Category: EDCI 336

This is a category for the EdTech course. Please add this category in addition to the relevant edtech assignment category(ies).

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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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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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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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Turning to the pros

While I am definitely starting to feel myself getting stronger overall, I still can’t seem to stay up for longer than about 2 seconds! Time to turn to the professionals…

This week I took my questions to the experts. I went to MA yoga studio downtown in Dragon Ally and interviewed three of their top instructors.  These were my take home messages:

  • Ground FIRMLY into your hands and use your fingers to grip the floor
  • Ensure that your gaze and point of focus stays in between your hands – this will help with balance
  • Externally rotate shoulders. Push up and out of scapula
  • Engage EVERYTHING – core, glutes, legs..
  • Flex feet as if you were standing on the ceiling
  • Use a wall to get comfortable with the feeling of being upside down
  • Practice every day and don’t get discouraged!

Looking forward to taking all of their advice to heart and applying these tips over the coming months.

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Foundations

This week I dug deep into my library and pulled out some informative yoga references. I really appreciate the skeletal images provided in “The Key Muscles” textbook. It highlights a great visual representation of the joint stacking required to enter and hold this pose.

 

Preparatory Poses:

  • Downward Facing Dog
  • Mountain Pose
  • Plank
  • Feathered Peacock
  • Reclining Hero
  • Eagle
  • Cow Face Pose

Wrist Warm Up Video

IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS STRETCH AND WARM UP APPROPRIATELY !

Today I activated my Trello board. I’m really excited to have access to an online tool that can help me make lists and keep track of my goals. I’ve always been an avid list maker and Trello really takes it to the next level. I like how user friendly the interface is, and how the ease of moving tasks from in progress to done. The visual layout helps me to take mental note of what still needs to be completed.

Oh yeah, and did I mention I learned how to screen shot on a mac!? It’s been such a game changer! I can use CONTROL/COMMAND/3 for a straight screenshot, or CONTROL/COMMAND/4 if I want to select a particular portion of my screen.

 

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Week 2

It has now been 10 days since the start of my PDP program. Needless to say, it has been a rollercoaster of emotions! While last week had left me feeling mentally drained, I found a renewed sense of purpose after our first full day observing in a high school setting. Being able to interact with students in an educational setting was exactly the kind of affirmation I needed, and I feel an increase in motivation knowing that I am on the right career path.  I am entering this coming week with an increased sense of self-assurance and a desire to stay on track.

On Friday I had the pleasure of meeting with my fellow POD members. This proved to be an extremely beneficial experience as their queries regarding the course mirrored my own. Together we were able to work through our various questions and guide each other through the weeks task list. I see what a tremendous asset it will be to have a core group of classmates to chat with on Mattermost and meet with regularly via Zoom. It is a relief to know I can check in with my POD whenever I have questions about the class content or want to receive guidance on my current blog posts and assignments. In this time of isolation, having any opportunity to connect with my cohort in any medium, seem like a triumph. I would love to take the skills I am learning in this course to continue developing a professional blog on the various teaching resources I encounter. I hope this type of platform will help me to connect with fellow educators in the future.

Going into the next week, I want to be mindful of all the prolonged screen time my eyes and body are enduring. Valarie, one of our TechED professors, reminded us take care of our eye health over the coming months. I’m going to make a conscious effort to take breaks to stretch my neck and look away from my screen every half an hour. I’ve definitely noticed the constant sitting starting to take a toll.

 

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Reflection – Week 1

This first week has been an absolute whirlwind and I am struggling to flip my mental switch from ‘summer brain’ back into the world of academia.  Never the less, I am so grateful to have been accepted into this program and couldn’t be happier to embark on this next step to becoming a teacher with such a wonderfully diverse cohort.

When signing up for EDCI 336, I’ll admit I was intimidated by the course subject and found myself feeling slightly apprehensive. Our first lecture on Friday left me with a lot more questions then I had answers for, and initially, I was fairly overwhelmed. Over the weekend I dedicated time to slowly go through the syllabus and tackle each task on our weeks list. While I am still struggling to get a grasp of all of the new platforms we have been exposed to, I’m beginning to understand the true breadth and functionality of the multitude of technologies at our fingertips. What a truly dynamic time to enter the world of education!

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Free Inquiry Project

As a dedicated yoga student and trained yoga teacher, I make sure to set aside time each day for a mindful, movement based practice. While I have certainly progressed in many asanas, one posture in particular has always alluded me –Adho Mukha Vrksasana – also known as the handstand.

My goal for our Free Inquiry project, is to devote my energy and efforts into learning the theory behind the pose, mastering the preparatory postures and building the core strength required to enter and maintain a handstand for 5 seconds.

I believe the first step in this pursuit is changing my internal dialogue from: “This is impossible”, too “I CAN handstand!” That being said, I will attempt to approach this challenge with patience and a sense of humour, knowing the process could potentially take years..

In the next few days I plan to start gathering useful resources. This may include:

  • Yoga textbooks
  • Consulting with advanced practitioners
  • Watching instructional youtube videos
  • Reading about the success and failures of others
  • Creating a daily workout plan to build core strength
  • Becoming knowledgable about the risks and contraindications of this advanced pose

 

Questions:

  • Why can I kick up into a handstand but am unable to stay?
  • What muscle groups are involved in balance and stability?
  • How long will it take me to hold the pose for 3 seconds or longer?
  • Can my wrists withstand this level of daily strain?
  • Will I be able to achieve this goal without injuring myself?