Christine Ho Younghusband

Not Campaigning

I’m not sure why I’m compelled to blog OUTSIDE of my daily blog of learning. Before taking on the challenge of “the daily blog of learning,” I would blog at moments of inspiration. Well, here I am. I’m inspired. When you think about it… my daily blog of learning should be 365 entries per year. Learning happens everyday. That said, I can appreciate the break from daily blogging as well. Unfortunately, I’m inspired to write tonight and… I will post THIS blog entry on my Facebook Page. BOLD, I know.

You don’t realize you’re in the change until you realize something different. Aside from the obvious things like I’m living in Prince George and my little family still lives in Sechelt, that I’m teaching full-time at the University of Northern British Columbia instead of being a sessional instructor at Simon Fraser, and I am engaged in as many learning opportunities as possible like going to the Prince George Mini Maker Faire and connecting with folks from my PLN… what I notice is, I’m NOT CAMPAIGNING. What do I mean by that?

When I drive up the hill from my apartment to the university, I see various campaign signs posted up the road… ranging from mayor, councillor, to school trustee. I see that my colleague Sheryl Warrington is running again. I saw her sign the other day. I see Tim Bennett‘s sponsored post on Facebook. They are both Prince George school trustees. I see many other posts on Facebook of others announcing their nomination and promoting their campaigns. I say colleagues because I am still a school trustee until October 20th.

As much as I am supportive of those who are campaigning and putting their name forward to serve their communities and school districts, I am not saddened by not running. This is a true indication that this was a good time for me to leave public life and move forward into a different direction in the field of education to enhance the learning experiences of students. I continue to FIND MY PLACE and looking for my ALIGNMENT. What I am realizing is, that’s always changing as I learn more. I’m the kind of learner that has to get out there and experience what I need to learn and understand. This is not to say that I am meant to work with my hands, like those participating in Maker Faire.

I made this Maker Faire pin today… by soldering parts together so that it would blink with a battery. Certainly I’m willing to try… STRESSED the whole time making it… while receiving many prompts from the workshop facilitator. I confirm to self that working with my hands is NOT my strength but I was happy to connect with some of my UNBC students, members of my PLN, and Maker Vendors. For me, it was like going to Circle Craft in Vancouver. I loved talking to the vendors and listening to their passions and what motivates them to do what they do. Listening to their stories, asking them questions, and watching them engage in their craft… FILLS MY CUP. That is my passion… their JAM.

I continue on my PEDAGOGICAL JOURNEY… I’m on the next chapter and it’s going well so far. I’m enjoying the work at UNBC, the students, and the staff/faculty. As I am learning my rhythm of work at UNBC, I love what I am learning and who I am meeting. I am also feeling very fortunate for the doors opening. By closing one door, like school trusteeship, I have opened a door on higher education and some opportunities on this path. For example, I’ve just become a member of the CIRCE Academic Council and of the Education Canada Magazine Editorial Board. I am super honoured and excited to be part of these learning and leading opportunities in education, in addition to meeting and working with people across Canada and around the world. Moreover, I continue working with BCAMT.

Although I am spending time here to blog to you tonight, I do need to get back to the research-mindset (and not take myself too seriously). That nasty “teacher ego” often gets in the way. I hope that I am able, over time, to partake in the research process to connect practice to research and vice versa so that both practice and research serves each other. It does to some extent, but I find that (for me, at least) one works at a different pace than the other. Maybe that’s me taking myself too seriously again… but I hope to understand deeply the vulnerability, objectivity, and flow of research in higher education… in addition to finding my NICHE… as I work closely with the K-12 education system.

I wish all those who are campaigning now for the 2018 municipal election in BC the best of luck. I would also like to say CONGRATULATIONS to those who were acclaimed. I am grateful to all those who I have met during my time as school trustee. I am thankful to everything that I have learned during my time serving locally and provincially as an elected official. I am honoured to have been elected by the residents of the District of Sechelt and had the opportunity to represent the students and learning community of the Sunshine Coast. That said, change is good for me… and change is good for the school district and those it represents and serves. Thank you School District No.46 (Sunshine Coast). As of October 21st, this will be my first day after 24 years not being a part of SD46… but, I’m a mom. I guess, our relationship will continue for a few more years. 🙂

Catch Up Day

Day 14 (of 187) – September 21, 2018

As I am learning about my rhythm at work and living alone in Prince George, I am realizing that I will have high moments and low moments. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are high moments… with one late nighter for sure on Tuesdays. What I am learning is, Fridays are low moments. Today on the floor, it was really quiet. Classes were held on the other side of the floor and I would admit that today was VERY QUIET. I needed this time. I cannot believe how the little things quickly accumulate over time. I had a tonne of things to do… emailing, posting on Blackboard, and “getting organized.” I have a tonne of reading to do… planning and prepping to do… and well, I’d like to do some research too. I cannot believe it’s September 21st. Where did the time go?

As quiet as it was on the floor, I did have a few visitors. Yay for students. This was reassuring because I was getting a little spooked about how quiet it was on the floor. Yay students!!! I did talk to a few colleagues too today on the floor (but, photo not available… lol). I love having my door open so that people can visit and say HI, but also I like to know that someone is around. This must be an extrovert trait. Silence, admittedly, makes me uneasy. What I also love is the kind of energy these students have to CREATE COMMUNITY. We are starting an EDUCATION CLUB at UNBC and going on Social Media… We’ve decided on our handle (@UNBCed) and hashtag (#UNBCed), but 50/50 with platform (e.g. Twitter and Facebook). I’m not sure how viable Facebook is to creating a PLN that is accessible and organic. You can hear my leanings, but I am super excited to get #UNBCed “out there” locally and globally. Once again, I am pretty stoked.

Well… I put in an 8-hour day… had a yummy veggie samosa for lunch… and my backpack is FULL with more stuff to do. My days are full and I am enjoying the work and the people I’m meeting at UNBC. It’s been soooooo much fun so far and I am learning a tonne about myself, my practice, and my profession. I feel very lucky to have an active learning community here in Prince George and I love meeting new people and making new connections. My goal is to make the most of this school year. What I do know for sure is, everything that I am doing is focused on enhancing the learning experiences of students. What more can I say? I am ALIGNED to my purpose. I am CREATING something new.

Sense-Making Takes Time

Day 13 (of 187) – September 20, 2018

Wow. What an impressive crew… Secondary Year 1 at UNBC School of Education. This is my EDUC 360 class. I see these guys most often and I am really enjoying teaching this course, “Curriculum and Instruction: Introduction.” What we are working through is BC’s New Curriculum… but WORKING BACKWARDS. We started the course talking about curriculum development and theory then complimented this reading with the Heart of a Teacher. Parallel to this learning, along with the other coursework they are also engaged in, we are learning about BC’s New Curriculum and learning how to lesson/unit plan.

The class was sub-divided into self-identified subject specialities: Social Studies (top photo), English Language Arts (middle photo), and Science (bottom photos). Each group was asked to think of a learning activity they remembered from their K-12 learning experience to develop a lesson plan… WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE. Once the groups mutually agreed upon a lesson plan, they were asked to describe this learning activity. The first group did theirs on the Columbian Exchange, the second group did slam poetry, and the third group did light. A diverse set of topics to personalize their learning.

The class was then asked to refer to the BC’s New Curriculum and make a connection with their IMAGINED LESSON PLAN to a grade level and course. Funnily, it turned out to be Social Studies 8, English Language Arts 8, and Science 8. ALL GRADE 8!!! Interesting but not a TSN Turning Point. Once each group identified the grade level and course, they had to WORK BACKWARDS and identify the CONTENT and CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES that relate to their imagined lesson plan, the BIG IDEA(S), and the CORE COMPETENCIES (e.g. thinking, communication, and personal/social). Finally, they were asked to determine how these students would be evaluated (aka. the SUMMATIVE assessment).

This collaborative learning activity took time from few classes. Sense-making takes time. I like that students took the time to work together to dig into BC’s New Curriculum and collectively figure out each part of the curriculum in the context of their memory of learning in their subject specialty as K-12 students. I am so obsessed with the idea of deeper learning and how to achieve that. TIME is definitely one variable required, but I also believe dialogue, resources, and shared expertise helps too. We walked though BC’s Curriculum for the first time as a cohort. I loved that we were in subject speciality groups (except for Science, which was a HUGE group of 7… I’m letting that go… lol). It’s one way for these students to dig deep and co-construct knowledge with their subject matter.

Once the learning activity was complete… each group presented their lesson/unit plan to the class by first describing the IMAGINED LESSON PLAN and then how it related to parts of BC’s New Curriculum. I was so impressed with what these students accomplished as their first attempt with BC’s New Curriculum by WORKING BACKWARDS from what they know as K-12 students and transforming that thinking into pre-service teachers. As diverse as each topic was, what they had identified and described was appropriate to their imagined lesson plan within the framework of BC’s New Curriculum.

We walked away with a few aha’s like the lesson plans chosen were ones they remembered and enjoyed as learners, each course curriculum is unique to the discipline, and we were all able to connect what we had learned as students to BC’s New Curriculum as teachers. BINGO!!! Of course, we have work to do. This is our first step in the scaffolding process, but this reminded me the power of learning with others versus learning in isolation. They collectively exceeded my expectations and I loved observing each group to see what roles each student takes in terms of contribution. At some level, I would say it was “equal” but each person took leadership that best reflected their strengths. It was a natural process, yet another way to personalize learning.

It was an awesome segway to discuss formative assessment strategies (e.g. Assessment As Learning and Assessment For Learning) and summative assessment opportunities (e.g. Assessment Of Learning). As we move forward learning about Curriculum and Instruction in the context of BC Education, we will also continue to learn more about assessment and evaluation. What I am enjoying about this course is facilitating learning based on Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle and learning by doing. The META MOMENT here is we are learning in EDUC 360 as students could/would/should within BC’s New Curriculum.

I love treating this course like a learning lab. Let’s apply what we know. Not only did this learning activity help me to identify what areas we need to work on next to clarify concepts and content as part of the scaffolding process, but also students were able to make connections with what we are doing with their other courses. For example, students realized that they were applying what they had learned in their INCLUSION CLASS to their lesson planning process in the context of summative and formative assessment strategies. Each group identified different opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning, how they would incorporate peer and self-assessment, and offering choice. WINNING!!!

PS. I also loved that we used all parts of the room today. The front of the room is relative.

Dungeons and Dragons

Day 12 (of 187) – September 19, 2018

I will admit… today’s daily blog of learning will be short. I’m pooped. My bed is calling my name. The day started and ended talking about practicum for the Year 2 Elementary Cohort at UNBC School of Education. Enough said. It’s about laying the ground work for the upcoming 4-week practicum and it was an opportunity to discuss with the Teacher Candidates, Coaching Teachers, and Practicum Mentors with what’s happening in the next few weeks, months, and vision for future. I love the framework of LEARNING at the heart of what we are doing and I feel that things got off to a good start. I’m pretty stoked.

Year 2 Elementary Practicum for EDUC490 was not the highlight of my day today… it was my EDUC360 class with the Year 1 Secondary Cohort. Student facilitated learning as a couple of my students summarized one of my favourite articles, “The Heart of a Teacher,” which comes from one of my favourite books, “The Courage to Teach” by Parker Palmer (1997). The two students opted to collaborate and first summarized the article with a PowerPoint. It was a nice summary that highlighted points that they had identified about the importance of identity and integrity in teaching… and that WE TEACH WHO WE ARE.

The two students unpacked this idea by “being vulnerable” and used their passion, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS to demonstrate some of the big ideas from the article. They self-identified as GEEKS and developed a game for the class to participate in. This learning was scaffolded with us forming groups of 3-4 and filling out a form, which asked us the following: What is your superhero name? What are your passionate about? What do you think your strength is in teaching? (name 3) And, what are your weakness in teaching? (name 2) I liked that activity already as it got us to think about our passion and strengths. It’s not easy to do, yet many of us struggled with the superhero name (lol).

We shared what we had developed with our team and the class… then we rolled a die to see who would go first in the Dungeons and Dragons Challenge (i.e. warding off ZOMBIES on campus at UNBC). They had cute graphics identifying the Zombies at different areas of campus with different scenarios. As a team, we were each posed a challenge to win back these Zombies back to learning/education using our STRENGTHS. I’ll admit, role play is not my strength but the class proceeded with volunteer Zombies and each superhero team using their strength with transform these Zombies into active learners. I loved how the 2 student facilitators were able to take what we have created for ourselves (i.e. strengths) to transform Zombie behaviour and make connections to teaching and learning. Personally, I enjoyed the colour commentary. Lots of laughs. Lots of engagement. Lots of joy. This is exactly what the article was all about. Brilliant.

There might be a games night in the near future… heads up. I love the idea of using gamification as part of pedagogy because Dungeons and Dragons (or board games) is a passion and somehow they were able to depict and demonstrate the underpinnings of the article that was personalized, experiential, and memorable. Thank you Kris and Devon.

Feeling Stoked

Day 11 (of 187) – September 18, 2018

Oh my goodness… it’s already tomorrow. 12:12am. And yes, I am committed to writing my daily blog of learning before I do anything else. Tuesdays are going to be long days. I have a night class. Wednesdays are teaching days. I thought I had this figured out. I planned and prepped last week for my classes… and I’m glad I did for my Tuesday night class because when I’m on campus, my day gets filled up with connecting with people on the floor. I love those moments and I love our conversations and collaboration.

Take a look at the photo above. I am so stoked about this. This is how my day started. I had an online face-to-face conversation with a group of people from around the world meeting. It was incredible. We were connecting with Dr. Gillian Judson (Twitter: @perfinker), the Executive Director of CIRCE at Simon Fraser University. We are part of the Academic Council at CIRCE and this was our inaugural meeting with some of the crew. I love this context of what CIRCE has to offer and what it intends to do. This is going to be THE BEST professional learning community and opportunity for me and I can’t wait. We are starting anew and I look forward to the journey with Gillian to make CIRCE flourish and succeed. Check out the website at http://www.circesfu.ca/ and subscribe to get your free IE (imaginative education) Took kit. There are lots more things to come.

I was pretty stoked about this morning’s online meeting, which was then topped off with the completion of our UNBC-EDUC Template for e-Portfolios. It’s another exciting endeavour happening at UNBC School of Education where we intend to pilot e-Portfolios for the Practicum Component for Teacher Education, but also have it eventually become a 2-year documentation of the Teacher Candidate’s learning experience, which may also include coursework, exemplars of learning, and ongoing formative assessment. I am optimistic and excited of this initiative and how it can collaborate with the current EdTech courses offered to second year Teacher Candidates. Not only does it allow for our Teacher Candidates to understand the complexities of Communicating Student Learning as a learner, it also serves as a CAPSTONE for when they successfully completed Teacher Education at UNBC and venture forward into a career in teaching or related vocations.

Today started super great that I was riding this wave of excitement for the rest of the day. I was chatted with one colleague, then another. We went to get a bagel… which quickly transformed into going to the UNBC Farmer’s Market where I got BUTTER CHICKEN and a SAMOSA. Yup. Great things happen in three’s. BOOM. I was so stoked to go to the Farmer’s Market and a comforting carb-eriffic lunch sealed the deal. From one meeting to another… then chatting with another colleague… I was able to make it to my night class in time to have the day conclude with an evening of social and academic engagement. Can it get any better than this? We’ll soon shall see. Now it’s time to re-prep for tomorrow.

Budda’s Blend

Day 10 (of 187) – September 17, 2018

Where did the time go today? YIKES. Is this how’s it’s going to be? Every moment matters. It’s Monday and I arrived to work with a basket, 3 small pictures, some miscellaneous items, and a plug-in kettle to complete my journey of decorating my office. That’s it. I’m done. I’m pretty happy how my office looks and feels and I have plenty of room to spread all of my stuff on my desk as a clear indicator to me of the things I’ve got to do. YAY.

I unpacked my stuff and made myself a cup of tea… Tea given to me from one of my students. It tasted delicious, but it took me all day to drink it. As soon as I felt that I was somewhat settled down… it was one meeting, then an informal conversation, some photocopying, organizing my desk, another meeting, then another meeting… back to my office, a phone call conference, and yes… another meeting. The day ends with several other informal conversations and then it’s back home. Who needs that envelope? I just drove straight home. I thought about KFC. The envelope can wait for tomorrow.

Home by 6pm… inspired to make DINNER FOR ONE and I think that I have mastered my mom’s “Vi Guy” (aka. soy sauce chicken stir fry). Tonight’s dinner with brown rice just hit the spot for me to become grounded in my work and who I am. It’s also comforting. With another big cup of tea, I settled down in front of my computer to engage in another edu-chat on Twitter (aka. a personal goal for this year). The day will conclude to a HOT BATH and yes… homework. I hope to figure out the time to return back to my research. I am so grateful for the connections I have made so far since being here in Prince George. I look forward to the work ahead and stoked for the next few days (aka. teaching classes).

Thank you BUDDA’s BLEND tea. I’m enjoying my pedagogical journey so far here at UNBC in Prince George. It’s complex, diverse, and intrinsically rewarding. I hope to achieve what I hope to achieve. I am hopeful and optimistic. I hope to make a difference in some way and contribute to the profession, practice, and discipline. As challenging as things may seem, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. BELIEVE. Anything is possible.

Not One Pic

Day 9 (of 187) – September 14, 2018

Seriously. Not one picture from today. I must be losing it. I even had an awesome yummy lunch at the UNBC pub – The Thirsty Moose with my colleagues… and no food pic of my delicious bacon cheeseburger and fries. This is very unlike me. It must show my level of engagement… or I am actually heading into my EARLY HIBERNATION, as mentioned from my last blog entry. Not sure, but I’m getting suspicious. So here’s a pic of an article to depict the kind of reading I will be doing this weekend in addition to e-Portfolios.

As predicted, I stayed up late to get some work done. I was so happy to “catch up” with my course planning and prepping. I’m learning more about Blackboard and communicating with students electronically with PDFs and “announcements.” It’s continues to be really fun to figure things out and to see what works. I enjoy the learning curve and problem solving. With a late night, I went to the university a little later in the morning. No classes for me to teach on Fridays but it’s a day when one of my colleagues teaches, otherwise she teaches remotely online. This is always the best time to collaborate, hence lunch out to the Thirsty Moose. That said, it’s also an opportunity to explore the campus. UNBC is a beautiful campus, but I haven’t seen any moose yet.

I love taking the time to collaborate with my colleagues and to talk about how things are going. I am also building my capacity one day at a time but also learning more about my role, the school, and what we are trying to achieve. This is the exciting part. I love problem solving and finding ways to move forward. I am always fascinated by the complexities of systems. I felt this way when I was teaching secondary math, governing as a school trustee, and advocating for my mom when she was in the hospital. Systems organize people and dictates certain behaviours and actions. People are interconnected. With one shift, there’s a domino effect (or not). Systems always make me curious.

The day concludes with meeting with my master student to move forward with her study but also get our Ps and Qs organized so that she can complete her final project before the end of the school year. I loved where we met. STARBUCKS. And can you believe… NO SELFIE. I am losing it. Or, once again, an indicator of my level of engagement. We had an awesome conversation and we are an excellent match in terms of our personalities and work ethic. This supervision will be super fun. It’s going well so far. To treat myself from a VERY ENGAGING day, I wanted to get Chinese food from the food fair at the mall… but there isn’t one. What??? I considered a Costco hotdog, but in the end, I returned to my apartment and made dinner. The night concludes with laundry. WOOHOO. What a day!!!

Early Hibernation

Day 8 (of 187) – September 13, 2018

OK… It’s the end of my “full week” of work. Of course I’m going into work tomorrow to connect with colleagues and GET THINGS DONE, but I don’t teach on Fridays. Anyway, I woke up this morning to SUB-ZERO temperatures. Blue sky but what’s up with the -8 degrees??? This coastal-girl has some adjustments to make. The learning curve is HUGE. It snowed a bit yesterday and I turned on my seat-warmer in my car going to work… and yet, I wore my CROCS and NorthFace anyway. Take that!!! BTW: denial runs deep.

It was great coming to work today. Checked in with my colleague Deb K to say hello and she gave me these cute handmade mittens with a hole for the finger tips as a gesture of kindness and WELCOME to the cold weather. Sheesh. I love them… and that was exactly what I was thinking when I was walking from my car to the university. I need gloves!!! And, voila. It was a very serendipitous moment. I very much enjoyed my EDUC360 class today. This is a great class. Secondary, first year, teacher candidates. Today, we finally completed our course SIGN-UPS and started to talk about BC’s New Curriculum.

I think about what makes me tick and I am still driven by ENHANCING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCES OF STUDENTS. It truly is my purpose. I just love trying to figure out, now in higher education, how students can sense-make through complex content in a dialogical and collaborative way. I love social engagement as part of the learning process. Within 110 minutes, we finished our class SIGN-UPs, discuss again what the course framework and momentum would look like, watched Shelley Moore’s TEDxLangleyED Under the Table, discussed curriculum as policy, introduced students to the BC’s New Curriculum website, First Peoples Principles of Learning, and the Educated Citizen.

To make sense of BC’s New Curriculum, we started a learning activity where students got into subject speciality groups, co-imagined a learning activity in their subject areas (as learners), and worked BACKWARDS through BC’s New Curriculum from finding the course and grade level, identifying the content and related curricular competencies, then next class identify which BIG IDEAS their learning activity captures, start composing “I can” statements as they relate to the Core Competencies, and make connections to the First Peoples Principles of Learning. Whew. This does not include personalized learning, interdisciplinary learning, and assessment and evaluation. This is complex. I love it.

After this class, I zoomed down the hill to meet with one of the EDtech sessional instructors. This was so wonderful to meet another person from the School of Education and SD57. We chatted about e-Portfolios and how it will work for his class and our vision for practicum courses. We worked out a plan for this year and discussed what next year could look like. I also realized that I have to connect with another EDtech sessional instructor to see what this person thinks as well. This journey of collaboration to include and incorporate ides and needs of the students and faculty is all about compromise and finding the best fit for all. It’s been a fun process so far and this vision is definitely emerging. I will keep you posted but I am excited about the potential e-Portfolios can bring to the School of Education to make student learning cohesive and visible.

With all this excitement… all that I want to do is NAP. I am so tired this week. The one late night of course prep and a jammed packed Wednesday proved to me that I’m not the undergrad from the 80’s who used to do all nighters to get things done. I have NEVER BEEN an early to bed, early to rise person. I will get up in the morning, but it’s likely I went to be late. That’s just how it is. I am very happy that my classes start later in the day at UNBC and I have plenty of time to work done. But my Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays are jammed packed. Yay for Friday!!! Personally, I like to believe that it’s the COLD weather that is making me sleepy. EARLY HIBERNATION. It’s mid-September and it’s snowing and below zero. What? I’m going to bed. I may not wake until the spring.

Meeting My PLN

Day 7 (of 187) – September 12, 2018

Today is a new day… it was a HUGE day… first, I overbooked myself. I am so grateful that I have colleagues who are willing to flex their time and reappointment to another time. After last nights class, I stayed up late… to blog… but also prep for my classes today. I am just pooped. That said, nothing picks up your day better than meeting members of your Twitter PLN face-to-face. I know Monica (@MBerra) from Twitter and Noelle (@noelle_pepin) knows me from Twitter. All in all, this morning was pretty much an one-hour love in. I did not want it to end. I love what they are doing at the SD57 District Learning Centre and I can’t wait to have Noelle come guest speak to one of my classes… and Monica work with my other class with the SD57 Education Kits during practicum.

This was a good start to my day… as I race back to the university to teach my two classes back to back… these classes went super well as well. This made me super happy. JUST BE YOURSELF. You teach who you are. Be the person you want to see… Classic… the Golden Rule at its finest. I had fun in both my classes, but the 10 minute transition from one class to another makes it a marathon of instruction. I just met my first class, the elementary practicum group, for the first time. Because I met so many of these students during orientation, it did not feel like a “syllabus day.” It was so great to OVER PLAN and go with the flow. Goodbye PLOW mindset. I wanted thisclass to get a good sense of who I am and what I am all about. With my second class, it was our second class together. Again… I was going with the flow and over planned this class too. I had stuff to pull from but also was was able to give space for students to co-create knowledge and collectively sense-make. I was a super fun class. We had our FIRST student led presentation too… using MEMES. How timely, because #bcedchat kicked off the school year with memes.

The day concludes with me chatting with a student after class, cancelling a meeting, putting aside some work for tomorrow… and racing home to attend the SD46 Board of Education meetings via phone. Yup. It was a full day. I even got an email from one of my students from last night indicating that he had enjoyed last night’s class. So cray, cray.

Habitual Pedagogy

Day 6 (of 187) – September 11, 2018

Oh my goodness… what a day. Not only am I writing my “second” daily blog of learning today, I clocked in more than 12-hours on campus… teaching, learning, and leading. No complaints. I loved it. I truly enjoy having my DOOR OPEN, as mentioned in my last blog entry, and having students and staff drop in to say hello, discuss course work, or share ideas. It’s an ideal workplace situation. I am totally stoked about starting and e-Portfolio with our Teacher Candidates and learning-by-doing what it means to facilitate this shift in teaching and learning. The best part is knowing that someone on campus has a collaborative expertise on this. This was a perfect storm. I will let you know how this goes. In the meantime, I was prepping for my night course EDUC 601 – Educational Research and Design. Well… all I can say is REDO please. I can do better.

I don’t want to be my toughest critic but I think I am. The students seemed OK, but they don’t know any different. I walked away from tonight’s class and thought… Why am I doing all of the blabbing? What do I know? How can I facilitate learning to help them know (without me dumping MY THOUGHTS on research)? We have a book… and what are their thoughts? I will admit, we were trying to get two weeks worth of “content” done tonight because we did not have class last week. UNBC’s classes officially started last Wednesday (and we’re a Tuesday night course). It was a “sit and deliver” on the course syllabus and Chapters 1 and 2. The students thrived when I just gave them the space to figure our their research problem and discuss with others. I so bummed that when push comes to shove that I would resort to what I know… HABITUAL PEDAGOGY.

A PowerPoint, my vague summary of the chapters, and me speaking about the BIG IDEAS of the chapters these students have pre-read before my class… Can this get anymore disappointing? OK. I’m doing my job… but not well. I know I can do better. I want a new HABITUAL PEDAGOGY that is student centred and student led… in higher education. I want students to be sense-making… collaboratively and cooperatively. I want to create a learning community that thrives on growth, experiential learning, and play. I am being a bit rough on myself. I’m not sure what I expect from my first class of any course in higher education. The syllabus run-down is really just me sharing my vision and expectations for the course. Nothing too exciting. But I could have done better on my chapter summaries.

That said, I was encouraged by how students from my previous classes are already talking to me about what they are planning to do in our class in the next coming days… to collaborate and bounce ideas. I love that. I was heartened by how quickly my night class gelled and gracefully engaged in small group discussion to talk about research and their research problem. We’ll see how this goes. No one was scathed and I am judging pretty early in the term (i.e. after the first class). In hindsight, my first class of other courses I taught at SFU had a “slow start” and would only gain momentum by Week 6. We are only in Week 2. I should be kinder to myself, but I do understand why it would be difficult to adopt BC’s New Curriculum with HABITUAL PEDAGOGY. I am a huge supporter of BC’s New Curriculum and 21st Century Learning… and here I am defaulting to “lecturing” (even though that’s my job title). I am learning as I am doing. Can’t wait for tomorrow.