It was a interesting class to say the least… I think it was a good class to reflect on ourselves, what our viewpoints are, and how to efficiently relay our thoughts to the class without putting emotion into our words. I don’t want to delve into the details, but their were some issues in this class to say the least.

Many times, when a hot topic is discussed in class, people have to be careful about leaving emotions out of the discussion. But, what if that hot topic is something that resonates with you? What if the topic is controversial, and there are very different views on the topic? How do you get students to debate and discuss a topic without delving into emotions? I think it’s a very difficult thing to do, especially with topics that directly influences the students such as drug use, cyber bullying, SOGI, etc.

I think each teacher needs to realize that there are many strategies on facilitating conversation in the classroom. Teachers should also realize that not all strategies work, and that it’s up to them to decide what strategy works the best for the majority of the classroom. Whatever strategy it may be, it’s not going to make everyone in the class comfortable; however, I think teachers can definitely facilitate debate in a way in which all ideas are respected no matter the viewpoint of the student.

Today we had our Pecha Kucha presentations… I thought mine was a disaster. Before I go into the blunders and mess-ups that I made during my presentation, I want to talk to you what a Pecha Kucha actually is. Pecha Kucha is a presentation style where you use 20 slides, and each slide is up for 20 seconds. It’s a way of presentation format which keeps it concise, interesting, and fast-paced and is a great alternative to powerpoint presentations.

However, there are some negatives as well; you are limited to 20 seconds for each slide, so when one slide passes before you speak, you’re kind of done. Also, you need to practice A LOT to be fluent in presentation. The Pecha Kucha site recommends writing a script and sticking to that script instead of making things up on the spot. Because you have a script, you need to be able to pace yourself while having the script memorized for the presentation.

Now this is where I totally messed up. Although my slides were well done and my script was finished, I had practically zero practice to refine it. Because I didn’t have my script memorized, I got lost half-way through my presentation; when I got lost, I tried to refer back to the script, but this method did not work because I got lost on the pages of the actual script. Towards the end of the presentation, even I felt lost on the presentation and felt pretty down on myself. Thankfully, this class was a positive place where my peers gave me awesome feedback, and they were nice in telling me what I did well and what I could work on.

If you ask me today, “Will you use Pecha Kucha in your lessons?” I would actually say no; I feel that there is not enough flexibility with a Pecha Kucha, and there is a lot of time investment issues that I have with using Pecha Kucha for my lesson plans. However, I want to say that I think this is a great way of presenting content that might be boring or bland for the students, as it is very fast-paced. For the students who cannot handle long lectures, this can be an awesome presentation method.

A guest speaker (Dr. R. Ralph) came and spoke to the class about classroom management. She did have valid points in classroom management as well, and I’ve listed some below for reference:

• 15 seconds to “hook” students into thinking what they’re doing is important’
• Set expectations for behaviour
• Have rules and procedures that you will enforce
• Create a smooth functioning classroom
• Beginning and ending the period
• Use of materials and equipment
• Method of instruction
  • managing academic work
  • students must be held accountable for their work
  • effective teacher-led instruction
• Unobstructive strategies
  • proximity
  • verbal instruction

All these points and tips are viable; however, just because you use these pointers does that mean good classroom management happens. For example, let’s say you have rules and procedures that you will enforce. If you have rules that are so constricting that students really can’t do anything, then yes, you are “managing” the classroom by not letting them do anything. Also, I feel that although these are useful, in the end classroom management is all about the teacher; if he or she is likable by the students and if the students respect them as a person, then you can minimally use these classroom management skills and still have a great classroom atmosphere with good control of the class.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that no matter how much you reinforce rules and regulations, use strategies such as proximity or verbal instruction, it really doesn’t work if you are not a charismatic, likable teacher. As long as you have a good re pore with the students and the students know that you have a passion for teaching and can teach the topic in fun and interesting ways, students will listen to you.

In the end, experience trumps advice and it’ll be interesting to see how many of these skills I will end up using inside the classroom.

This weekend was awesome. Especially because of Thanksgiving, where we had a 3 day long weekend. I think it was a very important time for everyone to have that small break from classes and school; we are about a month and a half in, so the break was a necessity. It was great because not only did we have time to catch up on homework, projects, and papers, it was a very good time for reflection and improving our mental health.

It was interesting that this week, the overall theme in our main lectures were mental health. It’s a topic that a lot of people gloss over, and I feel that sometimes it doesn’t really get the recognition that it deserves. Even though I never had issues with my own mental health, I know of people who’ve had depression, anxiety, and other mental issues that has greatly effected their day to day lives. The lectures on mental health were kind of eye opening in a sense that there were many other mental illnesses that I did not know of, but realized that they may have existed in some of my friends and family. I was saddened to realize this because maybe if I knew, I could have helped them in some way; however, I think back in those days I just brushed it off by saying to myself, “they’ll be okay after some time passes.”

Mental health is very important in learning. As our semester goes, there will be more due dates, more stress for practicum, and more pressure from the people around us. Friends and family will start asking, “Where are you going to work after graduation?” while our professors will start taking in papers and essays. Some of us will be stressed just because of time crunches and other life issues that we can’t see while we are at school. Throughout all this, I hope that everyone is constantly checking their own mental health, and will get help when needed.

Lastly, everyone should be thankful for something throughout this week. I think that Thanksgiving was a good reminder for me in that through the ups and downs, there will be people cheering and supporting for me to finish this program strong, and pursue my dream career in becoming an educator.

We had our first micro-teaching presentations for EDCP 471; I would say that it was a really good insight into the different teaching styles that everyone has, and a very good lesson on what to do and not to do when we’re teaching a lesson.

Everyone had 5 minutes to present on a topic (mostly hand tools) that they chose previously. You had to make your lesson plan, and basically had to introduce a “new” topic to the class. Some people had very creative ways of presenting; many utilized technology such as an overhead or powerpoint, while some approached it in a more practical way by showing us how to use that particular tool. Others wrote key vocabulary words up on the board so we can reference the jargon used during the presentation (very good for ELL students). All in all, I loved that everyone had a very different approach to teaching, and it showed in their own unique style.

Some words of critique or caution throughout the presentations were:

1. Word Ticks – Some of the presenters had word ticks in which instead of pausing to think about what they were about to say, they would say “umm”, “so” or “like”.
2. Enthusiasm – You need to be enthusiastic, making sure you are loud and clear, and slowing down your talking.
3. Time – Making sure you can keep on time; learn how to adapt to to questions given by the audience, and adjust your lesson accordingly.

I would say that these micro-teaching presentations are one of the best ways to improve as a teacher, and learn what your pros and cons are, and work on aspects of presentation that you are lacking in.

During our inquiry class, we tried a new way of facilitating discussion; we each received two “tokens”, where each token represented 2 minutes of talking. If you wanted to have input in a discussion during class, you had to put in a token to be able to talk. One person in the classroom suggested this idea because lately, we’ve been having discussions, which turned into debates, which turned into verbal “fistfights”.

It was pretty good idea in the start; people started respecting other peoples’ answers, and had great input on the topic, and no one went off topic. However, as the topic slowly started evolving into a bigger and more controversial topic, some started interrupting, while others became quiet as they didn’t want to “waste” their tokens. Some students used up all their tokens, so they started zoning out and had zero input in the discussion.

While an interesting idea, I don’t think this methodology was a very good idea. I feel that as adults, we should be able to control the discussion and be able to move with the fluidity of conversation as time passes. Also, we should be able to handle some feedback, whether it be new ideas or critic, and not feel hurt. I think that this inquiry class is a great way to learn how to have a “good” discussion and be able to facilitate it.