Monthly Archives: June 2016

06/30/16

RBCM Week 3

The time has swept by so fast! This week has been full of interesting and varied experiences.  Firstly, I got to try out a bit of my trailhead tour that came to the Museum on Tuesday.  The class was a 3/4 combined French Immersion class.  The class really had a great time at the museum, but we were a bit surprised to learn there were other events going on in the gallery and so we had to leave the first peoples exhibit and go to the modern history part of the museum.

Secondly, we had a group of UVic BEd students come in to do a collaborative project that had been set up between thier profs and the learning department at the museum.  It was super interesting to talk to them about thier programs and practicum, but it was also incredible enlightening to see how they engaged with the museum as future educators.  The project was based around whose voices and histories are represented in the museum and whose are left out, and some of thier projects were incredibly thoughtful.  We had groups do projects on women and science, street performers, immigrants and the concept of beauty.  I think that it was such a valuable experience for them and for us, as now they feel empowered to bring thier classes here in the future, while themselves having ideas of how to facilitate more critically minded classroom/museum visits and projects.

Our last days was a bit of a sad one, and it was hard to say good bye, but our hosts at the museum were so generous, taking us out for lunch and then we finished off the afternoon with a very special tour of the legislature, hosted by a young actor playing the iconic hero of Victoria, Francis Rattenbury.  I have lived in Victoria for almost 7 years but I learned more in that half an hour about its past then those years combined!

06/30/16

PALS Week 3

My last week at PALS was amazing! I had the chance to plan my own lessons and teach them to the students. I had two favourites; a class called ‘The Body’ and a Cooking class. In ‘The Body’ the students are learning about senses and the parts of our body that we use for taste, smell, sight, touch and sound. My job was to introduce the eye and the different parts of it. We talked about the pupil and the iris and how the pupil changes size depending on the amount of light that is in the room. I loved seeing the groups interest in the new words they were hearing and the excitement when we pulled out mirrors and took a look at the parts of our eye that we can see.

I really felt that this week I had a chance to connect with many of the students and had just settled into a relationship with them. I had the opportunity to learn from a students about claymation and some interesting videos I could watch to see more.

The most important thing that I learned during this practicum was to cherish and accept the good moments when they come. To hold onto those when things get tough and when a student has a bad day and remember that it will all go up again. I have been given a great opportunity to truly see how building a community surrounded by trust and caring makes for a great place to work, learn, and teach. I am thrilled to have spent 3 weeks with the amazing teachers and students at PALS and will, I think, always reflect back on this experience and to what I have learned.

06/28/16

Learn to camp: Overnight experience

I had the lovely privilege of being able to attend the other Learn to Camp’s program, the overnighter at Fort Langley. The first Learn to Camp program that I participated in was an afternoon program.  Therefore I was really excited to be able to participate in the full overnight program.  The days leading up to the program were full of excitement with last-minute prep and details.

When the day of the event finally arrived, I spent my morning packing.  When I arrived, I wasn’t sure at all what to expect.  The Learn to Camp program focuses on the education aspect of camping.  However, as anyone in education will tell you, prior knowledge can range so widely that it’s hard to make sure that you are challenging enough, while still managing to reach out to the members of the audience who may have no previous experience at all!  I was really fortunate that the other CFE teacher candidate at the Fort Langley site had planned all of the crafts and the activities!  This was another interesting experience where I felt as if I were a TOC in a classroom.  I had all of the equipment and all of the lesson plans, however, I wasn’t the person who had planned all of the activities.

Fortunately the program was a huge success!  I felt my big a-ha moment when everyone was eating breakfast.  As I looked around the eating tent, the families were sitting among each other, talking and laughing, when only yesterday they were complete strangers.  Often when we go to events, it’s the memories and the friendships we create that last the longest.  Although I understand that the challenge of ‘surviving the outdoors’ was a reason for the families uniting, I fully believe that you can make your classroom have the same feel.  Education should be about more than just the subjects you are teaching, or the projects you are able to accomplish.  If you are able to learn something, as well as become involved a community of caring people, that is what I think education truly is.

06/28/16

Being a Part of the Museum

            Life must be lived forwards but can only be understood backwards.

Kierkegaard

            The evening of June 23rd found me participating in a special event organized by the Museum’s Learning Department. They invited a group of students from the Diversity Institute at the University of Victoria (U Vic). The purpose of their workshop was to offer the group the opportunity of taking a critical look at the Modern History’s gallery view on diversity.

The students were invited to bring an object that was meaningful to them. All the objects were used to recreate the decision process that determines how objects are incorporated into a museum collection.  (Since I was also an active participant in the session, together with the other UBC student doing a CFE practice at the Museum, from now on I will refer to the group of students as “us” rather than “they”). We were given the opportunity of making any of those objects part of the Museum collection from 10 am to 11 am of the following day and also the freedom to do so in any way we found suitable. I expressed having a connection with one of the objects brought in and, together with my UBC partner, put it on display in the Maritime section of the Modern History gallery, for this contains information on the presence of Spanish explorers in British Columbia during the 18th century. This is a historic episode I have had a great interest in since I found about it, because I am originally from Colombia, a country with significant ties to the Hispanic culture. I also included in the display questions related to immigrants in British Columbia, myself included, such as “What do immigrants bring with them to BC? What do they leave behind?” The discussion that followed our intervention in the gallery, which served as a conclusion to the activity, made me aware once again that not all of us who immigrate to BC have the same motivations and needs, and that we do not all fit the same mold even if we all are in the same category.

This special activity was also a reminder of what I now think of as an inevitable tension when studying history: how in the abstractions or generalizations of collective historical processes we may lose sight and appreciation of the individual historical processes; of how we tend to think of “history” as collective and “story” as individual. Objects that are incorporated into museum collections might not tell us the individual (hi)stories behind them but they do allow us to recreate the world they were a part of, a world we might still have ties with regardless of the time and distance existing between those objects and the present, our present.

This activity brought into my attention once again a thought that I consider necessary to incorporate into this reflection: our understanding and appreciation of the present. While history allows us to revisit the past and “right our wrongs”, for example when it comes to respecting diversity, we should also be aware of the “rights” of our present world. There have been discriminatory immigration policies in British Columbia’s history that are now untenable in our society and in our educational system.  I believe all educators in BC should highlight in equal measure both the harm inflicted by those policies and the fact that we are no longer being governed by them because it is now, in the present, that those policies are unacceptable.  In this way also I believe we are more likely to offer our students a more hopeful –but not naïve- vision of the future. In light of events currently happening in other places around the world, it is an ever more significant and urgent contribution to make from all of us living right now in British Columbia.

 

 

 

 

06/26/16

PALS Week 2

This week has been great! I was able to to a little bit more teaching and get to know the students even better. The classes that I have been teaching range from functional skills, social skills, workplace skills to cooking and baking. Fridays are always exciting as we cook for everyone in the morning, usually a recipe that is easy for the students to reproduce. Then in the afternoons we bake and run ‘PALS cafe’ where the students go around the program and take coffee orders and serve drinks and cookies.

I had a great time running ‘PALS cafe’ last week. I worked with 4 students really excelled at baking. We made sugar cookies as a group and then iced them. It was fantastic to see the students working together and following a recipe, all on their own with little prompting. The end result was great and we were able to see the students’ artistic talents.

During this week I have also had a lot of time to chat with the students during our transition periods and free time. There is a well known phrase around the program “How cool is that!?!” that many of the students say, to just about everything. It is hilarious to hear and gets all the students laughing and having a good time.

As I have not spent any time working with adults before in any capacity, it is neat to have this unique experience of working with adults with autism. They are each such great, unique people with their own quirks and talents. All it has taken is a few days with this group of students for me to appreciate them and everything they have to offer!

06/24/16

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art – Week 3

“My (Re)conciliation is… a public art dialogue” was opened on the eve of National Aboriginal Day. It’s on the boarding of the church on West Georgia st. (between Burrard and Hornby). It is a very courageous and great idea to have a public dialogue about this sensitive subject. Reconciliation needs to happen on both sides. Great design and people do generally write genuine thoughts about reconciliation and dialogue on there. Every day we go outside and monitor the writings to make sure nothing inappropriate gets written (which it always does). However, the majority seem to be genuine comments and remarks.

On National Aboriginal Day itself, the Gallery was the backdrop for a special Canadian Citizenship Ceremony. 30 new Canadians took the oath in this beautiful location. It made this special ceremony even more special in my opinion. I was so happy to be a part of this during my CFE. For me, having the Canadian Citizenship ceremony at the Gallery in the midst of the Northwest Coast artwork raised questions about the difficult relationship between First Nations and European settlers that is part of our mutual history and reconciliation. I think it shows that both parties are ready to work on improving the relationship while not denying the difficult past.

Since the Gallery was free to the public because of National Aboriginal Day, I didn’t write on my program, but helped out in the Gallery instead. I had a great discussion with one of the people working in the shop about their personal history, reconciliation and how it is such a long and difficult process to come to terms with. She also said it is such a personal process and that it is still taboo for some people, which makes it harder for the younger generation to get their parents or grandparents to talk about it. (This reminded me of the topic of WW II in Europe; my grandfather never spoke a word about what happened to him while he was forced to work in Germany during that time).

We had another school group come in on Thursday morning; a Grade 6 Late French Immersion. They participated in the Cedar Education Program. I was assisting as the group came in and put away their jackets and backpacks and had the chance to facilitate an activity. We had decided to try the Know-Wonder-Learn strategy in the Gallery. Before exploring the artwork, students were asked to think about what they already knew about Northwest Coast art and Bill Reid. Since the group consisted of 30 students, we had them talk to a partner first and raise their hand to provide ideas in the group after. They had some great ideas. Then, I asked them to think about some questions: what did they wonder? What would they like to know? Again, they had a minute to talk to a friend first before providing questions to be written down. They tried really hard to speak French despite the difficult vocabulary; by repeating what they said and correcting the French, we managed to write down the questions together. For me, the best part was when they came back to the list after the tour and were able to answer their questions and give many more details of what they had learned in this short time. It was great to see them realize how much they had learned during this Program. I think it might be a useful activity to include in the Program. I have included it as a possible pre-visit activity and as a possible activity to start off the Program in the Gallery.

On Thursday and Friday, I finished writing my Program. I’ve written it in English, which is kind of funny, because so far all my units have been in French. However, I’ve added handouts and references in French to provide resources for French Immersion teachers. This way, even if the facilitator at the Gallery doesn’t speak French, students can still use the handouts and the graphic organizers in French. I hope my activities will come in useful during school visits to the Gallery.

My Program is designed in such a way that teachers can use it as an as-is unit to use in the classroom and make the visit to the Gallery part of their unit, and that facilitators at the Gallery can select appropriate activities depending on how much prior knowledge the group has. It allows for a lot of flexibility and choice on the part of the educator and even the students. Several activities can be used at different stages of the unit and can even be added to over the course of the unit, so it allows students to monitor their learning. I have provided three possible performance tasks to check for understanding and transfer at the end of the unit. Being in the Gallery has allowed me to design authentic tasks, such as developing a new logo for the Gallery based on one of the pieces of art. Students would have to make mock-ups of the logo, a poster and/ or a postcard using the new logo, and have to include a letter to the Board explaining their choice of artifact and provide convincing arguments and examples to sway the Board to decide in favour of their proposal.

06/20/16

Gulf Islands – Learn to camp day workshop

The week was a busy one, as we we madly prepared for the ‘Learn to Camp – Gulf Islands’ program that took place on Saturday.  It is through a partnership with MEC, and the purpose is to have a fun, informative workshop about camping, some tips and tricks, as well as promoting Parks Canada.  This year, they did something new and exciting – “A taste of camping”.  The workshop was focused on the variety of food that one could cook in a campsite.  We made everything from berry crisp, bannock, burritos, smores, ice cream, coffee, and cornbread in orange peels.  The information that we provided, other than culinary, ranged from the services that Parks Canada provides, fire safety, keeping your campsite clean, packing a camping backpack and an invasive species scavenger hunt.

There was a lot of cool camping information that I was able to learn, which was exciting as I was able to build my own personal schema.  However, the rich learning experience came from the flexibility of the program, and how that affected my planning.  My station was preparing crisp and hand painting.  This was an interesting learning curve, as the program was entirely drop in.  I realized that in school, although you are able to do stations, often your activities are much more scheduled, and the students don’t have the option to leave a craft abandoned halfway through!  I had to ensure that my explanations were short enough that the participants were able to catch on, yet long enough to fully explain the activity.

I was able to really experience the full range of comfortability in the woods, and this bit of information is something that I will be bringing back to my classroom.  As I am an advocate of taking students outdoors, understanding that every student will have  different comfortability level within the woods, as well as how to deal with the different levels, is definitely key to bringing your students outdoors. As well, I learned about the different styles of activities that would engage students.

I am looking forward to the adventures of this week and weekend of CFE!

06/20/16

RBCM Week Two

Week two at the museum has been fun and full on.

The beginning of this week I started writing a Trailhead tour for the Museums learning department around simple machines. The idea of a ‘Trailhead’ tour is that it is a lightly facilitated tour that allows for students to explore the museum and make connections, rather than being a formal lesson. The specific tour I am writing is strongly linked to the grade 5 curriculum, as it is based around simple machines. But there are links to most intermediate grades (I am designing the tour with intermediate specifically in mind, there are other trailhead tours that are geared towards primary) and there will also be a cross-curricular art connection.  I’m still working on finishing up the tour (hopefully by the end of the week) and will give more complete details about it when I have completed it.

This week has been a bit quieter in terms of school visits. Last week we had quite a few but this week we only seem to have one.  However, yesterday we had a skype gallery tour with a school from Cranbrook! It was very fun, we took the class all around the new mammoth exhibit and I think they really enjoyed it.  It was well organized because each student had a chance to individually ask questions about mammoths.  Perhaps the most valuable part of the whole process was to allow a class to see the exhibit that normally wouldn’t.  I think this is incredible because often in more rural locations, or locations away from the lower mainland there are less opportunies for schools and classes to visit galleries and museums.  We are hoping to repeat the process next week with a class from Prince George so I will be sure to inform you of how it goes.

06/20/16

A Day at the Museum: a new kind of field trip

During the second week of this CFE I have been thinking about a new kind of connection or use I would give to museums as a destination for a school field trip. I had mentioned in my first reflection that the Royal BC Museum is very much in tune with the purpose and goals of the new curriculum by becoming actively involved in the generation of knowledge through inquiry. Over the course of the last few days, I have actually thought of the Museum itself as a source of inquiry through the content of its galleries. I will refer in particular to the Natural History gallery. The Natural History gallery is divided into six sections, and the first one is focused on the Ice Age (Pleistocene epoch). Identified as “A Changing Past” in the museum maps, its very first introduces one of the “big ideas” of this gallery: change is the only constant in the natural history of BC. This section is followed prompt by “A Changing Present”, a section dedicated to present day climate change, its causes and consequences. It includes information about weather, climate, the greenhouse effect and the impact that human activity today is having on the world’s climate. It also presents major climate changes not caused by humans such as the 1815 eruption of the Tambora volcano, located in Indonesia, or the climate changes that happen every thousands of years because of corresponding changes in the Earth’s orbit and orientation to the sun.

I mention all of these facts because they help me describe a realization that I wasn’t aware of before being at a museum for a sustained period of time: museums provide us with the unique opportunity of getting the whole picture of a topic, a theme or an idea. Being reminded that climate has changed throughout the history of the planet and that it is not an effect due exclusively to human activity has also helped me understand this natural phenomenon better and given me a more balanced and comprehensive approach for teaching it. By this I mean that it will allow me to go beyond a simplistic view of humans as the only “culprits” of drastic changes in the natural world, while still acknowledging that we do have a huge responsibility in doing the most we can to prevent the changes that our activities can bring upon all living and non-living things in the planet.

I will elaborate now on the idea of museums as a source of inquiry, particularly in relation to field trips. In my school experience, field trips usually have come at the end of a unit or at the end of the school year, a “fun” activity meant to wrap up the topic that has been studied.  Due to the fact that museums can provide us with the holistic view of a theme, illustrating how different disciplines contribute to our knowledge of it – in this particular case, especially mathematics and science- I am now thinking of field trips as the activity to start the unit by inciting the inquiry questions with which the students will generate their knowledge. An example of those possible questions are ones that I have asked myself while studying the gallery over the last couple of days: if human activity hasn’t been the only cause of climate change, why could the changes we are indeed causing be far more reaching and definitive than on previous occasions? How are present day changes different to previous ones? What explains the difference?

As I write this reflection, I wonder about the kind of questions the students could ask; of course, I expect their questions to be related to their cognitive and emotional development. Regardless, I remain very excited about this new way of seeing museums as “inquiry hubs”. Knowledge is meant to generate knowledge, an idea I see as a defining feature of the new curriculum, and one that is made physically tangible in places such as the Royal BC Museum.

 

06/19/16

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art – Week 2

Some difficulties and doubts arose in me about my role in writing an Education Program on the expression of identity in Northwest Coast art at the gallery: who am I to do this? I felt uncomfortable speaking for First Nations and writing a program from this position of (non-existent) authority. I have included Aboriginal Education in many of my lessons during my extended practicum, but didn’t feel this much pressure ‘to get it right’. Fortunately, while rereading my notes from EDUC 440, I found Brad Baker’s phrase and it really resonates with me: “Go forward with courage”. I decided that I will do my best to write this program and respect Aboriginal identities as best as I can. I am also very fortunate to have great Community Partners that encourage asking questions and exploring the subject.

I’m continuing to enjoy the luxury of time to explore and work with Understanding by Design, Making Thinking Visible, and Barrie Bennett (Beyond Monet & Graphic Intelligence) to create meaningful and engaging program. The goal of my Program is to allow the intermediate grades to explore the Bill Reid Gallery in alignment with the Big Ideas of the B.C. Arts Education curriculum.  I’d like to create a unit that allows students’ interests and questions to guide the learning activities while exploring the concept of identity in artwork. It allows for inclusion of some Core Competencies as well: Positive Personal and Cultural Identity, Communication, and Creative Thinking.

Ideally, I would have a unit with multiple entry points, depending on where the visit to the BRG takes place within the unit. The field trip could be the hook for the unit, it could take place in the middle after some scaffolding and before the culminating performance task, and it could even be a closing activity for the unit. The field trip as hook is the most likely, as this happens to be the case more than 50% of the time. Different activities will be planned to be presented during the visit, depending on the size and energy of the group and the preference of the teacher.

On Wednesday morning, I was able to help with a group of Grade 3 students visiting the BRG. Since there were 2 classes coming, we split the group in 2 and while one group toured the gallery, I read a story (The flight of the hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas) to the other group. I was able to read from my own copy in French because the group was from a francophone school. Teachers and students were (pleasantly) surprised. I couldn’t have asked for a better setting. The author’s work happens to be the temporary exhibit in the BRG, so it was great to read “Le vol du colibri” in the gallery while pointing at other works of the artist.

This school visit allowed me to work on my questioning before, during, and after reading and asking “What makes you say that?” to get students to elaborate and explain predictions and ideas. The tour of the first group ran a bit longer, so I used an improvised extension activity of drawing the ending/ resolution of the problem since students seemed a bit ruffled by the fact that the story wasn’t neatly wrapped-up and finished. There is some inherent difficulty in having school groups in at the same time as general audience, but it seemed to work this morning. I’m thinking of ways to include movement in my activities while being respectful of other visitors. In any case, I think it is important to go over expectations at the start of the visit: what can’t we do, but what can we do?; what does that look like, and what does that sound like?