Time Constraints

#EDUC454E100 – Week 5 – June 7, 2018

As mentioned in my previous blog, this EDUC454 class is engaging and dialogical. I like how we are able to delve into conversation to establish a deeper understanding of what we are learning about. That said, we are quickly running out of time. It’s a crazy idea to think that I might be over prepping. I think that I am just prepping and the students are carrying the torch with their teaching and learning. It’s one of many things I am exploring in my practice. How do we shift teaching and learning from student ENGAGEMENT to EMPOWERMENT. This idea comes from George Couros and the #InnovatorsMindset.

One of the things that I am working on in my teaching practice is transforming my role from “teacher” (aka. bearer of all knowledge) to “facilitator” of learning (aka. designing the class in such a way so that the students co-construct their knowledge together). I love the idea of building a learning community amongst ourselves. I am always surprised and grateful for what students have to contribute… particularly pre-service teachers. It’s also a time for them to PLAY and try new ideas in context to this course (Quantitative Approaches to Environmental Education). At the same time, I am trying to model BC’s New Curriculum with personalized learning, formative feedback, and student-led learning.

My job is to create the framework, guide their learning, provide feedback, and ultimately evaluate their understanding/learning from the course. Their job is to learn what they want to learn within the context of the course, teach others what they have learned, and reflect upon what they have learned and how it would apply to their future careers as BC educators. As a result, the EDUC454 students are deeply engaged in what they are doing, prepping learning activities, and participating in what their peers have prepared for them. I also appreciated our guest speakers, Dave Barnum and Dr. Gillian Judson, who spoke to our class about place and space. They too took an experiential approach to learning.

The first 5 photos of this blog attempt to capture our first GROUP FACILITATION learning activity where groups of 3-4 students facilitate a learning activity that captures Quantitative Environmental Approaches to Environmental Education in a subject area or areas of choice. It’s an application of what this could be and their job it to teach what they have learned in an interactive class oriented way. Three students facilitated the first of three segments of their “Citizen Science” Unit Plan called SENSORY OBSERVATION. Citizen science means that anybody can collect and contribute data. The data collected can form a sense of knowing or understanding. It has an excellent exemplar of Indigenous ways of knowing, as discussed in the group facilitation activity.

GROUP 2 started the group facilitation learning activity by reading us a book called the “The Snowy Day.” A short discussion ensued after about why was this story book selected for today’s group facilitation. The resounding answer was EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION. We talked about our 5 senses and the group asked the class to find a place in Holland Park and focus on the sense of HEARING. We were asked to take a moment to listen to our surroundings, then report back what we had heard. This was amazing. Many of us closed our eyes so that we could listen. As mentioned in my last blog… IT’S LOUD. There was no road construction this week, but I heard planes, vehicles, leaves, basketball bouncing, and birds. I was also able to briefly experience Gillian Judson’s ACTIVENESS. I was engaged with my surroundings and my sense of space via my body. We then repeated the activity being aware of our kinesthetic sense. That was a bit tougher. The group facilitation concluded with what is CITIZEN SCIENCE and how this could be applied in science.

Thank you GROUP 2 for getting our class started on group facilitation learning activities OUTSIDE, for taking the time to collaborate and plan together, and to demonstrate for us how you can share your learning with us is an interactive and participatory way. I loved our post-chat and how we could have done one more sense like touch, I loved how one student was prepared to give a concrete example of Citizen Science with her passion for bees and POLLINATORS, and I loved how student input exceeded your expectations in such a way that it turned out better than you had hoped or planned. That was amazing!!!

I was so happy to have our first group facilitation activity situated outside. It was a nice continuation of what we had experienced with Gillian Judson the week before, but also Dave Barnum’s presentation on place and space. I also appreciated how Gillian’s talk from last week transferred into our learning this week with our group facilitation and the number of students who referred to that learning experience. However, this week was “catch up” week. Because of our enthusiasm and collective engagement, we postponed a few of our student-led presentations to the following week… for a couple of weeks. Thus making THIS WEEK the week to catch up on what we had intended in our schedule.

After the break, and returning back to our classroom (on the 5th floor), we resumed with the weekly reading summaries oral presentations. We had 2 presentations from Week 4 and 2 presentations for Week 5. Normally, I would ask the students to compose an oral summary and have 2 questions to pose to the class for discussion. This week, the students were limited to no more than 10 minutes to present and present 1-2 questions for the weekly journal for students to respond to. A slight adaptation to what was intended but these students were up for the challenge. What was interesting to me was, with each pair of presenters for each week, one would summarize the assigned reading and the other took a personal account or personal experience to depict or model what they had read. I could not have planned it out more perfectly. I’m not sure if the students had planned it that way, but it was brilliant. I also believe that we had more that 8 questions for students to choose from and reflect on for the weekly journal. Well done!!!

After very swift transitions between each oral presenter for the weekly reading summaries, we managed to take the time to discuss the reading as a class. I think were were afforded this luxury of time because the group facilitation activity ended 20 minutes early. This was awesome because it gave the class the opportunity to grapple with the ideas of Trevor MacKenzie’s “Jump Into Inquiry” and discuss what they would do in class and why. I loved the class conversation about teaching and inquiry-based learning. It’s something that we are all wrestling with and taking the moment to examine and imagine what it would look like in our future teaching practice. Soon after the class discussion (anyway), we swiftly transitioned to our three remaining warm-up activities… one from Week 4 and two for Week 5. The adaptation for these learning activities was NOT to discuss the Core Competencies, but keep them in mind, and limited to 20 minutes.

One activity got student to go out into the mall and FIND MATH on their phones and compare with other groups. POINTS were given out to the most original pictures. The second group got the class to make pinwheels and focus on deep breathing and mindfulness. The final person, Liam (aka. the closer) got us all to sit in a circle and figure out who was tapped on the shoulder and take a moment to figure out “who’s the liar.” Deductive reasoning. Non-verbal cues. LISTENING again… and nice follow up to our class from the group facilitation earlier on the senses. It turned out, of course, the liar was him… so think about your inquiry projects??? It was a fun way to end our class ON-TIME.

Weekly Journal Questions:

What are some strengths of applying inquiry to a classroom? What are some struggles? 

Inquiry can give students some personal freedom and autonomy of their learning. They have choice. They can delve deeper into a topic of interest or passion. They can find learning more meaningful. Some struggles would be differentiating learning (not all students operating at the same level of independence). Another struggle would be assessment and evaluation. When all projects are not aiming towards the same goal (of sameness), it can be challenging to evaluate. For example, if the product is a paper versus a video blog as a demonstration of learning, how can you tell the difference? Grading must be based on a set of curricular competencies to be found in all projects.

Is it true inquiry if the students are not come up with their own essential questions or topics?

Inquiry, in my mind, is to be curious. If the student does not come up with their own essential question, but the teacher did, then the inquiry is guided. That’s OK. There can be varying levels of inquiry, as mentioned in Trevor MacKenzie’s book. It does not need to be FREE INQUIRY all of the time. I do suggest that the student has to have some choice in the project so that they can be agents of their own learning. Offering a specific set of choices versus unlimited is OK. It just can’t all be about compliance and conforming.

How could you see yourself working with your teacher librarian?

If I was back in the K-12 classroom, I would be all over the teacher librarian… particularly now that most are being restored in schools. They are experts in “library” and research. They have the skills and knowledge to helps students (and me) on what’s available, how to find useful information, and how to discern through information that goes beyond Google. I’m a math and science teacher, so having the teacher library provide a social science approach to compliment my teaching and learning practice PLUS the opportunity to collaborate with another teacher in the school in a different space is a WIN!!!

How you been inspired to being planning something based on MacKenzie’s book? 

I liked how Trevor MacKenzie reflects about his practice in his book. That inspired me to use his book as one of the required readings for EDUC454 this term. Last term, I had only used articles about nature-based education, environmental education, and experiential education to be my required readings. This term, I decided to look at Inquiry-Based Learning from Trevor Mackenzie and A Walking Curriculum by Dr. Gillian Judson instead of some readings. Dave Barnum did bring back some of the readings I would have assigned into his presentation. Assigning this book was my first step into inquiry and I was curious if it would help my students with their inquiry projects for this course. We soon shall see.

I want to thank my students who were present this week for making this happen… taking on the challenge of TIME CONSTRAINTS and catching us up for Week 6. I still have things I would like to accomplish, but I am happy that we are back on track and class will resume as intended this week. I am looking forward to using Gillian Judson’s book to formulate a “field trip” for my class on Week 13. I am embracing this challenge to see how this resource applies in higher education and particularly in EDUC454, and because my students want to end the course with a class “party” (during an evening course at Surrey Campus) has now it’s become a LEARNING PARTY of Quantitative Approaches to Environmental Education via A Walking Curriculum. Let’s see how this goes. SURPRISE!!!