Critical Pedagogy

Another book on critical pedagogy: The Element by Ken Robinson

You Matter

Expectations & Education

"When you lighten someone's load, you don't allow them to expand." This quote is from Invisibilia's "How to Become Batman" podcast. The main idea behind this episode is that our expectations affect others, and their expectations affect us. As a student-teacher, I took this as a reminder that I need to be cognizant of my own expectations. I need to take stock of my expectations, particularly my expectations for myself and my students.

Jacob and Wilder (2010) highlight the importance of expectations in education: "Expectations have become somewhat less predictive of attainment over the past several decades but expectations remain strong predictors of attainment above and beyond other standard determinants of schooling."

If you're interested in further readings, you can check out this article about how teachers' expectations affect student learning. Finally, here is a video about student expectations that raises some important points in an engaging way:

UDL: Universal Design for Learning

Yesterday morning I attended a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) workshop arranged by @UVicEdSA. I created this infographic about the workshop, and further details can be found within this post.

The workshop started with this video that explains UDL:

 

UDL is about facilitating multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression for learners.

The speaker shared these 3 things that specialists from her district would like student-teachers to consider:

1. Visuals,
2. Sensory needs (sensory tools, movement, environment), and
3. Clear, positive communication.

 

Visuals

These are some of the reasons visuals are important:

• Provide consistent cues about students' daily activities and routines,
• Reduce anxiety,
• Help students with language processing difficulties,
• Provide a permanent reminder, and
• Build independence.

Many of us visuals every day. As I mentioned in a previous post, I use Google Keep and my Bullet Journal to keep myself organized. These are some classroom visuals that were suggested:

• Visual schedule,
• Checklists,
• Volume meter,
• Word wall, and
• Time timer.

 Some benefits of the time timer include:

• Promotes ability to judge how much time is left,
• Makes transitions smoother, and
• Builds independence.

As with most strategies, it is best used as often as possible, and not just when a student 'needs' it. 

Some resources to consult include:

• Special Education Technology British Columbia (SET BC) website, and
• Boardmaker for symbol-based learning materials.

Sensory Needs

We each have a unique "sensory diet" that dictates what we need to make sure we're calm, alert, and ready to learn. I have seen some educators tweeting this quote that expresses this:

"In teaching, you can't do the Bloom stuff until you take care of the Maslow stuff." -Alan E. Beck

The importance of movement breaks was emphasized, and we got to share and try out a bunch of strategies. Having movement breaks built in really helped me to keep focused and learning throughout the three-hour workshop! Here are some reasons why movement breaks are important:

• They increase alertness and decrease anxiety,
• Kids get stressed when they don't move enough,
• Movement and sensory experience is necessary to strengthen connections between neurons,
• Promote self-regulation, and
• Help students stay on task.

Sensory tools:

• Keep fingers and feet busy, minds focused, and bodies relaxed,
• Work for some students some students and not for others,
• Work on some days and not others,
• Should be demonstrated and practiced.
• Should be discussed as being tools, not toys.

 Some examples of sensory tools include:

• Fidget tools,
• Stress ball,
• Velcro strips,
• Thinking putty,
• Yarn sections,
• Tension elastics on chairs,
• Juggling balls,
• Pencil grips,
• Resistance bands, and
• Foot rests.

 

Mindfulness

Mindfulness has become a very trendy topic in education lately. It is about paying attention to the present moment without judgement. The speaker said that it means "paying kind and curious attention to how you're feeling, and then making a kind choice."

These books on mindfulness were suggested:

• Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda,
• MindUP,
• 10 Mindful Minutes,
• Focus,
• Whole Brain Child,
• Take the Time: Mindfulness for Kids,
• Still Quiet Place, and
• My Gratitude Jar.

Since the speaker wrote My Gratitude Jar, she read it to us, and I was able to buy a copy right after. It is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it! I look forward to learning more about mindfulness, through the other books on this list. Check out the video below for an in-depth look at My Gratitude Jar:

Here are some gentle brain breaks that were suggested:

• Take 5,
• Hoberman sphere breathing,
• Tone bar, and
• Mindful eating (have students try paying special attention to their first bite of snack/lunch - how does it feel/taste?).

When doing breathing exercises, instead of saying "deep breaths" try "long, slow breaths". For those interested in learning more about this, Royal Roads University offers an Applied Mindfulness Meditation Certificate program.

 

Clear, Positive Communication

We were advised to reduce language and increase wait time. On average, we give children 1-2 seconds to respond to instructions. For all learners, it is important to chunk information (break it into smaller pieces) appropriately.
 
Peter Johnson has written two books on empowering language: Choice Words and Opening Minds. Those books contain these phrases that could be used by teachers:

• Yet,
• We readers like too...,
• I bet you're proud of yourself,
• Thanks for coming today,
• What if...?, and
• That's not like you...

I started using "I bet you're proud of yourself" yesterday with my grade 1/2 Science Club students when they were coding on studio.code.org. One student answered: "I am! I didn't know how to code before, and now I am doing it!"

Sam Horn wrote Tongue Fu!, a book about verbal conflict. One take-away from this book is that replacing "but" with "and" allows for constructive feedback to be given without taking away the compliment.

Dianne Gossen's Restitution suggests these phrases:

• What's your job now?,
• What can I do to help you so you can...?, and
• When will you be ready to start?

Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset implores educations to ask "I wonder how he or she will learn this..." rather than "I wonder if he or she will learn this..."

Get Connected

Video Conference Tutorials
I am putting together a couple of video conference tutorials about Blogger and Twitter for my colleagues in #edci336. If you are interested in attending one (or both) of these sessions, what sort of topics/questions would you like to see covered?

I will be using BlueJeans for these video conferences. Tomorrow afternooon I will start learning how to host a session using BlueJeans. On Thursday morning I will be using it to host a meeting between the PDPPPosseRC and a local teacher. Hopefully by the time I host the aforementioned tutorials, I will be able to use BlueJeans without getting David Bowie's song "Blue Jean" stuck in my head!

Twitter
By all accounts - and certainly by my Twitter account - I have been tweeting up a storm lately. I have expanded my PLN, increased my engagement in some great communities, found some terrific resources, and just generally been quite inspired by what I have found.

Today I started using Hootsuite, and I think that I am starting to get the hang of it. It certainly didn't take long for me to tweet a pun about it.

One particularly fruitful connection was with the Royal BC Museum. Because of this connection, I have been given the opportunity to be part of a creative team for an outreach project that combines science and comics. What an incredible combination of Science Education and Art Education! 

Face-to-Face Learning
I am so excited to be taking part in these fabulous opportunities for networking and professional development in the near future:

• #yyjignite on Wednesday,
• A national science outreach conference in Ottawa in 1.5 weeks, where I will be sharing what I have learned both while working as a STEM outreach instructor/coordinator, and while taking last term's courses in Indigenous Education and Education Psychology,
• A public information session at Pacific Institute of Inquiry and Innovation (PSII) on February 7th, and
• #edcampvic on February 28th.

Will I be seeing you at any of these events? Are there any other great events coming up? Let's get connected!

-Britney (@MlleBallen) 

Term-endous! (Term 1: Accomplished)

It has been a week since I submitted the final assignment for my first term of the PDPP. I have now completed the following teacher education courses:

• Field Experience Seminar,
• Indigenous Education,
• Learners and Learning Environments (Educational Psychology),
• Literacy and Language, and
• Physical Education.

The past few months have been intense, but nowhere near as intense as the next year of the program will be! Before starting the 2015 chapter of my learning journey, I will be spending time reflecting, visioning, and expressing some of this through blogging. I will be writing more specific posts, but here are a few things that I learned this term:

• I am so lucky to be sharing this journey with an incredible cohort of colleagues. As we have learned from sources such as this video by Alan McLean, "affiliation, which is a sense of belonging," is a key ingredient in motivation, along with "agency, which is a sense of confidence and self belief, and autonomy, which is a sense of being self determining and trusted." I am so grateful to all of them for what they have taught me, and for their continued support.
• Mind maps are an effective way for me to document my learning. During my B.Sc. studies I used them as study tools before midterms and final exams; this term I started to use them as in-class note-taking tools. I find it helpful to spatially organize ideas, and to leave room to add future reflections or insights.
•  I am qualified to teach French Immersion practicum placements, so I will be signing off as...

Mlle. Allen