Author Archives: lholbrook

Looking Ahead to EDUC 315 Practicum Prep & Ropes Course on 28 Sept 2010

Leave a reply

We’ve got an exciting day planned for Tuesday, 28 September.  It breaks down nicely into three parts.  Here’s the scoop:

PART 1: PRE-PRACTICUM PREP AND INFO GATHERING

We will meet from 10:00 am to NOON in PONDEROSA E 123.  Here’s a map if you need help finding the building.

During this time, we will:

  • Gather Information on Your Practicum Preferences
  • Highlight the Goals and Expectations of EDUC 315, the Tuesdays Practicum
  • Discuss How to “Suck Out All the Marrow” of the Practicum Experience (with apologies to Thoreau)
  • Stress the Importance of Professional Demeanour
  • Share Tips for Classroom Observations
  • Answer Any Burning Questions

PART 2: POTLUCK LUNCH

Your friendly neighbourhood Social Committee is taking the reins on this one.  Look for more details soon via this blog or, perhaps, even old school face-to-face communication in class.

PART 3: THE UBC ROPES COURSE

We’ll hit the UBC Ropes Course from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm.  The experience promises to provide challenge, team building opportunities, and fun.   The cost is $25 per person.  Please bring your money on the day as we will pay when we arrive at the course.

Check out the facility’s website if you’d like to see some photos of course participants in action.  Also, you can view this clip of high schoolers at ropes course.  It’s different than the one we’ll visit, but the video should give you a sense of what you can expect:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_82Zr1qTp8[/youtube]

Background Information

Here is some information about the course and the philosophy that guides its operation:

The UBC Ropes Course is an entirely outdoor, forested facility located between Thunderbird Stadium and 16th Ave.  We offer a variety of great programming…

We allow all members of the team to be as active in each activity as they choose to be.  Our “Challenge by Choice” philosophy allows each team member to choose their individual challenge for each initiative– we fully understand that not everyone has the same comfort level for various challenges.  Peer pressure will not be tolerated to coerce people into doing something they do not choose to do.  However we will ask for permission to encourage all team members.

The Supply List

Here is some important information about what and what NOT to bring to this outing:

Please be sure to bring the following things to the course:

1.   Signed waiver & medical history form – we will complete these on the morning of the event

2.   Snack and a water bottle — to keep energy levels high

3.   An extra sweater or jacket — It’s always 5oC cooler in the shade of the trees

4.   Closed toe shoes — no sandals or flip flops

Optional items:

5.   Raincoat or poncho (not umbrellas) for wet days— we run rain or shine

6.   Gloves—hanging on to ropes can occasionally cause rope burn or blisters.  Mountain bike, weight lifting, or batting gloves are the best.  Something with grip, but that fits snugly.

7.   Camera – it’s great to have lasting memories of the day, but realize that taking photos will not always possible as you will need to be an active participant in the program.

Please DO NOT bring:

  • MP3 players
  • Valuables
  • Alcohol
  • Tobacco
  • Narcotics
  • Pets
  • Garden gnomes (they creep me out!)

If you have questions, please check out this list of FAQs – UBC Ropes Course FAQs.  If you still have questions, please see me in class or drop me on email.

That’s all for now.

Cheers,

– Lawrence

Me in a Bag Speeches Redux: Update for Wednesday, 22 September 2010

Leave a reply

While you rolled into class I asked you to take a small slip of paper and write on it something that you would not find in your grandmother’s kitchen.  We used these slips of paper for our first activity:

A/B Partners Impromptu Speaking

After brainstorming a variety of ways you could approach an impromptu speech on an object, I asked you to find a partner and speak for 50 seconds – after 10 very important seconds of think time – on the object listed on a randomly selected slip of paper. The items you had to speak about were liquor and a coffee maker.

Me in a Bag Speeches: Take 2

We continued with the Me in a Bag speeches today.  Thanks to all who presented.  We’ll finish the final 6 in Monday’s class.

Administrivia

  • TC Profile: It’s due on Monday, 27 September.  Please see an earlier post for the template and more details.
  • Pre-Prac Prep & Ropes Course: I handed out the waiver and medical form that need to be completed in order to participate at the Ropes Course.  While ‘ll put up another post with more details about this day, the forms can be found below:

Beyond Verbal Delivery: A Reading from Communication for the Classroom Teacher, 9th Edition by Simonds and Cooper

In an effort to extend your thinking about language and its use in the classroom, I’m asking you to read Chapter 4 from the Simonds and Cooper text.  Please use the Sticky Notes strategy to pick out 3 interesting ideas in the reading and to comment on why those sections speak to you.  Write your thoughts on the text’s ideas on the sticky note itself.  You could write:

  • a conection
  • a reaction
  • a question
  • an inference
  • a prediction
  • or some other thoughts that occur as you consider the piece of selected text

Be prepeared to discuss your 3 sticky notes and the text chunks they relate to in class on Monday, 27 September 2010.

Sticky Notes is a simple but powerful strategy that can be used in both non-fiction and fiction contexts.  Here’s a quick blurb on how to do it:

OK, that wraps it up.  Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.

– Lawrence

Digital Tattoo Workshop Evaluation Form

Leave a reply

The presenters of last week’s Digital Tattoo workshop value your feedback.  To that end, please follow this link to the Digital Tattoo Workshop Evaluation form on which you can express your thoughts on the talk.  Information gathered will be used to improve the helpfulness and relevance of future DT presentations.

Cheers,

– Lawrence

Vancouver Aquarium’s Teacher Appreciation Night on Thursday, 7 October 2010

Leave a reply

Not a lot of really high quality freebies come the way of teachers so, when they do, I’ll let you know about them.  The Vancouver Aquarium is presenting its Teacher Appreciation Night on Thursday, 7 October 2010 from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.  It’s open to all TCs.  Here’s the blurb as per the Van Aqua website:

A night for all B.C. educators, student teachers & teachers-on-call to be pampered by the Vancouver Aquarium!

You and a guest are invited to join us for this exclusive, complimentary evening of fun and excitement as we thank you for the wonderful work that you do.

Expect to enjoy:

Register now for this event!

– Lawrence

Let the Artifact Speeches Begin: Update for Monday, 20 September 2010

Leave a reply

I’ll start with a big thank you to Alice for doing this morning’s videotaping.  Who will be the victim, er… budding cinematographer next class?

Artifcat Related Warm Up

To get your body moving and your brain fired up we played What Is It?, an object transformation drama game.  Each class member took a scarf and transformed it into another object – a kite and an elephant’s trunk, among many other things – while class members guessed about what “artifact” the scart had become.  You’ll find the guidelines for the game, along with instruction for many other drama games, in this handout:

What Is It? & Other Drama in the Classroom Activities

Me in a Bag Speeches

After discussing the learning intentions – the goals – for this task, we:

  • Reviewed the task criteria
  • Rehearsed with A/B partners
  • Looked at past examples of the Post-Speech Analysis activity
  • Chose a speaking order
  • Reviewed what active listening looks like
  • Started the speeches

Here is the full speaking order, if you’re curious about where you fit into the mix:

  1. Sarah
  2. Jeremy
  3. Maria
  4. Amber
  5. Lou
  6. Devin
  7. Melanie
  8. Jenna
  9. Jennifer
  10. Farisha
  11. Tyrel
  12. Kat K
  13. Aaron
  14. Amanda
  15. Leanne
  16. Sally
  17. Kat M
  18. Alice
  19. Lars
  20. Shaun
  21. Miguel
  22. Christian
  23. Ian
  24. Ross
  25. Caitlin

Thanks to those who’ve already presented.  You can all take a lot of pride in the knowledge that you, while you may have been nervous at the front, none of you let the pressure get to you like it got to Miss Teen South Carolina (2007):

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&p=40547FE48EBE79D7&playnext=1&index=2[/youtube]

Please keep the video of your speech on your flash drive.  You’ll get further instructions on how to analyze it in an upcoming class.

Administrivia

  • TC Profile: Please see the previous post – Completing the TC Profile (September 2010) – for the Word template and details on how to fill it out.  Your profile is due on Monday, 27 October 2010.
  • Social Committee: Thanks for Melanie, Miguel, Alice and Leanne for volunteering to form the Middle Years Cohort’s Social Committee.   The SC will be organizing a potluck on Tuesday of next week before the Ropes Course.  Stay tuned for more info.
  • Copying Fee: I will be charging a copying fee for copies I make during this term.  I’ll do my best to keep my copying to a minimum and, therefore, keep the fees down as low as possible.
  • Pre-Prac Prep & Ropes Course Day on Tuesday, 28 September: On this day we will have the following schedule:
    • 10:00 – Noon: Pre-Prac Workshop in PONE 123
    • 12:00 – 1:00: Potluck in Room TBA
    • 1:30 – 4:30: UBC Ropes Course Activity

I’ll share more details on the Ropes Course- what to wear, what to bring, and what not – next class and I’ll post it on the blog.

That’s all for today.

Cheers,

– Lawrence

Completing the TC Profile (September 2010)

Leave a reply

TCs:

Use the link below to download a template for your Teacher Candidate profile.  By reading your answers to these questions, your School Advisor and School Principals will get to know you before you’re in the school and join the staff.

TC Profile Template – Middle Years

Please answer the questions thoughtfully but keep your responses brief.  Your profile should be no more than 2 – 2.5 pages.

In addition to the questions, there is space at the top of the profile for:

  • your contact information
  • a recent photo (a head shot is best)
  • a “Short Quote That Captures An Important Belief You Hold About Education”.  I’ve pasted a random sampling of quotes chosen by TCs in previous years:
    • “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being”  – Goethe
    • “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail!”
    • “The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another”  – Marva Collins
    • “The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple” – Amos Bronson Alcott

Here’s a link to a site with quotes about teachers and teaching.  I’m sure there are many other sites like this one.

The due date for this task is Monday, 27 September 2010.  This is a very firm deadline, as I will need to share the profile with your Sponsor Teacher and School Principals while I finalize the placements in early October.  Please email a copy of your completed TC Profile to me  (lholbrook@sd43.bc.ca).  I’ll take care of printing them off.

If you have questions, please comment on this post or email me directly.

Cheers,
Lawrence

Ball Pass Challenge, Tattoo Review & Me in Bag Intro: Update for Wednesday, 16 September 2010

Leave a reply

Here’s all the news that’s fit to print about Wednesday’s class:

Name/Ball Pass Challenge

In an effort to review everyone’s name and to engage in a whole-class problem solving activity, we took the Name/Ball Pass Challenge.  The instructions for this task are below so I won’t go into detail about how it works.  Suffice it to say that our first effort had a time of about 30-ish seconds and through cooperative teamwork we were able to get that number down to only 8 seconds!  No small feat.

Digital Tattoo and Professionalism Presentation Debrief

Thanks to everyone for attending this presentation.  We debriefed it using the Walk-About Review Strategy.  This involved each TC finishing the following sentence stems with information about the presentation:

  • For me, the most interesting aspect of the presentation was…
  • One thing I will do differently after seeing the presentation is…
  • One question I have after watching the presentation is…

and then walking around and talking to other TCs about their responses to the same stems.  After some talk time, we took up a few responses as a whole group.  While the workshop was generally well received (after scanning the show of fingers, I think it scored a 2.5 or 3 out of 5), many seemed to agree that it would have benefitted from having examples with local flavour and from including more specific advice on appropriate online and professional behaviours.

Here’s the Walk-About Review sheet we used :

On a related note, here’s the trailer for the amazing 1971 Australian film directed by Nicolas Roeg, Walkabout:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x186dbPIoM[/youtube]

If you have any interest in Aussie culture or have a penchant for meditative films, this classic can’t be beat.

Administrivia

  • Contact Info Changes:  If you have any more, please let me know.  I’ll send out the FINAL version soon.
  • ESA Rep:  Good on Jenna for expressing interest.  Make sure to get the vote out so she gets voted in!
  • Field Trip Fair on the Blog:  Please check an earlier post for info on an upcoming event featuring a variety of facilities that provide field trip destinations for K-12 students.
  • Emailing Assignment Attachments:  Please remember to include your surname and the name of the task in the document’s title.  For instance, “Holbrook Factors”.

Me in a Bag Speeches

In an effort to develop vocal delivery skills that will prove invaluable in the classroom, we will be delivering Me in a Bag Speeches over the next few class sessions.  Here’s how I scaffolded this task:

  • A Model from Last Year

We watched a short MIAB speech from one of the TCs in the 2009-2010 cohort and drew conclusions about the structure and content of the speech.

  • Criteria Sheet Examination

I handed out the task’s criteria sheet and we looked it over.

  • My MIAB Speech

I delivered a speech on three items I had in my Saucony shoe box:

    • Running shoe
    • Homemade Spinal Tap T-Shirt
    • Plastic bowl

Using the feedback sandwich model for feedback, you presented me with beefs and bouquets relating to my performance.  Here’s a visual of the sandwich:

and here a link to an Ezine article with more details on Feedback Sandwiches.

The outline that I suggest you use for your speech is below, as is the criteria sheet:

We will start presenting the speeches in Monday’s class.  Please make sure you have your three artifacts, your rehearsed presentation, and your flash drive ready to go for that session.  We will take time to review the criteria, rehearse, and choose the speaking order before we start the speeches.

“Nuff said true believers.  See you Monday.

– Lawrence

Is Teaching For Me? & Name-Based Intros: Update for Monday, 13 September 2010

Leave a reply

Weekend Rating

We started class with Weekend Rating, a process that involved rating your weekend from 1 (the worst) to 11 (the best).  The rating scale is based on a classic scene from my favourite film, This is Spinal Tap. Here’s the scene:

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

This writing about weekends reminds me of a funny skit from SNL’s Weekend Update hosted by Dennis Miller.  In this skit Victoria Jackson unveils her movie rating system and rates the film Three Men and a Baby:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdLg2gavvQA[/youtube]

I don’t think we’ll be adopting Jackson’s rating system anytime soon!

Is Teaching For Me?

After considering moments when you felt most like a teacher, I noted that the overarching goal of the program is to answer the question “Is Teaching for Me?”  Hopefully, over the course of the year, you’ll have many moments where you feel a lot like a teacher and those moments will lead you to conclude that teaching is an excellent career choice for you.

Name Interviews and Introductions

To get us started – and model the name info sharing process – I talked a bit about my name, Lawrence Delmar Holbrook.  Here’s the PPT slideshow I used to support my short presentation:

After that, I partnered you up using the Random Reign of Terror cards – a set of playing cards with a name of each class member on a different card.  Partners interviewed one another about their names and then, when called upon, introduced their partner to the class with one or two interesting facts about one or more of their names.

Administrivia

We went over the following items:

Course Outline and (Projected) Calendar for EDUC 310 / 316: I’ve tried to emphasize those things that you expressed interest in learning during a previous lesson and create a logical sequence for addressing each course’s objectives.  Here are the outlines and the calendar for your reference:

Ropes Course: In past years the MY cohort has visited the UBC Ropes Course as a team building activity.  I asked you to consider if you would be interested in taking on this challenge again this year.  Most folks indicated they would be and I have booked the venue from 1:30 to 4:30 on Tuesday, 28 September 2010.  More info to follow.

Factors That Influence How We Teach Tasks: Today was the due date.  I thanked you for handing them in on time via email.

E-Coach Applications: Please complete the form, get me to sign it, and submit it to John Yamamto in TEO.

Flash Drive to Future Classes: We will be filming speeches in upcoming 310/316 classes.  Please have a flash drive handy so you can save a copy of your videotaped speech on it.  You should get a drive with a minimum of 2GB storage space.  At the moment, you can get a 2GB drive for $10 at London Drugs or for 4GB drive for $12 at Future Shop.

My Job, Your Job

Working in groups of 4 I asked you to outline the job of the students in EDUC 310 & 316 classes.  Furthermore, I wanted you to indicate what you thought was the job of the instructor in class.  This is an effective way of getting all learners to consider their responsibilities.  When all the ideas are colleated in a middle school setting, it’s a good idea to have the students look them over, adapt or remove any that don’t seem totally reasonable, and then get the students to sign off on the “rules.”  Then, when you see a student off task or behainvg inappropriately, you can ask him or her what their job is right now and refer to the My Job, Your Job chart that’s posted in the classroom.  Here’s a handout with some more info on the activity:

That’s all for today.

Cheers,

– Lawrence

Poetry & Purpose: Lesson Update for Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Leave a reply

After taking a few Burning Questions, we got down to business:

Sharing of the “Which Object is Most Like My Life?” Poetry

To start, I read a copy of a poem I enjoy – Bill Bissett’s “Th Tomato Conspiracy Aint Worth a Whol Pome.”  You can find a copy of the pome, with its intentionally wonky spelling and punctuation, here.

Then, we sat in a circle-ish shape and each TC shared the poem they wrote about their life and how it relates to one of 5 objects – a broken clock, a dragon heat bag, a coffee mug, a wooden hippo, and an oyster shell.  There was great variety and much profundity in the poems.  It took a lot of guts on everyone’s behalf to share a piece of poetry on Day 2 with a group of people who you hardly know.  Good on ya!

Not a lot of profundity in this beat poem performed by Mike Myers from the comedy film “So I Married An Axe Murderer” but it’s good for a laugh:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETPRsJ-exZw[/youtube]

What You Want to Learn and How You Want to Learn T-Chart

In order that I may tailor the course to best meed your wants and needs, I asked you to let me know topics you were interested in having covered in class and teaching methods you would like me to use in the delivery of that content.  I used the info in the creation of the course outlines for EDUC 310 & 316.  I’ll also consider it as I plan my lessons over the course of the year.  Here’s the collated list:

What We Want to Learn & How – 2010/2011

Major Goals for the Year

It’s important to know what all the coursework you’re doing is working toward.  To that end, I shared a PPT with my thoughts on the learning intentions of the courses that I’ll be teaching you this year.  The big goals connect to 4 key variables related to effective teaching and learning in classrooms – content, instructional strategies, instructional skills, and classroom management.  Here’s the PPT slideshow:

Learning Intentions PPT – 2010/2011

Administrivia

Insert “laundry list” of items here.  I spoke about the following:

  • Disability Letter
  • Religious Observances Letter
  • Getting your CWL account set up
  • This blog and its URL (which you already have or you couldn’t read this :] )
  • E-Coaching
  • Factors That Influence How We Teach Due Date Reminder (It’s due on Monday, 13 September)
  • Purchasing the EDUC 310 Reading Package at the bookstore

That was all for today’s class.

– Lawrence

FREE Field Trip Fair For Teachers & TCs

Leave a reply

On Monday, 27 September 2010 the 8th Annual Field Trip Fair will be happening at the Japanese Canadian National Museum in Burnaby from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm.  If you’re interested and can attend, please check the flyer below or the website – www.bcfieltrips.ca – for more information.  Attend this event and you could win a bus bursary or a FREE field trip for your practicum class: