Exit Slip October 21: Gender.

    Today in class there was a lot of discussion about gender in Math and Physics. A few comments stood out to me. I reflected a great deal on what Jenny had shared about her experience watching the video. She felt as though the video was still too feminine, and that women were not being represented equally to how men might have been. Jaymi shared that as a woman she would want to be represented in a girly and feminine way in a video. 

    I think this brings up an interesting point. Many of the female instructors that I had in university were not stereotypical women - so to speak. Many of them had short hair, wore pantsuits, and conformed to the male-dominated culture of science. While there is certainly nothing wrong with them choosing to present themselves in whatever way they choose it makes me wonder why there was not more diversity in the types of people represented at this level. I think what Jenny was pointing out was that often women have to fit into certain boxes, and while there is nothing wrong with the women who fit neatly (I doubt these people truly exist) into societal categories, nobody should feel pressure to. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the women being presented in this way, so long as it was their choice. 

    I think that true acceptance of diversity means that anybody can choose to present any which way whenever they would like. Girls can act feminine, or masculine and so can men. If male mathematicians want to be photographed in the kitchen baking a pie they should be allowed to be presented in that way, if a woman would like to be in a kitchen, or a boardroom, or a classroom there should be space for all of the diversity that exists in all of the genders. 

    The issue of bathrooms is a largely controversial one. I went to a Catholic school where gender diversity was not largely accepted. Throughout my time in the school, there was little talk of non-binary genders or opening inclusive washrooms. Students were expected to fit into boxes and many were, as a result, marginalized. I would argue that all institutions should offer washrooms that serve the broad range of diversity that exists in the public. Some in my school community might disagree, stating Christian religious values as a reason for doing so. This raises an interesting question that I have often battled with. How does one encourage a SOGI inclusive environment when there are going to be parents and students who feel that doing so infringes upon their right to practice their religion. Do Christians and other religious groups have the right to run schools where institutional values contrast SOGI values? While it is pleasant to think about a world that is all-inclusive, achieving one is likely impossible as the inclusion of all diversities would mean serving interests that are in stark contrast and compete with one another. 

     As I left the University campus I used the LIFE building's inclusive washrooms. After hearing Jenny's story about the busty anatomically incorrect woman who was displayed on the washroom sign at her university I contrasted that with the one which existed in on our own campus. It was representative of the inclusive washroom facility to which it marked the entrance. It showed that this washroom was for no particular gender or ability. While this washroom is welcoming to everyone, and in theory does not marginalize any member of society there are still many who remain in opposition to this idea. While UBC is a rather progressive institution many of the schools in our own neighborhoods and around the globe are not. This is an uphill battle that must be fought by courageous teachers.

Entrance slip for October 21: Marks, grades and their effects in schooling

Pre-Reading Comment:

 I chose to read about marks because I am very curious about how I as a teacher can work to eliminate marks or at least teach students to distance themselves and their learning from marks. I am really a bit lost on how to do this prior to doing the reading.

During Reading Notes:

Pros of Grades	Cons of Grades
Can be used as a motivator (not effective)	Encourage competition
	Can negatively impact participation
	learning for the test
	Constant focus on punishment - focus off of learning and onto grades
	Cause significant stress for students

Post Reading Reflection:

My student bird relates to everything that was said about grades creating stress for students. As a student I so closely tied my self-worth to my grades, they controlled my life, prevented meaningful learning, stopped me from reflecting, and even contributed to shame or embarrassment at times. I would say that my attachment to getting high grades was equivalent to an addiction. It was almost like I needed a fix. I would get emotionally down until I got my 95+ score on a math or physics test then I would get a small burst of happiness. This is extremely damaging for a student, in my experience. 

In my view as a teacher, some quotes stood out to me from the article. For starters, one of the topics in the Physics classroom that they focused on when they were testing a non-grade centered was air resistance. I have had numerous length discussions about this topic on my physics board. I believe that the way we teach it is highly flawed. I think we often teach students to consider cases without air resistance and expect them to find these cases simpler when they compete with everything we have built intuition for our entire lives. I definitely think removing grades we can have more meaningful conversations about topics and I would love to incorporate this approach as a teacher. Next, I was thinking about how to motivate students, I listed motivation as a potential 'pro' of grades but it might not be this way. The study listed factors other than grades as motivators for doing well in school such as career goals and wanting a good life. I also noted carefully how the article prescribes that the teacher transition away from grades in the class:

• deemphasize tests and grades as a means of alleviating stress
• realize how student learning is hindered by the threat of grades
• recognize the danger in grades as a substitute for self-motivated learning
• use student personal interest as a motivator for learning

In many ways, the inadequate or lazy teacher needs to rely on grades. If one cannot connect with their students in a way that makes them want to participate in class it is then that they must rely on threats like grades. A good teacher does not need grades.

"I would say that my attachment to getting high grades was equivalent to an addiction"

A related note... I found this news article about how students are often driven to use drugs in order to get better grades. This should really be a wake-up call to classrooms, schools, and districts about the grade culture in their schools.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/15/students-smart-drugs-higher-grades-adderall-modafinil

Exit Slip October 14

 Responding to the videos there were a number of points that stood out to me:

"Math that is taught is old/ it is not the math that students need" - I agree with this completely I think that far too often we lose sight of the end goal. We need to be constantly reflecting on what do we want students to learn and why do they need to know this in order to achieve their goals in life? If we are not teaching to relevant and meaningful outcomes for our students than we are wasting our time and theirs. As Mr. Wolfram explained it there are four parts to math and we choose to focus on "computation" in the majority of our teaching but this is the one aspect in which we have machines fully capable of solving for us. What, instead, we should be focusing on is how to interpret, communicate, and translate computation to and from machines which can do the heavy lifting of computation for us. This was overlooked in my Math education and I think this is still largely the case. We must begin to change this as the up and coming generation of teachers. 

One thing the video talked about was the idea of "multidimensional" math education. Teaching questioning, problem solving, communication, reasoning, and representing. At first I sort of had a defensive response to this that its such a steep ask of teachers and I thought that it might not have been practical in the math classroom that I knew when I was in school. However, the more I thought, the more I reflected on how the math curriculum has changed recently. In BC, gladly, we as teachers now not only have the time to think about these competencies but they are encouraged in the curriculum and compose some of the fundamental goals of the curriculum. One problem I have found working in schools is that too many teachers just read the content objectives and ignore the rest. I have too often heard from teachers "oh in the new curriculum they didn't add or remove anything they just moved this concept to math 12 or they just do this in 2 years now, or now we talk about finance" however, I think that the new curriculum in many ways represents a fundamental shift in how we think about education. there is so much more room for these multidimensional approaches now and we as teachers need to accept that freedom and recognize that it comes with a responsibility to give our students the best quality and a rounded education.

Some of the findings presented in the video showed that inquiry based learning is correlated with increase achievement, increased participation and is more equitable. One thing that I would like to know about inquiry based education is what about teachers? Is inquiry based teaching a lot more work? Is it more preparation time? How does a teacher incorporate all of the theory we are expected to when it takes so much time. It seems like a daunting task to take on. How does one achieve a successful work life balance and be an effective teacher? I would like more resources on this.

One scene in the video showed students at the front working on a board problem together. I have used  this in my classroom before and I have noted many successes but also some challenges that perhaps I could talk through with my peers in class. Sometimes students don't always wait for each other to understand. Once they understand one piece they move on and many students skip over their misunderstanding to catch up. Also students are not always effective teachers in that they don't feel a responsibility for the understanding of their peers. While I agree with promoting working together on math tasks does this ever leave students behind? Additionally, we are only their teachers for one year. What does it mean for us to teach in a new way when this might not fit in the context of the rest of their education? What if we feel compelled to fit into the existing teaching culture of the school which might be more traditional? Adjusting students to a brand new learning environment takes time, we have to adjust them from last year and are we always setting them up the best for next year?

In my small group we shared a lot about about being slow learners. I know that I am very much a slow learner who needs a deep understanding to know at all. This has been a confidence issue for me my whole life. I also related with others in my group in that many of us understand the inability to work under pressure. 

We also talked about why grades can be harmful and about what are role can be with regard to grades. As new teachers we cannot change a system which requires us to use grades but we might be able to nurture a healthier relationship between our students and their grades. This is still something I need to personally envision for my classroom and also something I need to unlearn for myself. My own 'trauma' with grades is something I need to overcome and my journey in doing might be useful for my teaching and even to share with students. Ultimetly, the exceptional performance of schools which have abolished grades as cited in the second video should motivate us as teachers to reevaluate assessment in our classrooms. 

Choosing an area for my Inquiry project!

 

I have chosen Theatre + STEM: a STEAM integrated approach as I have always had an interest in STEAM. In my undergrad, I had the opportunity to do a brief talk on STEAM education and its benefits. One program that I looked at briefly was a theatre program in Texas that looked at the applications of STEM in theatre. It was largely technical based on light and computer programming for lights and music and engineering a set design. I would love to revisit this program but also I would like to explore, this time, how we can actually make connections in the dramatic performance elements. For example, making a spaghetti bridge and having students do a skit as they build it to model tension building in the skit as it builds on the bridge. I like making these types of connections between out of physics concepts and the ones in the class. One benefit of the theatre approach is that it has some studied benefits in attracting (young) girls to STEM.  I would be very interested in looking what groups benefit most from this type of activity (eg. look at Girls and LGBT), and even which might be left behind.

October 14: Entrance Slip

    The article begins with a discussion of "the grid." While it is not necessarily defined what the grid is, it is described as pertaining to the strict and narrow classrooms, ordered design of layouts and structures, strict charts in learning and assessment, and all the other ways in which the modern classroom is often organized. The image of a "grid" is used as a metaphor here for the rigidity and strictness of the classroom. In contrast, the garden learning environment is seen as the antithesis of this structure. It is free, messy, disorganized, and a place where the learning that takes place is not graded or explained on charts with straight lines but rather by the various angles, lines, curves, and other shapes that exist freely in nature. The question is then, is the modern classroom in need of more gardens and fewer cement buildings. My response to this question is a definite yes, however, I think it is a "yes, but..."

    Perhaps this was not the intention of the article but when I think of the term "the grid" I am immediately drawn to the thought of the internet. When I think of "off the grid" immediately I imagine a classroom without technologies or traditional tools. While I agree that outdoor learning has many advantages I think that my vision for my future classroom is one where teaching is done through technology. I see as I am sure the authors of the paper will agree, a future classroom that is sometimes totally "off the grid" sometimes, totally "on the grid" sometimes, but most often some hybrid of the two. What I envision for my classroom is one where, indoor or outdoor, the best parts of each are present. For example, I plan to use gardens, parks, and when available beaches, as the setting of my classroom. My students, however, will not be "off the grid." They will be encouraged to interact with their environment both through their senses and also with the aid of technologies like apps such as the seek by iNaturalist app which teaches biology through species identification tasks, or starwalk which allows students to envision the night sky, even in the day. 

    I like the imagery that comes up when one considers a teacher as, "danced into being." Dancing, like teaching, is an art form. It implies that teacher creation is ritualistic, or, in a sense, meditative. Contrast that with the hours that I, a teacher candidate, spend sitting at a desk, in front of a computer typing out an essay, or in a crowded lecture theatre. This really points to what the article is trying to fix about the way that most classrooms are 'disembodied.' The teacher candidates braid each of their own strings into one. I think in many ways this stands as a metaphor for the discussions and that we have in our classes. Often each of us brings unique perspectives, the students and the instructors but we try to create one blended vision for the future.

This is an image I created to be used to provoke thought... 

I see this image as an artistic representation of how my teaching philosophy and 'the grid' are related

Interpret...

Exit Slip: October 7

 During the sit spot exercise I reflected on what had changed from last time. I noted the following differences:

• The evergreen trees stayed evergreen, not much change. These are the stable constants in the environment
• In the colder weather the sap on the trees changed colour from something translucent to something opaque. The viscosity also changed. It became more maleable almost like clay, while before it was more runny like pancake syrup.
• The industrial sounds dominated the soundscape today. I noted tractors, airplanes, and garbage trucks in the background as I laid in my spot. 

One other thing I took advantage of in the garden was the outdoor wifi. I have recently been thinking about how to use the seek by inaturalist app in the class. Some ideas I have are

• Asking students to look for certain biology curricular concepts (if teaching junior science) (ie. an axseual reproducer, a sexual reproducer, etc...)
• Having them pick challenges to complete (ie, niche roles - find a producer, consumer, decomposer, keystone species, etc...)
• Have them look for certain traits ie. arachnids with 6 legs etc... or what is common among all insects? most insects?
• understanding the categories/ levels of life eg. kingdom, species, genus, etc...

I thought about this more as I explored the app in the garden:

It is worth nothing that a school garden might be a good spot for outdoor wifi which the app requires for many features.

Finally we did the leaf exercise. I immediately became fascinated by Marlaina's task of bisecting everything. We dubbed her the "Bisection Queen" because she was bisecting lines, angle, circles... you name it. I love watching her approximate an angle on a leaf and draw it by bisecting 90 degrees n number of times until she came close. For example for a 45 degree angle she bisected the 90 degree angle once. for a 60 degree angle she bisected the 90 degree to get a 45 then bisected the 45 so that she had an angle of 45+22.5 = 67.5 degrees. This was fascinating to watch. I learned about learning, planning how to attack a problem, and geometry. I was using my inner teacher bird as I thought about how if I was my own teacher I might observe that me 'the student' was not trying the task for myself simply watching her but in reality my observation of her was teaching me so much that I wouldn't have gotten simply by doing the task for myself.

**I will leave the choice to post her work (finished product) up to Marlaina... I highly recommend seeing her blog, she produced a fascinating result that showed her numerous bisections.**