Learning to Teach with Raquel

This week we were lucky enough to be visited by Tracy Humphreys from BCED Access. We discussed inclusion in education from the lens of a parent. Throughout her presentation, we went into breakout rooms and discussed some important prompts, for this reflection this week, I am going to share what I talked about in my breakout rooms.

1. How would you approach support for a classroom?

• establish a questionnaire system about how to address students needs at the beginning of the year
• meet with the students’ past teachers and discuss how they were supported in the past
• documentation!! Make note of your students behaviour so that, if needed, external support can be justified
• have an open mind, always be ready to get corrected
• don’t assume you know how to teach
• never host field trips that aren’t inclusive of all the students in your specific classroom
• TALK TO THE STUDENTS

2. How can you find out what a student needs?

• TALK TO THE STUDENT, they are the experts on themselves
• student-teacher conferences?
  • we had a great conversation about how normalized parent-teacher conferences are, yet student-teacher conferences aren’t?
  • we suggest that maybe on the afternoon of whatever day parent-teacher conferences are, the class can have a work block to get caught up on assignments and during it, the teacher can go student-by-students conducting small student-teacher interviews where the teacher can ask the student how they are doing and talk about how they can be better supported in the classroom.
• formative assessments
• READ IEP’s!!!

Overall, it was a very insightful conversation that taught me a lot about how to welcome any learner into my classroom!

This week in class we learned about video editing and using videos in the classroom. During our lesson, we broke out into breakout rooms and worked on an activity exploring youtube videos. For my reflection this week, I will be responding to the questions from the activity.

 

1. Find an educational video on YouTube related to your teaching area, inquiry project, or technology resource project
   
2. Consider how was the video was created and what type of video it is (screencast, lab/on-site video, digital story, lecture, simulation, or some combination of these)
   I would say that this video is a lecture video with visuals added to it.
3. Explore video player features in Youtube 
   1. Linking to a section within a video
      • https://youtu.be/bJzGkZwkHt4?t=88
   2. Turn on automatically generated subtitles if available 
      • accomplished by clicking the “CC” (closed captions) button and the bottom right of the video
   3. Adjust video playback speed
      • accomplished by clicking the gear in the bottom right of the video, then clicking playback speed, then selecting your desired speed
   4. Make sure you know how to embed the video in your WordPress site
      • Elements of Art: Shape | KQED Arts
4. Consider how you might use the video as a teaching resource and integrate it into a learning activity
   This video is a great teaching tool to use in the art classroom. I would consider using this video and other videos in this video series to introduce the elements of art for each lesson.
5. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of using Youtube video as a source as well as a place to store and share your own educational video

I think that there are definitely a lot of advantages of using Youtube videos as an educator. First of all, I am currently using Youtube as a place to store and share my videos for my Free Inquiry project for this course and I have really enjoyed it. By being able to upload my videos unlisted and only have them viewable by those who have access to the link to it, I get the amount of privacy I look for in a video sharing service. Not only that, but I have my videos on Youtube which is what I would consider being the most well-known video sharing service on the internet. Moreover, educational videos are quick and easy ways to teach important content to students. Videos satisfy the needs of both visual and auditory learners and add inclusivity to lesson.

With these advantages, it is also important to consider the disadvantages. When using Youtube, there is always a tab to the right of the video you’re viewing is a tab full of recommended videos that are typically unrelated to the video you’re watching. This cannot be changed and may distract students when presenting the video. Furthermore, if the kids are watching the videos on their own IPads, they can click on those videos instead of watching the video they are supposed to be watching. In all, I think that when it comes to Youtube videos in the classroom, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and Youtube videos will definitely be part of my teaching practice.

 

 

This week our class was lucky enough to be visited by the principal of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII), Jeff Hopkins. After last week’s discussion with Trevor MacKenzie, I think it was really insightful to learn how a school could be based on this inquiry process. I really like the steps of developing a set of questions, doing research, developing new questions, and developing learning outcomes that Jeff Hopkins talked about. I would definitely consider following those steps with my future students. Jeff made a great point about how open-ended the elementary curriculum is here in BC. As future elementary school teachers, we are going to have a lot of freedom when choosing how to cover the curriculum and free inquiry is a really good option that engages students and leads to holistic learning. I find it so interesting that as a society we generally accept that everyone is unique but when it comes to education, we generalize everything and expect everyone to be able to succeed. Over time, as we are going towards inclusion and accepting diversity, yet we definitely have work to do. With that said, I think that inquiry-based learning is definitely a step in the right direction.