I’m not really sure what I mean by this. There is no question that I am passionate about coffee and Costco soup dumplings. I would call this image “the breakfast for champions.” I would often eat this meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. If I don’t have a lot of time in the morning to make breakfast… soup dumplings. If I’m feeling down and sad… soup dumplings. If I’m feeling happy and excited… soup dumplings. I hope you can see a clear pattern here. I just love this quick and easy meal. It’s comforting, consistent, and delicious. That’s all I can say about it. It’s my go-to meal. I just love it.
What else do I love?
I love to teach. I may not be an award winning educator or chosen to be a guest speaker for graduation, I love what I do. I was so happy when I returned back to teaching at the university after leaving K-12 education. Although I spent some time professional development workshops and public speaking as a school trustee, nothing beats teaching students. I love the relationships, the reciprocity, and the joy that comes from teaching and learning. It’s hard to describe, but I love the creative process of planning, prepping, and assessment. Trying new things and making things better with each iteration motivate me. I love the learning that comes with teaching.
But I caught myself this week and noticed what “stokes my fire.” I love assessment. That might be somewhat of an understatement. I’m not an assessment researcher, nor am I one to claim numeric precision or accuracy with my assessment practices. What I will say is, assessment frames, drives, and reflects my pedagogy and values. If I could, I am an advocate for and fan of the single point rubric. I love the idea of having a clear learning target, explicit success criteria, and different ways for students to demonstrate their learning. I found myself just capitalizing a Zoom conversation about assessment in an upcoming keynote my friend/colleague and I are preparing for, and everything that I was teaching during one of my classes was framed around my assessment practice and intentions. I just love it. Assessment is important to me.
When I think about my research program, I am drawn to out-of-field teaching, professional learning, and one’s sense of self-efficacy in the context of teacher education, mathematics education, and climate change education. Where does assessment fit into all of this? Self-assessment and formative assessment are critical within these topics as well as identity, agency, and vulnerability. I suppose that I cannot oversimplify my interest in these areas even though I’m encouraged to articulate this agenda in a sentence or two. Indigenous worldviews and knowledge in addition to culture and my ethnic identity are entangled in my research interest along with leadership, power, and policy. The human experience is a complex one. I am creating my own path. If anything, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a colleague recently… do what makes me happy. It takes courage, patience, and trust.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, September 14th, 2024 | No Comments »
Northern Lights in Banff, AB during the Outdoor Learning Conference in May 2024.
Hello September 2024… and I feel that it’s time. I’m ready to jump and take a leap of faith with a flurry of “things to do” and achieve in my work and personal life. Now that my non-teaching team has reached an end, I feel that I found a beautiful balance between resting, writing, and conferencing. I really enjoyed travelling to new places, meeting new people (and reuniting with others), and sharing some of my work to receive some formative feedback. I was pleasantly surprised what people found interesting and I am so grateful that folks are willing to share their interest and enthusiasm with some of the work that I am engaged in. Moreover, I was able to connect with others during the summer to partake in other research projects that are super interesting. What I appreciate though is making the connection. It feels great.
Gosh… it has taken some time (i.e., time to change from tenure-track to tenure) to feel ready to take a chance and explore the possibilities of finding a tenure-track position. Although that seeking such a position is the target, but really, what I am learning is, I am limited in the kind of what I can do as a term faculty member. Don’t get me wrong, I can do a lot of things as term faculty. And, I love teaching and trying out new ideas, so I’m not sad about teaching and continually trying to hone my craft and learn new things. It makes my job fun and I love connecting with students. But during the summer, I realized that I am not able to do some things because of my term position that caught my attention and brought me to wonder about “what do I really want to do?” The answer to this question, at least for me, was not obvious.
Learning experientially has always been the best way for me to learn. I’ve spent the last 6-years learning about higher education, program dynamics, and what was important to me. Concurrently, I was also learning more about myself and my life has changed, shifted, and transformed in ways that was not predicable or desirable. Finally, I feel like I’m on my feet and seeing things with a clear perspective and realistic expectations. Now that I feel more like myself with nothing to prove, but only enjoy the work that I do, I’d love to have a position that offer the flexibility, openness, and purposefulness that I am hoping for. I am so prepared to embark on a few big projects but spent a lot of time deliberating if I could do it. Now, I understand that I can start my work and get things started. The goal is to see where this work take me.
I have never felt so excited. After I take this moment on my blog reflecting on this feeling and understanding, the journey begins. In many ways, it has started, but this next step is about me and the directions I want to take. Of course, if I remain in the same position, I will continue working on these projects that are currently in my imagination as well as finish up on the work that I am currently engaged. What I do know is, the possibilities are endless and I love the idea of having a VISION. Having a vision resonated with me after listening to Dr. Dwayne Donald’s keynote address at the UNBC Teaching and Learning Conference. For me, my vision is that MATH MOMENT… the aha… the joy that comes from discovery and the growth and development of one’s sense of self-efficacy… fuels me. I just can’t wait!! Let’s go…
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, September 02nd, 2024 | Comments Off on Feeling Ready to Jump
It’s the end of August and next week is the first week of the school year. A new cohort of teacher candidates arriving to the program as well as new students (to me) in the graduate course I am teaching. I have a tonne of things to do, and for this, I am grateful. I managed to complete a chapter with the help and collaboration of my colleagues on a research team, I presented at a national and local conference, and I monitored one of my courses asynchronously. I’m not sure where July and August went. The time just few by and I am so grateful to have some time to rest, travel, and find my rhythm. I love to teach, coach, and present. Connecting is my jam. Yay me!!
Maybe it’s the MATH PERSON in me, but I love making patterns. I had an awesome time supporting a small group of teacher candidates with their presentation at the UNBC Teaching and Learning Conference on August 28, 2024, and I presented twice on August 29, 2024. My first presentation was a LIGHTNING TALK about “in situ” learning at Harwin Elementary for EDUC 421 (Assessment and Motivation) and the second presentation was a panel discussion of which I organized a “fishbowl discussion” with research team members, design team members, UNBC School of Education students, and anyone else who came to our session to talk about local solutions for global impact regarding climate change. All 3 sessions went very well.
I ended my work week (and my first non-teaching term) with working on the webpage for a research project I am working on. I spent about 8-hours to train on the platform, of which I got 100%, and about 4-hours updating the webpage. That work was super satisfying. I was totally procrastinating the online training. The online delivery is not a teaching/learning style I prefer, but I managed to do much of the training in a tent, on a ranch, in Vanderhoof… with wifi… during my tiger time (i.e., 12am to 4am) at a retreat for another project I am working on. I can see why I procrastinated the asynchronous training. It took me awhile to understand what information was important and unimportant, and there were some inconsistencies within the platform. When I returned home, I figured out the glitches and submitted my work. 100% is very satisfying, and updating the webpage was even more satisfying.
What I am realizing is, I do a lot of work that many people may not recognize, see, or value. In the big picture, it does not matter. I like what I am doing. I love travelling, meeting new people, and presenting at conferences (even when the 7-minute Lightning Talk took me HOURS to create, compose, and prepare for). It’s never perfect and I’m always willing to try new things. Most of all, I love to MAKE CONNECTIONS. I love making connections between policy and practice, connections with people, and connections within my practice. I don’t need external validation (i.e., an award, recognition, or promotion). I get plenty of unsolicited compliments from students who can see and experience my work. That’s the ultimate goal. I just need to remember to DO WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY. Everything else will fall into place.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, August 31st, 2024 | Comments Off on Finding My Flow
