Happy Halloween… Yes, I’m an UNBC Timberwolves FAN!!! Thank you for noticing. That said, I am listening to the fireworks in my neighbourhood of College Heights in Prince George where I am “laying low” on this Halloween night. It the first night in 15 years that I’m not at home in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast with my daughter where she would like to dress up, hang out with friends, and give out candy. I’m here… miles away living in an apartment building. NO ONE is coming by my place to “trick or treat” and that’s OK.
It does not take much to make my day. I did have candy to give out to my class today. The student presenters brought candy too. We had gummies, licorice, and chocolate. A winning combination… especially when my students just finished a midterm exam in a previous class and I’m recovering from my fall from yesterday. Why not soothe the soul with a bit of candy? To top it off, today’s reading summary was about FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT and Assessment for Learning… one of my favourite topics to discuss and do in education but also one of the key underpinnings of BC’s New Curriculum.
Lots of thoughts go through my mind as my students present a summary of the article and facilitate a learning activity based on that article. The article focused much about policies and systems, and how the framework of formative assessment should be found throughout the system to support and enhance student learning. It was a big article, meaning that it wasn’t focussed on the details of how to implement specific formative assessment strategies, but it revealed many of the big ideas of formative assessment and its value to student learning and quality of teaching. At the end of the presentation… “I tried” to clarify some ideas about assessment and what to expect in some of my course assignments, but I think I made it worse. I did not seize the formative opportunities.
One of the underpinnings of my course is EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING. I was so compelled to “tell the answer” and I did. I think what I said only made sense to those who had already completed the assignment. I did not honour experiential learning cycle and allowing students to struggle. Well, I did with those who had already completed the assignment but there are still those who still need to complete the assignment. Nonetheless, all was said and done and we had only 10 minutes to get into our collaborative learning groups to design an interdisciplinary unit plan and lesson plan.
After a couple of meetings and carbo-loading with a Tim Horton’s bagel (and some yummy cake), I returned to my office to pack up. I sat there for some moments to “catch my breath” and appreciate my surroundings. I needed to regroup. What was great was… one of my students popped his head in my door and cheered. I think that he was glad I was still here. It was getting late. There were two students… and yes, they were asking for some help. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT and FORMATIVE FEEDBACK. I could not have asked for anything more. With some discussion, I hopped out of my seat to talk about the learning intentions and the assignment. YEEEESSSS!!! Formative in REAL-TIME. Students engaged in the struggle… and the AH-HA… for ME and my students. Love the formative.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, October 31st, 2018 | Comments Off on Love the Formative
We are finally at Week 6. Truth. I can’t believe that we are already at Week 6. We are approaching the halfway mark of EDUC454 this summer term. We finally had our FIRST class with all student-led learning activities within the time frame as intended, but we would surely appreciated another hour or two to get to the deep learning that could be achieved and experienced. This is definitely one of my biggest takeaways from this course… MORE TIME. If we want to go beyond surface learning, we need to minimize the breath of knowledge and trade it for depth of knowledge.
Although each student-led learning activity, whether it would be group facilitation, reading summary, or warm-up activity, we could have used more time to explore the learning further. That said, I have some learning activities I would like to share but I am almost coming to terms with the idea that I might have to let go of what I have to share. What students are sharing in the context of Quantitative Approaches to Environmental Education is AMAZING. We are truly gaining a breadth of knowledge because students are asked to personalize their learning and share what’s important and interesting to them within the context of the course. Students are leading this course.
Admittedly, I am reporting these student-led learning activities out of order in this blog… and I hope that’s OK. The first few pictures depict the warm-up activity. Two students spoke to the class, assembled in a circle, about acknowledging the unceeded territory where SFU is situated. We talked about our level of comfort and why it’s important to acknowledge the land and the history. Students, in pairs, were asked to pick one piece of paper that briefly describes an event that happened on the territory at SFU. They were then asked to use their devices to research information about the event they had chosen. From this collaboration, students were asked to stand out in the hall, talk with one another about their chosen event, and form a timeline. A discussion ensued after this formation and one pair walked around the top floor of SFU Surrey. That was bewildering, yet meaningful. I liked how these students used SFU as place and time as a quantitative approach to deepen their understanding of Indigenous history and the land.
The next two photos show the oral presentations of the weekly reading summary. We are reading Gillian Judson’s “A Walking Curriculum” (part one). I loved how each presentation was not a reiteration of what they had read… as one of the student’s said, “I’m not going to list of the activities, you can read it yourself.” I liked how they were able to personalize the information, pick quotes from the book that triggered them in a meaningful way, and took the liberty to be creative and learn “beside the book.” What do I mean by that? One of the presenters, took photos of her place… her community… and created a automated slideshow during her presentation. As she spoke about what she had learned from the book, she went meta and showed the class what she noticed in her environment with photos (which was perfectly timed at 10 minutes).
Another student summarized the first four sections of the book and the importance of follow-up activities. She also reflected on Gillian’s visit to our class and brought up the first activity of remembering an important place that we had a personal connection to and that the book stated that you can’t make an emotional connection to place unless you step foot on it. She picked Crescent Beach as her place and she’s a runner… a competitive long distance runner. She was awestruck with this concept because she couldn’t imagine the number of steps she took running on this beach. She realized after reading Gillian’s book why this place was so important to her and how she was emotionally connected.
The next few photos represent the group facilitation learning activity from 4 students (aka. Group 3) that happened at the beginning of class. Although we did not go outside, this group was able to utilize a half a dozen teaching strategies to facilitate interdisciplinary learning that involved English, Social Studies, Environmental Education, and quantitative approaches. The group facilitation was about being Orwellian and George Orwell’s 1984. We talked about what it means to be Orwellian and “Big Brother is watching” then asked about our comfort level with social media on a scale of 1-10. Most of the class hovered around 3. I was in the minority standing around 9. We had a quick discussion about our positions then challenged with the next task of going in groups of 2-3 and scouting through the mall for examples of “big brother is watching.” This was a nice tie in to Gillian Judson’s book and NOTICING what’s in our environment.
We returned back to discuss with others what we had found and we were encouraged to be as creative and critical with what we had found and hypothesized. It was very interesting what we had thought and wonder what high school students would have noticed doing a similar activity. What I noticed was, there were many messages telling me that I can achieve the perfect life… just buy here. We then transitioned into our next activity where we were divided into groups of 4 and we were asked to review and article about a current event that related to the idea of Orwell. We were asked to discern if what we read was Orwellian and discuss a few follow up questions. My group read about Amazon’s Alexa and the recent event of the device being asked to record and send a couple’s conversation. There were 4 other current event topics that each group had to summarize and share findings. In the end, that activity was about how decisions are made based on data collected and how it can also be used to manipulate your thinking.
Well… I was blown away as to how complex these student led activities can be. The class concludes with our closing activity that addressed another local current event: Kinder Morgan. This student indicated to the class why this topic was of importance to her and asked the class to participate in a simulator activity of activists and lobbyists. The class exercised all three-core competencies even though she focused on the personal/social core competency of social justice. Students did not know of the number of lobbyists were in the crowd but the objective of the game is to find and connect with other environmentalists and not have the group be infiltrated with a lobbyist. What an excellent activity this would be for students to deepen their understanding of the pipeline via role-play and gamification. Roles were randomly assigned. After 10 minutes, the lobbyists had to self-identify. 3 groups had formed and one person opted to standalone. All 3 groups were infiltrated. The lone person won the game. This activity modelled a current event where lobbyists were immersed into a crowd of protesters to influence and assess them.
Weekly Journal Questions
In what ways does the practice and underlying philosophy of The Walking Curriculum align with the BC curriculum?
See above.
How can imagination- and inquiry-driven outdoor explorations support your teaching?
See above.
How are you doing on your inquiry project? What help do you need? How did you get started? Have you changed your mind?
For my inquiry project, I have to carve out time to read THE 100 MILE DIET. I also have to make time to go to the Farmer’s Market on Saturdays in Sechelt. I am curious about the variety of food I can get from local markets, the cost of food, and convenience of obtaining food. I am also drawn to PLASTIC CONSUMPTION when food shopping. I bring my own bags and try not to use any additional plastic bags in produce, for example, but there is A LOT of food wrapped in plastic. I was awakened by this phenomenon. Furthermore, much of this plastic wrap has to be recycled separately because it is soft.
I love how this class has parked the grade aside, for a moment, to focus on what’s possible in the classroom… the core competencies, interdisciplinary learning, and quantitative approaches to environmental education. The definition is broad and we implement ongoing formative assessment to achieve outcomes greater than expected. Learning is fun, engaging, and empowering. I think that we are achieving that and feel safe to delve deep, play, and explore what is possible. This is much like, in many ways, what Trevor MacKenzie writes about… letting go of power for inquiry. I’m not the expert in the class. We are all experts and we are all learners. We’re having too much fun!!!
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, June 20th, 2018 | Comments Off on Student Led Learning
We are jumping into EDUC454 with our first student-led warm-up activity. Two students brought nature to us. I much enjoyed this activity. They had prepared about 8 bags filled with natural materials. The class sub-divided themselves into groups of 2-3 and grabbed a bag. The goal was to make patterns with the materials inside the bag. Each bag had different materials. We repeated the activity 3 times and with each round, the class adapted to what was expected, took less time, and got more creative. I loved that the room smelled like the outdoors. I also appreciated our student facilitators for preparing a lesson plan to share, facilitating the activity so nimbly, and being early adopters. It’s not easy going first and they did GREAT. They set the stage for the rest of the class. Furthermore, we modelled formative feedback on the fly. We were working on creating “I can…” statements based on our learning experience from the student-led warm-up activity and self-assessing ourselves with a one-point scale rubric. We made our first steps.
The class continued with a teacher-led activity where we used iPhones to take photos of the environment around us. The learning objective was take picture of MATH. Where do you see math in your environment? Students did an excellent job taking photos of architecture, lottery and locker combinations, and people roaming around Surrey Central. What interested me was only one group of 7 went outside of the building to take photos. Another indicator that we are in a different place from Burnaby Campus where we are defining our environment, knowingly or unknowingly, as the classroom, the building, and maybe outside. We also had a very engaging and thought provoking dialogue on use of technology in the classroom. Points of view ranged from not having them to using them but let’s be aware of the self-regulation required for responsible and purposeful usage in addition to quality of teaching and student engagement. Thank you for participating.
We ended the class with our first reading summaries. The 1-2 page written summary was submitted a few days before and posted on Canvas for classmates to read. The oral summaries happen during class time and questions are created by these students and posed to our class for discussion. I loved the summaries. One student was unable to come to class due to illness. She was sooooooo responsible, that she video recorded her oral summary and emailed that to me along with her discussion questions. It was so well done and very timely with the use of technology in the classroom discussion. Students were engaged with her video clip, which was followed by our second presenter who endured some technology issues with his PowerPoint (which I managed to figure out… kind of). Nonetheless, another thoughtful oral presentation of the reading. The written summary reports out what was read and the oral summary, students can put their own spin on what was read and ask thought provoking questions. A great discussion and wonderful moment of reporting out; a nice representation of the diversity of our class.
It strange to think that I am “over planning” for my EDUC454 class but you never know how things will unfold and I like to guide my instruction based on student input and participation. We were so engaged in class discussion and our warm-up activity, for example, it’s easy for me to adapt my lesson to go with with the flow of the class without losing focus on what we are trying to achieve. That said, I missed asking the class… “What do you expect to learn from this course?” Well, I did ask that question as part of the WEEK 1 Journal, but didn’t ask for me to learn. I guess I will keep that a surprise (to me and the rest of the class) until the end of the course when student submit their weekly journal and one-page summary. Mentioning that I go with the flow, my questions about their perceived math efficacy. As seen in our last week’s journal, many of us clustered to one end of the continuum indicating that math may not be their thing.
Weekly Journal Response – Week 2
What is your perceived level of math efficacy?
I think I’m OK at math. I would put myself with the few on the continuum who were also science people. I majored in Chemistry and minored in Mathematics. I got an A/B in high school math, failed Math 100 (which totally offset my undergraduate career), and managed to get the grades I needed in my minor and required courses to get into the Faculty of Education at UBC to teach math. I like math. I enjoyed data analysis during my dissertation… a nice application of math… but I also loved teaching high school math.
What is your math story?
It started when I dropped high school calculus in my Grade 12 year. That was a BIG mistake. I come from a small town… Prince Rupert, BC… (and just celebrated my 30th reunion). Going down to UBC to do first year science was OVERWHELMING to say the least. I even remembered not being able to find the math building for my first math class. I walked across the entire campus to realize that the building was right outside my dorms. Sad. Anyway, I had a professor who made us purchase his unpublished book and about 2/3 of the class dropped out or transferred. I endured and yes… failed. It was a bit of a stab to the ego… but I did take Math 100 again as a night course and got an A.
How does math fit into your pedagogy?
Math completely fits into my pedagogy as a high school math, science, and chemistry teacher… but also as a sessional instructor at SFU teaching EDUC471 (Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice) and EDUC454 (Quantitative Approaches to Environmental Education). Teaching math has taught me so much about how students learn. Feedback is immediate. Results are visible. And, teaching math created the foundation for my career in education and educational research. Math is FUN.
I conclude my weekly journal with some excitement and joy. I can’t wait for tomorrow and next week. I have two guest speakers coming to talk about place-based learning and the walking curriculum. Dave Barnum from SFU’s Graduate Diploma Program and Dr. Gillian Judson from Imagination Education are coming… I can’t wait. It’s going to make our learning experience in EDUC454 more rich and diverse. Welcome to our class!!!
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, May 23rd, 2018 | Comments Off on Bringing Nature To Us
This is one of my favourite images… a tree growing from another tree. A friendly reminder that we have to keep growing and growth can come from anything and anywhere. Growth is not always a straight line. Yesterday, I spent time updating my LinkedIN page and resume. I attended a few alumni workshops held at SFU and wanted to apply what I had learned. Updating took some time and it’s still in progress. My friend took a look at what I had written and said…
“Your path is so untraditional, for someone like me and yet we have so much in common.”
I take this as a compliment. I am thankful that my friend could see this. Sometimes it’s not all about going the traditional route from A to B. I could have “climbed the ladder” to move through or up the system, but opted to take my own route… a personalized route that filled my heart and mind. I left teaching to pursue doctoral studies. In the meantime, I started a business as sole proprietor and called myself an educational consultant. Is this how it works? I was soon find out. At the time, I didn’t know what I wanted but I loved the freedom and flexibility to create and learn. I had to go beyond the status quo.
Much like my dissertation, I want to get under the problem. Sometimes “problems” in education seem cyclic thus difficult to see its starting point. To make a long story short, I had to take a different route to see what I wanted to and needed to see. Leaving K-12 helped me to complete my dissertation and make the recommendations to practice and research I did, so that we could create system change in the context of professional learning and subject matter acquisition. I know that I would not have accomplished this had I stayed in the system as a teacher. I was able to see and understand the system, as a whole, in a deeper and broader way as a school trustee. For this, I am grateful.
The other part of my friend’s comment… “yet we have so much in common”… raises my spirit. On the one hand, it surprises me and on the other hand, it pleases me. I am surprised because I did not move up the rungs of the education system to understand what my friend understands about the system… what’s working… what’s not working… and what needs improvement. I will say that I have not done some of the super awesome things my friend has done or the super awful things my friend had to do… vice versa in terms of research and politics… but happy to know that the BIG IDEAS are the same.
It’s time for new growth. I love being the learner. My goal is to follow the path of learning. I think about returning back to the system often. I love teaching at the university and I would love to teach high school mathematics again… particularly in BC’s New Curriculum. But I wonder about the kind of freedom that exists in the system. I also wonder about what I have to contribute. I think that I have a lot to contribute but it has to be aligned to the direction of the school district. I would love to see some of my recommendations from my dissertation to come to practice, but I am also excited about doing more research to bring meaningful information back to practice. Right now, I am writing a book. It’s fun.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, April 08th, 2018 | Comments Off on Keep Growing
One thing that I love about teaching and learning is the immediate gratification of success. I just had a wonderful experience this morning. I helped a student with their math via SnapChat. This student was sending “streaks” via SnapChat and I happened to be one of the recipients. I replied, “looks like fun.” It was a picture of a math book. The student replies, “idek and test is Thursday.” Classic frustration and disengagement. Our conversation moved from distress to sending a picture of a question, taking a screenshot, and sending a picture back of the solution with steps… a short delay, another screenshot, and another picture of another solution. BINGO. Engagement. The student asks, “is it right?” I reply, “yup.” The student replies, “yippppeeee.” Immediate gratification experienced by ME and the student.
I love that. I miss that. The sheer joy of learning. This is why I love to teach mathematics in comparison to other subject areas like science or chemistry. There is an immediate gratification when you “get” something, solve a problem, or realize your math efficacy. It’s AMAZING. Yes, certainly, it works the other way as well. When things “get down” in math… things get DOWN. Sometimes it feels like a hole (or vortex to others) that almost feels impossible to get out of. We get stuck there and form another type of math efficacy that sounds like “I will never do math again.” Albeit a dramatization, but it’s not too far off the truth. But there is nothing more satisfying than hearing a student say, “hey, I can do this”… “that wasn’t so hard”… “I can do better next time” after you helped them out.
Another social media experience to CELEBRATE MATH involved a school principal from my school district sending me a photo of a TTOC doing math OUTSIDE with grade 1/2 students with sticks and chalk. I love that!!! Social engagement, experiential learning, and being outside to learn with your classmates are AWESOME. Furthermore, this teacher is taking a risk, doing something different, and figuring out what will help students learn math. I love how doing math on the playground also makes learning VISIBLE… to self and classmates as they are learning, but also makes it visible to the rest of the school when students have an opportunity to look and learn during recess and lunchtime. This is AMAZING (again). Celebrate learning via social media. I love how I got this information from Twitter with a tweet and a tag. Of course I’m retweeting, commenting, and replying to this tweet. It doesn’t take that much to get me excited about teaching, learning, and MATH, and in both cases, via social media. Happy learning.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, March 13th, 2018 | Comments Off on Feels Good
This may sound cliche but when you realize that your time on earth is limited, it would be in your best interest to do what you love. I had the gift of being away from my life for 20-days and experienced the JOY OF TRANSFORMATION. Admittedly, I’ve changed too. I witnessed people change before my eyes, recalibrating what was important to them and intuitively knowing why. I experienced a type of advocacy and agency that I have never seen before. Clear conviction. I feel lucky to have this opportunity and now I am taking a moment to reflect on what happened and think about what’s important to me.
Before the 20-days, I was participating in a couple of career education workshops at SFU to figure out my next trajectory in life. It’s too easy to look back and consider what I have done before. As much as I have fond memories of teaching secondary mathematics and continue to teach secondary mathematics one-on-one as part of my educational consulting business, I know that I am meant to do something else and my experiences as a math educator will inform and influence me on what I need to do next. I know that my love is in education, even though several times during the 20-days I’ve been asked if I’m in health care or in the medical field. As mentioned, I’m not that kind of doctor.
What I do know for sure is, I love teaching… I love learning… and I love leading. Hence, this is the underpinning of my business. But so what? Most people in education feel the same way. What separates me from other educators and what am I meant to do next? I do know that whatever I choose to do next, I need to be teaching, learning, and leading. I will make no compromise to that. What I also know for sure is, I love data analysis. I love making sense from numbers, I love creating a narrative. That is soooooo fun for me. I just completed the “School Trustee Study” with my research partner (and former senior supervisor) Dr. Dan Laitsch. I just loved playing around with the numbers and making meaning from what we found from the data. I loved the collaboration, critical thinking, and shared expertise. I felt like we accomplished something that is worthwhile.
At the last SFU workshop, I identified 5 core values: (1) integrity and truth; (2) self-respect and pride in my work; (3) having a positive impact on society and others; (4) using creativity, imagination, and being innovative; and (5) autonomy, independence, and freedom. There were many other items to choose from and rank, but this turned out to be my top 5. What amazes me from this list is… I AM COMPLETELY ALIGNED. These 5 core values resonate with me and aligns to what I am doing now… with my business, research, and school trusteeship. This realization is invigorating… knowing that I am doing what I want to be doing. I am on the right trajectory. So, how can I go further?
I am so stoked that I am teaching EDUC454 for a second time this summer. I love that I can take what I have learned from last summer to make this course even better. It’s a time for me to return to my love of teaching and learning, but also find innovative and creative ways to engage and empower adult learners / pre-service teachers. I am driven by my research and the power of experiential learning and reflective practice. I feel honoured to have the opportunity to work with pre-service teachers to influence and encourage them to do what’s right in the K-12 classroom and develop their pedagogy.
I am also thinking about how to expand my business. I am getting new tutoring clientele, I am engaged in research as an affiliate scholar with the Centre for the Study of Educational Leadership and Policy at SFU, and it looks like I will write a book or two as promised in my TEDxWestVancouverED talk. I definitely have one in mind… and another one… and another one. It’s a matter of getting started. I need new material to glean from. I recently guest blogged for McGraw-Hill Education on the “Art of Teaching,” to be published in April. I continue to write about my practice as a secondary mathematics teacher, just like I did for Gillian Judson’s blog ImaginED. It’s been almost 8 years since I left the K-12 classroom and it’s time to write and talk about something else.
Finally, school trusteeship is something to consider. If you look back at previous blog entries, I learned so much from my trusteeship as an educator, parent, and educational leader. Governance plays a huge role in public education and it’s the responsibility of school trustees and boards of education to understand their role, work together with senior management teams, and do what’s best for student learning. I am passionate about this role in education. What we do matters… at all levels in education. Trustees have the responsibility of representing community values, bringing expertise to the table as oversight, and politicizing in a way that leverages learning FOR ALL. This term ends October 2018 and many are deciding whether if they will run or not in the next municipal election. That decision, for me, might come up in my next blog entry. TBA.
Although the “endpoint” is not clear or precise, I am on the right path. It’s reassuring that I am heading towards a vision. I am passionate about education and “finding my place” is important to me… as it should be for all those who are involved in education. Your role matters. Your expertise matters. You competencies matter. And, the right fit matters. We are always changing, so “fit” will also change over time. Be true to yourself and do what’s best for you and the people you serve. There are many opportunities in education where you can make a difference in student learning. You have to find it, then do it well.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, March 09th, 2018 | 1 Comment »
I took this picture on Waikiki beach in Honolulu on the last day of our trip. I saw the tree the night before and was mesmerized by the complexity of its branches. We returned back the next day and I had to take a picture. I never seen a tree like this before. Moreover, it’s one of my favourite images… Light coming through trees. I just love it.
This is a nice image to start 2018. What’s next? We’re in the new year and it’s time to take the next step. My 2018 One-Word is CREATE and I am faced with the challenge of MAKING NEW GOALS. It’s hard to believe that I met my lifelong goals and now I understand that making goals is about achieving them, adapting them, and yes… making new ones. When I was teaching secondary mathematics, I dreamt about speaking in front of a large audience about education and getting my doctorate. I never imagined it would happen. I left teaching in public schools and spoke in front of a large audience about education and became a doctor. Truth… for years, I thought it was only a dream.
I guess this is a great place to be. I’ve met my lifelong goals. It’s absolutely amazing!!! What I have learned is, you take big risks to achieve your goals. You may not realize it at the time. Leaving the classroom was not easy for me, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. That was 7-years ago. It’s pretty clear that my love for education, teaching, and learning has not stopped. I love the opportunity to teach at the university as a sessional instructor and being a school trustee has helped me to keep in touch with the K-12 system. What’s next? For the last week, I have been chatting with others face-to-face and online about what I will do next. It’s been a question mark and the advice I get in return is to take a break and what you are meant to do next will present itself.
Ahhh yes… back to TRUST. Today I woke with the notion of being open to anything. What I’ve learned about achieving my lifelong dreams mid-career is that anything is possible, if you want it to be and you believe it’s possible. Believe it or not, I got my BIG AHA on what’s next? from the #bcedchat I co-moderated with @DAliceMarsh on TIME SHIFTING. The topic was about big life changes that influenced our careers in education. For me, I named leaving K-12 and my dissertation. As the edu-chat continued, I ended the chat with “A8. I don’t know exactly, but it’s going to be fun, engaging, and transformational. Likely education related and I am deep into my purpose and passion” to answer what I am expecting or hoping for next. The crazy part is, I wrote the #bcedchat questions.
For those who follow my Twitter feed, I also appreciated the learning from BIG LIFE EVENTS and I have much gratitude because I would not know what I know today and have met the people whom I met since leaving the K-12 classroom. Yes, “a plan” would have been ideal but in hindsight, I had a plan: talk to a large audience about education and get my doctorate. DONE. Now it’s time for a NEW PLAN. I am the creator of what’s next and I never perceive “rejection” or “no” as failure or not being worthy. I look at it as a sign that this is not the way to go, it’s not the right time, or my alignment is elsewhere. What I realize is, I cannot have a narrow focus on what’s next and I am able and willing to do more or something different. I met my lifelong goals. It’s time for NEW GOALS and I am open to anything who would benefit from my expertise, mindset, and experience.
Of course, I am not going to stand still. I will be sending out my CV to opportunities that I could contribute to but also learn from. I want to be learning and build on my expertise. In the meantime, I will embark on more research as a post-doctoral experience and hope to publish a few articles. I have more to learn about research as it relates to practice, leadership, and the K-12 system in addition to what it takes to publish research. This is my learning. I would also like to publish a book and what it takes to do that. That said, I am also interested in opportunities where I am teaching and learning, or helping others to engage in teaching and learning. This is the extension. I look forward to what’s next.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, January 22nd, 2018 | Comments Off on New Goals
PhD Philosophy Students in Training Summer Class of 2000
It’s been almost 15 years since I’ve graduated from SFU Faculty of Education with my Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Wow! Has it been that long? My family and I were purging (aka. spring cleaning in the fall) stuff in our house, which includes my office. It was time. Forging through papers, books, and tokens from my past, I came across this framed poem from one of my summer classes at SFU. In this illustration I am “Chris” and I gave a presentation about curling, systems, and roles in organizations. Hmm… it’s funny to look at this. I was in Dr. Michael Ling’s class. Looking back, I loved that I was able to connect one of my true loves, curling, with education and philosophy. I was so grateful that SFU held a two-year program on the Sunshine Coast to accommodate remote learners, like myself. The program was led by my edu-hero (and mentor) Dr. Geoff Madoc-Jones. He was ‘crazy’ sometimes, but he gave me the courage to believe in myself and my practice. I loved his mind, knowledge, and lived experiences. He was an innovator (and possibly a trouble-maker). I appreciated the stories that he would tell, the abrasiveness of the knowledge he imparted, and his kind gentle heart that supported me during the tough times. Geoff just seemed to know what to say at the right time to provoke deep thought and contemplation. I can only dream to be a fraction of what he was. Another edu-hero is Dr. Carolyn Mamchur. She taught about Myers-Briggs Personality Type Preferences and how it connects to teaching and learning. 100 questions. I loved her ENFP approach to her teaching, her research, and storytelling. At the time, I wondered if I was “the broken math teacher” who didn’t cry when a student cried, unlike my empathetic colleague who taught English. Problem solved. I was an ESTJ. Understanding my type helped me to understand those around me (a little bit better). Finally, I want to thank Dr. Murray Ross, who messed up my brain and had a brief mention in the poem as seen in the photo. He taught the first course in our program and he questioned everything. Another philosophy course and I was so challenged by (my now favourite) philosopher Alasdair MacIntryre and the “goods internal to the practice.” It was like a puzzle. Once again, I could only solve it by making a connection to curling. Crazy, I know, but the ‘nature of virtues’ provides me with an underpinning to my practice. Now let’s return to Dr. “Michael” Ling. His kindness, love for learning, and expertise highlight my learning experience at SFU. Although I am an SFU alumni, I have returned back to SFU as a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership program. The Master of Education program gave me hope as a learner, the tools to question, and the will to understand why. Thank you Michael, Geoff, Carolyn, and Murray for being stellar teachers. Happy 50th SFU. #proudtobeanalumni
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, December 29th, 2015 | Comments Off on Happy 50th SFU
Wow. I cannot believe that I am at the next step in my dissertation. It seems almost surreal and kind of anti-climatic. Not to overshadow the awesomeness of this feat and all of the wonderful retweets, reposts, and forwards that happened almost immediately after I sent out my invitation email… it’s participation. For some reason I expected “hundreds” to self-identify and participate on first sight of my invitation??? Hmm… this is a poor expectation. It’s about patience and the will to promote.
Of course, I opted to sample teachers in the province instead of a particular group, school, or school district. How does one sample teachers within the province? The “Vital Sassoon” effect… she has two, and he has two friends, and so on and so on and so on. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I am happy to use social media and email to convenience sample teachers who may satisfy my participant profile of a non-mathematics subject specialist teacher. Yup. It is somewhat ambitious.
Worst of all, I have no idea what the population of non-mathematics subject specialist teachers there are who are teaching or who have taught at least one secondary mathematics class in BC schools. This statistic is not recorded or published. Based on my experience as a secondary mathematics teacher in BC school, I imagined as a researcher that this number to be relatively high. I am not referring to any list to acquire participants to for this study and participants must self-identify as non-math specialists. Moreover, this study is limited to those who get access to the study.
Here’s the crazy part… this process is just to get the survey to the desired participant. The survey is about the PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EXPERIENCES of these teachers and how they strengthened their knowledge of mathematics as a practicing secondary mathematics teacher in BC schools. Does this sound appealing to you? I’m totally stoked by this. It took me years to narrow my study down to one research question coupled with two sub-questions asking about the effectiveness of the learning activity and if the learning experience improved their teaching practice.
I love being curious. This is my motivation. My purpose is “to enhance the learning experiences of others.” And, my passion is teaching and learning… aka. Education. I don’t think that I am different from many others in the field of education but I am such an edu-junkie. I am always wondering about professional learning as a learner and teacher. I have great hopes for participation. Wouldn’t it be great to figure out what teachers like in terms of learning mathematics? I guess we’ll soon see.
This is only the first day of data collection with 13 more days to go. Truth, I got super excited when I got my first participant within the first few minutes of posting the email invitation on the BCAMT Listserve. A small part of me wanted the rate of participation to maintain itself throughout the day. Again, a poor expectation… but I do hope that there are lots of teachers “out there” who are compelled to tell me (anonymously) about their professional learning experiences. Come on… it sounds like a great way to spend 5 to 20 minutes of your time to contribute to research.
For more information about my study or if you’d like to participate or refer the study to a colleague, go to my webpage www.christineyounghusband.com/research.
Written by Christine Ho Younghusband, November 23rd, 2015 | Comments Off on Collecting Data
One thing that I love about teaching and learning is the immediate gratification of success. I just had a wonderful experience this morning. I helped a student with their math via SnapChat. This student was sending “streaks” via SnapChat and I happened to be one of the recipients. I replied, “looks like fun.” It was a picture of a math book. The student replies, “idek and test is Thursday.” Classic frustration and disengagement. Our conversation moved from distress to sending a picture of a question, taking a screenshot, and sending a picture back of the solution with steps… a short delay, another screenshot, and another picture of another solution. BINGO. Engagement. The student asks, “is it right?” I reply, “yup.” The student replies, “yippppeeee.” Immediate gratification experienced by ME and the student.
Another social media experience to CELEBRATE MATH involved a school principal from my school district sending me a photo of a TTOC doing math OUTSIDE with grade 1/2 students with sticks and chalk. I love that!!! Social engagement, experiential learning, and being outside to learn with your classmates are AWESOME. Furthermore, this teacher is taking a risk, doing something different, and figuring out what will help students learn math. I love how doing math on the playground also makes learning VISIBLE… to self and classmates as they are learning, but also makes it visible to the rest of the school when students have an opportunity to look and learn during recess and lunchtime. This is AMAZING (again). Celebrate learning via social media. I love how I got this information from Twitter with a tweet and a tag. Of course I’m retweeting, commenting, and replying to this tweet. It doesn’t take that much to get me excited about teaching, learning, and MATH, and in both cases, via social media. Happy learning.
I took this picture on Waikiki beach in Honolulu on the last day of our trip. I saw the tree the night before and was mesmerized by the complexity of its branches. We returned back the next day and I had to take a picture. I never seen a tree like this before. Moreover, it’s one of my favourite images… Light coming through trees. I just love it.
