Through these last few years of BCIT and now UBC, every time something came up that I was a little uncertain about regarding teaching, it was deferred to the “I’ll have to address that in 2018” pile. Guess what?

So, practicum at the end of the month, I have all sorts of ideas, I have no idea if said ideas will work, and I’m on task to sort and prioritize. It’s a great group of people I’ll be working with at Lake Trail, good admin, an FA who I think knows a lot about classroom management and has offered up his assistance…What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, as long as I don’t get my overactive imagination in the way. Imagination is a great thing, and mine has stayed as strong as it was when I was a little ‘un, except it has that creeping dark side that holds the “what if…” category on the other side of the second class lever (that’s the teeter/totter style). For the most part I feel good, and the kids really seemed to like me, but I think they were in some sort of interview process once they got word I would be there again next year (from short practicum in November). What if I’m boring? What if they’re yawning during my lectures, how do I make the Canada Food Guide a “fun” lecture? I’m not as worried about the wood shop and electronics, lots of cutting, banging, and power tools to keep anyone engaged for a lifetime, but I’ve never actually “taught” home ec in the traditional sense, just years of nutrition to adults and youth on a one on one level. That is much different.

So I have my ideas, I have my imagination, I have an inkling I passed the kids interview, and I’m ready to dive in to the mix; I hope UBC has some good last words of wisdom before I hurl myself back in time to my grade 6 mindset to ask: “what exactly are these kids thinking right now….?

The inquiry proposal is going well, and I’m hoping to be somewhat ahead of the curve by the time I get to Comox. It’s been quite a vague are for most of us up till now, and I understand its going to get greyer until they figure out a standardized way to assess these kids right across the board, and explain to their parents that its not about ABCD and F anymore, but how deep you can question a concept in your mind, and how far can you go till you get a satisfactory answer to back fill the tunnel that led you there.

We shall see.

Pecha Kucha

For those of you who are not familiar with this method, it’s a presentation format that involves 20 slides (powerpoint usually) delivered sequentially, with 20 seconds allowed per. The idea, I believe is to cut the fluff out of your presentations and get succinct points over in the allowed audible whitespace. Okay, I was pretty hesitant about the whole idea as I have developed my whole teaching pedagogy around not having a class full of students locked on me for 6 odd minutes while I deliver banking style wisdom to fill their empty cups. But, it wasn’t so bad after all; though 6 minutes is an eternity from the presenters point of view, staying on point makes it sail quite quickly from the audience point of view. My sage advice on the topic:

1. Don’t wing it – You have to be pretty skilled to seamlessly pull this off without, at the very least, 1 or 2 dry runs in front of a mirror or other reflective device.

2. Know your topic – Obvious, yes, but if you haven’t completed step 1, this could potentially save you from running out of the room crying.

3. Don’t focus on your weaknesses – Although not everyone will agree with me on this point, a presentation in this format is all about confidence, so wear comfortable shoes and play to your strengths…whatever they may be.

4. Don’t have 7 cups of coffee immediately before – Enough said.

Will I use this presentation format in the future? Possibly. I can see the attention grabbing value, and it is short and succinct enough to hold even the most attentively challenged of us for 6 and 40, provided you don’t have a voice like snufalufagas.

Quick summary:

Hook potential – high

content density – moderate

power point busy-ness factor – low

 

Stay tuned with bated breath for my review of PK #2

The cohort (or most of it anyway) took a little field trip down to Tupper Secondary this morning. If you are dying to know how this went down, stay tuned for another exhilarating post in The Long and Dusty Road…..

Tupper Tech was an interesting experience. I think what grabbed me the most was Mr. Evans treatment of the whole shop as a job preparation course, including punch in, shop culture and respect, and my personal favourite – Behaviour modification.

I got the impression that many of my cohort felt Mr. Evans a bit dated in his beliefs and methods, but I think he nailed it in terms of prepping the grade 12 students for their very jarring entry into the real world. Granted, it may not be as unforgiving as he makes it sound, but a little overtraining is still preferential to under training in terms of overall prepared-ness. He seems to focus a lot on an area I think is very underdeveloped in students: The ability to take criticism. When delivered correctly, criticism need not be viewed as nit picking or minutia, as long as the critic is trained and knows how to deliver. I was once told by a friend who was in a near fatal accident “I learned everything I needed to know when I stopped talking and started listening”. There is a lot to that statement, and I have taken it to heart and practice ever since.

Mr. Evans aso stated the importance of not burning bridges, for example: If you get fired of your own accord, learn from the experience. Come back to your ex-employer, shake his hand, and ask for an exit interview to help you improve. This could very well turn an impression 180 degrees in the employers eyes, and maybe get you a recommendation or reference down the road – if you are willing to listen.

The ITA also provided valuable information at Tupper, and I hope they will be a valued partner and resource to me when I begin my teaching career next year.

Okay, so I guess you’re going to have good days and bad days, yesterday was the latter. I think I did a bit too much in-head self glorification coming off a couple of good presentations, the crash was imminent.

Oh well, lesson learned, time to move on to Pecha Kucha. So this standing in front of a room full of academics has always been a bit of an issue for me, and trying to pull it off without crib notes is a whole new level of difficulty my mind, so how am I going to overcome this? Apparently, through repetition and practice. If I wasn’t down to 4 hours of sleep a night I would consider toastmasters, but I think that may have to be a spring/summer endeavor.

Other than that, things are pretty good. I know more about Bordieu than the average Joe, have a decent handle on protective factors of resiliency, and have a framework in my head of “how I’m going to pull in that distant loner kid in the back row whom I’ve never heard speak, and turn them into an engaged, functioning pillar of future society”.

By the way, this is a free form blog, so I only correct horrendous errors in grammar and spelling (don’t want to interrupt the stream of conciousness for such triviality – sorry English cohort).

In other engaging news: Entering week 18 with no running water. Actually, the only things running are my friends when they see me coming with “favour please” virtually tattooed on my forehead, and my nose this week as we enter cold season (when exactly is that?). My new National guitar! Wow, so shiny and clean, and buzzing on the saddle somewhere!? Yes, have to rip my baby apart and sleuth out the source of this audible atrocity – its totally messing up my flow and I need the sanity blanket it provides. On that note, please see my artist of the week section on R.L. Burnside. This guy’s gonna knock your socks off!

 

Breaking news: As of Saturday, Oct. 21, we have running water! Please friends, don’t ever take for granted the priveledge and joy of turning a tap, and having something (preferably clear) come out. We have it good here.

 

Theory to Practice

 An eye opening visit to Fraser Heights secondary

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Fraser Heights Secondary for some insight filled observations on teachers, lesson delivery methods, and new curriculum integration. I have to say, these people are really on the cutting edge as far as I’ve seen.

Joe, one of the Home Ec. teachers, who was also involved in writing the new curriculum assessment drafts, gave us a full day guided tour of the Home Ec. labs, Maker space, Robotics class, and wood and metal shops. I met some excellent and insightful teachers there, and had what I feel is my first real practical experience with the theories I’ve been studying at UBC so far.

Joe tells me they have been utilizing inquiry based learning for several years already, and some of the activities I saw in the classes/labs were quite impressive. Students design their own dishes, attach a personal and/or cultural significance to them, back up their choices with personal or cultural context, and requisition the raw ingredients which are purchased by the department. Then, of course, they make it. One of the students was even working on an entire semester curriculum style design for foods 11 – impressive indeed!

I was curious to hear where the assessment criteria was going in the new curriculum, and Joe gave myself and Akina (from my Home Ec. cohort) a very detailed description of how they were assessing the inquiry based units. I have to admit, a lot of it was over my head as we have not investigated this quadrant of teaching yet, but I did garner the fact that the evolution of the students progress within their process was the guiding parameter.

Joe opened up his lesson plans, unit plans, and classrooms, giving us a chance to interact with students from grade 8 to 11, talk to them about their aspirations and experiences, and field a lot of questions about life in UBC!

As I mentioned, I also poked my head into the VEX robotics class, spent some time with the metals teacher, and got ta chance to speak with a 10 year career TOC (who is also an opera singer). A whole different take on teaching from her as you can imagine.

Sooooo, a big shout out to that school and the above mentioned departments for making my visit a memorable one, passing us some business cards for networking, and generally making the day enjoyable and educational. Hope I cross paths with them again in the near future.

So, here I am fully, immersed in the social machine that is UBC. So far, it’s pretty good. People smile at you and you smile back, total strangers come up and chat about heady topics like Bloom’s Taxonomy, and whether light or dark roast contains more caffeine (it’s light).

This also marks week 13 of no running water at our “super deal” rental property in Surrey, and everyday I thank the LAP (Surrey Leisure Access Plan) for the $112 yearly membership for the financially disempowered. I stay (relatively) in shape, and relatively clean – and the staff there is nothing short of amazing.

But I digress….(just learned that one this week).

I try to spend a few minutes each day chatting and getting to know my profs, all of whom have very diverse backgrounds, and by that rationale offer up some very unique perspectives on teaching. Sure, the course content is great, but I’m always more interested in the human experience, even if I’m sitting in the back with my ears open, and my mouth wide shut.

So I’m not going to re-iterate all the methods I’m absorbing right now, as we’re all paddling the same boat here, but I will mention the brain – perfect – storming I’ve been doing on the inquiry issue (See inquiry link to satisfy you’re burning curiosity).

As we pile into the last week of September, my goal remains the same:stay calm, absorb the information, trust my own judgement, and play my own game. Now that last one is a little ambiguous, as the new focus is group learning dynamics, and I wholeheartedly support it – with reservations. Its pretty easy to be overcome with your own insecurities in a place like this, and in doing so lose your place in the whole dynamic, so it’s important to just throw it out there (in an educated and responsible manner), and have your voice heard. People aren’t always going to agree with you, and sometimes may even take it personally. Being 47, this is no longer an issue for me (I think).