A month ago I started listening to podcasts and an audiobook. Previously, I had mostly been attempting reading during my eternity 4 hours of commuting each day. Because of all the great things I have been hearing about podcasts and audiobooks this term, I decided to download a few, including:
Radio-Canada podcasts to keep up with current events and immerse myself in some French,
I learn well by listening, and I like having my hands free to sketch, write notes, or just hold my tea.
BC Libraries: Library2Go has a ton of audiobooks and ebooks. I downloaded the OverDrive app so that I can access this, and other online libraries, through my phone.
I started listening to the Invisibilia podcast series recently. It's about "the invisible forces that spur human behaviour." @RileyPaton suggested it to me. She wrote a blog post about it, too: Fear = Thinking + Time. The first episode, The Secret History of Thoughts, fittingly spurred a lot of thoughts. One of the stories reminded me of the book Out of my Mind, which we heard as a read-aloud in our Literacy class last term. According to the podcast, not all thoughts are to be taken seriously, though. If you're interested in the subject of mindfulness, give it a listen. Right before listening to this episode, I had a conversation about reflection with a friend/colleague of mine. It was the ultimate in metacognition. It was one of those conversations that was both overwhelming and comforting. Is there such a thing as too much reflection? How do you strike a balance between reflection, mindfulness, and self-care?
"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:
