasize on what we have learned throughout the term and how it can be related to our future as twenty-first-century teachers. Starting from the old story and moving towards the new story means that we have to make sure we don’t fall back into the trap of teaching students the same way we were taught throughout our schooling. We have to be constantly changing and growing as individuals and teachers. Implementing teaching styles like the backwards design model, using integrated curriculum to ignite passion in our students, bringing technology into the classroom to accelerate their learning and acting as agents for change are all examples of practices we have learned throughout this course that we can bring with us into the 21^st century teaching.

Of course there are people out there who will argue that we are just young and full of energy and that’s the only reason we think we can somehow change education for the better all by ourselves. But I just want to clarify now that that is not the goal of my rant. I don’t believe any one person can change the entire education system as a whole but if we (as new teachers) can bring about some change to a system that is clearly falling behind in our ever changing society then maybe there is some positives to be had. Teachers need to stay in the 21^st century and we need to change with society. I believe teachers need to continue to learn from their experiences by reflecting on the positives and negatives of their effectiveness.  As John Dewey wrote, “without reflection there can be no growth” (Drake, Reid, Kolohon, p. 149, 2014). By constantly reflecting we are able to figure out new effective ways of teaching that will help us keep up with these changing times. By reflecting teachers will be able to see (assess) if they are truly teaching and instilling their 21^st century values to their students. If these values that we hold so dearly are not met within our practice then we are simply living contradictions in our classroom. That means we either need to adapt our teaching styles, or adapt our teaching values but it is only through reflecting that we can figure which must be changed.

This video is a great example of current movements in Canada towards the newer 21st century education. As future teachers who are looking to become effective 21st century educators or anyone who is interested in the future of our public education system in Canada, you should check out this video!!!

The last thing I want to discuss in my blog is the massive gap between theory and practice. I have heard first hand from my placement and observation teachers that almost all of the theories learned throughout our undergraduate studies are completely unrelated to the real-world situations they face daily. They give no validity to our theory and simply respond with a simple “it’s unpractical” within the classroom. As a young, hopeful, future educator it is extremely sad to think that after 5 years of post-secondary education I will have to completely re-learn all that I know about my field of expertise once I finally get into a classroom. Is all of this for nothing? Can it really be true? Or does understanding these basic theories give us the knowledge we need to make adjustments and modifications once we finally get into a classroom?

Retrieved from: http://meetville.com/quotes/quote/albert-einstein/109864

I guess my placement and observation teachers are just as wise as Albert Einstein...

I personally like to think that with all I’ve learned about backwards design, integrated curriculum, alternative assessments and 21^st century learning it’s impossible to say these 5 years have been wasted. If nothing else these examples prove one thing and one thing alone. I have learned, I have continued learning and I have developed a hunger to want to learn more. And that my friends, is the ultimate goal of education. Will there still be some things I need to learn down the road when I become a professional? Of course, but that can be said for every profession! So at the end of the day if learning was the only outcome of my education in post-secondary schooling, I think it was worth every second I spent on it. And one day I hope that I can produce that same outcome with my students.

Retrieved From: http://www.shutterstock.com/s/theory/search.html?page=1&inline=189293393

At the beginning, middle, and end of theory and practice, learning resides.




To all of my faithful followers (fellow peers :p) I would like to say exam period is just around the corner so I don't know when my next post will come.

I would like to wish you all the happiest of holidays,

Goodbye! ... for now.


Reference: 

Drake, S., Reid, J., Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment. Engaging 
the 21st-Century Learner, Chapter 6.

Benefits of Integrated Curriculum

I recently ran across a study article that emphasized the importance of increasing physical activity (PA) in public schools to help battle childhood obesity and type II diabetes. The coolest part about this study is how they decided to incorporate increased PA throughout the school. They used a little thing we learned about in our class called integrated curriculum. For those of you who have no idea what integrated curriculum is, the simple definition would be incorporating or integrating more then one subject (or within one subject) area through a culminating project or assignment. In this particular study the culminating project was having two grade 6 classes theoretically walk across the United Kingdom (UK) over 4 weeks using a pedometer. How is this an example of integrated curriculum you might ask? The answer is simple; it integrated the Physical Education, Math, Science and Social Studies curriculums together throughout the entire process. In math class students learned how to create mathematical graphs that were then used to view their progress, while also learning how to convert their steps into miles. In geography students learned how to take the collected data from math class and use it to geographically map out their global positioning and progress. In science class students learned how to calculate their daily energy expenditures using the numbers taken from their personal pedometers.

This picture shows exactly how connected different subjects and curriculums can be within schools    ------------>

Taken From: http://kellygolsby.wordpress.com/694-20y-mathsci/694-20y-mod-4/

This is an awesome example of integrated curriculum being used in schools today. It moves away from the old story of education that is teacher-centered and controlled, to a more student-centered approach that allows students to see the practical implications of integrating classes. It also helps educators from across fields work together to improve the overall learning experience of the students. I know through my personal experience of going through high school, each of my four subjects per semester were completely irrelevant to one another. It was obvious that teachers didn't have any multi-disciplinary meetings about what their students were learning in other classes. This style of education is hard on the student because it forces them to participate completely in each subject for an hour straight yet the minute that hour finishes they have to switch their thinking completely to a new subject that holds no relevance to what they were just working on for the hour prior.

In our philosophy of physical education course we learn about certain hierarchies within the education system that develop from certain educators thinking their subject areas are more important or essential than others. By implementing integrated curriculum within schools it would dissolve some of these hierarchical differences because all educators would need to work together to create a curriculum that covered all subjects while being practical to students. Of course I understand that sometimes it might be difficult to integrate all subject areas together for all projects, but I do believe it is possible to at least have some minimal integration for all projects. For example it would be extremely easy to integrate any subject area with the English or French curriculum.

In the secondary level it is also possible to have interdisciplinary integration instead of multi-disciplinary units. Interdisciplinary integrated curriculum units integrate different classes or concepts within a single subject area. An example would be integrating a culminating project that pulls from the chemistry, biology, and physics curricular documents because all of them fall under the science curriculum. This could also be the case in math by integrating data management, advanced functions, and calculus into one final culminating project. Of course you would still have one Big Idea that can be related to each strand of the subject area that connects them together but the culminating task would have direct and practical relevance to all three strands. Lastly I would just like to mention that the culminating task would be a summative form of assessment at the end of the term.

In conclusion I would just like to say that reading this article completely opened my eyes to the benefits integrated curriculum could play in our current education system. I’ve given some examples above about how it would completely change the school dynamic to hopefully improve the students learning environment as a whole. As a future educator this is something that I would like to strive towards to see if it can truly yield the results it has shown to have in this study.

Maybe it is time to change up your classroom a little bit and try something new. Feel free to ask around other departments and see if anyone else is willing to try some curricular integration. If you do please let me know how it goes! I would love to get some honest feedback.

Best of Luck

PS. The study I found is only one example of integrated curriculum but check out this video I found on youtube about a college prep school that uses integrated curriculum to get their students practical experience in their future fields!!!

Taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqGspo1S3Tg


Reference

Duncan, M., Birch, S., & Woodfield, L. (2012). Efficacy of an Integrated School Curriculum Pedometer 
Intervention to Enhance Physical Activity and to Reduce Weight Status in Children. European Physical 
Education Review, 18(3), 396-407.

21st Century Learning

            Today I’m going to be talking about a method of teaching that emphasizes a new style of learning that is yielding fantastic results in schools. This relatively new style is called inquiry-based learning. This design is resonating well with students as it includes the ability to interweave curriculum, instruction and assessment throughout its use. This backwards design of teaching has plenty of benefits and really forces the students to think along the lines of problem solving. This cool new learning style is often defined as the future direction for 21^st century educators.

           

            First I just want to talk about some of the main features of inquiry-based learning. It promotes students to creatively think and problem solve situations that are defined as being real world. Students gain this real world experience by formulating questions and gathering evidence to discover the truths about the topic. This is drastically different from the old story of education or even the current story that we have at Brock University. By this I’m referring to the ridiculous amount of times we (as students) had to learn about a topic that held no real-world or practical connection. We simply memorize a bunch of theories and equations with the hope of one day using them in our lives. This inquiry based learning style creates opportunities in which students can not only learn about materials and topics but also apply them across the curriculum. It rids the system of this memorization style of learning that is set in place for the sole purpose of summative assessment at the end of the term. This is a perfect example of assessment of learning being replaced by the new formative assessment for learning. In this new style of assessment that is used in inquiry based learning, it is important to understand that the process and investigation period are the most important periods of assessment and the final or summative form is not the main aspect of the learning style that a teacher is looking for.

            Now that you have an idea of what inquiry based learning emphasizes and why it is being implemented in schools, I will tell you how to get it all started! A discipline based (or teacher based) inquiry approach usually begins with a knowledge-building activity to gain the attention of the students. From here they begin to build off of each others ideas and begin the process of critiquing, providing evidence and composing arguments to back up their ideas. Those skills are a perfect example of how inquiry based learning can teach students real world abilities that can be transferred into their lives outside of the school walls. Students then perform certain projects or activities to discover knowledge about their desired topic. It is important to note that the topic is not singular in that it only covers one specific aspect of the curriculum. The idea behind this style of learning is that it incorporates a general theme or concept that can be translated or understood in different areas of the specific disciplines curriculum.

Image taken from http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/inquiry.html

            Okay so now you have a really good understanding of the inquiry based learning approach, now I bet you’re wondering why I’m bothering writing about it? Well the answer is simple, I will one day become an educator in the public sector and this style of teaching really promotes the kind of interest and thirst for learning that I want to instill into my students. It correlates directly to my topic of last weeks blog in which I discussed the importance of knowing your students with the goal to keep them interested and create a real intrinsic motivating fire inside them. Combining the knowledge of my students (that I gathered from getting to know them that is discussed in my blog from a week ago) interests and creating an inquiry based learning project will be a perfect way to create intrinsic motivation and teach them real world skills simultaneously! Of course I don’t have personal experience to tell you that the combination of these two topics will guarantee the results I’m suggesting it will produce. However, at the end of the day I know if I teach them through the old story of education that I went through as a student then they will not be able to excel and find themselves and their true interests.

            So as a teacher I will be sure to try this inquiry based learning with my students. I will be the expert in the classroom that reinforces the perspective of whatever subject I am teaching them. It is also important to understand that in the 21^st century, inquiry based learning should be taught with current resources (such as advanced technology), in order to provide the information students might need. For example in the textbook it describes a specific project in which students were able to contact fellow students across Canada through the use of skype to get a different perspective on Canadian history (the Cigar Box Project). In this case technology was used creatively, but always in the service of learning. This even holds true in our current education class where we use blogs (technology) as a way to connect with different people in order to get a different perspective on a subject that we may not be able to see because of certain biases. That is why at the end of the inquiry based learning project students are required to critique their own work to see if any biased representations might be present in their final product.

In conclusion this style of inquiry based learning is extremely relevant to me as a future educator because it is something I can take into my classroom and use first hand with real students. I can hopefully integrate personal interests with real world skills in order to help my students flourish into the individual adults they wish to become.

Goodbye for now,

- S

Know Your Students

Know Your Students

            Hello again, I am back for round number two! Last time my blog was discussing curriculum in the current education system and the impact it had on the lives of those involved within that curriculum. Today I would like to go more in depth on the people it affects… the students themselves! Now as an educator it is important to note that curriculum can be relevant only when it connects to students’ interests and experiences. This is an important piece of information for an educator to have because without it they can experience some serious difficulties motivating their students.

            In order to avoid any difficulties it is suggested that teachers should get to know their students before meeting them by viewing student records, individual education plans and portfolios from previous years. This will allow the teacher to have a basic background on the student and can help them gear lessons towards their specific needs and interests during the year. Of course reading a piece of paper in order to get to know someone doesn’t always work because you learn so much more about somebody by directly interacting with them.

            Teachers can further get a grasp on who their students are by learning from the students themselves. Getting involved in extracurricular activities with the students and asking them why they are interested in these activities shows them that you have an interest in them and their lives. Having basic informal conversations like this can really help you get an understanding of their motives and what gets them involved. Using in class personality forms or playing icebreaker games is also an ideal way to make the students feel more comfortable in the class. Perhaps starting off by telling them a bit about your personal likes and interests will relax them enough to tell you about theirs in return.

            Once the year begins to progress a little bit it is important to try and understand where the students are coming from and perhaps figuring out their social, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds would be beneficial. This could help the educator understand why certain students might not have the same motivation towards certain subjects than others. Having this information could help you gear lessons towards topics that are more personally related to the culture that these students come from. It would help them directly relate to the material and would hopefully give them an external or personal motivation to be involved in the topic discussions.  

            One personal experience I’ve had involved an assignment my placement teacher gave to her grade eight history class. The overall theme was World War One, which was clearly found in the curricular expectations for the age-group, but the way she allowed choice and flexibility on the project gave students the ability to become self-motivated. The assignment I’m talking about was very vague and simply involved researching and then presenting on a subject matter that held any relevance to you (as a student) or held any interest to you (as a student) as long as it directly related to World War One. The students were so excited that they had the option to combine the curriculum with their personal interests and experiences that they immediately began researching on all the different aspect of World War One that pleased them. Some examples included tanks used during World War One, women helping from home during the war, medics during World War One and some did specific battles that interested them.

            The entire process from beginning to end was absolutely flawless and exciting to see as a future educator because the students quite clearly WANTED to learn. They were so eager to complete the project that it was as if they didn’t even notice that they were doing ‘work’. As is proven in most subject areas if there is internal motivator the result tends to skyrocket upwards. This was a perfect example of implementing students personal interest and experience to the curriculum in order to initiate intrinsic motivation.

            Not only did the teacher successfully motivate students but she also found out about their personal interests and their specific learning styles. This information helped her shape future lessons towards the specific information she learned on each students needs.

            I’m nearing the end of my blog here and I hope that as an educator or future educator this blog gives you some insight and ideas that you could use in your classroom to combine the curriculum with students’ interests and experiences. At the end of the day the goal of all educators should be to instill the need and want to learn. The best way to achieve this ultimate goal is by getting to know your students and understanding how to intrinsically motivate them.

This is my second good-bye but also my second speak to you again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEu-eQELPOI