My Education Corner

My journey as a secondary science teacher candidate at UVIC

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Dialogue Circle: An opportunity to reflect on my personal learning networks

Today’s class was in the form of dialogue circle, albeit lacking a bit of the circle form as we were on zoom. Nevertheless it was an invaluable opportunity for us as a class and cohort to come together, reflect on how we are all doing so far in the semester and support each other. The online nature of this program can make you feel pretty lonely sometimes and today was an incredible reminder of the support network that exists within our cohort!

So what is a dialogue circle? This video shows some insight into how we ran ours today, and some of the education applications for dialogue circles. I really love how the video shows that in using dialogue circles, students are able to have equal voices in the classroom. In many ways, you are handing over some more agency to students in terms of the classroom conversations.

Although I am far from done this program, today also got me thinking about further emphasizing my own personal learning networks beyond this program and into my career as a teacher. So far I am currently engaged in developing my own network within my cohort which I know will prove invaluable beyond this class and this program. But beyond my peers I am recognizing the importance of growing other learning networks whether that be through twitter, feedly, other social media platforms etc. I have set up much of the accounts and platforms to build my personal learning network but haven’t spent much time growing these networks over the course of the semester. I have started to follow many of the recommend twitter accounts for education in BC, but admittedly I don’t find myself engaging to the extent I would like due to my already high screen time, and the workload of this program. I would like to make this more of a priority moving forward though! Inevitably, there will always be learning to do as a teacher, and developing those networks now will be so valuable!

One final call out to any fellow educators: any education podcast recommendations?

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Gaming in education: Minecraft edu

Today’s class was an optional class in which a few of us had a chance to discuss topics we were curious about which for the group today was Minecraft edu! We explored the Minecraft education website and walked through a bit of one of the preset tutorials set up for educators. As someone who has never been much of a gamer of any kind this world was very new to me, and certainly opened up my eyes to another modality in which I could use to engage students with the material.Ā  There are a lot of preset lessons for a variety of subjects. I can certainly see kids enjoying learning this way but I think that it might be more fitting at a middle school level rather than high school. That being said it might depend on your specific class, as some classes might be more enthused by minecraft than others!

I took the opportunity after class to explore some of the science lessons, and was blown away by the possibilities already existing with the education portal! This is just a snapshot of some of the lessons already on there:

Beyond the preloaded lessons, minecraft might also be a way for students to build their own worlds as explanations of certain science topics. It might be a neat tool for students to use within an inquiry project as well! All in all, minecraft edu presents a lot of opportunity and opened up my eyes to the potential for gaming to be used in education. I love the idea of diversifying the way in which students can learn and demonstrate their own learning, and I am curious to learn about some more gaming education applications!

Guest Lecture with Jeff Hopkins: Inquiry base learning in the real world!

We had the fortunate experience of having Jeff Hopkins from the Pacific Institute of Innovation and Inquiry speak with our class! It was an excellent opportunity to learn about an inquiry based school and Jeff was incredibly gracious with our questions! Needless to say we as a class certainly had a lot to ask!

The PSII school is located here in Victoria and looks a whole lot different than your typical school. This is entirely by design and you can check out a blog post for a tour and little bit of insight on the school’s design from Jeff here as well! At the route of the school is inquiry! Both through this EDCI 336 class and my seminar inquiry projects I am having an opportunity to explore the process of inquiry in my own way. That being said, Jeff’s guest lecture was incredibly insightful as to how this form of pedagogy looks like in the real-world!

A few key take-aways for me were that an inquiry based school has the opportunity for students to grow a lot within their own education! Jeff reinforced the need for scaffolding, especially during students’ first years at the school and that they have learnt a lot since opening the school about how to have students thrive within an inquiry based education. I can only imagine my own need for scaffolding had I been a student within PSII. It is certainly a non-conventional education model which will take me more time to wrap my head around and one that I am not entirely convinced of but I certainly see some of its merits and I would be curious to explore inquiry based learning in science education moving forward! Jeff, certainly has a lot of knowledge and insight to share both on inquiry and education as a whole, I have started following him on twitter and have checked out a few podcasts with him as well. Rumour has it he is soon to be releasing a PSII podcast so I look forward to checking that out once it is released!

For now, here are a few podcasts I checked out!

As I have already Jeff had so much perspective to offer during our class! These are a few quotes I wrote down that I will certainly carry with me in education career:

“Is this school based/built for learning, or to fit in the system?”

“Identify strengths of learners, use these to allow students to engage with learning in a way that makes them engaged and happy”

Looking forward to learning more and pursuing my own inquiries moving forward as an educator!

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

Inquiry Update 5: My Danish Network

Learning danish, continues to go well, although it is a slow process as with any language! However, I remain optimisitic and committed to my daily learning habit! As I start to progress a bit more in the language I am reflecting a bit on on my own network of danish speakers with whom I might be able to do some practicing with. Most notably, I have my mom, who is my main motivation for learning the language and the heart of danish in my life! We have already started some danish conversations on the phone, but she loses me pretty quickly! I look forward to returning home for Christmas or perhaps even for reading break to share some in person language conversing together. I can also partake in her danish community there! My most immediate connection to Denmark as a country lies in the family I have there! My cousin, who I grew up with in Vancouver, now lives in Copenhagen with his wife and child! With a little cousin who is growing up quickly I hope to make several trips over there to visit with that part of my family in the future! Although their little one will likely grow up to speak english and danish,Ā  as both of his parents do I would love to be able to converse with him in danish! Other people in my network include one my best friends, who like me is the daughter of a danish mother and knows the language a bit through travelling there growing up!

Outside of my immediate circle, I would like to explore some opportunities to connect with other Danes here in Victoria! In a quick google search, I found that there is in fact a Danish Social Club of Victoria!Ā  I am not sure how much danish speaking happens at their meetings, but I know that I will love being surrounded by the familiar danish culture I grew up with. Unfortunately, much of their usual meetings are not happening due to Covid-19, but I will definitely look to engage with this club once things get a bit more back to normal!

As I reflect on the people in my life who make learning this language meaningful, I am increasingly motivated to stick with it! The prospect of engaging with a greater danish community is exciting too!

My beginnings of video editing and curating!

Much to my surprise, I have had two video assignments to complete for my classes this semester. Having never really attempted any form of video making, I was a little intimidated but thankfully iMovie didn’t prove too hard to use! Thanks to the UVIC Digital Commons workshop resources, I was also able to get a quick run down on the basics of iMovie!

The first video I made was a “Who am I” video for my Multiliteracies class. For this video I did a voiceover recording narrating my story of becoming a teacher candidate overtop of a photo slideshow style movie. I was able to also edit a few of my photos as well to fit my video better. Overall once I got going iMovie proved pretty easy to use to complete this! You can check out my video in the About Me section of my blog!

The other video I was tasked to create was a science demonstration video for my science teachable area class! Admittedly this video was a bit harder to do as I am not the most comfortable in front of a camera and I also had to do a bit more editing to ensure it flowed well and met the time requirements. I was happy to have had already made my “Who am I” video as it allowed me to progress well to working in iMovie with this format of video.

As you will see in the video I am doing a demonstration of how pollution behaves in water and what this might mean for detecting pollutants. Typically, this assignment would have been presented in person to my peers however due to Covid-19 we all submitted videos instead. All in all it has been great to have a video curation of both my own and my peers assignments as there are a lot of cool demonstrations that we collectively can all potentially use in our own classrooms moving forward.

 

 

Distributed Learning and Online learning Modalities: A new way of thinking about learning

I really appreciated learning about distributed learning and learning modalities in class this week! It made me critically think about how education can be delivered outside of the traditional brick and mortar structure of schools! Admittedly, the brick and mortar school is system is what I know best and as a result it is what I feel most naturally comfortable in. I attended a Vancouver public schools for my elementary and secondary education and then moved to Victoria, where I attended UVic. I was fortunate enough to have no restrictions to accessing any of these schools, although in reflecting back on them they were not always set up to work the best for me.

Throughout my entire secondary and post-secondary undergraduate education, I was training and competing as an elite triathlete. In high school this meant I had very long days with early morning practices, followed by more training after school and into the evening as there was no system set up for me as missing class or obtaining the class through some other modality was not a possibility. As I moved into university, I often structured my class schedule as best I could around my training, but there was limited flexibility there and I spent a lot of time travelling to and from campus with all of my training gear and school gear in hand to pursue both parts of my life. Additionally, once I had reached University, my sport also required a fair amount of international travel to race and for training camps. In most cases, when presented with a letter from my national sport body professors were fairly willing to work around me missing classes here and there. However, despite the lecture notes being often posted to some extent online, I really felt that there was no replacement for me being in class and I avoided travelling as much as I could during the semester. The rigidity of the school schedule also lead me to take a few online classes through Thompson Rivers University that would transfer as credits to my UVic degree. I completed both of these courses during the summer while also in the height of my racing season. These courses were largely self-taught from the text book, included a few discussion forum posts and assignments but I really felt fairly anonymous in the whole experience. I did not enjoy learning in this way, however the alternative was that I miss all of my swim practices for the semester had I taken the course at UVic. As an elite triathlete, missing your swim practices isn’t really an option!

In learning about blended learning, flipped learning and multi-access learning which isĀ  perhaps is the most all in encompassing form of learning modalities, I realized that what I thought was best for me at the time could have been improved through access to a wider range of learning modalities. Much of my current education experience is a blend of synchronous and asynchronous online learning. I also have one day a week in which many of us are synchronously meeting face to face during our school observations and seminar course. Those days are by my far my favourite of the week! However, I can also see that there would be some advantage to a blended learning model for both myself and others. Especially when considering that many students are also balancing a variety of other life factors. For me, during my undergrad it was sport, but it equally could be family, work, mental health and variety of other variables. In this way I now recognize that online learning could actually be preferable in certain cases. Additionally it has an opportunity to include more people in education who might be limited in their ability to interact in a traditional face to face setting for a multitude of reasons. Although I would prefer to be meeting predominantly face to face for our classes in this program, I have also been surprised by the connections I have been able to make with my peers and professors over zoom and through group chats and emails. My personal learning networks which I interact with asynchronously are still enriching my education, extending my learning and connections beyond the classroom.

Furthermore, as we consider the current pandemic we are operating within, having a multi-access learning platform should be top priority for educators and administrators. Imagine a child is immunocompromised or lives with family who is immunocompromised, it is truly ethical to reopen schools without having a plan in place for these students to received equal education while not being present at school? I ask this question, not be overly critical but to place ourselves in the shoes of students who pandemic or not are currently excluded from our standard brick and mortar schools. Technology can be an incredible tool to increase inclusion in our classrooms!

 

Photo by Samantha Borges on Unsplash

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Week 4: Inquiry Updates, a habit I can get used to!

These little guys are found in many danish households! Assuming this danish language thing goes well I think I will pick one up for my own home next time I am in Denmark!

This last week was admittedly a tough one! We are into October and the semester is in full swing, there doesn’t feel as though there are enough hours in the day and there are many assignments and due dates on the horizon! I have managed to keep my daily danish habit going though! I had my own apprehensions about taking on learning a language while doing this program, however I have been pleasantly surprised at the ease with which duolingo makes things. I know I have mentioned it before but the daily reminder is a life saver! It keeps me on schedule and the app itself is very encouraging to use! On the days when I feel like my to-do list has grown rather than shrunk, I still feel as though I can see real progress in my danish learning. It is also just so simple to use! I start most of my mornings doing my danish while I drink my coffee and I have to say I don’t mind the routine at all! I am still working through the levels of the 3 lessons I had focused on last week but progress is progress!

On top of duolingo I also started watching Brogen on Netflix. It is a danish TV show which I watch in danish with english subtitles. For the most part I rely heavily on the subtitles but it is nice to hear the language and I do pick up on the occasional word here and there! On top of that it is actually a pretty good show! If you are into political dramas, I would highly recommend, even if you have no interest in the danish language! I think that moving forward I would like to start exploring other opportunities to practice my danish! I would like to try reading a bit of danish, although obviously nothing too complicated! Maybe start with some kids books or comics!

Until next week! Farvel og GlƦdelig Thanksgiving!Ā 

Fun Fact: Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Denmark, therefore there is not a danish word for it!

 

Teaching in a digital world: Social media, Personal learning networks and Privacy and Safety

It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that technology and the digital world will be interwoven into my future classroom much as it is in my own personal life. With this prominent digital landscape comes a lot of opportunity to engage in a variety of ways and through a variety or resources, but it also comes with a lot of responsibility to engage correctly and responsibly, especially as an educator. As I think about my future role as a teacher, the task of ensuring I am doing it all right when it comes to technology is a little daunting. Thankfully, I have been pointed in the right direction throughout this first month of my Ed-tech course and I am going to share some of those resources here.

Privacy and Safety as an Educator

One of the biggest responsibilities I feel that I have as an educator when it comes to using technology is to uphold the privacy and safety of my students, myself and other educators as we engage with the digital world both inside and outside the walls of a school. Ā FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) provides the laws by which we as educators must follow when considering privacy and safety. The office of the information and privacy commission for B.C. also provides many resources the educate yourself on privacy rights, one of which is ā€˜The BC cloud computing guidelinesā€™. This document was particularly helpful to me in outlining some of the key considerations to look at when implementing an online learning tool.

Some considerations when looking to implement online learning tools:

  • How does the company make money?
  • Where is the company headquartered and what are the privacy laws there?
  • Where is the data stored?
  • Are there security settings within the platform?
  • Ensure you have informed consent!

Social Media as an Educator

Jesse Millerā€™s guest lecture emphasized just how important it was that as educators we understand all of the above. He talked a lot about the use of social media as teachers and the fact that as educators to remember that we are held to a higher standard than most when it comes to how we display ourselves online. He pointed out that students will be using social media and therefore teachers need to have social media literacy. As a user of many social media platforms, I have always prioritized being professional within my personal platforms and all of my social media accounts are set to the most private settings purely because I am a pretty private person. I am not on social media to have a certain number of followers or to obtain a certain number of likes, it is more of a personal way to curate my life and share that with my friends and family.

However, as I am learning through this course there is also a potential to engage more publicly with social media through a professional education platform. What this looks like for me personally I am still figuring out, but I am excited to explore personal learning networks such as twitter or blogging as I move into my education career. That being said I am coming to the conclusion that I donā€™t want my personal platforms intermixing with my potential professional platforms. What I took away most from Jesseā€™s talk was that as educators we must be digitally literate because our students are interacting with the digital world more than ever. Furthermore, it is important that we as teachers are modelling responsible behaviour as we navigate the social, personal and professional communication networks.

 

Photos used as follows in chronological order:

Photo by Clarisse Croset on Unsplash

Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

Inquiry Update 3: Making Progress in danish

I am happy to report that my danish is indeed coming along! I am still far from calling myself evenly remotely competent at it but I am quite happy with the progress I have made in the last week! I am finding it quite manageable to spend about 10-15min on it a day and complete a few lessons in that time. It helps that duolingo reminds me to keep my learning going daily as life is pretty busy these days! All in all though I am enjoying learning it and progressing through the lessons! I accomplished much more than I thought I would this week which makes me excited for the progress I can make moving forward!

 

 

As you can see I have ā€œmasteredā€ the following lessons:

  • Basics 1
  • Basics 2
  • Phrases
  • Food
  • Animals

I am currently working on:

  • Definites
  • Plurals
  • Genetive

I am excited to move beyond the vocabulary a bit and learn a bit about the grammar and mechanics of the language in terms of reading and writing. It is becoming clear to me that at some point I am going to have to start speaking and listening to danish a bit more so stay tuned for what that might look like! In the meantime I am going to continue to work on the developing using duolingo as it is working well for me right now!

In going with my theme of ridiculous phrases I had to translate for the week this one made me laugh pretty hard! I suppose hydration is important for all!

Until next time! Farvel!

Week 2: Inquiry project beginnings

Kvinden og drengen spiser brĆødet.

(The girl and the boy are eating the bread.)

Well that is pretty much the extent of danish for me right now! Okay, well to be fair to myself, I do know a bit more than that but my ability to say anything of great use in society remains limited! Alas, we all start somewhere!

Full disclosure, this is my second real attempt at learning danish. In 2018, I travelled to Denmark with my mom for the first time to celebrate my cousin’s wedding! It was an amazing trip and I fell in love with the country! In preparation for the trip I thought I would try to learn some danish and downloaded the Duolingo app. I grasped some basics, but ultimately much of the language I picked up was while I was in Denmark. My mom is fluent in the language and was an excellent guide as I navigated the streets and bakeries in Copenhagen.Ā  I came back having soaked up more of the language but without much holding me accountable eventually my duolingo habit was no more.

I am not sure as of yet what other resources might be out there to learn danish and I intend on exploring those further through this inquiry but for now I have downloaded my duolingo app again, and I have gone through the Basics 1 lessons. With so many new things to navigate these days it was nice to touch base with something familiar to restart my danish language journey on. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Duolingo it is a free language learning app that you can download and whatever device you choose.

As you can see on my app, I have a bunch of lesson categories which I can click on to further explore and learn. For some of the later lessons I will need to complete previous categories to unlock them. As for now I have reviewed ‘Basics 1’ and I look forward to tackling ‘Basics 2’ this week and maybe even a few more categories!

My Current lesson progress, and future lessons

Danish to English

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pronunciation test

Auditory translation test

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The app is incredibly easy to use and provides you many different modes of learning. For example in some questions you translate danish to english, in others you translate english to danish and in some questions you have to practice your pronunciation. Overall, it really does give you a lot of different avenues to practice your skills.Ā  Another great feature of the app is the daily goals and reminders you can set for yourself to remind yourself to spend a bit of time learning your language. You can also add friends who are also using duolingo and see their progress learning their language too! If you want to get competitive you can even challenge each other to spend more time or earn more experience points!

As someone who was in late french immersion, I have only ever learnt a language in a true full immersion experience so I will admit that I am a bit skeptical of truly being able to learn a language this way. For this reason I will certainly be exploring other resources that might help to facilitate long term learning, and once I get my feet on the ground I would love to be able to practice conversing with my mom! After all, she is a big reason I am on this journey in the first place! I look forward to further exploring this world and I am grateful to have both this blog and my Trello board to help me organize my progress and thoughts as I go along!

Until next time! Farvel!

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