I have a great feeling about this next year!! I'm loving 2013 so far! However, I would like to take a moment to remember 2012.
This past year I was able to revisit a camp that I love very much, experience a new camp that I enjoy very much, I was given the experience of doing two sermons at my church, I celebrated a second anniversary with my girlfriend, I received a scholarship that allowed me to stay in school, finished my last ridiculously overloaded semester in my undergrad, and just had a great time with my family in the past couple weeks (just to name a few highlights).
This year I hope to just have more fun, play more sports, and to be more dedicated to what I do and who I am. I have a great feeling about this year and I hope that you all do too!
Happy holidays everyone and Happy New Year!!!!
Reflection of week: Family time is great- spending time cherishing memories with family is the most refreshing and enjoyable thing to do! Happy New Year- cherish the old and be happy in your futures!
Monday, 31 December 2012
Saturday, 22 December 2012
EndoftheOverloads!
Well, as funny as the apocalypse jokes have been all week, I would have to say that my favourite part of the week is that everyone is now finally done the semester. I have just gotten back to my home town and am very ready to simply relax and look forward to my second semester that consists of a much lighter schedule. With this semester now in the books, I would just like to say that I really enjoyed all of my classes this past semester. Some more than others of course, but I would say that this has been my most professionally enjoyable semester in that many of my classes actually made me interested in continuing to develop upon the knowledge base that I had started. It's a good feeling to be done, yet it kind of feels like I haven't finished. Maybe it's because I only have another 3 semesters until graduation, but I would like to think that I'm starting to truly understand what it means to be a lifelong learner- to keep learning even when it isn't for marks.
I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Joyous Kwanza etc. and share with you a simple reflection that I had thought of after my seventh, and final, overloaded university semester:
Learning happens over your entire life and takes place in many different ways. The mistake that I have made is that I have valued my formal education a great deal higher than my informal education and disrupted that balance that should exist in my life. Keep on racing towards the goal, but set a pace. For what good is the goal if you are alone in your victory?
Reflection for the week: Take time, smell the roses. Disappointments, triumphs, and even knowledge will come and go, but the love that you spread lasts forever, in the lives of the people that you touch.
I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Joyous Kwanza etc. and share with you a simple reflection that I had thought of after my seventh, and final, overloaded university semester:
Learning happens over your entire life and takes place in many different ways. The mistake that I have made is that I have valued my formal education a great deal higher than my informal education and disrupted that balance that should exist in my life. Keep on racing towards the goal, but set a pace. For what good is the goal if you are alone in your victory?
Reflection for the week: Take time, smell the roses. Disappointments, triumphs, and even knowledge will come and go, but the love that you spread lasts forever, in the lives of the people that you touch.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Semester in Review
Just under three and a half years ago I began my university career. In the program in which I am currently enrolled, I have come into contact with some very incredible people who will be graduating in less than 4 months. As I attended a friend's recital this past week I found myself going on a long walk down memory lane where I realized how short a four year degree really is, and how much one can learn in such a little time. I then started to wonder when all of this learning happens and came up with the answer, that seems obvious, that it happens in every moment that we choose to be fully engaged in our education. This includes, but is not limited to, all of the morning classes that we chose not to skip, every lecture that we decided to listen to as opposed to go on Facebook or fall asleep during, every study session that we attended, addressing all of those mistakes that were made and taking responsibility of them in order to ensure that they wouldn't happen again, and largely in the way that we connect with other people. If we are engaged we learn.
I would like to take this time to share with you all a Prezi that I made to show what I have learned in my ICT class this past semester.
Lesson of this course: I have learned that in all things that we do, we need to feel connected and supported in our explorations. This is so we are encouraged to continue our educational journeys past the end of the courses we take and into an ever changing, unpredictable, and bright future.
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Dress to the 9's with Voicethread
Alright, another week closer to the end of semester and Christmas holidays! I don't know about anyone else, but I am so stoked to trade the time with my projects for enjoy time with my family in a couple of weeks.
This past week I was able to play around with a new app called Voicethread. This application is an internet conversation tool that can be used for classroom conversations, collaborations, and various other classroom assignments. I tried to put together a short clip where I would post a physics demonstration and try to have students figure out "What is Going On?" A video like this would be posted about once every week to once every two weeks. Students would have to respond to the video with an audio, written, or video comment to answer the question, "What is Going On?" Most, if not all of the demos that are featured in the videos would have been shown in class as well. A seemingly decent activity with accountability in its assessment.
Being a beginner to this application I found it rather finicky and seemingly full of limitations. All audio comments have to be uploaded or taken in one prolonged take. It was nice to be able to doodle on the video, however, I still had difficulty performing a perfect take (which I never did quite do) without the ability to pause mid take or to use bits and pieces of different takes. I can see how this would be a useful application, however, I feel as though the lack of editing capabilities, low user-friendliness, and the inability to save the video file to your computer makes this application something that I will not continue to use. I do see that it has value, however, I am unsure if the time that it will take to learn how to use it (and teach students how to use the program) will really be worth the ability to use this program.
Here is the link to the video that I made with the attempted explanation of what was going on: https://voicethread.com/share/3832488/
Something that I did learn through reflecting is that I find it difficult to properly explain things in one medium. This is something that I certainly need to work on if I plan to be effective as an educator.
Lesson for the Week: It is essential for development to confront our weaknesses. For me, this means to practice explaining situations clearly and in as few words as possible.
This past week I was able to play around with a new app called Voicethread. This application is an internet conversation tool that can be used for classroom conversations, collaborations, and various other classroom assignments. I tried to put together a short clip where I would post a physics demonstration and try to have students figure out "What is Going On?" A video like this would be posted about once every week to once every two weeks. Students would have to respond to the video with an audio, written, or video comment to answer the question, "What is Going On?" Most, if not all of the demos that are featured in the videos would have been shown in class as well. A seemingly decent activity with accountability in its assessment.
Being a beginner to this application I found it rather finicky and seemingly full of limitations. All audio comments have to be uploaded or taken in one prolonged take. It was nice to be able to doodle on the video, however, I still had difficulty performing a perfect take (which I never did quite do) without the ability to pause mid take or to use bits and pieces of different takes. I can see how this would be a useful application, however, I feel as though the lack of editing capabilities, low user-friendliness, and the inability to save the video file to your computer makes this application something that I will not continue to use. I do see that it has value, however, I am unsure if the time that it will take to learn how to use it (and teach students how to use the program) will really be worth the ability to use this program.
Here is the link to the video that I made with the attempted explanation of what was going on: https://voicethread.com/share/3832488/
Something that I did learn through reflecting is that I find it difficult to properly explain things in one medium. This is something that I certainly need to work on if I plan to be effective as an educator.
Lesson for the Week: It is essential for development to confront our weaknesses. For me, this means to practice explaining situations clearly and in as few words as possible.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Yoda on Pass-Fail
This past semester I had my first experience with pass-fail courses. In order to show my bias, I will say that I love the pass-fail system as a student. I feel as though I can really explore the world that the course is introducing me to. I feel free to take chances and make mistakes because I know that I will pass if I do my best. Which is an essential part of a safe learning environment, no? I just think that there is so much more room for learning in a pass-fail course than there is in the traditionally graded classroom! Even if you make the argument that students will only do the bare minimum, I know that there are many students already doing that in traditionally graded classes.
In my undergraduate I have come to realize that all of my courses are really just introductory courses to a larger world of that subject area. Our public schools offer introductory courses to these introductory courses. Meaning, to me, that if all learning ends in the classroom, not one student will discover the world that this subject matter belongs to until later in their life when they choose to take it in again in university (and it isn't eve guaranteed at that point). Which is unfortunate. I see pass-fail courses as a chance to manipulate activities, assignments, and projects to suit your own needs in order to differentiate the learning of every individual even more than usual- relating the content to the student as an individual on an even deeper level. If a student is able to connect to the subject matter I believe that they will continue their learning outside of class and they will come to know the subject matter in a truer form than most students who receive 90% will by filling out their worksheets, memorizing facts, and doing a couple presentations based on a few Wikipedia articles.
Grades are supposed to be an accurate reflection of the student- the work that they do and the outcomes that they meet in a class. However, a 90% in Language Arts does not describe that this student has an incredible ability to write in the third-person. It simply says that the student received 90% of the marks available. An 83% in Math does not say that a student is able to derive unique equations in order to solve problems. It simply says that the student received 83% of the marks. There is no substitution for words when it comes to describing a student's abilities (in my mind), which is why I don't understand why we find the need to assign people various percentage grades to describe their abilities.
I believe that every classroom is a micro-chasm of society and that if we can create a perfect classroom that we can make a perfect world. However, with numerical grades we promote this idea (whether we would like to or not) that one person is better than another because they have a higher average. Yes, it feels good to know that you did better than someone else. However, if it's always going to be a competition we will then always have the competitive nature of the outside world too- as opposed to possible idea of a collaborative world in which we utilize the skills of each individual in order to benefit the whole global community.
I do not mind a percentage made up of numerous pass-fail assessments, but large scale percentage assessments seem wishy-washy to me at times. In many ways I believe that there are two options in meeting an objective and/or receiving a grade- meeting or not meeting (approaching). If one is not meeting the objective they are still approaching but, ultimately, they have not yet met the outcome. For example, when Luke Skywalker attempted to move the X-Wing from the swamp he was unable to do so. He almost did, but Yoda did not give him a 68% and send him on his way to Jedi graduation. Instead he had Luke stay and continue his training on Degoba. Yoda knew that we was not yet a Jedi because of his disbelief in himself.
Before Luke had tried moving the X-Wing, Yoda says, "Do or do not, there is no try." This is the attitude that we should have towards our students. With people to support, encourage, teach, and to believe in them they can become the Jedi Master that they were destined to become. We need to push our students to meet their goal and not just 75% of their goal- simply because they can do it and they can do it better!
Reflection for the week: We must encourage our students to learn beyond grades and into the world of developing skills, character traits, and exploration so they can save their X-Wings and destroy their own opposing Death Stars. Do or do not, there is no try- pass or fail, there is no 55%.
In my undergraduate I have come to realize that all of my courses are really just introductory courses to a larger world of that subject area. Our public schools offer introductory courses to these introductory courses. Meaning, to me, that if all learning ends in the classroom, not one student will discover the world that this subject matter belongs to until later in their life when they choose to take it in again in university (and it isn't eve guaranteed at that point). Which is unfortunate. I see pass-fail courses as a chance to manipulate activities, assignments, and projects to suit your own needs in order to differentiate the learning of every individual even more than usual- relating the content to the student as an individual on an even deeper level. If a student is able to connect to the subject matter I believe that they will continue their learning outside of class and they will come to know the subject matter in a truer form than most students who receive 90% will by filling out their worksheets, memorizing facts, and doing a couple presentations based on a few Wikipedia articles.
Grades are supposed to be an accurate reflection of the student- the work that they do and the outcomes that they meet in a class. However, a 90% in Language Arts does not describe that this student has an incredible ability to write in the third-person. It simply says that the student received 90% of the marks available. An 83% in Math does not say that a student is able to derive unique equations in order to solve problems. It simply says that the student received 83% of the marks. There is no substitution for words when it comes to describing a student's abilities (in my mind), which is why I don't understand why we find the need to assign people various percentage grades to describe their abilities.
I believe that every classroom is a micro-chasm of society and that if we can create a perfect classroom that we can make a perfect world. However, with numerical grades we promote this idea (whether we would like to or not) that one person is better than another because they have a higher average. Yes, it feels good to know that you did better than someone else. However, if it's always going to be a competition we will then always have the competitive nature of the outside world too- as opposed to possible idea of a collaborative world in which we utilize the skills of each individual in order to benefit the whole global community.
I do not mind a percentage made up of numerous pass-fail assessments, but large scale percentage assessments seem wishy-washy to me at times. In many ways I believe that there are two options in meeting an objective and/or receiving a grade- meeting or not meeting (approaching). If one is not meeting the objective they are still approaching but, ultimately, they have not yet met the outcome. For example, when Luke Skywalker attempted to move the X-Wing from the swamp he was unable to do so. He almost did, but Yoda did not give him a 68% and send him on his way to Jedi graduation. Instead he had Luke stay and continue his training on Degoba. Yoda knew that we was not yet a Jedi because of his disbelief in himself.
Before Luke had tried moving the X-Wing, Yoda says, "Do or do not, there is no try." This is the attitude that we should have towards our students. With people to support, encourage, teach, and to believe in them they can become the Jedi Master that they were destined to become. We need to push our students to meet their goal and not just 75% of their goal- simply because they can do it and they can do it better!
Reflection for the week: We must encourage our students to learn beyond grades and into the world of developing skills, character traits, and exploration so they can save their X-Wings and destroy their own opposing Death Stars. Do or do not, there is no try- pass or fail, there is no 55%.
Monday, 26 November 2012
Growing Up is Hard to Do
As of late I have really been thinking about what it means to be 21. Being 21 means that I am an adult; an individual who should be contributing to the advancement of society and the general global good. It also means that I have lived through approximately a quarter of my life, which is really scary for me to think about. I also realize that many professional athletes have already been playing in their respective professional leagues for 3 years and are no longer considered rookies. This leads me to ask myself, "What have I done so far?"
Now, I can look back and think of a number of different things that I have done but I also realize that there is still a lot more that I can do. Right now I am attending a university to become a teacher. More and more I am coming to realize that the job that a teacher does directly affects the productivity, enjoyment of life, society as a whole, and many other things of the next generation. The only people that have a larger impact on the lives of the people of the next generation (in my opinion) are their family members. The great responsibility that you accept when you step into a classroom as the educator of the next generation is probably much larger than any of us can really anticipate. Yet, that is exactly what I will be doing in approximately 18 months. How can we even think that 5 years of schooling would be close to enough time to learn how to perform this task properly?
Once again, I look at my age and all of the experiences that I have had. Maybe I haven't had 100+ points in a single NHL season but I have picked up a few skills here and there. I then look ahead to the future when I am 42 and I try to imagine all that I have learned by looking back on my next 21 years- how much more would I know? How many more challenging and exhausting growth experiences will I have? I'm assuming more than I can think of. So why not learn from people who have lived through those additional 21 years already?
Technology- as great as it is to find resources and organize information I'm really thinking that I haven't fully taken advantage of its ability to form networks with experienced individuals whom I trust and who are in the field. To tap into that base of experience and knowledge would be extremely beneficial for my development as a teacher and as an individual who is simply trying to figure out what it means to be 21.
Lesson of the week: take advantage of the experiences that other people have and listen to what they have learned. At 21 you can have a lot of constructive and knowledgeable experiences but at 42 you will have had many more.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Agricultural Learning
This past week I watched multiple Ted talks about education, most of which were given by Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Robinson is a firm believer that critical thinking is key to preparing students for the future that we do not know. The aspect of critical thinking that Robinson talks most about is that of divergent thinking and its factor, creativity- defined by Robinson to be the process of having original ideas that have value. Robinson sees creativity as a natural ability that we all possess. The problem is that our education system tends to squander creativity while promoting monotony and convergent thinking. Like most other speakers on education, Ken Robinson says that we need to change the system; that we need a revolution in education.
I would strongly agree with Sir Robinson and all of these other speakers that I have heard say this exact same phrase. The question that I ask myself is, "how?" What can we change in order to have this revolution of learning mean something? I guess that really is the million dollar question, isn't it?
One of the things that hit me the hardest in the three Ted talks that I watched Sir Robinson give was found in his talk "Bring on the Learning Revolution!" which I have embedded below for your viewing pleasure.
In this talk he compares to the current American education system to a that of a fast food restaurant's system of distributing burgers- all of the products standardized in every way. He then says that we need to structure ourselves after an agricultural model- to provide the proper context for healthy development and knowing that no two ears of corn will be the same. Although this statement was not referring to the Canadian education system I still saw the comparison in what we do with education to be similar to that of a fast food restaurant. We have our standardized goals, outcomes, and courses that we want all of our high school graduates to have. Hoping that they will all be ready to attend whatever university they wish to go to. Some teachers will even inflate grades to make it seem like their product is better than the product down the street.
Earlier on in my blog I had posted about the amazing accountability that the curriculum gives us with the outcomes that it provides. But Robinson's statement about fast food structured education has me second guessing. Are specific outcomes really the appropriate way to look at education? Or are we to develop outcomes for the individual classes that we have from year to year?
Just recently a friend had described her grade 9 math class as being extremely below level and making the statement that they did not understand the difference between multiplication and addition without a calculator. Now, this scares me a great deal. Another friend of mine said that it is more about the progress than the "being at level" when faced with a class like this. To me the happy compromise would be for teachers to set the curricular goals for each individual class that they have in this case. Meaning that the teacher can create what they believe to be a reasonable outcome for these students and then pass what these students do know on to the next teacher. Something very similar to this process is being done in Finland which is ranked in the top 3 of the world's finest educational systems. I also believe that this would resemble that agricultural approach. As the farmer will look at the stock market, the forecast for the season ahead, as well as the equipment that he or she has in order to help the crop grow.
The problem that I see with this agricultural approach is that it is a lot of work. This work requires skills that I do not think that I will have as a first year teacher. This then leads me to wondering about the curriculum. As a teacher is it truly my job to teach the curriculum? This is what I have been told over and over again so it seems to me like it is. However, Sir Robinson's talks have me wondering if a teacher's job something even bigger than that. Is it my job to be constantly adapting, adding, and possibly removing content from the curriculum for every class that I have so that they will be creative, productive, and contributing members of a global society? Hmm... All from learning about ratios in a math class? Or the length of a quarter note in a music class?
To me it seems like it is a combination of all the classes that they take to be their true education. Maybe it isn't about the outcomes of a single class but instead, through the relation of the outcomes of all of the different courses that they take are they really learning how to learn and what relates to the "real world". Maybe the learning occurs in a reflection on the mixture of all of their experiences and social interactions and not on Black Line Master sheet 8.3.3.
Reflection of the week: At the end of all of my reflections I have just slightly changed the question that I had at the beginning (which was "What can we change in order to have this revolution of learning mean something?) to being, "How do we maximize a student's exposure to learning experiences, social interactions, and reflective thinking?" That is if my reflections are anywhere near or even the least bit closer to the hallowed field of learning.
I would strongly agree with Sir Robinson and all of these other speakers that I have heard say this exact same phrase. The question that I ask myself is, "how?" What can we change in order to have this revolution of learning mean something? I guess that really is the million dollar question, isn't it?
One of the things that hit me the hardest in the three Ted talks that I watched Sir Robinson give was found in his talk "Bring on the Learning Revolution!" which I have embedded below for your viewing pleasure.
Earlier on in my blog I had posted about the amazing accountability that the curriculum gives us with the outcomes that it provides. But Robinson's statement about fast food structured education has me second guessing. Are specific outcomes really the appropriate way to look at education? Or are we to develop outcomes for the individual classes that we have from year to year?
Just recently a friend had described her grade 9 math class as being extremely below level and making the statement that they did not understand the difference between multiplication and addition without a calculator. Now, this scares me a great deal. Another friend of mine said that it is more about the progress than the "being at level" when faced with a class like this. To me the happy compromise would be for teachers to set the curricular goals for each individual class that they have in this case. Meaning that the teacher can create what they believe to be a reasonable outcome for these students and then pass what these students do know on to the next teacher. Something very similar to this process is being done in Finland which is ranked in the top 3 of the world's finest educational systems. I also believe that this would resemble that agricultural approach. As the farmer will look at the stock market, the forecast for the season ahead, as well as the equipment that he or she has in order to help the crop grow.
The problem that I see with this agricultural approach is that it is a lot of work. This work requires skills that I do not think that I will have as a first year teacher. This then leads me to wondering about the curriculum. As a teacher is it truly my job to teach the curriculum? This is what I have been told over and over again so it seems to me like it is. However, Sir Robinson's talks have me wondering if a teacher's job something even bigger than that. Is it my job to be constantly adapting, adding, and possibly removing content from the curriculum for every class that I have so that they will be creative, productive, and contributing members of a global society? Hmm... All from learning about ratios in a math class? Or the length of a quarter note in a music class?
To me it seems like it is a combination of all the classes that they take to be their true education. Maybe it isn't about the outcomes of a single class but instead, through the relation of the outcomes of all of the different courses that they take are they really learning how to learn and what relates to the "real world". Maybe the learning occurs in a reflection on the mixture of all of their experiences and social interactions and not on Black Line Master sheet 8.3.3.
Reflection of the week: At the end of all of my reflections I have just slightly changed the question that I had at the beginning (which was "What can we change in order to have this revolution of learning mean something?) to being, "How do we maximize a student's exposure to learning experiences, social interactions, and reflective thinking?" That is if my reflections are anywhere near or even the least bit closer to the hallowed field of learning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)