Pre-internship goals

The goals I have for my pre-internship are as follows:

1. Stay professional -- This one sounds a bit strange, as we've gone through professionalism courses, but it's something I struggle with (in a sense).  Not so much of the mindset as it is the presentation of myself.  I understand not to text students and not to discuss weekend escapades, etc.  It's more so in my hair, my clothes, and my overall look. I don't believe in a "professional look," but I'm going to have to to finish this degree!
2. Try new techniques -- I want to move away from the whole "read, analyze, and write" motif that English class is thought to be.  I want to work with films, performances, and use strategies that I'm not used to. 
3. Plan seriously & seriously plan -- I need to realize that this is real.  This isn't a hypothetical class anymore.  These students make up my class, so I need to plan for them.  I need to learn how they work and I most certainly need to over plan.

Implementing Treaty Education.

Treaty Education is the newest buzzword of Saskatchewan's educational system, and, unfortunately, not enough people are taking it seriously.  As pre-service teachers, we are kind of thrown to the wolves, so to speak.  We are expected to incorporate meaningful treaty education into every lesson plan, yet we are supplied with minimal resources.  All I have ever gotten for resources is the booklet from The Office of the Treaty Commissioner – and, to be completely honest, it isn’t very valuable.  The contents are a nebulous web of important topics, however there is no way to hash these topics into subject areas.  

Seemingly, even though Treaty Education is governmentally mandated, the Treaty outcomes and the curriculum outcomes are like oil and vinegar – they work together in the sense that they make a good salad dressing to pour onto a student’s learning/life experience, but (as it stands now) no matter how hard one tries to stir them, they do not mix.  I could have one of my routines being a quick “Did’ja kno!”  fact about treaty’s up on the board, and it could count that I have integrated treaties into my lesson, but is that beneficial to anyone?  Absolutely not.  Students will not remember it, as it has no meaningful impact, and the teacher will get an unwarranted sense of self-satisfaction.  

If students are coming into our classroom with absolutely zero pre-conceived knowledge of the treaties, weaving in and integrating Treaty Education into our lessons is going to be utterly useless.  This is why I believe a compulsory Treaty Education class in, let’s say, grade 9 would be extremely beneficial.  This class would give students the foundational knowledge that other teachers can then build upon in their own classrooms.  The argument about teachers neglecting to teach treaties in their classroom because “they have all had a class on it already, so what is the point” begins to arise when the thought of a treaty based class comes up.  Personally, I don’t think this argument holds much substance – it is still a mandated part of the education profession, so teaching it is not only still necessary, but expected.  

For my ECS 410 class, we had a guest by the name of Tim Caleval come in from the Ministry of Education, and right at the end of his presentation, he touched upon the Maori people of New Zealand and how the Government of New Zealand worked hard to raise the graduation rates of these Maori people and changed the educational system to benefit them.  I see a great deal of parallels between Saskatchewan and New Zealand – the only difference is the governmental apathy of our province.  

If we work together -- get the resources, get the plans in place, and all have a mutual understanding of Treaty Education -- we can implement a meaningful way of learning with the treaties.  

Grading Behaviour.

In both my ECS 350 and ECS 410 classes, we have recently had discussions and debates on whether or not a student's behaviour should reflect their mark.  This is a really interesting topic that has opened my eyes to a viewpoint that I wouldn't have previously seen. 

During my elementary and high school careers, I was always the "good" student.  I wouldn't come late to class, I would always put a great deal of effort into assignments and hand them in on time, and I was attentive in class.  When classmates wouldn't hand things in on time, it always irked me.  I'm not entirely sure why, but it usually boiled down "if I got it done, why couldn't you".  Which I now realize is a terrible attitude.

Coming from this place, I would think I weigh behaviour quite highly.  Being a courtious student was clearly important to me.  It still is, but in a different way.  I now understand that people are different from me -- different backgrounds, different issues, as so on.

In my 350 class, we had a case study in a math class that had three very different students:

• A student that very rarely showed up and distracted others when he would, but knew what he was doing and gets 90% on every exam.
• A student who showed up every day, was okay at assignments, but did very poorly on tests
• A student who was a single mother, so she is unable to show up every day, went into the class with a grade 3 level of math, but was improving.  She now has a grade 4 math literacy level.

We were asked to discuss who should be passing the class/have the better mark in the class.  It is very strange to think about, as my intuition would say that the latter two students should be rewarded for their hard work, and the first one should be punished for not being a good student.  Now, however, the biggest question needs to be asked: who hit the outcomes of the class?  The first one did, and the other two did not.  According to outcomes, which is what educators want to strive to hit, the first student should pass the class while the other two would fail it.

Now, however, some rational can be had if we look at the Saskatchewan Curriculum's Broad Areas of Learning.  Could this first student be considered a lifelong learner or an engaged citizen?  The attitude he presents would disagree, but these BALs are not the biggest focus in the classrooms today.

My stance on this is still slightly up in the air.  I think that students need to be held accountable for their actions (late assignments, missing classes, etc) because we do want engaged citizens for the future, but people need leeway. 

Cold-calling in Classrooms.

Now that I have had time to stew after watching the videos entitled "The Classroom Experiment," I would like to respond to something that caught my attention.

First thing's first -- I've always been against the technique of "Cold Calling" based entirely on the fact that next to no one knows why they use it.  Students see cold calling as nothing more than a chance to be publicly embarrassed based on their lack of knowledge of a specific question.  These single questions are not indicative of what a student knows of a topic.  More often than not, teacher use cold calling without explaining to students that it isn't meant to be an exercise in embarrassment and shame and that not knowing something is fine, so long as you try and learn from it.

This is something that I think Dylan William did well within the videos.  He had the teachers he was working with explain exactly what I had mentioned to their students, and that made it a bit less bothersome for me.  I also really liked the way they did the cold calling.  Teachers wrote the names of students on wooden sticks and placed them in a jar and pulled them at random.  This was really cool because it removes any notion of "playing favourites" and "picking on students."

I understand that cold calling has a place within a classroom, and it's fantastic to hear from students that may not always volunteer to answer a question, but teacher do need to be weary about how, why, and when they use it.

While reading an article entitled "Impact of Cold-Calling on Student Voluntary Participation" by Dallimore, Hertenstein, and Platt they make a very interesting assertion by saying "in classes with high cold-calling, students' comfort participating in class discussions increases, while in classes with low cold-calling, students' comfort participating does not change" (305).  This is supported by their findings presented on page 319, and it makes sense.  If they are (for lack of a better word) forced into talking in front of their peers, then they will grow used to it and participating in discussions will become much more naturally.

All things considered, Dylan William and his classroom experiment has opened my eyes to the validity of cold-calling.  That being said, I likely will not use it all that often, if ever, but if I do, I'd like to go about it the way that William has.


Citation of article used:
Dallimore, E. J., J. H. Hertenstein, and M. B. Platt. "Impact of Cold-Calling on Student Voluntary Participation." Journal of Management Education 37.3 (2013): 305-41. Print.

Our World, Our Ways -- Assessment with an Indigenous perspective

The world of assessment is incredibly vast and the "what ifs" that plague it make unpacking it a difficult task for teachers.  While reading through chapter six of this document, many discussions from both ECS 350 and ECS 410 come to mind, as many of the things touched upon in the document link back. For example, on page 113, this list is provided:

As a result of these circumstances, Aboriginal students may be

penalized by a number of common assessment practices, including:

·        single rather than multiple assessment methods

·        inflexible deadlines (with late

penalties or “0” for incomplete

assignments)

·        time-limited assessments

·        marks awarded for class participation and effort

·        awarding zeros for incomplete or missing assignments

·        failure to match testing to teaching

·        surprising students with pop quizzes

It specifically states this for Aboriginal students (and it makes sense based on the fact that it is a document discussing teaching First Nations, Métis, and Inuit learners), but I feel as though each of these points can/should be applied to all learners.  In fact, save for the parts discussing the specific Indigenous cultural aspects, this could be applied to anyone.

Using multiple assessment methods and tools should become common practice among educators.  In our own careers as students, we have experienced that we learn differently than our classmates, and having the option to express what we have learned in different ways, whether it be oral, visual, musical, etc.

The chapter also brings up some really important sample strategies for teachers to use with their students, but to pull one out that I thought was really important, it suggests that we provide an in-class review.  Now, some people may say “well of course you would provide an in-class review, that’s only natural,” without thinking of the bigger benefits that it actually provides.  You will most certainly have students who have parents/guardians that are more than willing and able to aid in the study process.  However, not all students have these supports at home, so if you are to offer these supports, it really “levels the playing field,” so to speak.  These in-class reviews are also beneficial for every student, as they will begin to understand exactly what the teacher is looking for on the exam.  

 Assessment is still a pool of uncertainty, as we can never be sure if our practices are really benefitting every student in the long run.  Until we find a utopian school with practices in place that aid everyone, we just need to be aware of the potential of our students and continue to adapt our practices.

Reading Response -- Chapter 6

Summary:
"Involving Students in Classroom Assessment," the sixth chapter in Davies' text, seems like an interesting topic.  She suggests that involving students while making the criteria (for assignments, lessons, etc) it's easier to tell what your students know, and it gives them a chance to see what they should be learning by the end of it. Towards the end, the chapter discusses goal setting with your students, including the role of the teacher in these goals.

Response:
While reading this article, not a whole lot was jumping out at me, strangely enough.  That being said, I really liked the connection to the previous chapter in the sections that discusses students collecting and presenting their evidence of learning.  This shows accountability for both the student and the school, which I think is pretty neat. 

We've already discussed in class that involving students in their own learning a fabulous route to take.  As a teacher, laying out the base is important, but having students build up the walls of their own learning is very cool.

Reading Response -- Chapter 5

Summary:
The fifth chapter, entitled "Evidence of Learning" touched upon things that I feel passionately about -- a more summative approach to assessment.  Davies discusses the different sources a teacher can look at to assess a student's learning and she introduced the very interesting concept of triangulation.

Response: 
As I had mentioned before, I really love assessing students based on their evidence of learning rather than, for example, memorization for an exam.  I still run into this issue in university.  I've taken a few biology classes over the past two years, as thy correspond with my biology minor, and every syllabus that I would get would be essentially the same thing -- A midterm(s) and a final comprising 80+% of my final grade and a few extra assignments sprinkled in to top off the percentage.  Unfortunately for me, I'm not all that good at exams.  Throughout the years, I have tried several different study techniques, but they've all proven to be sub-par.

I don't feel as though my 60s and 70s are indicative of what I have learned in those classes.  I could tell you exactly why an electric car is useless in Saskatchewan and why Hydro-power isn't as green as people make it out to be, and I learned those things in my environmental biology class.  The class in which I failed the midterm. 

I found the topic of triangulation to be really interesting.  It shows teachers how to balance three different kinds of evidence over a period of time that bring out trends and patterns of people's learning.  The diagram on page 53 showing the triangulation of evidence for a grade nine English class really helped me tie together the theory, and it's something I think I'd like to take a deeper look into.