My 3 Week Community Feild Experience was spent at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre!

Here we would meet diverse classes from Community Schools to Christian and Private schools

from grade 1 – 9.  On feild trip taught them mini lessons relating to space and the universe

Here is one lesson I taught on rockets. I would go over Newton’s laws and the many actual space

missions people have gone on like landing people on the moon, a rover on Mars, and satellites to

Saturn and Pluto. The I would dazzel them with the fact that it only takes about 300 days to get

to Mars

Inquiry Undate:

Professional Identity: Teacher Candidate as a developing professional

When I was in Elementary school my grades were very good, mostly A’s, which is interesting because I was never motivated by grades. I was lucky enough to have parents who weren’t extremely “grade focused.” I was motivated by my own interest in learning and discovery. In middle school I first encountered burnt out teachers, uninspired, my motivation was now extrinsic; to get a passing grade. My attitude only got worse when I went to a large anonymous dilapidated high school with duct tape holding the floor together and signs warning of asbestos in the walls (the school was tore down a few years after I left luckily). My motivation was now to see how few classes I could attend and still maintain a passing grade.

My inquiry question is partially inspired by the text for ESPE 308: Human Development, Learning, and Diversity (Human development, learning, and diversity). Especially from one particular case study where two girls are making kites, one girl wants her kite to fly the other wants to get a passing grade, they both achieve their goals, the girl who only wanted to get a passing grade did not create a kite capable of flight, but being capable of flight wasn’t in the rubric.

Philosophy: Beliefs, values, and commitments in relationship to education

Through few ground rules, knowing all students names and mutual respect I thought I would win students over. This wasn’t working perfectly, so on my Faculty Advisor and School Associate’s advice I tightened up and started moving students for talking much quicker, and taking students phones away more frequently. This helped me gain my students respect; I then saw the value of discipline and firm ground rules. I remember the event that shifted the inertia: I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird aloud to the class, we were near the start of the novel, so the author was still winding up, it wasn’t the most exciting part of the novel and the students were starting to chatter. Even students with ‘A’s who almost never interrupt were chatting. I moved one ‘A’ student from the back to the front. She was slightly embarrassed and the rest of the students thought, “oh if he will move her he will move me without hesitation!” or so I assume because the room became very quiet and we were able to proceed productively.

Personal declaration of purposes of schooling and teachers’ responsibilities to the development of students:

As I see it the purpose of teaching is to impart useful knowledge, and facilitate the evolution of each students mind for the betterment of themselves and society around them.

Teachers have a responsibility to give each student as many chances and opportunities to learn in their individual zone of proximal development as possible no matter what level the student is currently at. The teacher also has the responsibility to find each students’ ZPD. Teachers must too make students feel welcome without feeling bullied or discriminated against.

Learning to teach & Professional Growth plan

My greatest strength is the students like me. My greatest weakness is they think I am their friend. I have learned to combat my weakness by not smiling while disciplining students, taking students phones often and moving students who talk too much.

Educational questions I will continue to inquire into:

1. What best motivates students? Why?
2. How strict is too strict? How easy going is too easy going?
3. How best does one foster a growth mindset?

Woolfolk, A. Human development, learning, and diversity:

This was the textbook from my class EPSE 308 (Educational Psychology and Special Education). It was instrumental in the formation of my inquiry. There was one case study I found particularly useful. The case was an Elementary class was assigned to make a kite. The teacher asked the students what their goals were and the students who had the goal of getting a passing grade got just that and not necessarily a functional kite. The students who had the goal of making a kite that can fly accomplished that. It seems when the motivation is extrinsic (for a grade) the product reflects the goal whereas when the objective is intrinsic (to make the kite fly for the fun of it) that goal is then achieved.

Raffini, J. P. (1993). Winners without losers: Structures and strategies for increasing student motivation to learn.:

This book was useful because it examines motivation to learn from the students’ point of view. There was a quote from Former Secretary of Education Terrell Bell I agree with:

“There are three things to remember about education. The first is motivation the second is motivation. The third is motivation” (Raffini, J. P. (1993).P.05-06)

Strategy 7-2 had useful information about how to create a class charter/set of rules for the room. The text says to give the instructions:

1. Limit the rules to 5
2. To use positive language.

• Students then write a set of rules on their own (max. 5).
• Next the students split into groups of 3 or 4 and share their results.
• Related rules are eliminated
• Each group presents their final list
• Facilitator (teacher) or selected (willing) student writes rules on the board
• A discussion ensues, facilitator is careful not to dominate discussion or decision

Creating this list with the students helps them take ownership and control of the class. The Latin motto of my practicum Handsworth Secondary  School is Ducimus: We lead, we guide. I will include Ducimus in my vocabulary lesson because it is important to teach students to lead.

Guthrie, J. T., & Klauda, S. L. (2014). Effects of classroom practices on reading comprehension, engagement, and motivations for adolescents. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(4),

In this article “[they][investigate] the roles of classroom supports for multiple motivations and engagement in students’ informational text comprehension, motivation, and engagement. A composite of classroom contextual variables consisting of instructional support for choice, importance, collaboration, and competence, accompanied by cognitive scaffolding for informational text comprehension, was provided in four-week instructional units for 615 grade 7 students.”

The article shows tables showing improvement in students who are intrinsically motivated.

Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2010). Motivation requires a meaningful task. The English Journal, 100(1), 30-36.

From this article I learned that “Without question, adolescents favour group work as a tool for learning and socializing, but only when particular elements are in place. A useful device for ensuring that all are present is the TARGET framework (Ames): Task, Autonomy, Recognition, Resources, Grouping, Evaluation and Time. Task refers to the nature of the learning activity itself, designed to be interesting and challenging, and parted with useful Resources. Autonomy also plays an important role, as adolescents are motivated when they have a voice in decisions and choices. Recognition, and Evaluation are related to one another and refer to the opportunities students have to both offer and receive each. Finally, adolescents in the Carole Ames study preferred working with others in Groups, with the teacher’s Time devoted to providing help and encouragement.” (Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2010) P.30)

I will most definitely employ the TARGET framework when I am instructing students to work in groups because it seems a good way to ensure good or at least better/more cohesive and productive group work sessions.

Wiliam, D., & Leahy, S. (2015). Embedding formative assessment: Practical techniques for F-12 classrooms.

In Chapter 2 The Case for Formative Assessment, there is a great definition for formative assessment which helped me understand the need for formative assessment more thoroughly:

Formative assessment: “…encompassing all those activities undertaken by teacher and, or by their students in which provide information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.” In the text they include a different definition from Bronwen Cowie and Beverley Bell,

Formative assessment: “the process used by students and teacher to recognize and respond to student learning in order to enhance that learning, during the learning.” (Wiliam, D., & Leahy, S. (2015)) P.37) The addition of “during the learning” helps clarify the fact that the assessment is not summative. An example of formative learning would be handing in a draft essay that is assessed and returned to the student so the have a chance to correct their mistakes.

TeachThought.com

Teach Thought .com had many useful images some of which are included below:

This first image illustrates well:

Assessment AS learning or “Pre-Assessment”

Assessment FOR learning or “During” learning

& assessment OF learning or “Post-Assesssment”

This second image/diagram explains:

This next diagram explains the Student Self-Assessment Cycle in a easy to read fashion.

I plan to include the principles of these diagrams in all of my lessons because they will help students progress in their studies.

Reflections are a synthesis of understandings so far:

* Synthesis of key ideas from readings and your critical reflection on them
* Links to practice (how will your teaching / planning be influenced by what you are learning in your inquiry? (give examples)
* Insights / resources gained from group discussions
* Questions arising

Improv.ca

Improv.ca is a great resource for warm up activities or “brain breaks.” I might do one of these activities for a couple minutes in the middle of class if it looks as though the students are becoming unengaged because the activity is running longer than their attention span of about 15 minutes. One example of these activities is spelling out the letters of your favorite foods with a partner. This can also be a great icebreaker activity.

From Tourists to Citizens in the Classroom. – H. Jerome Freiberg

This article aligns with my inquiry into how to help students be self-motivated to learn. The key ideas of Freiberg’s article being that when students are given responsibilities they are better able to take ownership of their learning. Examples being making a charter of rules and responsibilities with the class, having the class help design rubrics for assignments, and have assigned jobs or classroom management positions such as assisting substitute teachers, collecting homework and passing out papers this way leadership is more shared.
When leadership is shared and students take more ownership of their learning they become citizens in the classroom rather than tourists. “Creating caring classrooms and supportive schools will improve opportunities for students to become citizens rather than tourists. In places where people respect them and care about them as individuals, students can learn to become informed and involved members of our democratic society.” (Freiberg 1996 P.36) My teaching will be influenced by this article, I will create jobs/responsibilities for students so that leadership in the classroom is shared by students and teacher. I believe all students are citizens of the classroom it’s just a matter of helping them feel as though they are citizens by participating and contributing to their learning.

Assessment Minute by Minute, Day by Day. – Siobhan Leahy

To help improve students’ motivation and engaged I will use the Popsicle stick idea from the article. Popsicle sticks with each of the students’ names on them in a jar are used to call on students randomly. Of course leaving the Popsicle stick out after that student has been called on and putting them back in once all students have been called on.
After reading the article I will be wearier of testing at the end of unit, if you do this you may not be able to use the assessment for learning because now the unit is over, you’re on to the next thing and the teachable moment has likely been missed. I found the 5 broad strategies for a cohesive classroom particularly important; they seem to me to be the 5 pillars of a successful community for learning.

“Five broad strategies to be equally powerful for teachers of all content areas and at all grade levels.” (Leahy 2005):

• Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success.
• Engineering effective class room discussions, questions, and learning tasks.
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward
• Activating students as the owners of their own learning.
• Activating students as instructional resources for one another
This article lead me to wonder, is assessment of learning ever helpful for learning? That is a grade at the end of the class. How is an end of the class grade helpful for learning? I understand that assessment of learning is necessary for deciding if a student should move on to the next grade, but is it helpful beyond that? And how so?

Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind & Six Strategies for Fair Classroom Assessment: Assessment for Learning, Assessment as Learning & Assessment Of Learning. – Dr. Lorna Earl and Dr. Steven Katz

It seems ridiculous to think “that lesson went well” for every student in a general sort of way and it seems every lesson goes slightly different for every student depending on background knowledge. A question that arose for me after this reading was how does one go about designing a lesson that can go well for all students? And is this an attainable ideal? Or is it more of a goal to aim for. Is it kind of a shoot for the starts and if you land on the moon that’s still amazing kind of goal?
The article mentions that “motivation is essential for the hard work of learning. The higher the motivation, the more time and energy a student is willing to devote to any given task. Even when a student finds the content interesting and the activity enjoyable, learning requires sustained concentration and effort.” (Earl 2006 P.06). So motivation is very important, but how does one motivate students? The article suggests focusing on assessment for learning and assessment as learning rather than assessment OF learning, which is giving a grade without substantial feedback and without a chance to correct mistakes. This approach misses two teachable moments: 1. Assessment FOR learning: The chance to do another lesson on the content that has not been understood (with the whole class or certain individuals) and 2. Assessment of learning: the chance to have a student assess their own work by providing a concise rubric, having them check mark the things they have done, and seeing what they need to add to improve their mark.