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Tag: EDCI532

EDCI532: Snapshots of Assignment 3

July 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

We have to stop delivering curriculum to the kids.  We have to start discovering it with them.

-Will Richardson

In the beginning…

At the beginning of this course I explored the metaphor, “To me curriculum is like a meandering river.” It bends and winds in a variety of directions. It allows students to explore the complexities and intricacies of learning. While curriculum has undergone change and transformation, so to has the process of learning itself. The “new curriculum” allows students to make connections across subjects as well as through real world experiences. As we as educators evolve, so does our curriculum. We see a shift not only in how curriculum is delivered, but also how it is received.

Photo by Rupert Britton on Unsplash

Curriculum should help children make deeper and fuller understanding of their own experience.

-Liilian Katz

Historically, we have seen curriculum viewed as information that is delivered and received. With so much flexibility, individual choice and exploration, students can now access curriculum in a variety of ways. I might suggest that the “how” becomes equally or more valuable than the “what.”

Mind shift…

After much of the readings presented in class and discussions with my peers I have come to view curriculum in a new light. My metaphor has changed and my overall views on how I perceive curriculum has changed. To me curriculum is like a kaleidoscope. Our evolving curriculum has been shaped over time, recognizing learners’ strengths, interests as well as the cultural foundations which make it unique. While there is no argument, that there is still great work to be done in terms of creating curriculum that provides equitable representation, it is viewed with a much more diverse lens then ever before.

To me curriculum is like a kaleidoscope in that it reflects the diversity of all peoples and is guided by the interests, passions and experiences of our learners.

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Making connections…

As Dwayne Donald points out in his web article, Unlearning colonialism to overcome the climate crisis, that we have a challenge facing us around how our students view themselves in relation to what we are teaching them. This is such a poignant statement as we consider moving curriculum away from the westernized, colonial systems in place and embrace approaches to knowledge that do not conform to traditional educational models.

Egan on the other hand, while trying to engage in conversations around the “how” rather than the “what “of curriculum, appears to paint a westernized outlook on education. While he encourages educators to determine both the “what” and “how”, it is hard to see student choice reflected in his point of view. Additionally, his approach to curriculum development lacks personalization and multiple perspectives. It would appear that the only perspective represented in his curriculum is that of the western world. (Egan, 1978).

Blades on the other hand, paints a different perspective in his paper, “Recognizing the beauty: Aesthetics in science teacher education”. He explores how his students created a working definition of science to use in class. They describe this definition as, “an on-going exploration of relationships in the natural world through hypothesizing, observing, theorizing and experimentation.” (Blades, 2015). In some ways I think this is a great working definition for much of the curriculum we teach, something that is developed, observed, experienced and then reflected on.

Curriculum is like a kaleidoscope,  it creates intricate patterns by repeated reflection. The more that “we” (educators, students and those involved in curriculum design) can reflect on past practice, future aspirations and meaningful learned experiences, the more our curriculum becomes a reflection of us.

Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash

Final thoughts…

While I feel that my views on curriculum have changed, I still can’t help but question the “how”. Who should be responsible for determining this? While I do feel that the “how” should be left out of curriculum and left to the discretion of educators, I do think that it should also reflect student interest and experience.

Dewey brought to light the importance of respecting the experience of the learner while also considering social aspects. Perhaps he was trying to show us, is that all knowledge gained from the learned experience guides all future curriculum.

Feature image credit:

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

 

 

Setting Up Communication: Rationale

July 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Both in our own experience, and in dialogue with colleagues, we uncovered various ways educators log, store, sort and retrieve communications. Each educator has their own rationale for the tool or framework chosen for their system, and a rationale as to why communication should be tracked. However, we could not find ANY available framework in the curated resources that spoke to, or had as exemplar, a log and/or tracking system for communications, or a tracking system which can assist with assessing student needs. The majority of discovered examples of tracking systems for communications were designed to help inform school-level decision makers, administrators, technology department heads. Therefore we decided this was the gap in available educational resources to be filled and created from scratch these resources.

For the combination of the communication tool and the communication tracking tool, we chose to focus our attention on the most positively reviewed tools – as reviewed by an unaffiliated, non-profit, and research-based organization Considerations were also taken on issues of ease-of-use, availability, privacy, security of data and accessibility. Options for storing data locally are given for each case. However the district/division of each educator may have preferences as to how and with which tools this information is collected and stored.

OneNote 

OneNote is a well-known and free software by Microsoft Corporation. As a communication tool, OneNote allows for collaboration and communication between teachers, students and parents. Created notebooks, folders and files can be accessed on desktop or through mobile devices, and can be shared with others through invitation, with or without password protection. It can be used as a desktop version only or within a network, or can be connected to a cloud storage system. While OneNote was favorably reviewed by the independent non-profit site commonsense.org, it was not evaluated for privacy and data security; however, according to Microsoft, data can be encrypted, is not shared with third-parties, and is deleted from cloud storage after 90 days of discontinuation of service. In consideration of accessibility, OneNote also exists as a mobile app, and has a built-in immersive reader, a built-in translate feature which can convert text into 65 different languages, and a built-in accessibility checker for all added documents and work.

Remind

Remind is a well-known messaging software that enhances communication between teacher, student, and home. In terms of educator accessibility, it is a free app that can be used as either one-way or two-way enabled communication, and also has a translation feature – giving it flexibility as a communication tool. It allows for updates of text, files, and audio or video to individuals or groups of people and integrates with the major educational software by Microsoft and Google. It is currently in use in more than 70% of public schools in the US. In terms of privacy and data security, Remind connects users through shared links or access codes which can be easily protected, and a parent or guardian must provide verification for students until 13 years of age. Remind received a 94% Privacy Rating on the independent non-profit site commonsense.org. All data is encrypted and users retain ownership of their data. Some personally identifiable information is collected but opt-in consent is requested, users can control privacy settings, and use is limited to product requirements. Disappointingly, some traditional advertisements are displayed, but data is not shared for advertising or marketing. For safety, users cannot interact with uninvited people, personal information is not displayed publicly, and interactions are logged and can be downloaded – a feature that makes it particularly useful for tracking communication with families.

The created frameworks (K-8 and 9-12) and suggestions are ours, created from our experiences and our research. Collectively, we have 25 years of teaching experience, and more specifically, have joint experience as educators in both the general population of students and as educators within ELL programs and working with students with exceptionalities. This gives us both conventional credibility on this subject. Additionally, we created these after searching the literature for research and support on these topics, giving us some borrowed credibility. Format was difficult, as a grid or table system is the most efficient way to collect family data for clarity; however, we understand that a table is less accessible. Trials were done with Microsoft’s immersive reader to assure it would read appropriately, but this functionality is more cumbersome to access when converted to Google Doc – this point is mentioned in the blog post.

Photo by Eddy Lee on Unsplash

Metaphors of Curriculum- Assignment #1 EDCI532

July 13, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Metaphor of Curriculum:

To me curriculum is like a meandering river. A meander is a loop in a river channel. The meandering river winds back and forth. It does not follow a straight course. Curriculum is very much like that. It winds, it bends, it loops and turns in a variety of directions. When you explore its complexities and use it creatively to spark students love of learning and engage students its directions are endless.

While in the past, curriculum to me has felt rigid and inflexible. The “new curriculum” allows students to explore learning processes and curiosity, make connections and take ownership for their learning. Like curriculum, a meander is produced by a stream or river swinging from side to side, eroding the sediments from the outer banks. The old curriculum is washed away with checklists of PLOs, making room for Big Ideas, learning outcomes and opportunities to engage in cross curricular learning.

The meander allows the stream to shift its channel, similar to curriculum where the journey and process of learning is more important than the final destination. This is the “how” rather than the “what” of curriculum.  This is something I have personally struggled with, as so much focus on learning has been on creating the finished product, rather than the process or learning journey itself.

Curriculum is like a meandering river in that it guides the directionality of student exploration. It motivates the students to take ownership in their learning journey, by selecting the path or stream they will take. Teachers provide students with encouragement to choose their learning path and act more as facilitators to support them through their steams of knowledge.

The concept of the medicine wheel illustrates the knowledge needed to create a space that is culturally relevant, the pedagogy and environment for embedding indigenous education and the four directions which represent the importance and appreciation for the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all things. The medicine wheel can be a helpful tool, similar to a compass, to support students as they navigate through the meander, this curriculum which guides the pedagogy for teaching, learning and exploring the world around us.

https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teaching-by-the-medicine-wheel/

My Teaching Context:

I work at Pineridge Elementary School in the small community of Prince Rupert, where I currently work as a Learning Service Teacher with a small administrative piece. This upcoming school year I will be returning to teach grade 4/5. Previously most of my teaching experience has been spent in the Special Education. I have enjoyed engaging with what we consider the “new curriculum”, although I don’t really see it as being anything new. Much of what has been considered “new” isn’t really… it’s what many of us have been doing for a quite some time.

While I do appreciate the sentiments discussed in class, academically, I think I am always exploring things with a critical lens, in particularly looking for the practicality of what I am learning. I design my lessons around how I can make things engaging, meaningful and applicable in the world in which we live.

Exploring Egan & Blade:

Looking at Egan’s article What is Curriculum, he argues the importance of creating parameters that will in turn prepare our students for the future. Egan argues that it is up educator(s) to determine the “what” of curriculum, as well as the “how”. (Egan, 1978). While I can appreciate this focus, I do question how much student involvement or choice Egan would say should guide the “how”? What kind of autonomy would Egan suggest is given to the student to guide the curriculum?

Egan is concerned that by including the what and how, curriculum becomes too broad and suggests the focus should be primarily on the “what”. I say this because his ideas and references are rooted in Western education and theory. Historically, we have seen curriculum become very compartmentalized, lacking personalization. This fits with our understanding of colonization, wanting students to learn in the same way, the same information so that they may be productive members of society.

While I can agree that focusing on the “what” within curriculum is vastly important, coming from a Special Education background makes me shift my focus more to what students need to learn, how they learn and how to keep lessons engaging and accessible for all types of learning. Curriculum is something that needs careful examination not just with regards to content, but also with regards to delivery and accessibility.

David Blades’ (2016) Recovering Beauty Through STEM Science Education: A Letter to a Junior Colleague speaks to the importance of teacher voice with regards to curriculum design and delivery.

” Teachers’ view and approaches to teaching matter in curriculum change. Any attempt to circumvent teaching in the change process will invariably find that teachers modify, adapt and sometimes completely deviate from what the curriculum designers expected.” (p. 26)

While I see that provincially the curriculum is developed and designed with consultation from numerous stake holders, the “how” of curriculum delivery and exploration should be left to the discretion of teachers and students who choose to be active participants in their learning journey.

I believe that as educators, we should have the professional autonomy to choose how we navigate through the meandering river we call the curriculum.

References:

Blades, D. W. (2016). Recovering Beauty Through STEM Science Education: A Letter to a Junior Colleague. Journal for Activist Science and Technology Education, 7 (1).

Egan, K. (1978). What Is Curriculum? In Curriculum Inquiry (1st ed., Vol. 8, pp.66-72). Blackwell.

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