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.