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When it all comes crashing down..

On Tuesday morning my yoga studio announced that it has officially been mandated to close until further notice. I am at an utter loss. My yoga practice and the community of people that I interact with at the studio have been my rock throughout the last few months – the one thing that has kept me grounded amidst all of the chaos…

Although they are live streaming classes online, it’s just not the same. I find it extremely hard to self motivate at home. There are far too many distractions.

I will try my best to be disciplined enough to continue to practice by myself. Let you know how the next week goes….

🙁

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Ever evolving philosophy

As the weeks progress at Lambrick Park high school, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the role of a teacher is not to simply teach the curriculum.  Teaching is so much more than just the intended subject:  as a teacher you are teaching students about connection and community, you are modelling healthy communication styles and positive relationships.  In this career you are given a precious opportunity to make kids feel seen, their voices heard, and worth known.  An effective teacher builds students’ self-esteem by making them feel capable.  Creating a classroom that is both authentic and inclusive while showing students your genuine care, allows kids to believe in their own competence.  The role of the teacher is changing as we continue to move away from traditional assessment and rigid top-down lecturing, to an educational environment that is increasingly focused on student’s holistic well-being and mental health.  As one of my mentor professors poignantly stated, ‘students will probably not remember all of the content in your class, but no one forgets how you make them feel.’

I have been continually inspired by the way I have observed teachers conduct their classrooms.  I have noticed a real vulnerability in many of my teachers approaches – an empathetic understanding of student struggles and a willingness towards flexibility.  There appears to be a shift in recent pedagogy towards practical life skills, guiding adolescents to success through inquiry and thoughtful decision making.  Teachers provide mentorship and steer students towards the essential tools they need to grow and thrive. These methods deeply resonate with me.  I hope one day to foster a similar culture within my own classroom by creating a safe space where students feel comfortable to explore diverse aspects of themselves.   I want to share my passion for art and education while encouraging kid’s confidence and self-efficacy.

 

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Canva

OH MY GOSH! CANVA IS THE MOST  AMAZING TOOL!

I am so elated to have discovered this fantastic resource! I was first introduced to Canva through an online tutorial we did in TechEd a while back, but I didn’t truly  appreciate it’s array of applications until I explored it on my own. I cannot say enough good things about Canva. I feel like I’m sitting on a hidden gem that needs to be shared with all of my friends in education! It is extraordinarily easy to use with a great interface for all levels of users. The amount of layouts and ready to use infographics available is astounding. I recently signed up for the free 30 day pro trial and gained access to an even larger volume of images and layouts.   Canva was instrumental in helping me create a how-to-handout for my EDCI 352 Multiliteracies class.

While I was entering my data and formatting text along with relevant pictures, I began to fully realize how the two media combined created an avenue for enriched learning. Having the text broken up into digestible chunks with images to illustrate the point being made, translated a more comprehensive message than either of the two mediums could in isolation.  The eye catching colours and dynamic designs Canva offers provides producers with an opportunity to make resources that will appeal to a wide audience.

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Global community network

I found out during today’s lecture that our entire class will continue to have access to our course materials and course website long after our term has finished — This is fantastic news! I often think what a shame it is that online course content vanishes at the end of the semester. The school year goes by quickly and there is so much information to cram into our heads, that usually there isn’t the opportunity to explore materials in a relaxed manner.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could revisit readings of particular interest to us, or continue to draw from resources presented within our online curriculum? This is one of the downsides I have been lamenting in my recent journey with online classes. Back when I did my undergrad at UBC, each course had an associated text – something tangible that you could take, read at leisure and reference in the future. I believe more schools should adapt a creative commons approach to course content. Knowledge should be easily accessible and available to all! We need to share information to those who wish to learn. Why has so much of our world become elitist, contingent on ownership? This is an issue I see bleeding into many facets of our current society. The documentary, “Remix – a manifesto”, that we watched at the beginning of the year, was a great example of the many complexities involved in ownership and creative freedom. We can also see examples of copyright and ownerships issues within farming practices: Monsanto is potent example of a powerful global company placing a monopoly on seeds and genetic diversity. I’m also reminded of similar dealings within the pharmaceutical companies. Patents put on vaccines and other medications that make wide spread availability more difficult and function to turn tremendous profit. 

Time to make more of our resources part of the public domain!

 

 

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Battening down the hatches in November

This is a video I took showing my vertical form entering/exiting a handstand while practicing at my yoga studio on Thursday afternoon. I am feeling much more in control going in and out of the posture and my body is now feeling in pretty good form,  just need to keep practicing! I’ve been noticing that I have on and off days. Also I generally stay up longer after an hour of yoga practice, I think because my muscles are fully warmed up and primed. Morning tends to be easier than night, it is increasingly difficult when I am sluggish at the end of the day, particularly after dinner. Another thing to note: my balance is considerably affected if I am not wearing my prescription contacts. I guess my inner ear relies on visual cues to micro balance..

While I was floatin’ around researching on the web this morning, I came across this handstand poem that amused me. Thought this seemed like an appropriate forum to share. 🙂

The Handstand

I still do them sometimes,
because I can,
or maybe I just like
staring at the world
upside down.And to others,
I probably seem
as though I’m in perfect balance,
motionless…

but in reality
those relaxed moments are fleeting,
and what appears as balance,
as stasis, is really
the continual overcoming of
vibrations, twitches and wobbles,
with small adjustments
to keep myself from falling.

We do the same
while standing,
waiting for the train,
or while hanging on
to whatever purpose
gets us across the tightrope
of each day.

If you seek perfect balance,
look away from the living,
to the void,
the merely conceptual.

Life is a surfer teetering
on a breaker’s crest,
a wriggling, writhing thing
poorly contained
by neat little linguistic cages,

and balance an illusion,
a magic trick,
like hiding wrinkles with makeup,
or misery behind a smile,
or living an ordinary life
until you die,

always with a persistent feeling
of not quite.

– Brian Rihlmann
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WHO KNOWS ANYMORE

Welp, it is official. I have reached complete zoom overload. The last 7 days have been an absolute slog. Have maintained working 12+ hour days and am feeling exhausted to the core. My body aches from sitting at the computer and my brain is in total screen fog. I’m finding it torturous to be inside staring at my laptop while I can see the sunshine setting the nearby maples on fire. Also really struggling with how much is on my plate. I don’t know how I can physically work any harder and it honestly doesn’t seem possible to get through all of the homework. Having such a difficult time with not being able to give each assignment my all, it feels like I have to race through projects with barely being able to comprehend what I am doing. I’m frustrated because we are learning so much but there is not enough moments of pause to be able to fully process and integrate the information.

Though, all things considered, I am still feeling extraordinarily grateful that UVIC has found a way to adapt our program to an online format to ensure we can continue on our chosen career path; just hitting that November term fatigue. It’s pretty insane to think how dramatically my day to day changed once school started. I went from dog walking deep in the wilderness amidst the elements for 5+ hours a day to complete stagnation at a desk. I never knew your joints could hurt from lack of exercise !?

Okay all complaining aside (hehe), I am continually struck with the support and reassurance my cohort has provided day in and day out. I’m SO lucky to be in cohort 2. We have formed a tight knit crew and I’m excited to be building a network of friends and connections that I can continue to draw from as we all enter the work force.

I am breathing a slight sigh of relief this afternoon knowing that we are entering into the beginning of our reading break. I had three presentations in the past 4 days and am certainly glad to have them behind me. Working on group assignments and team teaching projects online proved to be a rewarding challenge. I’m much more confident now delivering a  cross-curricular, multi-modal lesson online. I enjoyed the lesson planning immensely and have so many new online tech tools to draw from. My list of available resources just continues to grow!

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With a little help from my friends

Last weekend I solicited my friend for some guidance. He trains in calisthenics and is a handstand master. He had a slightly different method for entering and exiting the pose. He uses the ‘egg’ formation to slowly press up rather than using momentum to kick up. This requires a ton of core strength to be able to do with control. He also said that he found it easier to take his palms slightly further than shoulder width apart and to rotate his hand out 45 degrees.

He gave me a good pep talk and then showed off by doing a handstand pushup 😉 Something for me to set my sights on once I get the handstand down. HA!

Nice to know there is always something further to aspire to.

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Perseverance

In yoga class this week I stayed up for a record breaking time! 3.5 seconds!!!! My personal best so far 🙂 Super encouraging to see my efforts beginning to pay off. I’m starting to get get a better feel for my balance point.

Here are a few more resources that have been useful to my overall form and technique:

Helpful article on three different ways to enter a handstand

https://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Handstand

Youtube video posted by a gymnastic coach with tips and tricks

 

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Week 5

Wow. I am feeling very inspired after this afternoon’s guest speaker, Jeff Hopkins – the founder of the Pacific school of Innovation and Inquiry. I am so excited to hear about his approach to education and the revolutionary method of teaching his school facilitates.  It sounds like such an incredibly rich community of both teachers and learners. The journey towards inquiry is much more organic and allows a seamless type of multi modality. I love the idea of teachers collaborating together, each learning from one another and from their students. This holistic, cross-curricular pedagogy seems much more intuitive and I would imagine elicits stronger intrinsic motivation. I hope his educational model is adapted by more districts as we continue to become aware of the benefits of self-directed learning and student led projects.

Through my observations at Lamrbick Park, I’ve been excited to see a student led approach taken by one of the teachers. His classroom in fairly informal in the traditional sense. Rather than tell the students what to do, he brainstorms ideas and supplies a list of potential projects. The kids are then able to pick assignments they are interested in. This gives the students a sense of autonomy in their learning and allows them to feel like they are in charge of their classroom time. The teacher also encourages students to pursue any ideas they have. When students finish a project, they each fill out a self-assessment. I like the idea of empowering students, to steer their own learning path and also to reflect/assess on how well they did. Assessment is something I have been thinking more about recently. In our seminar class we have been learning about rubric design and the pros/cons of formative and summative assessment. I see advantages to both and think incorporating a combination of the two may prove to be the most affective way to assess learning.

It dawned on me today that I am finally starting to get into the flow of blogging. I realized that it happened instinctually after our Friday POD meeting. I’m beginning to find my stride in this class and it feels much more natural than it did at the start of term. Dare I say, I’ve even begun to *enjoy* the time to stop and reflect on my week !? I have even noticed how the aspect of keeping a written record of my weeks events is encoding the material differently in my brain.

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Tuning in to Turn OUT!

This week I have been feeling extremely fatigued. I think school burn out mixed with lack of sleep is starting to take a toll. I also have this nagging tiredness that is most likely pointing to my losing battle with anemia. I made an appointment with my Doctor to get my blood taken and check my ferritin and hemoglobin levels. As I am fairly familiar with the tell tale signs of my iron plummeting I went out and picked up a bottle of Floradix. It’s my favourite liquid iron supplement and is fairly benign on my digestion. The only hitch is that I can’t take it within 30 minutes of ingesting caffeine, which one might think is an easy enough task, but, the full body fatigue tends to leave me reaching for coffee at all hours of the day.. it’s a vicious cycle :/

I’ve also decided I need to add more protein to my meals to keep me going throughout the day and support muscle growth. I found this vegan pea protein that seems promising albeit tastes like cardboard on its own. Undetectable in a smoothie though.

Additionally I’ve begun including a heaping scoop of hemp heart to my morning routine. Need those extra omega fats to fuel my brain function!

Finally I’ve decided to order a greens powder to round out my vitamin/mineral intake and to aid in the absorption of my iron (iron requires vit C as well as b12 to properly absorb)

Hoping this change in diet will have me feeling back in tip top shape again soon. Needless to say I have momentarily scaled back my training as it’s all I can do to shlep around the four corners of my apartment.

To be continued…