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