A Full House
WEEK 2 – EDUC471 D100 – September 15, 2017
It’s a full house. All but one student attended this week’s class. 38 students are enrolled in this class, which has a class capacity of 35. As the deadlines for course changes approach, I am fielded with several emails regarding enrolment. Compelling stories and I allowed several students to enrol but I had to say NO to student number 39 and future requests. It’s a compliment when students say that they took this course because they read my blog or it was recommended to them, but I worry about the quality of education I can provide when the class is over capacity. We just had enough seats for those who arrived to class. I do have one more seat, my chair, to offer to the 38th student for next week. I do like it when everyone comes to class. As you can see in the picture above, we used the hallway (aka. available space) to facilitate our first warm-up activity.
It was so nice to get started with EDUC471D100 this week. This week we read an article on Curriculum Theory and Practice. Based on the reading, our discussions, and our past experiences, we are asked to answer the following reflective journal questions:
What was your learning experience like when you were in K-12 schools?
I know that I am the one asking this question, but I think it’s a good question. What do I remember? Admittedly, my learning experience in K-12 schools was somewhat uneventful. I loved my “drafting” class and regret dropping out of my “typing” class (whoa… I am totally dating myself). I really liked my Chemistry 11 and 12 classes. I remember Grade 2 and 4, but not for good reasons. I would say that I struggled with reading and writing (now, not the case… that took years to resolve). What I remember most about my K-12 experience was CURLING. I used to compete at the provincial level. Otherwise, I would spend most of my time doing what my teachers asked me to do (aka. learn).
What is your learning experience like at university?
I will say that my learning experience at the university was a struggle. At least, that’s what I remember. I took first year science because I liked Chemistry so much in high school. I failed Math 100 in my first year and it’s been a journey ever since that experience. I did retake Math 100 and got an A but my scheduling to be a Chemistry major was offset because I did not pass Math 100 in my first term. A long story made short, I did finish my degree in Chemistry with a minor in mathematics. What I recall is trying to do what I thought I needed to do as prescribed by the professor. It was CURRICULUM AS SYLLABUS and product. My most favourite course was CHEM412, which was my chemistry project when I had to quantify a certain chemical in dish soap. I loved that course. I did not return to that kind of learning until my “PhD in Education.”
What role does curriculum play in your learning experience? In schools?
The curriculum is the WHAT. What are we suppose to learn. We have student agency to select what major we would like to study, but whatever direction we choose, there is curriculum that suggests what we are suppose to know and CURRICULUM AS PRODUCT tells us how well we learned it. As a sessional instructor in education, I am drawn to the idea of facilitating CURRICULUM AS PROCESS or praxis. What does it look like when students are a part of the co-creation of knowledge? I believe that this is what BC’s New Curriculum strives for. The curriculum has content but also competencies. Competencies, in my mind, are geared towards curriculum as process and still “prescribes” what students should learn. The curriculum is STATIC… nothing happens to it anyway until it is “delivered” or taught to students. Thus, factors such as assessment and evaluation, quality of teaching, and mindset would influence how curriculum is perceived.
MY REFLECTION
I am an experiential learner at it’s best. I like to be learning as I am doing. As my students are stumbling along with PARTICIPATION ACTIVITY SIGN-UP and it’s limitations using Canvas, I am stumbling along planning and preparing for this course. This is not to say that I am not able to facilitate their learning and design a course that address curriculum development, what I am saying is the momentum of the class dramatically changes when there are 12 students more than what I had last term. Group discussions take more time, mobilizing our class to play/learn in the hallway takes more time, and dealing with technology also takes a bit of time. Sadly, I had to assign homework this week to get what was intended accomplished. Albeit, it was a TEDx video and our journal reflection, but sometimes I like to offer class time to sense-make and reflect together. That said, it’s also an opportunity to implement some of the blended learning strategies I learned at the UBC T-BLE workshop this summer as well. It’s only Week 2 and we are learning the rhythm of our course and building our learning community. It was an incredible Week 2. Those who implemented the participation activities this week were AWESOME and met expectations. The group discussions went very well too. It was an excellent class of EDUC471D100… I may have fallen in love with this class already.