Category: Art Inquiry

Reconsidering, reflecting upon, and representing my own learning experiences (in the Teacher Education Program) in light of a critical engagement with what it means to be a professional and to be engaged in a profession.

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Plant Walks and Pedagogy

Discover five types of tree or plant around campus that appeal to you on the grounds
they remind you of professional values that you have come to appreciate as important
in the lives of educators. Upon your return, you will be asked to
(a) describe the tree/plant in particular detail, perhaps with a photograph
(b) make connections to the professional value that the tree/plant represents for you
(c) explain the importance of that value to a robust sense of professional life, and
(d) discuss where you have seen (or wish you had seen) this value enacted in your experience as either a teacher or a student.
– Dr. Tim Waddington [Imaginative Education SFU + with Dr. Gillian Judson]
Tree in Tatlow Park

Activity from: imaginED and Professor Marie-France

Forest Snow from McBride Park
Where did I wander first? To familiar nearby places, childhood landmark that I revisit as a clumsy adult. I might find a unique plant from my special place, but they grow everywhere. And that’s how I remember that I am connected. And maybe not that special. Why do we pull out grass, and why does it grow back?

 

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In Response to “Teaching as Indwelling Between Two Worlds” by Ted Aoki

“Survive? What for?” (163)
“…To be alive is to live in tension…” (162)
“…When light that comes from contacts with children glows anew.” (162)

A teacher’s role commands certain expectations and beliefs. The students’ mind starts whirring as soon as a fresh teacher sets foot inside their class. Students start making connections to their favourite and not-so-favourite teachers. Teachers do this too- they hold their own biases as to who the troublemakers might be (back row), the keeners (middle front), the gamers (side rows).

The new teacher begins to build a home. Where they place their family photos and how they organize the classroom supplies all become living relics of their practice.

As weeks go by, teachers grow to know understand each student’s “uniqueness” (160) and carve new forms into curriculum plans that are standardized by the province (Aoki). Some teachers thrive off what Aoki calls this “tension” (162). The plan was created so that teachers can adapt it according to their actual experience. Give me broken branches and I will make a fort.

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