October 2015

Retroactive Post: CUEBC Conference

Uncategorized, Leave a comment

What?
RSA Animate Style or Common Craft. Out of all the resources I was introduced to in the Computer Using Educators of British Colombia conference, RSA style animation is one I immediately saw the use of. Something that stood out to me with this resource is how it could be used as an excellent presentations tool in the classroom. In brief, RSA style is where you record a birds-eye view of you drawing something while doing a voiceover of the content you are drawing about. An excellent example is the RSA for Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk that can be found at the link at the end of this page. In the session, the instructor went over various examples of RSA style presentations as well as instructions as to how you can produce such a video in the classroom. Finally, she introduced the Common Craft style of video which employs the same concept of filming pictures to coincide with a voiceover dialogue, however it uses cut-outs from magazines or pre-drawn pictures. This allows the students to not worry about actually drawing the picture son camera and could be more suited for lower grades.

So What?
The reason that this method is so effective as a presentation tool for students is that it allows the creative, artist type of student in your classroom to shine. They are still explaining what they’ve learned and their understanding of the subjects, but they are able to use their strengths to present the content. In fact, it deepens the student’s understanding of the concept they are presenting on as it forces them to make further connection from the content to what they are actually going to draw to represent it (aka. high level thinking).

Now What?
Something that stood out to me was how this could be used not only in my future practice, but in my current practicum classroom. On my practicum, my SA is having the students present their knowledge in the form of PowerPoint, Prezi, Powtoons, or other styles to show that they UNDERSTAND the content. This RSA style could be another tool the students could use to present their knowledge and could be attractive to the students who like the design and fun nature of a program such as Powtoons. I will discuss this with my SA next week and hopefully, we can include it in our arsenal of presentation tools.

RSA for Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk:

Retroactive Post: A Brave New World…Parents!

Practicum Reflections, One Comment

What?
A new experience I had the privilege of experiencing today was the opportunity to observe a parent-teacher-student conference. The way in which these conferences were conducted was that they were primarily student led; with the first 10 minutes devoted to the students, independently from the teacher, showing their parents what they had been doing over the past few weeks. Projects, assignments, and online materials were showcased to the parents in great detail by the students, who seemingly relished the opportunity to “show off” to their parents or guardians. Something that was unique about these conferences was the enthusiasm the students showed coming into the meeting. They were proud of their work and happy to show what they had done and learned. When the students were finished, my SA sat down with the parents and did something I thought was a wonderful way of structuring a conference: ask questions. How are you feeling about the workload? How are you feeling about so-and-so’s progress? What are you looking for this year with their goals? And from these questions, my SA was able to not only answer the parent’s questions themselves but also get them to reflect on their own child’s progress, as well as inserting suggestions for improvement. He also directed many of the questions posed by parent back to the student, having them answer in their own capacity to their parent’s inquiry into their learning.

So What?
This style of conference was excellent to witness as it allowed it essentially to be a conversation between child and parent. This kind of a casual run through off the work and then question asking to the parent, made it feel very relaxed, comfortable, and yet covered the areas of concern the teacher had. This may not always work for all parents, but the atmosphere created it made the conference extremely positive. The students felt, in a possibly very stressful situation, quite relaxed and even happy to be there. Creating such a safe environment and comfortable discourse made this event, which again can be stressful for all parties, one of progress and focused on the student.

Now What?
Something I am going to take forward with me is two-fold. First I would like to implement the style of “asking questions” more in my personal practice. It is something I feel benefits everyone when implemented, as it allows everyone to reflect and actually think about the situation at hand. With parents, students, and colleagues, I feel like questioning is a tool I can better use to gauge the temperature in my classroom. Secondly, making the conference student led was something I will take with me it my future classrooms. It allows the students to present what they’ve learned. They may have done it in class, but now it allows them the opportunity to break down the wall between school and home and actually demonstrate their learning to their parents. This is something that is lacking more often then not and makes the content of the classroom feel more “real-world” applicable to both the students and the parents.

Retroactive Post: Another Fine Day

Practicum Reflections, Leave a comment

What?
I learned something today. Well all be told, I learned many things but I was directly taught something this morning by one of my students. Last week, when the students were doing review for their upcoming social studies portfolios, I had the question posed to me, “Mr. Hiebert, when did the Spanish Flue Epidemic end?”. Truth be told, I had no idea. I knew it was sometime around the end of the 1920s but I wasn’t sure. I inquired of why the were wondering about the end of Spanish Flu and was informed they must prepare for epidemic like that one in their upcoming social studies project where they create their own country. I asked if they needed that information right now and they replied that it wasn’t crucial and were just simply curious.! I took a step away planning on simply looking up the information when I had one of those “ah-ha” moments. Curiosity! The first sign of a good teachable moment! I returned to the group and confessed that I unfortunately did not know when Spanish Flu ended but never fear, I had a plan. They were going to tell me. I would be back in a week and on that day they would have researched the information they would need and teach me! They jumped at the opportunity and seemed very enthusiastic to teach their teacher.
Today, as the students filtered into their seats, this particular group rushed up to me and rambled off not only the date of the end of Spanish Flu, but several other facts that I was unaware of. They were excited, engaged, and now had the information. I asked if this would help them on their project and they said they had some more information about how to protect their country against epidemics like Spanish Flu, information they wouldn’t have if I had simply told them the answer. Taking advantage of this teachable moment certainly paid off.

So What?
Upon reflection, finding enthusiasm can sometimes be difficult in the classroom. The fact that these students were excited to be my little research project was probably more due to the good nature of these particular students, however I do believe that providing the students with opportunity to take their learning (or in this case learning of others) into their own hands gives them a new sense of autonomy. Autonomy = Passion. And Passion = Knowledge Acquisition.

Now What?
These are concepts I am putting labels on now that I am in a post secondary class learning about them, but are pretty obvious when thought about. However, obvious as they may be, they are often passed over for the sake of ease. It is easier to just tell them the information but it will not have the impact of having them research it and then, most importantly, teach it to me. I am reminded of that quote ““We Learn . . .10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience, and 95% of what we teach others.” I want to take that philosophy forward with me and keep my eyes open for situations such as this to continue putting the student in the driver’s seat of their own education.

Retroactive Post: Day 1 – Morale Is High

Practicum Reflections Leave a comment

What?
My main thought when walking to my car today after a day of interacting with students, teachers, and finding my way around a brand new school was how great it felt to be back in the classroom. It’s been a long absence but being able to begin to put my skills and the critical new knowledge I have learned over the past month, into practice made for a wonderful day! There are many key events through this first day that stood out (meeting all the teachers, sitting in on one of the principal’s lessons, getting to know all the new students in my class), but a moment that stands out in my mind is when I go the opportunity to work with a struggling student one-on-one regarding his essay introduction. My SA asked me if I would mind giving this struggling student a little extra support on structuring his essay introduction. Even though he was given a model example outline in point form, he really was struggling to make the connect of what went where and coming up with his own transitions and connectors. I was able to sit down and scaffold for him individually where each piece went and worked. Additionally, it allowed me to show him example of how transitions work and different way he could introduce a topic while making it exciting. The student was able to finish the assignment as a result of scaffolding and with the framework in place, move on the the next stage of making it more complex.

So What?
This was my first connection with a student one-on-one for the year and even though I was able to help the student complete the assignment with a more personalized approach, the importance of the interaction was making this connection and getting to know that student better. As my SA has informed me, this particular student struggles with challenging himself and seeing the “bigger picture”, therefore this opportunity gave him the opportunity to bounce ideas off of me and have me help him in scaffolding the answer. The assignment aside, I do believe that this kind of early relationship building, with a student who will in the future require more of a personalized approach, allowed me to better understand his learning style. Furthermore, in a later lesson during the day, that student who was initially shy and reserved, was more outgoing and ready to engage in a discussion about what he was studying and whether he comprehended the material.

Now What?
Over the next few weeks, I have a plan to check in with this student everyday for two reasons: to follow-up on the assignment I helped scaffold for him, and to maintain this positive relationship I built on this first day. As a TC, in these first few weeks of observation, I am given a very unique opportunity to work with the students in this class in a more individualized manner and through this, get to understand their learning styles, background, and their strengths. This will be knowledge that will be immensely beneficial for when I am conducting the class on my own and to help tailor my lesson plan to fit the style and strengths of my future class.

Mini-Inquiry Oct 9th: A Journey To My Garden

Uncategorized One Comment

Mini-Inquiry Oct 9th: A Journey To My Garden

Something that is incredibly personal to me, is the act of cooking and is something that represents a journey into understanding of the person who is preparing a meal for you. So I present to you a gift from my garden and the first (and sometimes last) thing I think of when cooking: fresh herbs.

The story of my natural object (or should I say objects) starts before these future ingredients were even seeds in a package on a grocery store shelf. It starts with me finding that if you actually MAKE the food you’re about to eat, it kind of tastes better. Like you can taste the blood, sweat, and tears (all metaphorically speaking) you put into the food, and that hard work tastes great! I found this out early in life, however it didn’t really make an impact on me until I went to University. Here I really found the value of a good meal and the kind of community is built when you could sit around with your friends and have a home-cooked meal rather than eat at the cafeteria. From there it progressed with me getting more and more involved in food, and where my food comes from, which ultimately leads us here, to my herbs. Now imagine how good that food tastes when you yourself not only cooked it, but grew the ingredients yourself. That is a whole other realm of flavour and connectivity to your own values, heritage, and culture, whatever that may be.

From this I feel like there are many things to be learned from a simple bunch of plants. The patience it takes to grow, nurture, and ultimately harvest your own food has a certain virtue to it. Let me tell you that this is not my first attempt at growing things and the first….dozen attempts resulted in me standing and staring at a patch of bare earth thinking “what went wrong?” That in itself leads us to another thing that can be learned and that is perseverance. I have made dough many times and I am reminded of am old proverb (albeit modified for bakers):

“If at first is doesn’t rise, try and try again. ”

Looking at these next pictures, I am stricken by the level of complexity the bundle holds. The diversity of the stems and the leaves. The intricacy of the patterns on the leaves themselves. In this case, I looked at a close-up of a sage leaf and began to draw. For this sketching assignment, this was incredibly difficult at first, however as time went on and I continued to attempt to draw the detailed pattern on the leaf, my understanding of both the leaf and my drawing evolved. I experimented with different techniques, different ways of holding the pencils, differing movements and pressures, and through all this the drawing began to take on its own form and create its own questions.

How many individual leaves are in this entire bundle? What kind of leaf would have a pattern like the one I drew? If I were to zoom in, would a new pattern emerge?

And to me, all these questions encompass a part of what inquiry is. Through the exploration of a topic that is meaningful to you, you can find new meaning in what you see and then applying that new understanding. Excitement leads to investigation, investigation leads to questions, questions leads to answers, and answers lead back to excitement and yet more questions.