Better Your Learning

This year (2021-22), it was significantly easier to document my practicum, having been in person.  I was in a grade 1/2 split class where we had established that our students were advanced enough together that we could mostly focus on grade 2 curriculum content and adjust accordingly using differentiated instruction.

In early fall 2021, I read the story Nibi’s Water Song by Sunshine Tenasco and students then got to write/draw a story reflecting on what they learned from Nibi’s Water Song.  One student used images to tell a story about how many Indigenous peoples still do not have clean drinking water, and representing in water bottles how many glasses of water we need in a day.

I organized some indoor and outdoor mathematics lessons as well as a read aloud and activity each week in early fall.  This was great practice for classroom management and teaching outdoors. We created a concrete graph with materials from our classroom and proceeded to use manipulatives to create our own graphs in pairs, we coded a map in pairs outside and then acted them out, we create number lines on the pavement with sidewalk chalk and worked on our addition and subtraction and we collected sticks and worked on estimations and counting in groupings.

In December, we learned about our families and different winter celebrations around the world, including Winter Solstice, Yalda Night, Hanukkah, Diwali, Lunar New Year, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and more. We learned about what needs are (shelter, health care, comfort and care etc.), as with the holiday season, it is important to be grateful for what we have and provide support and care to those in need.

We did this exercise, where we created our own “I Wish You More” statements after reading the book by the same name by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Students then took these statements and created holiday cards that we then gave to a local shelter.

In January, we went through a full fractions unit together. It began entirely virtually, which was an interesting challenge of having students grab snacks for the purpose of showing equal pieces, having students go to their kitchen to find us a 1/4 cup measure and a 1/4 tsp measure when discussing different quarters we use in our every day lives; we use fractions in sharing with our friends,  in baking and budgets, in construction and engineering, in bulk ordering and so much more. When we came back to in person learning, we were really able to maximize our classroom and space.

We had so much fun learning about fractions together and this being their first introduction to fractions, I could see the progression in understanding in my students (everyone at different levels). This was important, as it influenced how I would approach the lessons that week, and who I would organize with my AT to receive a little one-to-one support

As we all have experienced, especially when we are new to teaching, I had a few lessons throughout the year that did not take off the way I had hoped, and others that kept my students busy learning for longer than I expected. This keeps me on my toes and motivated to bring more interesting and active learning materials to my classroom. I had an opportunity to understand better and implement Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction for my students to better their learning, and my own.

We need to find balance. As educators, we hold a great deal of responsibility in teaching the next generation, how to learn, how to persevere and how to keep working a problem, even if it looks insurmountable. We have to be careful with our expectations in the classroom. I have observed with my own students in Practicum, that when they are too often faced with projects that are focused on their interests in an issue of the world, they are bombarded with implicit expectations that they must come up with solutions to “fix the world.” Our students are intelligent, but they are still kids.  We need to find balance of ensuring that our students are shown the issues of injustices in and around the world as well as shown what has made a positive and hopeful impact.

My favourite thing from this year is my Global Citizenship Project Unit and Lesson Breakdown , which are both living documents. The bones of the unit were provided by my AT and her co-teacher.* I created the above unit plan and all accompanying materials myself. The idea of this grade 4-6 project is to inspire hope in others about an inspiring person making a positive impact on an issue in their community (neighbourhood, country or world). The project takes students through research and creating a survey (to which they would survey their classmates), analyzing the data from the survey and creating an infographic and create a Hopeful Minute Movie and code a computer game that are intended to educate, sensitize and inspire hope in the viewer (player).

I am really proud of my  Professional Learning Chart (Webinars, additional learning etc.). I have been sitting in on webinars of a math series with Kyle Pearce and John Orr through OTF connects and they have been amazing. It has opened my mind to new and different ways of teaching and presenting mathematical concepts through observation (think and wonder), group problem solving and curiosity and manipulating numbers visually (looking at how a number line unfolded is a graph) etc.

I think it is really important to challenge different ideologies that have surfaced  since becoming a Teacher Candidate, including the amount of Christmas that is celebrated in our schools in comparison to all other faith celebrations, virtual learning for our primary/junior students, social justice, inclusion etc. I do feel it is part of our job to play devil’s advocate and to ensure we are actively challenging preconceived notions about learning and socializing, especially if it will better benefit our students.  We need to challenge our own biases and have the hard conversations and keep the doors open for being challenged; I think sometimes teachers are afraid of being challenged about something, when in fact, it is exactly what we are here for; to help students navigate their own questions.  The Ontario College of Teachers Standards of Practice explicitly state that Teachers are to show “Commitment to Students and Student Learning, Ongoing Professional Learning, Professional Practice, Professional Knowledge, Leadership in Learning Communities.” I think I am on my way, how well, will be determined by my students’ success.

*The bones of the aforementioned unit project were provided by my AT, Nancy McLaren and her PGL co-teacher, Deborah Quail-Blier. 

Key Concepts: Engaging with Learning; Observing Where Knowledge Comes From; Learning Through Inquiry; Becoming Adaptive Experts in Education; Three-part problem solving; How to Learn Math with Jo Boaler

“It is important for them to struggle a bit at first.” This was something my Associate Teacher shared with myself and the second year Teacher Candidate, and it is a concept that I have grappled with for many years. It really is a balancing effect that we develop over time, that allows for students (for anyone) to ‘struggle,’ and then with enough guidance and support they can experience improvement and expansion in their learning. Without this ‘struggle’, students rely on their teachers (and other adults) to do the thinking for them. We see this all the time (even during my practicum block), where kids are doing something, like playing a game of chess and the parent is in the background coaching them. We as adults, fear mistakes and ‘failure’ as a symbol of not being successful, when our role is the opposite; to allow students to sit in discomfort long enough that they develop their own learning through inquiry. When I was growing up, my teachers hated when I would ask why we were learning something, but in-fact, this was the one question that has carried me through so much schooling and learning (a three year diploma, a degree and now a teaching degree). I have learned more about so many things I have been curious about, through asking Why my entire life, than I might have if I never asked why. We are evolving into an education system of more inquiry now, and this is simultaneously intimidating and a gift.

Students need to ask their questions, but they also need to mull over potential answers on their own. I have been observing this and some of the strategies (check out Jo Boaler’s online How to Learn Math course) that have unfolded in teaching mathematics including mathematical reasoning, number flexibility and making connections to real life while working on problems together. The three-part-problem solving process has also been utilized a little differently in the currently running OTF (Ontario Teacher Federation) 10-part Mathematics webinar series with hosts Kyle Pearce and Jon Orr. I had such a positive experience in the live sessions leading up to my Practicum, as we were posed a problem as a group and then we would share everything that we were observing about the problem first; no matter how silly, irrelevant or seemingly insignificant these observations were. Then we would talk about the problem out loud together and explore potential answers, including a range of answers. This learning through inquiry meant that there was not a lot of focus on incorrect responses, but learning through questions, observations, potential answers, connections to the real world. I learned so much more by going through it together too, because if I had been working it out on my own, based on my personal experience of growing up and learning mathematics, my anxiety would have risen, and I would have been less-likely to share any of my observations for fear that it was ‘wrong’. I learned so much more through going over the problem as a group, because it helped me realize, I was not the only one who had a lot of these observations and questions. Students are the same way. We seem to think that going over the problem together will somehow take away from what they will learn about it (take away the competition in learning), when in-fact, they will learn so much more from each other, because where one question comes up, perhaps it is replaced by another and so on and so forth. This might also be helpful for students who struggle with sequencing; doing something in order and potentially being able to visualize a new order from a set of instructions, by doing it out loud together.

In order to actively and effectively engage in these different learning strategies and more, especially for our younger students, in-class learning is essential. My practicum is entirely virtual and having young students sit in front of a computer all day and expecting them to remain focused and engaged, is like providing kids with an entire buffet with fatty foods, desserts and all the carbs you could eat and instructing them to only eat vegetables. The fact that this is a Covid year, is irrelevant to how young students respond to virtual learning. We know that learning is important, our students know that learning is important, but when we take them ‘out’ of the learning environment and expect that they still perform to these higher standards, it is setting them up to do poorly and expecting them to do well. Students until the age of 12, do not have the skills to self-regulate and few of our students have guardians who can sit with them to make sure they are focused and engaged. Half of the enjoyment of learning, and capacity to focus, is in the ability to consciously engage with our peers. We draw from each other’s energies and this is not easy to do through a screen.

We have an opportunity to teach our students how to develop their own community of inquiry. However, as current educators, we need to be willing to move away from existing teaching practices of rote teaching and teaching for convenience. If we are engaged in the material as educators, our students are better engaged. If we are engaged in learning and inquiry in front of our students, they are better engaged with learning and inquiry themselves. I have been observing this in my practicum classroom and throughout the school. Between myself and the year two student, we facilitated a coding workshop for 5 different grade 4-6 classrooms across three Fridays, and the one classroom we visited, where the teacher was disengaged with our material, was the only classroom that had the least amount of student engagement with the material. I recognize that 5 classrooms is an insufficient sample size in order to show validity, however, it is important for me in moving forward with my own teaching pedagogy and style.

As in the book ‘Is Everyone Really Equal’, we draw our knowledge from mimicry; especially our young. We not only need to be skeptical about the knowledge our students are mimicking, we need to be skeptical about the knowledge we acquire and where it is coming from. This comes from introspection and engagement with what we think we know.

These are but a few of my observations in building my own community of inquiry and some personal experiences of developing my Adaptive Expert, teaching/learning style, by learning what techniques and strategies I want to mimic and which ones I want to adapt to better support my students and engage the material.

I have learned over time that ideology must be grounded in reality and in certain situations, the opposite must be true as well. We need to remember to go back to why we are teaching our students and what the end goal is for them; that they are provided a significant foundation for how to learn and a developing sense for creating their own community of inquiry, that they can go off and lead their peers in pursuing whatever they wish. The ideology is that our students come, they are focused and engaged, we know all the right questions to ask, they talk amongst each other and learn how to learn well by asking questions and building upon ideas; student families are stable and thriving, they get a proper breakfast and lunch (or multiple snacks) every day. In reality, our students are unfocused and tired from so much screen time and little sleep; meals and snacks are inconsistent and high in sugar; and some families are just surviving (creating even more inconsistency and instability in some student lives). I appreciate the ideology, the dream of what our education system and our teaching ability could look like, however, we have to be careful that this ideology does not become discouraging when the reality is sometimes working with students experiencing poverty, limited technology access, family separation etc. We need to be equipped to serve, not the hypothetical ‘dream’ student, but the students in front of us, because they are the future.

Resources Mentioned to Check Out:

Boaler, J. (2020-2021). How to learn math: For students. edX. https://www.edx.org/course/how-to-learn-math-for-students-2

Dauncey, S., & Dempsey, M. (2020-2021). Syllabus; PED3150cc: Becoming a teacher through inquiry into teaching; Communities of inquiry & adaptive expert models. Teacher Education, University of Ottawa.

Pearce, K., & Orr, J. (2020, November 19). Using math moments to multiply math skills, episode 1 [Webinar]. OTF Connects. https://www.otffeo.on.ca/en/news/otf-connects-is-back-in-november-and-december/

Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice education (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press, Columbia University.