Author Archives: lholbrook

UBC Middle Years TC Orientation – 2010-2011: Update for Monday, 7 September 2010

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Welcome to a the 2010-2011 cohort of Midldle Years TCs.  This blog will serve as a record of what goes on in EDUC 310, EDUC 316, and LLED 320 (Term 2).  Those are the courses that I teaach.  Also, you’ll find information related to your practica in addition to bits and pieces on TC-related events.  Please note that this blog continues where last year’s left off.  If you’re curious, you can peruse the old posts and see what happened last year in the cohort.

Here’s what shook down on Day 1 of your “year long job interview”:

Kingpin as a Microcosm for the Year

Everything I needed to know thus far in life I’ve learned from movies.  Honest.  This clip from the Farrelly brothers comedy classic Kingpin condenses the Teacher Ed program into a tight 67 seconds.  It takes you from those nerve wracking early days on campus, to dealing with call outs in your classroom on prac, to the joyous victory that is graduation.  Enjoy!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJaBJW7EOU&p=B4FC1233BE4030C2&playnext=1&index=10[/youtube]

Class Keeping

I took attendance and gathered contact information.

Instructor Introduction

I noted that I work from Monday to Thursday at UBC and, on Fridays, at Hillcrest Middle School in Coquitlam. I threw in a few other bits and pieces, as well.

Perspectives on the Year

The MY program is small – 1 cohort of 25 in a sea of 36 other UBC Teacher Ed cohorts.  Be sure to self advocate so your voice doesn’t get lost.  Also, I set out the year-at-a-glance, indicating how coursework, practica, and breaks are spaced out over the course of 2010-2011.

If you have questions related to the program, please check these publications from the UBC Teacher Education Office:

“Getting to Know You” Goal

One of my main goals in the early part of the year is to get to know you and your cohort mates.  The better I know you, the more able I am to place you with a School Advisor that fits.  To that end, we diid three tasks:

  • Factors That Influence How We Teach Task

Please complete this piece of writing, as per the instructions, to give me an idea of how your background and experiences may impact you as an educator.  Your piece is due on Monday, 13 September and the handout can be found here:

Factors That Influence How We Teach Handout – 2010/2011

  • Name Introduction Information

I plan to have you introduce a partner and share some information about their name in a future class.  To that end, please do a 10-minute write in response to the “Thinking on Your Name” questions that can be found on the bottom of the Factors handout posted above.

  • “Which Object is Most Like My Life?” Poetry

To wrap up this intro lesson, we engaged in a personal poetry writing activity.  In essence, I showed a collection of objects – a broken clock, a dragon heat bag, a coffee mug, a wooden hippo, and an oyster shell – and I asked each of you to choose the one that was most like your life, free write for 5 minutes on the object’s connection to your life, and highlight 3 interesting images, phrases, or words in your piece.  We ran out of time at that point, so I asked everyone to shape the 3 chosen ideas into a poem to be presented in the next class.  You can find more detailed instructions for this activity (and a sample free write and poem from yours truly) on this handout:

Brendan McLeod’s Children’s Festival Ojbect Poetry Task

That’s all for this class.

Cheers,

Lawrence

Christopher Taylor’s Magic Workshop: Update for 6 May 2010

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I hope everyone who attended the Magic Workshop at Monty Middle School on Thursday, 6 May 2010 enjoyed themselves.  Thanks to Pearl for organizing.

As promised, here’s the handout:

Christopher Taylor’s Magic Workshop Handout

Also, here’s a clip showing beginners how to do card tricks:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8HVbCVdCg[/youtube]

There are countless more magic trick clips on YouTube, if you’re looking to expand your repertoire.

– Lawrence

EDUC 310 – Preparing for Practicum: Update for Wednesday, 24 March

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Here’s what happened in our last EDUC 310 class:

SCETS

Thanks for taking the time to give Shep and I your feedback.

Free Write on the Ideal Practicum

You took some time to consider how, if you were teaching in a perfect world, your long practicum would look.

Information for Parents of the Students You’ll be Teaching

We recommend sending home an introductory letter and a letter that gives you permission to take still photographs for use in your e-Folio.   Proficient wordsmiths could probably combine both letters into one.  Here are files the related files:

Practicum Calendars

There are a multitude of different calendars depending on the length of practicum you are doing and whether or not you are involved in EPBCO.  I’ve divided them up below by FA:

Cheryl’s TC’s Calendars:

Lawrence’s TCs Calendars

Pre-Prac Letter and Responsibilities Chart

Finally, Cheryl and I shared our “Top 10 Tips for a Successful Practicum”.  The tips were culled from these two documents -the  “Expectations and Advice for The Long Practicum” letter and the “Suggested Practicum Responsibilities” chart.  Here they are for each FA:

Cheryl’s TCs Documents:

Lawrence’s TCs Documents:

That about covers it.

Good luck on practicum.

– Lawrence

Extravaganza 2010: A Conference Presented by the Richmond Primary Teachers’ Association

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Please see the image and PDF below for information about a conference hosted by the Richmond Primary Teachers’ Association.  Most of the workshops are aimed at those teaching K- 3 but a few are relevant to those teaching students in the middle years.

Here’s the full PDF with all the details: Extravaganza 2010 Conference Package

– Lawrence

More Information, um…, Smartness: A Media Literacy Related Update

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Here are a few media literate links courtesy of Jo-Anne Naslund from Ed LIb:

Google for Educators

The Best Features for Busy Teachers @  http://www.edutopia.org/google-educators.  These user-friendly tools will keep you and your class inspired, inventive, and organized.

Google Lit Trips

Bringing Travel Tales to Life @ http://www.edutopia.org/google-lit-trips-virtual-literature.  Follow along for a multidimensional literary adventure.

Thanks to Jo-Anne for sending these my way.

– Lawrence

Middle Years Curlers show Kevin Martin where the middle is

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Not there, Kevin, in the MIDDLE of the house!

What a multitalented bunch! We took to the ice like a bunch of pros yesterday employing new techniques, superb brushing and high level strategies like blanking the end.

Thanks to Hillary for making the arrangements and to everyone else for giving me such a memorable Middle Years farewell. I have the picture on my desk and I will be thinking of all of you as you embark on the most exciting phase of your program.

Your former F.A.,

Shep

LLED 320 – Whole Class Novel Study & Unit Plan Group Share: Update for Tuesday, 23 March 2010

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Here’s how today’s class went down:

Mindful Breathing

Speaking of breathing, nothing will get you breathing harder than running a sub 4-minute mile.  I’m not speaking from experience, of course, but Roger Bannister’s collapse at the finish of the “Miracle Mile” race against John Landy (and others) on Saturday, 7 August 1954 at the Empire Games in Vancouver at long-gone Empire Stadium are my evidence.  Here’s the race courtesy of Mr. U. Tube.  Be sure to watch the interviews at the end with Landy and Bannister:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_NzZP_LK0&feature=PlayList&p=88E0C2F9A12AB6F7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1[/youtube]

Here’s the statue on the southwest corner of the PNE grounds that captures forever Landy’s ill-fated over-the-shoulder glance.  Landy notes about the race and the statue that commemorates its most famous moment:

“When Lot’s wife looked back she was turned into a pillar of salt. When I looked back I was turned into a pillar of bronze!”

The Martha Game Warm Up

This activity caused a lot of laughter.  Here’s a link to online instructions for The Martha Game in addition to other Improvs and Warm Ups.

A Whole Class Novel Study… in Microcosm

The reality of your existence is that you will likely need to do a whole class novel at some stage.  We played with some approaches to doing this in the following ways:

  • Read “What Was” & “What Can Be” on page 71 & 72 in Student Diversity and considered what resonated.
  • Modeled the various parts of a novel study using the short, short, short story, The Choice by W. Hilcton-Young. Here’s what we did:
    • Connecting
      • Gallery Walk with Story Artifacts & Prediction
    • Processing
      • Listen-Sketch-Draft as I read the story aloud
      • Modified Sticky Notes & Group Discussion
    • Transforming
      • Hot Seat starring Williams, the time traveller, and the story narrator, Brian (my name for him)

I mentioned other options for exploring one novel in a class and set out a potential weekly time line.  Chapter 6 – The Whole Class Novel in Student Diversity has a lot more detail on the above strategies and much more.

Unit Plan Sharing

We took some time to have each of you mention the topic of your unit and one highlight.  After that, time was provided to speak to the unit’s authors about their product.  Feedback was given using the PQS – praise, questions, and suggestions – strategy.

At the end of the sharing session, I collected hard copies of each person’s:

  • Unit Outline
  • 2 Lesson Plans
  • 5 Resource Evaluation Sheets

Call Back to The 2- 3 Things You’d Like Out of This Course Piece at the Start of the Course

While we didn’t get to everything LLED-related on this list, I did keep the list in mind as I planned.  I think we touched on many of the key items over the course of the term.  You can check the list out here, if you’re interested:

LLED 320 What I Want To Learn Info Gathering List

That’s all folks…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBzJGckMYO4[/youtube]

– Lawrence

EDUC 310 – Pre-Prac FA Conferences: Update for Weds, 17 March & Mon, 22 March

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Cheryl and I enjoyed the time we had to sit and talk to you about your management plan, any practicum-related questions, and expectations for the final school experience of the year.

For your reference, here’s a copy of the meetings agenda and the information that we shared regarding the FA’s role during EDUC 419:

Pre-Practicum Conferences Agenda & FA’s Role Info

For your viewing pleasure, here’s a short PBS video clip from their Essential Practices series on Classroom Management:

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

– Lawrence

LLED 320 – Developing Info Smarts Workshop: Update for Thursday, 18 March 2010

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Information Literacy Workshop

A huge thank you to Jo-Anne Naslund, Instructional Programs Librarian at the Education Library, for presenting today’s workshop, Developing Information Smarts: Inquiry in a Digital World.  The Education Library website has a page devoted to the LLED 320 course and that page can be found here.

After s short intro on bias and point-of-view, we got right down to work on the Developing Information Smarts Webquest, a task accessible via the Ed Lib’s LLED 320 web page.  The task involves the following aspcets:

  1. Using online library catalogues (Find & Select)
  2. Internet searching (Find & Select)
  3. Online Databases
  4. Online Dictionaries (Analyse & Evaluate)
  5. Wikipedia (Analyse & Evaluate)
  6. Using Internet sites (Analyse and Evaluate)
  7. Notetaking (Record & Organize)
  8. Citing Your Sources (Record & Organize)
  9. Online Communication and Presentation tools

When the Webquest time was up, we talked in table groups about the considerations to keep in mind when working with information literacy in a middle school classroom.

Here’s the handout from the workshop: Developing Info Smarts Workshop Handout

Of course, to be info literate, you need to be able to use the hardware.  For some, that can be a real challenge…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ&feature=PlayList&p=AD1FFBF34A2FE141&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=15[/youtube]

Choice Literacy Website

If you can get your hardware working, please check out this website I just heard about from Dr. Marlene Asselin, the LLED 320 coordinator – Choice Literacy.  According to Marlene:

“It’s a rich and extensive collection of ideas from people on the ground – literacy leaders, coaches, and teachers.  It includes:

  • Workshop protocols for leading study groups, in-services, and workshops
  • Sample observation forms and needs assessment surveys
  • Professional quality video examples of best literacy practices from classrooms throughout the country
  • The newest writing from top authors in the field
  • Short, focused articles for use in workshop discussions and mentoring meetings
  • Year-long calendars and plans for leading new teacher initiatives
  • Themed booklists for content and genre study

It’s also updated with at least 20 new resources each month.”

That’s all for now.

– Lawrence