An Educator's New Years Resolution!

Have you ever felt that wonderful, exciting, fresh, new feeling when the new school year starts in September? 

As an educator I often find that my yearly big rejuvenation moment happens at this time of the year when I begin my new journey as both an educator and student. I like to think that for educators, the first day of school in September feels more like the New Year than January 1st! 

Following a classic New Year's tradition, I have decided to make five New Year's resolutions for the upcoming school year. I encourage you to think of some resolutions for the new school year. Or this may be a great time (half way through the year) to revisit the New Year's resolutions that you made in January and check in on your progress! 

Monica's 2015/2016 Resolutions

1. Participate in an aspect of #edchat every day. Blogging, twitter, OSSEMOOC, pinterest, or writing content for Sakai or student websites. 
2. Carry a bottle of water wherever I go! I am more likely to drink the right amount of water daily if I do not have to go get it when I am thirsty. 
3. Respond to all e-mails and calls within 24 hours. 
4. Take as many teaching opportunities as possible! 
5. Work on my thesis research every day. Make at least one positive contribution to the project. 

What are your resolutions for this coming year? Please feel free to share in the comments below! 

Designing a new classroom!

Early this spring, my students and I moved to a new classroom. The task of designing and decorating the classroom became a central focus of weekly brainstorming sessions. The students were very interested in being included in the decision making process for the content in the room.

I have been excited to share the before and after photos with my lovely readers. 

Student Suggestions 

When asked about what they would like to have on the walls, the top three (unanimous) suggestions were: 

1. Helpful grammar tips and tricks 

2. Inspiring words or messages 

3. Reminders for better reading and writing 

Before & After Design Photos 

Main work station - before and after 

Room divider (for two simultaneous tutoring sessions) - before and after 

Information wall - before and after 

Panorama View 

Designing the classroom with the students proved to be an amazing way to re-create the feeling of community at the school. With many of my tutoring students coming to the centre separately for instruction, many students do not get to interact with others when they are there. When the students know that they have all contributed to the design of the room they feel more connected to the whole student body, even when they are not there together.

All my best,

Ms. Taylor 

3 Profiles: Secondary School Student's Opinion on 21st Century Learning

As part of tutoring with the SSEN Learning Centre this month, we are focusing on understanding ourselves as active 21st Century Learners. 

We first worked on brainstorming and defining what we think 21st Century Learning looks like in the classroom today using mind mapping.

We then wrote individual mini-blogs to reflect on how the current education system in Ontario is providing 21st Century Learning opportunities and what else can be done to bridge an existing gap.

To begin, the students were each shown this tweet by Lester Laminack to spark their active minds for engaging with 21st century learning concepts. His website http://www.lesterlaminack.com/ was also used for reference.

 MINI BLOG PROFILES

(All information/images shared with permission)

MINI BLOG ONE: ERIC, GRADE 10, DSBN 

 Students from a century ago and students from 21st century are very different. Invention of electronics, such as smartphones and personal computers is the biggest difference between them. Students' learning style and the time period is different. We cannot have a class without collaboration and interactions between students and teachers, and we should remember that we are learning for our future. 

Teachers usually restrict students from using cellphones in a class, but technology can be a tool for students and teachers to make them learn better. Almost every students including grade 1 to grade 12 knows what smartphone is. They use smartphones to communicate with their friends, or playing games a lot, and these reasons make teachers to hate smartphones. However, if teachers can teach students using the smartphones, students will be motivated to learn, because they already are very familiar with the learning tool called smartphones. Electronic resources, such as ebooks or online learning videos actually help students to learn and remember them. 

Teachers in Korea are stuck in the old learning style, which forces students to memorize, not to learn, and actually have a beneficial effect to students for the future.  Students in a class must follow instructions that teachers give, and cannot have a discussion within the class. This method usually makes students to forget what they learned after a year or two because they didn't really understand what teachers were saying. What students did were just copying what teachers said. This is very inefficient way to get students to learn. There must be discussions and debate in the class, and students must share their own opinions and interact with their classmates and also the teacher. Collaboration is also important, but the old method prevents students to learn collaboration and confidence to speak up, and actually "learn". This is why we should have think about the future for the students that really can help them to "learn" something from the education system.

MINI BLOG TWO: BRIAN, GRADE 9, DSBN

 

I often think about technologies settled in our school sometimes needs to be changed or improved. And this comes to my mind very often when I look around my school. When I am looking at slow computer, I think about how should they improve this computer's speed. It's not that I am uncomfortable with these technologies we have in my school, instead, of course if my school is going to expand the level of technologies in learning, they could start putting some more thinking into it. For instance, they could put more classwork into technologies and do some classwork with computers and taking notes with computers to prevent sore arms and hands by writing a stack of notes and make it easier to access their work and so on. They should have more serious rules about electronics and doing other things on computers instead of finishing their classwork. A lot of things should be changing soon and specifically technologies in schools.

EDUC 1F95 - Seminar 12 - The Pedagogy of Possession

I have been very excited to reach week 12 (in my Graduate 5P30 - Teaching, Learning, & Development) and read Norris’ article Arendt, Freire, and the Pedagogy of Possession as it links so closely with the TA work I am doing for Norris’ current EDUC 1F95 course. 

In 1F95, we are guiding first and second year students through the Introduction and Foundations of Educational History, Philosophy, and Sociology. For some of these students, it will be the first time they are exposed to applying critical thinking skills to micro and macro lenses of education from both a student and educator’s point of view. This paper weaves together an understanding of consumption and possession and how it relates to education, schooling, policy-making, and hidden curriculum. The big concept this week for 1F95 is exploring hegemony and how it exists in schools. Hegemony, in a very basic description is domination by consent. I am hoping by sharing this paper, written by their professor, with the students in 1F95 that with guidance, they will make connections between hegemony, consumption in schools and the pedagogy of possession.
 
Linking this article to the theme of development – we can see that the influence of consumerism has a major potential effect on the self-image and self-worth a student places on his or herself. The concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy is “the notion that the assumptions and expectations that teachers and other service workers hold about students can influence students’ lives” (Wotherspoon, 2013, p. 43).  The multiple influences that students receive at school help to shape their self-identity and meaning making processes. Agents of consumerism (marketing departments and companies) are constructing generation X & Y consumers as part of the socialization process in schools. Students are exposed to hundreds of consumer messages a day at school, these products and concepts embedded in the education environment make escaping the consumer reality near impossible. It is by illuminating the intent behind marketing and consumer culture to students that they can begin to create their own idea of how to construct their identity. In no way can we erase the inevitable influence consumerism has on students but making students aware and critical of it is one way to develop students as agents of change.
 
This model of preparing students to think critically about the choices and purchases they make does not work well for companies who bank on youth blindly consuming. There is a ‘significant incompatibility between commercial values and the promotion of critical thinking” (Norris, 2005, p.261). I wonder about the implications for the economy and society as a whole if in the next 50 years schools have encouraged students to develop exceptional critical thinking skills about the consumer culture around them. It seems like a good idea to have youth be aware of the obvious and hidden influences consumer culture has on identify and life-long meaning making. What if this has a profound negative impact on the way consumers exist in relation to the economy? It would seem as if the whole system would have to shift to accompany this new standard of critical thinking. Perhaps, however, that at that point the people running this consumer culture will be from Generation X & Y and will have a fantastic response to altering the consumer culture.
 
Norris, T. (2005). Re-thinking re-producing consumption: Hannah Arendt, Paulo Freire and the pedagogy of possession. Philosophical Studies in Education, 36, 77 - 90.

Wotherspoon, T. (2013). The Sociology of Education in Canada 4rd Ed. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-542660-1
 

Letter of Intent - Journey from Intent to Proposal - Part 1

Monica Taylor
Masters of Education Application
Letter of Intent
February 5, 2014

Drama in Education: Facilitating the Integration of 21st Century Literacies and Concepts
in the Classroom

As a dedicated student of Brock University's Faculty of Education, my work as
both an educator and a researcher has manifest an eternal respect and wonder for the craft
of teaching. I have found my passion as both an educator and researcher. Studying
education as a concurrent student has ignited my interest in alternative ways of teaching
and learning, using drama techniques to develop life long learning and meaning-making
skills. My studies in the concurrent program have unequivocally kindled a genuine
curiosity in alternative ways of teaching and learning. My courses have allowed me to
explore the creation of standards-based interdisciplinary curriculum and 21st century
literacy skills. Through my practicum experience while in Brock’s Faculty of Education I
have created lesson plans and activities that embody critical literacy skills while infusing
them into applied drama lessons that aids students in discovering, in their own way, how
they can put life together as something that means a lot to them.

Through the "Teaching, Learning, & Development" stream, I will fulfill my
passion and vision for the craft, using my practical experiences and knowledge of the
field as a catalyst for further investigation. I would like to research and examine the
contributions that drama education and drama-teaching techniques can have to the
cognitive, social, kinesthetic and problem-solving strategies used by students in the
pursuit of meaningful and lifelong learning. I believe the most appropriate methodologies
to research the benefits and challenges of using drama as a medium to promote life long
learning and meaning-making is through action research, or living-theory research
(Whitehead, 1993; Whitehead & McNiff, 2006).

My unique flair for teaching and learning has invited several leadership
experiences into my personal life, allowing me to become recognized as a leader within
my St. Catharines community. For example, I was very fortunate to work for The United
Way ‘After School Matters’ program as a Drama Drop-In Facilitator for student groups
in need of enrichment. My job was to provide groups of students with opportunities to
creatively engage with their academics through the use of dramatic and kinesthetic
activities as a way of teaching to achieve higher order thinking. My desire is to work
collectively with community youth programs and the District School Board of Niagara
(as well as other boards) to develop a series of workable documents to aid teachers with
integrating drama techniques into their standards-based integrated curriculum.
As a student of the concurrent education program, I have had many opportunities
to write research papers in my various Education and Dramatic Arts courses. For
example, Dr. Joe Norris of the Dramatic Arts Department based the ‘Alternative Forms of Theatre’ DART 3F98 course on his book Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A
Participatory Arts-Based Approach. This course allowed me to hone my research skills
by examining how collaborative creation can bring intervention, development, and social
change to fruition. Due to my keen interest and active participation in applied theatre, I
was able to write an 8000-word research paper to conclude the positive findings of the
research.

As an education student, I have worked closely with critical education theory and
have interrogated the links between educational theory and practice; this has driven me to
pursue a Masters of Education degree at Brock University. I have experienced firsthand
the support and innovative research of Brock's Faculty of Education, and would benefit
from the expertise of Dr. Susan Drake while studying standards-based integrated
curriculum and 21st century literacy education (Drake, 2012). Furthermore, Dr. Joe Norris
and Prof. Helen Zdriluk of the Drama Department have provided the framework for
research in drama education studies, which has been invaluable to my research interest
(Norris, 2009). Not only does Brock offer the resources I need to pursue my research
interests, but I am confident that my passion, enthusiasm, and academic talent will be an
asset to the program as well.

Works Cited

Drake, S. (2012). Creating Standards-Based Integrated Curriculum: The Common Core
State Standards Edition. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Norris, J. (2009). Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-Based
Approach. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press Inc.

Whitehead, J., & McNiff, J. (2006). Action Research: Living Theory. London: Sage.

Whitehead, J. (1993). The Growth of Educational Knowledge. Creating Your Own Living
Educational Theories. Brighton: Hyde Publications.

What is development? Defining for a purpose. (5P30)

Teaching, Learning, Development:

What is development? Defining for a purpose.

“Our main critique of a traditional notion of development is that it has been assumed that development is independent of an observer. We argue that development is a social construction emerging in and among communities of practice” (Matusov, Hayes, & Drye, 2007, p.1).

In an attempt to fully understand the scope of the field I am researching under (Teaching, Learning, and Development), defining the broad discourse that falls under each of these concepts will assist in conceptualizing my work. During my undergraduate education classes and pre-service education, I was exposed to many opportunities to discuss, reflect, and define learning and teaching. I had previously assumed that the scope of what development encompasses was a concise, easy to define term used to enhance our understanding of teaching and learning. After reading Matusov, Hayes, & Drye’s article Whose Development?Salvaging the concept of development within a sociocultural approach toeducation, I was able to see that defining the discourse of development was more complicated than I had anticipated.

I am wondering how does education fit into the scope of development? Three differing angles to this debate have fueled education research on the development of students. Piaget believed that development was a constraint for education which cautions educators against implementing curricula and instruction that lay outside the student’s developmental stage. Where Vygotsky believed in the zone of proximal development in which more capable peers, adults, or a sociocultural activity (e.g. play) engage a child in more advanced actions than he or she would have done on their own and thus defines the child’s development (Matusov, Hayes, & Drye, 2007, p.2).  Third, there is also the belief that development is a self-organizing dynamic system that pulls focus to the emergence of stable patterns of relations. This view of development shifts focus from the student (how much they learn/how they behave) to the student’s emerging relationships (with peers, teachers and parents as ‘hidden curricula’ of education) (Matusov, Hayes, & Drye, 2007, p.3). 

The paper reviewed here examines the traditional notion or development and then provides an alternate, sociocultural view to development as a response to defining development in education and psychology. The traditional notion of development assumes that development is independent of an observer. What is common among these attempts to define development is how its observers define development, thus playing an integral part of the development of development. Defining development as something that is tangible and is effected by observers/outsiders allows education to apply pedagogical actions to enhance certain developmental phenomenon specific to the sociocultural aspects of the school/board/classroom. I would be interested in incorporating a more comprehensive understanding and definition of development in my future qualitative arts-informed research.

Matsuov, E., Hayes, R., & Drye, S. (2007). Whose Development? Salvaging the concept of development within a sociocultural approach to education. Educational Theory, 57(4), 1-8.