To read part 1, click here. Spanish 9
It was hard to get a decent photo, but this is actually my classroom transformed into a maze on the annual 'prank day' of which I was totally unaware (thanks teachers!). Nah, my room was pretty sweet and easy to clean up in comparison to others who had anything from a million pictures of kilts to live fish. Bodies in Creation
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I'm not entirely sure all of what the students processed from the PBS doc I showed (and attempted very hard to censor, out of respect for the school) about Kahlo, but I certainly enjoyed it. It reignited my passion for and interest in surrealist art, the 1920s, and authentic self-expression in all of its glory and profanity. Spanish 30
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Almost unbelievably, I have only 8 more days of instruction with my classes and, considering that all except one of my classes only happen every second day, 4 for most. So, I'm in a bit of a reflecting mood and thought I'd take a moment to give you an idea of the trials and smiles I've experienced this past semester.
Colleagues
As Alberta Schools prepare for June 1 when Bill 10 will officially come into play (or, for some, continue business as usual), conversation surrounding GSAs, parental choice, ideology, and sexuality has become more prevalent. As I read up on, discuss, and weigh issues, my opinions and understanding continue to grow and shift. This is not as simple or obvious to me as it was when I first considered what Bill 10 seemed to propose.
This document by Parents for Choice in Education is an interesting case in point. While I don't agree with everything stated in the document and think the language is too emotionally-laden at times for an article that seeks to focus on sound arguments, I do think it raises many legitimate concerns that Bill 10 (and the way it was passed and intends to be implemented) failed to consider or address. I'm interested in what people have to say about Bill 10 and about this document in particular. Please chime in or direct me and readers to other articles, blogs, etc. as you deem beneficial. Last Friday I had planned a fairly tame 10-minute devotional time (share a way God showed up or encouraged you over Spring Break) for my Spanish 7 class, but when I arrived for setup, a few boys were gathered around a Bible looking at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God" (NASB). One of the boys concluded from the passage that gay people don't go to heaven, while others argued that Jesus paid for all of our sins so that they can. Seeing an opportunity to discuss these very important issues, I asked the boys if they wanted to invite the larger class to talk about it during devotional time and they said yes, so we did.
We've now spent 3 devotional times of students sharing stories, asking questions of each other and of me, responding to one another, and recalling Scripture. I've had students slip me notes or questions in secret and am wondering whether I should set up a question box to take more anonymous questions and comments. Without fail, there are a few hands still up at the end of our 10 minutes when I have to remind them that we need to move on to Spanish class. We've skimmed the surface of many issues and their connections, including salvation, sin, attraction, mental health, consent to affection, love, repentance, friendship, nature and nurture, religion, and orientation. The kids' opinions, knowledge, and experiences range widely, which makes for very rich discussion. I try bring in my knowledge and experience where relevant to clear up some misconceptions or to offer a differing standpoint for the kids to consider. I've spent more time reviewing the things I've read and heard to determine what to share and how to guide the kids through tricky but important concepts and issues without confusing or overwhelming them. This is especially interesting as our board is meeting next week to discuss how they're going to go about handling the new bill on student-initiated GSAs. I'm not sure where any of the staff at the school stand on these issues, nor their comfort in discussing them with kids (recall that many staff are also parents of the students). Continued from previous post...
Wednesday: We start the day off with about an hour of 'chapel.' All secondary students and teachers meet in their homerooms, where the uniform dress code is extra-enforced, and then proceed to the partially lit elementary school gym. (Safety-wise, I'm not a huge fan of this as there are cords all over the place.) Seats are arranged near the middle, the sound and light board is set up, and a band of students is assembled up front to lead us in several worship songs. The kids do an amazing job, and it's cool to experience their musical talent outside of class. This time is usually followed by a brief sermon from a guest, a student, or a staff member whose focus is discipleship. If it's a Day 1, I join a small group for follow-up discussion and prayer. If it's a Day 2, I head to the junior high wing and start my Spanish 7 class (24 students) in a science lab where another teacher is on prep and works away with headphones in. The class is supposed to be 35 minutes long but often ends up being 25 minutes with a number of students missing because of being involved with worship. This is followed by 35 minutes of Study Skills 7 with many of the same students (21 total). This course has no formal curriculum and involves no summative/graded assessments, which allows me to really tailor the instruction to the students' immediate needs and tie this into their other courses. After this, I have a prep period and lunch. I have Spanish 30 in my classroom for 70 minutes, then haul everything (binder, textbook, materials, laptop, handouts) and rush over to the other end of campus to teach Spanish 8 in a social studies classroom where another teacher is on prep. Spanish 8 is my biggest class (25 students) and by far the most rambunctious. Most of them are also in my option class. As a survival strategy, they are training me to be clear, methodical, comprehensive, and also quick in my instructions. I'm still pretty miserable at it, but I'm determined to get better. Spanish 8 is followed by Spanish 9 (12 students) in the same room. My Spanish 9 class is a funny group: I'd say half mostly want to be there and learn (though it's a tough slog to be in a language class at the end of a day) and the other half want to go home and would rather not be learning a language at all but figured that Spanish was easier than French (a second language is mandatory for junior high students here). I've adapted my plan a lot based on formative assessment, and find this class a bit more flexible that way. I've asked them for their feedback and am currently implementing problem-based language learning (we're going on a virtual mission trip to Mexico). I'm back teaching grades 8 and 9 again, and 7 as a new addition, and have found myself wondering whether my approach to "classroom management" is working. It seems like each class the students have behaved differently, and I'm trying to get a sense of personalities, student relationships, overall class dynamics, weekly rhythms, behaviours to allow, behaviours to ignore, and behaviours to address for both individuals and the class as a whole. This is seriously tricky business! Mostly, I question whether I'm totally failing. I feel like I tolerate too much chaos, and spend more time than I'd like repeatedly regaining students' attention when teaching the class and helping individual students. I was encouraged, however, when returning to some advice from Alfie Kohn and related thinkers, and realized that, in my heart of hearts, my approach - while messy and noisy - is an attempt to help students develop while relinquishing my own need for control. I don't want to be a power-monger; I want to empower the kids. Maybe this will help others battle their desire for control and compliance while helping students to develop as ethical and social beings.
Beyond Discipline Behave Yourself! Seven Tools for Positive Discipline I will continue to look at physical factors (like seating arrangements) and ways to structure my lessons to minimize confusion and maximize focus, as well as to chat with other teachers and EAs to get their ideas. O technology and policies ... why do you work against me so?
Here's the deal. Before my practicum this past fall, I had created two Google sites for each of my two classes, anticipating using them to supplement and organize my instruction and assessment. A week into teaching, I abandoned this in favour of using D2L, but the shells for my classes were registered through my mentor's account (as a student teacher, I had zero D2L privileges, though I did manage to get a CBE email account). This was a great experience. I was happy with how I used D2L and am interested in learning the system even better (e.g., aligning module components or tasks with rubrics, grades, learning objectives, etc.). Having finished my practicum, of course I no longer have access to the wonders I built in D2L, so I spent most of today constructing a new Google site that actually serves my present and future needs better than my first two sites. I like how it's turning out and it's something I think I'll keep using to share course information. (Check it out here.) Despite my opening statement, I'm actually far from resentful or bitter about having to rebuild. I take great pride and joy in developing information management systems, whether that's through SharePoint, D2L, Redbooth, Google Apps, Weebly, or other tools. I think it combines my love of building and design with my love of information and collaboration. When I was younger, I was constantly constructing environments. I was a Lego-maniac. I'd use Eggo Waffle boxes and other materials I gathered to construct doll houses (the dolls themselves, beyond dressing them or styling their hair, were boring). I built all sorts of forts and mini-treehouses. I'd design urban or geographical landscapes for boardgames, stories, or other simulations. I would rearrange objects and furniture in my room on a semi-regular basis (and still do) to suit my new sense of organization or aesthetics. Knowing my love of design, my parents bought me 3D Home Architect for my thirteenth birthday and I became obsessed with the idea of becoming a residential architect and/or interior designer. During early adulthood, I loved the urban anthropology course I took and especially the video we watched on designing public spaces. I've become familiar with principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. I recently watched a fascinating documentary on the future of cities. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the discourse and resources surrounding Universal Design and the Capability Approach. I also took - like a duck to water - to using Visio for modeling business processes and mapping both spaces and communications. Additionally, I had the privilege of being able to pursue my interests in cognitive and physical ergonomics: configuring spaces and tools around the activities and bodies/minds performing them to make those activities easier, safer, and/or more enjoyable. At the heart of it, I think, also lies a Marxist mentality I didn't know was there: that our material existence, to a large extent, constructs our worldview. Entering into public education, I am fascinated by the role that design plays learning, whether it has to do with the physical environment or the virtual one. It's sometimes discouraging to recognize how the present designs often serve to undermine learning. Think of the terrible aesthetic and ergonomic experience you had in school due to oversight, budget issues, or the legacy of the industrial revolution. Think of how much time and energy you've wasted searching for or reproducing information for yourself or others (repeated instructions, list-making, buried files) or being exposed to information without retaining anything (death-by-PowerPoint, technological-multitasking, an overflowing email inbox). Imagine how much more horrible this is for anyone with physical, learning, and/or cognitive disabilities. I want to make rich and rewarding experiences (of which learning plays a major role) more accessible to people. I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon my values as a person and how I want to channel those into longer term goals in my teaching profession.
Start the year off with a novel study. I am SO much more relaxed since moving into novel studies with both of my classes. We're more focused on a longer piece, which means that they spend more time reading, exploring themes, discussing context, etc. Preparation is much more straightforward and there are tons more resources for me from my colleagues and online. Why didn't I do this in the first place? A few reasons:
Not sure? Just ask. We're doing Of Mice and Men in my ELA 20-2 class and, in the spirit of wanting to break up monotony, I had originally created a schedule in which each class period was divided into 3 activities: reading the text, working on an independent project (building personal connections to a theme through writing), and working on a group project (exploring context through multimedia). I also wanted to make sure that such a schedule could accommodate for the vast differences in pace at which my students work (it's not uncommon for one of my students to finish in a period what another student will take a week to complete). By the end of the week, I got the feeling that this schedule wasn't working, so I polled the class. The vast majority agreed that they wanted to do all of the reading and comprehension quizzes, then complete their independent project, then complete the group project. This actually works out better for scheduling computer lab time for projects, and I think sets them up better for more meaningful writing on theme. For those who are struggling with reading, I've made sure to provide links to the audio version on our D2L shell (in addition to providing vocab and idiom handouts). One of my biggest concerns is absences during the reading and project work days (which I was hoping to mitigate by extending the schedule for each through chunking individual periods), but I just don't think this is avoidable. Anyway, it made me happy to be able to find out what the students preferred and to be able to accommodate them. My hope is that they feel more in charge of their learning and less like school is something that teachers do to them. Technology is great when it works. Okay, I knew this one already, but let me share my story. For studying To Kill a Mockingbird with my ELA 10-1 class, I decided to implement a slightly revised version of the problem-based learning through technology activity I designed for a course earlier this year. I built a Google site where we kicked off the unit by doing a webquest (modified by viewing others' webquests) and uploading the research. My intent was to make this site a collaborative space for all aspects of constructive learning. There have been some issues as well as benefits:
Check out this post by Joe Bower quoting Zander Sherman. I wonder if making higher education free would also halt the trend in Alberta of more K-12 charter and private schools, and more private funding through corporate donations and sponsorship.
I just finished up a focus on advertising and marketing with my ELA 20-2 class, and their assignment was to draft a proposal to a local oil company who had hypothetically made $1,000,000.00 available for investment in talent and innovation (see here). I selected this company because my husband works for them and would make himself available to answer questions that students might have. I have committed to send the top five proposals to a professional in PR/marketing (hopefully someone from Cenovus, but I have other contacts) so that the kids get feedback from an expert in the field. Previously, the class and I had discussed the newer marketing tactics that companies use, such as product placement, brand integration, and cross-promotion. We watched pieces of Rushkoff's Generation Like and I had hoped to show at least parts of Spurlock's POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, but did not have enough time. We discussed the negative and positive aspects of the oil business. We also spent time analyzing ads and understanding persuasion techniques and manipulation by marketers. So, I thought that students would be well-prepared to take a critical (not negative, just thoughtful) stance toward this 'offer' from Cenovus. Nope. The proposals I've read so far indicate to me that my students have few qualms with selling out. And no one questioned whether my decision to use Cenovus (out of the millions of companies out there) for this scenario was a form of selling out. Maybe I should have asked them for some sponsorship money, because I've essentially promoted them for free. This upcoming week, our focus is on representation in media (over-, under-, mis-). My class is mixed in terms of race, ethnicity, class, gender, height, weight, etc. so I'm thinking they'll have a lot to say about discrimination and privilege. |
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