Shep and I greatly appreciate your thoughtful analysis of our teaching via the STOP, START, & CONTINUE activity done in today’s 310/316 class.  It seems only fair that you give us some input on our teaching seeing as, during the practica, we’ll be providing you with plenty of feedback on your performance in the classroom.

I’ve collated your responses and that summary can be viewed by downloading the document below.  (FYI, the number of “X”s beside an item indicate the number of times someone else made the same, or a very similar, comment):

EDUC 310 Stop, Start, & Continue Feedback on 28 Oct 09

While assessment is on the mind, enjoy this humourous look at summative assessment:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSl2g7gYTpo[/youtube]

Cheerio,

– Lawrence

EDUC 310/316 Formative Assessment

To start  today we asked you to give Shep and I some feedback on how the course has been working for you to this point.  The organizer we used was a three-columned STOP, START, & CONTINUE chart.  The following questions could guide this assessment:

• What should we STOP doing that is not working?
• What should we START doing that we currently are not doing?
• What do we need to CONTINUE to do?

We will use this feedback to improve our instruction in future lessons.  Also, we hoped to model the importance of getting feedback from learners and provide you with a tool to do so.

Playing with Lesson Design

The goal of this part of the lesson was to review and apply the 8 components of Lesson Design we introduced last class.  As such, we were working at the remembering, understanding, and applying levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy pictured below:

To that end, here’s the shape of the day in detail:

Planning the Sandwich

As a group  we collaborated on the planning of a lesson designed to teach someone how to make a peanut butter sandwich. Partnerships were assigned one of the lesson components and had to design an activity to address it.  For instance, Matt and his partner found this YouTube clip that could be used as part of the Mental Set:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ZAGBL6UBA[/youtube]

Also on YouTube is this clip that could be used at the Input stage.  It shows (with tongue firmly in cheek) the history of the sandwich – and a few other inventions! – as interpreted by the good folks from the early days of SNL:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ2kfyQPfto&feature=PlayList&p=B442BB3323D996BD&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4[/youtube]

Say Something on The Chapter 6 Reading Using Sticky Notes

Next we dug deeper into LD by discussing a reading from Bennett’s Beyond Monet text assigned last class.  Prior to the class you’d been asked to use Sticky Notes as a way of interacting with the text.  Today, I modeled the Say Something strategy as a way of processing the material in a small group setting.  After the model, the class broke out into small groups to discuss the text on their own.

Here’s are handouts on how Sticky Notes and Say Something can work:

Sticky Notes Strategy

Say Something Strategy

Microteaching Planning Time

For the last 40 or so minutes of class, we asked you to apply your understanding of LD to the planning of your Microteaching task.  Shep and I were available to take questions and you were free to make the best use of your time.  Please click on this link to go to a previous post with more details on the Microteaching activity.

That’s all for now.

Take care,

– Lawrence

Well here we go.  Another day and another lesson chock full of POT/COM goodness.  Here’s a blow-by-blow rundown.

Wait!  I think a little lollygagging might be in order at this point, don’t you?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr4sWIkqW74&feature=PlayList&p=604475B58C4CE4C0&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=35[/youtube]

Now, where was I?  Oh ya, today’s lesson and all that…

Powerful Learning Experiences

We started by considering powerful learning experiences we’ve experienced as a student or facilitated as a teacher.  We analyzed those events to see what factors led to their being so powerful.  We came up with quite a list… but I forgot to write it down.  Oops.

The Components of Lesson Design

We segued from the mental set to an examination of a strategy that can facilitate your creation of powerful learning experiences for your students – Lesson Design.

The goal for today’s class was to develop knowledge of the the 8 components of Lesson Design.  To that end, we used two cooperative structures; we started with the Jigsaw strategy to introduce the 8 components and used the Numbered Head Together strategy to check for understanding.  To close this part of the lesson, I asked you to consider which parts of Lesson Design teachers generally use well and which parts may, at times, be neglected.

Here’s the handout with info on each of the 8 LD components.  By the way, it appears that there are only 7 components but Bennett counts practice twice, once as Practice – Guided and once again as Practice – Independent.  The morale of the story… practice is very important!

8 Components of Lesson Design

The information we worked with on Lesson Design is essentially the second half of a chapter in Barrie Bennett and Carol Rolheiser’s book, Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional  Intelligence.  To solidify your understanding of LD, I asked you to read the first half of the chapter.  Here it is if you didn’t get a copy in class:

1st Half of Beyond Monet Ch. 6 – Lesson Design

As you read, I asked you to interact with the text using a strategy called Sticky Notes.  With 4 or 5 sticky notes in hand, I’ve asked you to place a note on the reading when you:

• Come across a new idea
• Make a connection
• Have a question
• Disagree with the text
• Simply think a passage is noteworthy

On the note itself, please write the reason you’ve placed it where you did.  This will jog your memory when it comes to discuss the notes in next lesson’s Say Something activity.  This Sticky Notes reading of the text is to be completed for class on Wednesday, 28 October.

Sticky Notes is one of the many excellent strategies in Brownlie, Feniak, & Schnellert’s book, Student Diversity, the text I’ll be using for LLED 320 in Term 2.  Here’s the excerpt on how to work with Sticky Notes:

Sticky Notes Strategy

Ultimately, the work we’re doing on Lesson Design will inform the creation of you Microteaching lesson and will serve as the foundation for many engaging and successful lessons over the course of your practica.

315 Task

We ended class by handing out the task we want you to complete as you spend time in the schools during EDUC 315, the Tuesdays Practicum.

You have several Required Elements to complete – including teaching at least one lesson – and we’ve suggested a long list of Recommendations that you can explore if you have time and the opportunity presents itself.

Please familiarize yourself with this document and use it as a tool to take charge of your practicum experience and get the most out of your time in the “real world”.

Here’s a copy of the file if you need one:

315 Getting Into Your Placement Task

Teaching Philosophy Draft Due Date

Remember that a draft of your Teaching Philosophy piece is due next lesson (Wednesday, 28 October 2009).  Please submit a copy of your paper to both Shep and I via email on or before that date.  Thanks.

If you have questions about this task, please refer to the post from Monday, 19 October’s lesson.

If you’re stuck, you might try checking out a few Teaching Philosophy videos on YouTube.  Here’s one:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-L8e3ve4D8[/youtube]

Have fun tomorrow and we’ll see you on Wednesday,

– Lawrence

We double dipped today in lieu of a class this Wednesday.  Here’s what shook down:

Weekend Rating Day

To kick off Monday morning, we engaged in an activity designed to build community – weekend rating.  I asked you to rate your weekend from:

• 1 (“I’d rather sandpaper a bobcat’s butt in a phone booth than re-live that weekend!”  By the way, this phrase is legit.  Check out a reference to it in paragraph 6 of this article in the esteemed NY Times: New Hampshire Hoedown)

to

• 11 (Giddyup!  My weekend was outstanding!)

After some partner talk, we shared a few ideas ratings in a whole class setting.  If you do work with an advisory group over the course of the year, I strongly suggest you trot out this old chestnut each Monday.

Because I know you were wondering, I use a 1 to 11 rating scale as an homage to Spinal Tap (here’s lookin’ at you JB).  This clip from the film will ensure you never think of the number 11 the same way again:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY&feature=PlayList&p=04A1DE299788B447&index=0&playnext=1[/youtube]

This clip – also from Tap – will forever alter your view of produce:

Spinal Tap Muck Around at Airport Security

Figuring Out the Fishbowl

As a call back to last week’s lesson, I asked you to complete a Plus, Minus, & Interesting (PMI) graphic organizer with your thoughts on the Fishbowl strategy we used to discuss the 14 facets of exemplary middle level education.  Here’s are the ideas you came up with (courtesy of Chris Finch who emailed me this chart.  Thanks, Chris.):

What Matters in Your Teaching?

As a prelude to writing a teaching philosophy statement, we asked you to take a stance on several interesting education-related dichotomies using the Value Lines strategy.  We worked with the following concepts:

• Content-centred vs. Student-centred
• Book smart vs. Street smart
• Grades vs. No grades

This activity stimulated much interesting conversation and spurred everyone to think about what they hope to achieve as an educator and how they hope to go about achieving those goals.  Next up we did a teaching statement philosophy free write to get some of your initial ideas down.

On top of these intiial ideas, we layered information about 8 basic educational philosophies:

• Idealism
• Perennialism
• Essentialism
• Progressivism
• Experimentalism
• Pragmatism
• Existentialism
• Social Reconstructionism

Using a handout from the book, Creating Your Teaching Portfolio by Patricia Rieman and Jeanner Okrasinski, small groups read a section and then shared the information to the class via their preferred mode of presentation.  In the end, we hoped to get you thinking about a brief overview of some well-known philosophies so you can integrate bits and pieces into your own philosophy piece.  Here’s a copy of the handout:

8 Basic Educational Philosophies Handout

Here’s a PPT presentation I created – using materials created by Lee Haugen at Iowa State University –  that poses some ideas and questions to consider as you write your own philosophy statement:

Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

By the way, another framework you can use as you consider your teaching philosophy are the BCCT Standards for the Education, Competence and Professional Conduct of Educators in BC, the same standards upon which your ePortfolio will be structured.

A rough draft of your piece is due on Wednesday, 28 October 2009. Please email a copy to both Shep (shepalexancer@shaw.ca) and I (lholbrook@sd43.bc.ca).  Thanks.

Here are a few samples to look at to give you an idea of the sort of writing we’re looking for:

Sample Teaching Philosophy Statements

Introduction to the Microteaching Task

The coup de grace for today’s lesson was an introduction to the term’s major task in EDUC 316 – microteaching.  Here’s a link to the handout:

Microteaching Task Handout 09-10

Your audience is your classmates and some of the topics presented in previous years include:

• How to adapt your Facebook profile to maximize professionalism
• How to perform the basic salsa step
• How to perform CPR safely and effectively
• How to make conversations work
• How to make a drink tag for a stemmed glass
• How to tie 4 knots: the bowline, the half hitch, the loop knot, and the trucker’s hitch
• How to taste wine like a snow
• 3 tips for taking better photographs

Partnerships will present their lessons in class on either Monday, 16 November or Wednesday, 18 November.  We provided plenty of class time today for you to find a partner, choose a topic, and consider how you might want to approach the task.  We’ll provide you with more class time to work in this task in the weeks to come.

That’s all for today’s epic 4.5 hours of EDUC 316 class.

Have fun on prac tomorrow.  We’ll see you on Monday, 26 October.

‘Til then,

– Lawrence

Ah yes, the title of this post reminds me of a very funny scene from a great film, A Fish Called Wanda.  Watch the clip and see the consequences of messing with another man’s fish:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se-abHY4NiQ[/youtube]

Although I’ve only written a few sentences, this blogging is making me thirsty:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRaLpHoZA8E&feature=PlayList&p=F9BD456AB4E3E43A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=52[/youtube]

Now, where was I?  Oh, yes.  Here’s what happened in today’s lesson:

Individual Style Survey

Please buy a copy and start completing its parts.  We will use it in the second term of EDUC 310 as a part of your inquiry task on classroom management.

Course Schedule Change

In light of the Secondary TCs being out on prac for the next two weeks, the cohort agreed to have a double class on Monday, 21 October and, as a result, take Wednesday off.

So, Monday’s 310/316 schedule is as follows:

• 10:00 – 12:00 in Scarfe 1003
• 1:00 – 3:30 in Scarfe 204

It’s business as usual for Monday, 26 October and Wednesday, 28 October mind you.

The Practicum Placements Reveal

A drum roll, please! Drum Roll

After handing out the placement sheets and a map so you can find your way, we gave you a few minutes to meet with other TCs at your schools to sort transportation and the like.

After that, we asked you to:

• make contact via email with you SA
• keep a journal of your observations, questions, and thoughts as you embark on EDUC 315.

Once the Tuesday visits are up and running, Shep and I will outline a classroom observation inquiry task that we’ll ask you to complete using information gathered during 315.

Here are the forms we handed out if you happen to misplace yours:

• Middle Years Placements 09-10
• SD #40 Map
• SD #43 Map

Voice Revisited

As a call back to last week’s lesson, several of you shared examples of how you’d seen teacher’s use credible and approachable voice to geod effect.   Here’s a renowned movie teacher using both voices very effectively.  WARNING!  It might get a bit dusty in the room as you listen to watch this clip:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppqb0t_B0KY[/youtube]

This We Believe… About Middle School

According to information on its website, the National Middle School Association (NMSA) “has been a voice for those committed to the educational and developmental needs of young adolescents. NMSA is the only national education association dedicated exclusively to those in the middle level grades.”

As a part of their advocay for middle level education, the NMSA has developed a position paper called This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents “in which the association’s vision for a successful school for 10- to 15-year-olds is delineated in 14 characteristics.”  Here’s the summary of the position paper that we used in class:

NMSA This We Believe Summary

In an effort to have you critically consider these 14 characteristics, we did the following in class activity:

• broke the class in two groups
  • one group examined the 8 cultural facets of successful middle schools
  • the other group examined the 6 programmatic facets of successful middle schools
• asked each group member to rank order the facets from most important to least important
• discussed the factes using the Fishbowl strategy.  (Please note that there are many permutations of the Fishbowl strategy.  We even tweaked the format you see described in the linked handout.)

As per the Fishbowl strategy, the group in conversation – the “fish” – sat in an inner circle and were observed by the other half of the class – the “humans” – sitting in an outer circle.  After the conversation, the  “humans” shared their observations related to both the content shared by and behaviours exhibited by the “fish”.  The process was repeated twice so all TCs had the chance to be both observer and participant.

Both conversations were characterized by both politeness and thoughtfulness and, hopefully, they served to deepen your understanding of middle school philosophy.

We ran out of time in class to get your thoughts on the Fishbowl process.  We’ll pick up that thread on Monday, 21 October.

‘Til then,

– Lawrence

After taking some time – complete with long, potentially awkward moments of silence – to share Post-School Tour epiphanies (thanks to Monica for getting the ball rolling on this one), we played with the idea of effective communication can enhance teacher presence in the classroom.  Before that, however, I made an exciting announcement.  Here it is:

LLED 320 Timetable Change

I will be your instructor for the LLED 320: Curriculum & Instruction in Language Education course in Term 2 this year.   Seeing as I teach at Hillcrest Middle School on Fridays, I will be unable to teach you LLED on that day of the week.  As such, I have changed to the timetable to… are you sitting down?… give you Friday morning off!  Yes, in exchange for an extra hour on both Tuesday and Thursday, you can sleep in on Friday morning (LLED 320 class was originally scheduled for 10:00 am to NOON on Friday)

In the end, LLED will run as follows:

• Tuesdays = 1:30 to 4:30 in SCARFE 1328
• Thursdays = 1:30 to 4:30 in SCARFE 204A

If you have a conflict or a concern with this revised timetable, please let me know by Wednesday, 14 October 2009.

The good news doesn’t stop there.  I’ve had the opportunity to select my preferred textbook for LLED 320 this year and I’ve chosen a book that I found exceptionally useful both in the course and in my own classroom.  The text is Student Diversity by Brownlie, Feniak, and Schnellert.  Here’s the cover:

and here are the authors, Leyton Schnellert (left), Faye Brownlie (middle), and Catherine Feniak (right):

Now, are you still sitting down?   Honestly, please sit down! In addition to being available to purchase at the bookstore for a reasonable price, the entire text is also posted on the publisher’s website.  Honest to goodness! You can’t print out the PDF files but you can read them online.  I’m not sure how long the files will remain up but they’ve been there for over a year so keep your fingers crossed.  Here’s a link to the Stenhouse website where the PDFs are posted (You can also click on the book’s title above, if you prefer).

Oh ya, we did some communications stuff, too.  Here’s the scoop:

Teacher Introductions

Now that you’ve seen real middle school teachers in a real middle school setting, we wanted you to think about how you might introduce yourself when you start teaching on prac.  We don’t recommend the approach modeled in this “Sister Mary Elephant” YouTube clip from Cheech and Chong:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhG__-Ql8_I[/youtube]

After considering:

• What name you prefer to be called
• How you would say it, both verbally and non-verbally

each TC had to come to the front of the class and deliver an introduction that included:

• Name
• Course you were teaching
• A pleasantry

Everyone had a chance to present and there were many attention grabbing intros.  Afterwards, Shep emphasized two things:

1. Your introduction need not be flashy. What’s most important is that you come across as confident and competent; the flash can come later in your lessons.
2. Be firm on what name you prefer to use in the classroom. If you want to be called Mr. R, insist on it.  Uncertainty at the introductory stage could be interpreted as a sign of indecisiveness and could lead to problems down the road, particularly with classroom management.

Choosing Voice – CREDIBLE vs. APPROACHABLE

As per the Credible vs Approachable Voice handout from materials created by Bruce Wellman,:

“our tone, pace, rhythm and other elements form important para-language [the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion] elements that are often stronger than the words we use.”

We played with 2 voices – CREDIBLE and APPROACHABLE – to discover what they are and how they could be used to good effect in the classroom.  After s short introduction, partnerships role played classroom situations to demonstrate how voice could be used effectively and, for the sake of comparison… and humour! – ineffectively.

Choose Voice is one of 5 nonverbal patterns that can be used to enhance your classroom learning envrionment as identified by Kendall Zoller in his paper “Nonverbal Communicative Intelligence for Classroom Management“. By the way, the other 4 behaviours are:

• Pause
• Frozen Hand Gesture
• Incomplete Sentence
• Freeze Body

That’s all for now.  Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend and we’ll see you on Tuesday.

– Lawrence

Today was the first of the cohort’s Middle School tours.  In groups of 7, we spent the morning in one of the following Coquitlam schools:

• Hillcrest Middle

• Minnekhada Middle

• Montgomery Middle

• Scott Creek Middle

After lunch, the entire cohort gathered in Room 220 at Montgomery Middle – a space we’ll use over the course of the year when we need to get together as a whole group – to debrief the first “practical” experience of the year.  After a 5-minute write to get re-focused, Shep and I asked you to give us a tentative answer to the focus question for today’s tour, “What is a Middle School?”

Many interesting answers were shared.  In the end, we teased out 4 pillars of middle years education:

• Teaming
• Flexible Block Scheduling
• Advisory
• Explorations

Next week you’ll be at a different school and will be able to compare how that group of staff and students work with these pillars.

In the meantime, you can take a video tour of Daniel Webster Middle School in Los Angeles, California to see how it compares with the middle school models you’ve seen and envisioned to this point:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH5OtEOKqmw[/youtube]

Cheers,

Lawrence

Today’s class had two distinct chunks.  Here’s the brief scoop on each one:

Lecture on Aboriginal Education

Dr. Jan Hare from LLED presented several key ideas related to working with aboriginal students and their families.  It was a thought provoking presentation that, hopefully, got you considering how you will address the needs of the diverse learners in your practicum classrooms.

Below are Shep’s notes from the presentation:

Notes on lecture by Jan Hare

Presented in the First Nations Long House

October 5, 2009

Introduction to the stories of the four House Posts:

Beaver and Eagle – carved by Lyle Wilson

–       images stress the importance of family origins

–       Cedar is essential to the life of 1^st nations people who live on the Northwest Coast

Raven and Spindle – carved by Susan Point from the Musqueam Tribe

–       through the trickster comes learning

–       Musqueam weaving a traditional art form

Wolf with Pup – carved by Walter Harris and Rodney Harris

–       stories of intergenerational nurturing

–       3 humans emphasize the importance of listening before you speak

Man and Raven – carved by Dan Bevin

– stories of transformation and change

Terms and Definitions:

Indigenous – refers to the the original peoples of the different geographic regions of the Earth

Aboriginal – an inclusive term describing the original people who inhabit a geographic location

First Nations – a narrower term describing the original people of a particular geographic location

Tribe – The specific name for the First Nations people in a specific local region

Socialization of Indigenous Children:

• Children learn language from their social and cultural world
• marked differences in language learning between B.C. schools and the context of a First Nations community which emphasizes the preservation of oral tradition and learning through storytelling.
• there are rules and protocol for sharing indigenous knowledge
• spoken word may have more authority than text
• an example of a rule is, ‘don’t speak unless you have something to say’ this means that silence is acceptable in conversation
• other rules guide how to participate in a conversation
• talking circle formats are common
• stories and language use is closely tied to the land and the seasons

Residential Schools:

• Residential Schools have had a major impact on language learning among First Nations children
• the consequences have affected subsequent generations as intergenerational teaching and communication was interrupted by the residential school experience.
• this led to the erosion of traditional family structures that supported language and literacy learning in original and second languages.
• Many people who experienced residential schools lost their ability to be parents as they struggled to cope with abuse and neglect

Looking Ahead:

• Aboriginal parents want their children to be successful in school as long as they don’t lose their culture and language.
• Aboriginal education is for everyone as we live in a diverse multicultural society
• School curriculum needs to create space for indigenous knowledge
• Aboriginal enhancements have been added to the BC Curriculum
• Shared Learnings is a B.C. Ministry of Education Curriculum Document
• Many school districts have both people and resources to support aboriginal education
• If you don’t know how to approach certain areas of the curriculum, just ask. On campus the library at the First Nations Longhouse is an excellent resource.

More Pre-315 Preparation

In this follow-up to last Tuesday’s seminar, we took questions, outlined protocols for working in a school, and reviewed professional demeanour.   In addition, we had you to think about your expectations – what did you think you would see, hear, do, and feel (in an emotional sense)?  – before embarking on the tours.

Finally, we asked you to keep your eyes open for answers to the question “What is Middle School?” as you made your way around the schools.

If you’re curious, here are links to the websites of the 4 schools we are touring:

• Hillcrest Middle School
• Minnekhada Middle School
• Montgomery Middle School
• Scott Creek Middle School

Cheers,

– Lawrence