Perspective on Education: Doing to Learn

The information I’ve collected about your practicum class definitely informs my goal-setting and planning. There are a lot of considerations to take into account when looking at my classroom makeup. I have students who are new to the country and have very low levels of English. I have other students who are on IEPs in various subjects, including Language and Mathematics. There are other students who have medical considerations, such as ADHD, that sometimes acts a distraction for the student themselves and the peers around them. I also have students who, for one reason or another, come to school in a bad mood and find it hard to follow instructions or get excited about the learning at hand. As teachers, we are to take each of these “ingredients”, mix them together, and bake a healthy, well-rounded cake… or responsible students and citizens.

Knowing everything that I have learned about my class, my planning and goal-setting will most definitely be directed to meet the needs of my students. For example, there are some students who are reluctant to partake in group work, whether it be because of the people they are asked to work with or the task that they are asked to work on. A goal that my Associate Teacher and I have been working towards is developing a classroom culture that embraces group work. We have brainstormed different ideas of what positive group work should look like, discussed and role played different situations involving group work, debriefed with the class about how a period of group work went, and celebrated the successes that positive group work accomplished. With that being said, I will continue to work towards developing a positive culture of group work in my classroom while also remaining reluctant to avoid group work altogether.

My student’s academic levels vary widely from one another. For example, there is a span PM Benchmarks that range from 1 to 30+, which is essentially the entire system (most fall between 19 to 30). This is where differentiation is key. I will have to get creative with my planning, ensuring that all reading abilities are accommodated for during a singular task. This does not just account for Language class; reading comprehension is needed in all disciplines, including Mathematics. In order to account for differentiating my lessons for each student, I have adopted an inquiry-based, deep learning approach to education.

The concepts of problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and deep learning are all practices that I hope to implement into my own teaching. I am passionate about teaching student to enjoy learning and fun, engaging, and innovative approaches to education are what draw this passion out of students. “Doing to learn”, rather than “learning to do” is such an important perspective on education. Student-driven learning is deep learning, which my why currently in my practicum, I am implementing a Genius Hour. For 1 hour every Wednesday that I am there, the students get to learning whatever they want! Well, as long as it has been proposed and approved by me. The students are just started to research answers to the questions they had about their chosen topics and are documenting their learning in a research log book. Eventually, students will create a presentation or a product and teach their peers about their chosen topic. Students thus far have been engaged and are learning to learn on their own; they pose a question and answer it on their own. This will be a truly immersive learning experience for the students that hopefully equate to deep learning.

Category: B. Ed., Personal, Teaching | 1 Comment

September 28

Program Review – JUMP Math

The JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies) Math program was developed by John Mighton, who lives in Toronto, Ontario. John create the JUMP Math with belief in mind that any student, despite whether they are gifted, average or have a learning disability, has the potential to excel in mathematics. The underlying philosophy of the program is that by breaking down math concepts into their smallest components and combining them with activities to build mathematical confidence, the differences in students’ abilities will be minimized and all students can be successful in math.

There are programs available from grades 1 through 8 and provide workbooks and teacher resources that are to be used every day in the classroom for the full year. They are available for purchase on www.jumpmath.org.

Strengths

The JUMP Math program prides itself on being an Ontario curriculum-based resource. JUMP Math covers the full curriculum for both Ontario and Western Canada through student workbooks, teacher’s guides, and a range of support materials. Despite satisfying the standards of multiple curriculums, it still covers the requirement outlined in the Ontario document.

There are many ways in which the JUMP Math program aligns with the principles underlying the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum, as outlined in the curriculum document. Firstly, the curriculum states that “students learn mathematics most effectively when they are given opportunities to investigate ideas and concepts through problem solving and are then guided carefully into an understanding of the mathematical principles involved” (p. 4). In a typical JUMP Math lesson, the teacher works with the whole class to lead students through a process of “guided discovery” while allowing them to adapt the lessons to their own level of understanding. These whole class lessons allow students to experience discovering knowledge about the concept together, as a collective rather than in an individual, competitive nature. The program’s method of “guided discovery” is very different from rote learning in that students are expected to take the steps themselves with the teacher as a guide rather than a lecturer.

Secondly, the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum states that the transition from elementary school mathematics to secondary school mathematics is very important for students’ development of confidence and competence. This concept of confidence in mathematics is pivotal for the JUMP program. The program starts with a 2-week long confidence building exercise that has demonstrably changed children’s perceptions of their abilities. In connection with JUMP’s approach to whole class lessons, the program promotes the idea that by following the program, students will feel more confident in their math abilities and thus will succeed in the subject

Lastly, the program aligns with the views of the curriculum in recognizing the diversity that exists among students who study mathematics. It provides teachers with resources to differentiate the learning of students. These resources include additional questions and multi-modal approaches to solving math problems, among others.

To further the conversation on differentiation, the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum explains that it is important to make valuable accommodations or modified expectations for students of varying exceptionalities. The JUMP Math program aides with differentiation by providing multiple representations of the same or similar concept help to reach a broader number of students. On the JUMP Math worksheets, concepts and skills are introduced one step at a time, with lots of opportunities for practice. The teacher’s guide suggests that struggling students can complete all of the questions on a worksheet while students who excel can skip some questions and do some extra work or bonus questions. The teachers’ guide even provides teachers with a 7-step process of making appropriate bonus questions for advanced students.

Lastly, the JUMP Program takes into account the fact that children are easily overwhelmed by too much new information. Students also require practice to consolidate the skills and concepts being taught and they benefit from immediate assessment and careful scaffolding of ideas. The program is mainly structured around the scaffolding model, in which students practice inquiry in manageable steps, mastering a concept before moving on. This proves to help immensely with student confidence and concept consolidation.

Weaknesses

While the JUMP Math program describes itself as a complete resource for the classroom mathematics period, there proves to be a number of weaknesses in the program. First, let’s outline some of the generic weaknesses of the program. JUMP Math only offers programs for grades 1 through 8, which may prove to have a negative effect on students once they transition into the high school grades. If students get used to this singular framework of learning math, then they may struggle with the new structure come high school, especially if their classroom adopts a critical thinking and discovery-based method rather than scaffolding. Additionally, the program seeks to minimize the differences in students’ ability by having them work on the same material at the same pace. By using materials and methods that minimize differences, teachers can cover more of the curriculum and can narrow or close the wide gap in student performance that exists in most classrooms. While this may prove to make it easier for the teacher, it might not translate into the students’ learning. The scores of the low-level students may rise with this approach; however, it could be at the sacrifice of lowering the high achiever’s scores.

Arguably one of the largest downfalls of the JUMP Math program is that many of the process expectations are not fulfilled. Problem solving requires students to develop problem solving strategies. Even though the program has a “guided discovery” approach, they still provide students with the way to solve each problem. Pedagogy teaches us that students’ best learn mathematic concepts through practical exploration and critical thinking. The heavy reliance on workbook material goes against this research. Reasoning and proving requires students to develop reasoning skills and use them in during investigation. There are very few reflection questions present in the student workbook, thus emphasising that the focus is on mastering the skill rather than comprehending the concept.

Through the scaffolding model approach to learning mathematics, the JUMP Math questions are very direct to one aspect of a concept and the workbook provides spaces for students to write their answers. These spaces only allow students to complete the question using the method introduced at the top of the page (Appendix A). As such, students are unable to fulfill the selecting tools and computational strategies expectation. The workbook is organized into sections by curriculum strand and is to be completed in a linear fashion, completing pages in order within those strands. Students who struggle in one area must experience that strand, and only that strand, until it is completed. Additionally, this does achieve the connecting process expectation, in that cross-strand integration of knowledge is not achievable.

The communication process expectation is very much concentrated on the students’ ability to write their mathematical thinking, rather than orally or visually present their understanding. Even when students are asked to communicate work visually, the students are only given one way to do so (i.e. Draw a number line to communicate…). This does not allow students the ability to practice or perform the skill of demonstrating understanding by freeing communicating in whichever mode they chose.

Many aspects of the specific expectations in the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum are not fully achieved. Specific expectations that require the use of a “variety of mental strategies” are not fulfilled in the scaffolding method. In the JUMP Math program, students are expected to master one concept at a time using the strategy provided to them in their workbook. This also means that expectations beginning with “select and justify” or “create and analyse” will also not be achieved, since students can only use the strategy expected of them for that given question.

Students also fail to achieve specific expectations such as “through investigation using concrete materials, drawings…” and “determine through investigation using a variety of tools”. While the workbook sometimes asks students to draw when answering a question, the specific image to be drawn and method of drawing it is outlined for the students (Appendix B). Also, at the end of the day, students are only using one concrete tool: their workbook.

Conclusion

Admittedly, the JUMP Math program is enticing, especially for a newly hired teacher. The program contains a complete, year-long resource that allows the teacher to facilitate learning without the planning. It comes with a full workbook for each student, a detailed teacher manual, and SMART Board material that corresponds with each lesson.

Although the program prides itself on covering the entire Ontario Mathematics curriculum, the pedagogy in teaching methods and critical thinking prove to be ill-aligned. There will be a select few students that truly enjoy having a workbook as a focus for the majority of the lesson; however, there will be more students that would prefer to discover the concept through hands-on problem solving rather than pencil to paper.

The fact that the specific expectations are the focus on the program is practically irrelevant when looking at how many process evaluations are not fulfilled. Communication, reflection, and making connections are extremely important to the student’s learning, especially when working with a subject as complex at math. Critical thinking is a powerful way to promote student’s ability to use many different pieces of information to come to unique solutions to problems. However, the JUMP Math program introduces students to one concept at a time, instructing them how to achieve the required result before moving on to the next component. This scaffolding method, while important for understanding the essence of the concept, does not allow students to think critically about why that method works or how it can be used in another way.

With all this being said, I believe the program has merit in introducing students to the specific skills needed to understand a larger concept. Therefore, it would be a beneficial program to have as a supplementary material to activities, problems, and math games. If these two concepts were used in conjunction with one another, it would allow students to learn math in a variety of ways while also taking them through the learning process of scaffolding skills and utilizing them in practical situations. Based on the information outlined in the Ontario Mathematics curriculum, I do not believe that JUMP Math should be used as the only resource.

Works Cited

Mighton, J., Sabourin, S., & Klebanov, A. (2009). JUMP Math 6.1 (2009 ed.). Toronto: JUMP Math.

The Ontario curriculum, Mathematics, Grades 1-8 (Rev. ed.). (2005). Toronto: Ontario, Ministry of Education.

Appendix A

Appendix B

Category: B. Ed., Education, Learning | 2 Comments

September 25

Year 2 Practicum Reflection: Week #2

My second week of practicum was full of creative instructional lessons, some “interesting” student behaviour, and many learning moments. I was fortunate enough to experience a school assembly that introduced the Terry Fox Run to our students, and I even got to participate in my first Meet the Teacher Night! Let’s go through my week moment by moment.

My first takeaway from my week is just how creative my associate teacher is with his lessons. He is able to take a concept and introduce it in a number of ways to ensure that every student understands and succeeds, while also having fun. An example of this is how we was able to integrate Math, Language, and Religion into one lesson. First, he taught the students how to find a reading in the Bible by looking up the book, chapter, and verse. Next, the students were to read two parables, each discussing the topic of loss (Luke 15: 1-10). This led to a discussion about the meaning of the parable and the lesson we can draw from it. Following this discussion, students answered math questions that combined the religious parables with our fraction unit.

Finally, to integrate it into our Langauge lesson, students used chrome books to write a story about their own experiences of “loss”. Talk about an integrated and well-structured lesson!

Later in the week, my associate teacher created Language stations that revolved around stories from my favourite author: Dr. Seuss! He formed 6 groups of 4 students and had them read together through a different Dr. Seuss book. At the conclusion of the book, students were given a handout to fill out which had them practicing their narrative writing skills by describing the beginning, middle, and end of the story. As with all Seuss books, there are important (and genius) underlying messages that the students had to discover. Lastly, to tie the lesson into Religion, the students had to choose a character and identify whether they exhibited a Catholic Graduate Expectation or not. Pretty comprehensive lesson if you ask me!

This week also marked my first time teaching a lesson while using the full functionality of a SMART Board! The students seemed to be engaged and remain interested in the topic throughout the duration of my lesson. The SMART Board allowed for students to participate in the lesson, and in all honesty, it forced me to make my teaching more student-centred in that they were able to write on the board and teach their peers. The extra student engagement even allowed me to go deeper into equivalent fractions, a concept that we were exploring for the first time, than expected.

$fractions1$ $fractions2$

Another neat little tidbit I learned from my other associate teacher is that the Ottawa Catholic School Board released a series of “Language wheels” that outlined the variations among each grade level. Board members found that with there being so many different types of writing that needs to be covered each year, teachers were focusing on some more than other. In theory, this is fine; however, when teachers year after year are focusing on the same types, then students find the others more difficult later in their educational careers. Therefore, these wheels were developed to outline which types of writing should be focused on (In-Depth Study) and which should be reviewed (Light Study) for each grade. Here is an example of the wheel and how writing should be varied between Grade 4 and Grade 5:

Meet the teacher night was a great experience, especially as a Teacher Candidate. These are the types of events that you aren’t taught about in school and are usually left to figure it out on your own. I loved getting to see how teachers prepared their rooms throughout the week in anticipation of the parents. With our school being more in the urban setting, teachers were unsure of how many parents would actually attend. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a crowd of parents and students join us for our welcome barbecue and later wandering the halls of our school. It is definitely an interesting thing to meet the parents of your students. It allows you to gain a holistic idea of the student, seeing where they came from and who they go home to. It’s almost like meeting the students’ “other parents”.

You might have noticed the little numbers on the books above. These books are part of the PM Benchmark system that my school uses to determine student reading level and comprehension. It is a great system that has students to read aloud to a teacher and answer some recall questions about the story. I have continued to complete these assessments throughout my Wednesday visits to the school and its a great way to develop a deeper understanding of the student’s Language ability.

Another great moment from the week was when Mrs. Pickett came into our Grade 5/6 split class with her keyboard and amazing vocals. The students sang along to “Open The Eyes Of My Heart”, which had both English and French sections. It was great to see just how engaged the students were, and how memorized they were with the keyboard. I look forward to seeing our students have more music classes in the weeks to come!

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September 23

Schooling the World

In one of my university courses yesterday, we watched the film Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden. Admittedly, the internet does a better job of summarizing the video than I would, so here you go:

If you wanted to change a culture in a generation, how would you do it?

You would change the way it educates its children.

The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a ‘better’ life for rural and Indigenous children.

But is this true? What really happens when we replace another culture’s canon of knowledge with our own? Does life really get better for its people?

Deep, I know. But there were many good takeaway messages that I wrote down and wish to share here (I apologize if the topics and ideas jump all over the place):

The overt goal of residential schools was to kill the Indian inside the child
Traditional ways of showing kindness and helping others is being replaced by careers that “help people”, such as doctors or engineers
- Changing away from teaching students about the heart and spirit, to teaching them about material wealth and gain
If you’ve lost your history, then you’ve lost everything
Traditional education taught students about their own soil, environment, and how to survive in their own community for generations
In modern education, students learn how to use corporate products in urban environments
- They are unable to survive independently in their own community
“We are creating incomplete human beings” because we are teaching information that feeds into a consumer society’s beliefs
Schools are factories in which raw materials – students – are to be shaped into functional beings
People provide educational aid out of the goodness of their heart, but they don’t stay long enough to see the overall impact and they don’t look broadly enough
- Forget their own culture, traditions, and language
- More damaging than good

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September 21

Assessment: A Stool Metaphor

Many people have the same question when it comes to discussing education: What is assessment and what value does it hold? Christopher R. Gareis and Leslie W. Grant, authors of “Teacher Made Assessment”, speak to the value of assessment and why it has merit in the education system. Curriculum is an important part of teaching, in that it outlines the specific learning expectations per subject in grade-level increments. Instruction is where the teaching comes to life. Teachers take the curriculum topics and provide opportunities for students to learn this knowledge. But how do we know that the students have truly learned from these lessons? To what degree have they learned the topic? This is where assessment comes in.

Figure 1.1 displays the three components of student learning (curriculum, instruction, assessment) in a simple metaphor: a stool. Curriculum is what information is being taught, instruction is how we teach this knowledge, and assessment is the nature and degree of student learning. The imagery of the stool metaphor speaks volumes in that student learning can only be stable when all three components are present. Without assessment, education becomes a one-way, teacher-to-student transfer of information with no expectation or accountability of actually learning.

In my experience as a student, I always feared assessment, but understood its value. Assessment typically becomes a grade, which can be intimidating and stress-provoking for many students. Without assessment, though, how does a teacher know we’ve learned? Also, what is the point of learning if we don’t put it into action? Assessment provides us with that opportunity to use our learning to complete a task.

Now, as a teacher, I find myself spending a lot of brain power into creating the assessment component of any lesson or unit. What do I actually want my students to get out of this? How are they going to show me that they’ve learned the information? How can I assess my students without scaring the you-know-what out of them? Assessment serves an important purpose. Let’s continue to explore assessment so that our students learning remains as stable as a stool.

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September 19

The Seven Fundamental Principles

As I enter into the second year of my Bachelor of Education, we are further deepening our understanding of curriculum and assessment. Curriculum and assessment are at the core of the teaching profession; without competency in this realm, students will not have the most fruitful education. Growing Success, a document released by the Ministry of Education, outlines seven fundamental principles of assessment. In our class of Teacher Candidates, we explored the possibilities of these principles and shared our experiences relating to each principle in our own teaching.

Principle

Teachers use practices and procedures that…

Evidence

What are the possibilities?

Evaluation

What did you see in the classroom?

Are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students

· Fair does not necessarily mean equal

· Differentiation is key

· Criteria-based assessment, both for- and of-

· Supporting students

· IEPs

· Learning goals and assessment criteria

· Student-made expectations (displayed in an anchor chart)

· Examples of past work that students will be working towards

· Graffiti activity for Catholic Graduate Expectations and how students will achieve these

Support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Metis, or Inuit

· Providing additional support

· Additional time to complete tasks

· Create diverse learning spaces

· Modified curriculum and tasks

· Varied teaching practices and assessment

· Speech-to-text learning

· Centre-based learning

· Environment: Seating charts and modifications (exercise balls, body breaks)

· Tools: Diagnostic (PM Benchmarks) and reading IEPs

Are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students

· Backwards design, well-prepared lessons

· Knowing your curriculum

· Student-driven learning

· Relate Geography lessons to the locations that the students are from

· Class shows a strength in Language, use to advantage in subjects like Math

· Cross-curricular lessons and activities

· Writing on topics related to students that ties in literacy concepts

· Providing manipulatives and various ways to solve a problem, while also providing extensions for the students that can take their solutions further

Are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course

· Open communication

· Feedback

· Good rapport with parents (leads to ongoing communication)

· Remind App to communicate directly with the students’ parents

· Google Classroom, Calendar, and Mail that the students and parents both have access too

· Regular use of agenda

· Use of school board personnel that can translate during conversations with parents who do not speak English

· Family Math activities that are sent home to build learning environment with family

Are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning

· Variety of teaching methods

· Staggered units and assessment to avoid overwhelming students

· Seeing the student’s work change with further instruction during unit (structures changing based on concepts discussed, i.e. use of triangles)

Provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement

· Anecdotal records

· Self-assessment

· Preparing students for the summative assessment

· Success Criteria (met/not met yet feedback)

· Gradual Release Model

· Comments on work that students turn in (strengths, next steps)

· Being aware of the students’ learning process and how they came to their end product, rather than just evaluating their final assessment

Develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning

· Student-centred learning

· Class Survey: Thumbs up if the student understands

· Refer back to anchor charts for the learning processes

· Students editing or critiquing each other’s work

· Students building off of each other’s ideas during class discussions

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September 11

Year 2 Practicum Reflection: Week #1

“For most of us, teaching is not just what earns our paycheck. Teaching is what we were put on earth to do.”

~ Robert John Meehan

Tuesday marked Mr. Burton’s return to the classroom, as I officially started my second year practicum! I am beyond fortunate to have the opportunity to be at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School, teaching alongside two incredible teachers. In the mornings, I will be teaching in a Grade 5 class, and I’ll have a Grade 5/6 class in the afternoons. From the moment I walked into OLMC, I was blown away by the positivity and faith-filled atmosphere that the school emits. This school and its staff are committed to faith-based education and creating a safe place for students to be.

For my first week of practicum, I had 3 goals outlined for myself:

LEARN about classroom routine formation from my associate teachers
Begin making meaningful CONNECTIONS with my students
Experience a MEMORABLE moment

I knew my first goal would be achieved during the first week, given how important establishing structure and routines are for classroom management and, ultimately, student success. Morning circles, icebreaker activities, team-building challenges, and student-involved guidelines were all important aspects of the first few days of the school year. When it came to curriculum, the teachers eased into the subject matter, while also establishing some routines (notebooks for each subject, participating in group work, etc.). The first few days of school are truly a unique time of the year, and very valuable for a teacher candidate like myself to experience.

In a matter of days, I realized that the teachers at OLMC are so creative with their lessons and they display a willingness to try new things, the latter being so important after teaching the same grades/subjects for prolonged periods of time. When it comes to teaching, I’ve already seen knowledge-building circles, placemat activities, turn-and-talks, Number Talks, and think-pair-shares. The thing that I am really fascinated by is the school-wide Brain Breakfast initiative. Every morning, students are given a grade-appropriate word problem, either in Mathematics or Literacy, to jump-start their thinking and learning. This serves as a great introduction to the day’s lesson, or just as a stand-alone critical thinking question. I am very interested to see how this initiative progresses throughout the year and how the students’ learning develops overtime.

olmc9

This placement also marks my return to the Catholic Education system. I only ever attended Catholic school growing up and I really appreciated my experience. I missed the prayers on the announcements. I missed the prayers before lunch. Most importantly, I missed continual attention to teaching morals, ethics, and the Catholic faith. Already this week, our students brainstormed way that they could fulfill the Catholic Graduate Expectations. A graduate of the Catholic school system is expected to be:

A discerning believer formed in the Catholic Faith community who celebrates the signs and sacred mystery of God’s presence through word, sacrament, prayer, forgiveness, reflection and moral living.
An effective communicator who speaks, writes and listens honestly and sensitively, responding critically in light of gospel values.
A reflective, creative and holistic thinker who solves problems and makes responsible decisions with an informed moral conscience for the common good.
A self-directed, responsible, lifelong learner who develops and demonstrates their God-given potential.
A collaborative contributor who finds meaning, dignity and vocation in work which respects the rights of all and contributes to the common good.
A caring family member who attends to family, school, parish, and the wider community.
A responsible citizen who gives witness to Catholic social teaching by promoting peace, justice and the sacredness of human life.

I am excited to immerse myself in the Catholic curriculum and teach a few Religion lessons of my own!

I was able to make connections with a few students throughout the week, and I am proud to say that I know all of their names (which always seems to be a challenge for me at first). I’ve had students ask if I am Superman, if I am my associate teacher’s younger brother, and if I am a scientist – all of which are false, but it made for interesting conversations nonetheless! Through establishing theses connections, I was able to experience a memorable moment this week. On the first day of school, we had a new student that had moved from the Philippines two months prior. He was scared, crying, and latched on to his family. I had a conversation with him about how it was my first day at a new school and that I was scared too, but that we would both have a great year and meet so many new friends. Seeing the progression in this young boy from crying with his family on Tuesday to joking around with friends on Friday was truly a testament to how important a safe and positive educational environment is.

olmc82
There was so much learning in week #1 and I am looking forward to the learning that is to come!

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September 6

Books Are a Teacher’s Best Friend

Last year, I took a course called Teaching Language and The Arts in the Junior Division and our professor expressed her adoration for using picture books in the classroom. The wonderful combination of visuals and textual stories that picture books offer is a valuable literary experience. However, picture books do not have to be used exclusively during literacy; they provide valuable learning opportunities in a number of disciplines.

Our professor asked us to explore the world of picture books, in addition to novels that could be used cross-curriculum, and create an annotated document containing information about three different books. Together with those provided by classmates, a resource bank of picture books and novels was created! Below is information about the three books I happened upon:

Title: The Other Side

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Illustrator: E. B. Lewis

Genre: Picture Book

Subject Area(s): Language, History (Social Studies), Art

Grade(s): 4 – 8

Summary: The Other Side is a story of friendship across a racial divide. Clover is a young, African American girl who lives beside a fence that separates her town into a white section and a black section. Her mother tells her that she is not allowed to climb over the fence because it is unsafe on the other side. Clover regularly plays with a group of friends, in view of a lonely white girl. Eventually, Clover starts a conversation with the other girl, Annie, thus initiating their friendship. They both recognize that they can’t cross the fence, but they get around the rules by sitting on top of the fence together, an area deemed no man’s land.

Significance: This book is a great resource when it comes to introducing complex subject matters in an engaging and creative way. The Other Side presents the history of racism, yet it takes a positive approach to a heavy topic. This story can be used in a number of different subject areas, including Language, History, and Art. The pictures can spark a Visual Arts lesson focused on analyzing the images (What types of images were used? Why did the illustrator use that type of art?), and exploring the cultural contexts of the art. Many discussion topics can be explored after reading the book, such as the history of racism and the role of each character in portraying the significance of the subject matter, among others. These discussions can lead to assessments that fall under a number of Language and History overall expectations.

Title: My Life as a Smashed Burrito with Extra Hot Sauce

Author: Bill Myers

Illustrator: n/a

Genre: Novel

Subject Area(s): Language, Religion

Grade(s): 4 – 8

Summary: As the first novel in the Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle series, we are introduced to twelve-year-old Wally McDoogle. Wally dreams of being a writer, being a superhero, and most importantly, writing about a superhero. His father registers Wally for camp, insisting it will make him a “real man”. Wally’s fears come true before he even makes it to Camp Wahkah Wahkah: he gets picked up and thrown against the roof of the bus by Gary the Gorilla, a humongous bully. As Wally continually gets bullied for being dork-oid, how he writes a story about a superhero defeating a villain, closely resembling the situations he is facing in real life.

Significance: This novel is a great resource for teachers in the Catholic school board that are looking for an age-appropriate story that teaches valuable life-lessons. Written with a comedic approach, Wally is a relatable character for many students in elementary school. He references God and the values and morals used to overcome tough situations. This provides a way to introduce students to morality, consciousness, and religion. Wally also dreams of becoming a writer and is in the process of writing his own superhero story. This concept alone presents many opportunities for further study, such as writing their own life stories in the creative outlook of a superhero character. There are 27 books in the series, which presents an interesting opportunity for group collaboration: if each student is able to read a different book in the series, the class can engage in Knowledge-Building Circles discussing the similarities and differences among the lessons learned in each of the novels.

Title: The Giving Tree

Author: Shel Silverstein

Illustrator: Shel Silverstein

Genre: Picture book

Subject Area(s): Language, Religion, Art, Social Studies

Grade(s): 1 – 8

Summary: The book tells the story of a boy and an apple tree who are able to communicate with one another. As a child, the boy enjoys playing with the tree, climbing her trunk, swinging from her branches, and eating her apples. As the boy grows older, he uses the tree for purposes other than play. As a teenager, he picks and sells the tree’s apples to make money. In adulthood, the boy cuts the branches off of the tree and takes them away to build a house. When the middle aged boy wants a boat, the tree allows him to cut its trunk to make a boat. The boy returns to the tree as an elderly man, however, the tree tells him that it has nothing left to give. Surprisingly, the boy only wants “a quiet place to sit and rest,” which the tree’s remaining stump can provide. After every occurrence of giving throughout the entire story, the story reads: “And the tree was happy.”

Significance: As both the author and illustrator of The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein serves as an example of cross-curricular connections. This story at its very essence details a relationship built on selflessly giving what we have to others and not expecting anything in return. In the upper elementary grades, this relationship can be interpreted and explored in many different ways: a parent and their child, God and humanity, the environment and humans, and two friends. Whether the picture book is treated as an introductory hook to a lesson or the basis of a lesson, these relationships can lead to discussions in a number of different subject areas, such as Language, Religion, and Social Studies. The simplicity of the illustrations allows the reader to internalize the story without being distracted by the images. The connection of the images to the plot of the story would make for a great Visual Arts discussion, and the lessons gathered from the story can lead into other areas of The Arts (Music, Drama, and Dance).

Category: B. Ed., Education, Learning, Teaching | LEAVE A COMMENT

September 2

Extend-A-Family Summer Program 2016: A Review

It’s that time of year again where we wrap up our summer program! 2016 was a year filled with excitement, friendship, and fun!

Before we get into all of the exciting details about the program itself, we’d like to first introduce you to the team that brought all of the magic to life! This year our team was led by two time On-Site Director Spencer, who never failed to bring out the excellence in the rest of the team members. Josh held the position of Assistant On-Site Director, who rejuvenated the Peer Leader system by bringing mentorship and goal setting to the forefront. Returning for his third year, and introducing the Summer Program Leaders, Gryphon brought his strong relationship building back to the program, and gave the rest of a team an example to follow. Our resident cheerleader Sabrina brought enormous amounts of energy and spirit to everyone she interacted with. Patience and an aura of peace and tranquility came from our leader Marissa, who made strong and lasting one to one connections with many of the participants. Evan, our jack of all trades, brought a great sense of humour and well roundedness to the team and the participants. Where’s our last leader you ask? Not to fear, Emily is here! Emily met every challenge with a positive energy and with a unique intuition, which helped the team strive for greater success.

Sticking with tradition, we began our summer program by traveling the globe in “All Around the World” week. We focused on bringing different cultures to life, by creating maracas and dancing to music from different countries, we had the chance to meet some ‘very cute’ exotic animals from Little Rays Reptiles, and ended our week touring the animals of the world by visiting the African Lion Safari!

We learned a lot about each other in our “Hidden Talents” week. Marissa brought her dad in to give an educational and interactive lesson in Karate, our minds were blown thanks to the magical talents of Five the Magician, and we found out what our personal super powers are by creating super hero models! Finally, we wrapped the week up by showcasing our hidden talents in a talent show, which had everything from lifting weights and arm wrestling, to beautiful singing and dancing.

In our third week of program, we managed to get out into the community and give something back by being “Vibrant Volunteers”. We began the week by focusing on our futures and learning how to write a successful resume. We created goals for ourselves and put them in jars as a reminder of what we want to achieve, and took steps towards many of those goals by volunteering in small groups at the Victoria Hills and Forest Heights community centers. We took everyone to the Family Center and spent the full day learning about the positive experiences that can arise from being a volunteer. We ended our week taking a bit of a break at the Mountsberg Conservation Centre, where we learned all about different birds and how important they are to maintaining a healthy environment.

Thank you to @theFamilyCentre for welcoming our @EAFWR Vibrant Volunteers today! #volunteering #KWAwesome #inclusion pic.twitter.com/ZRGu7fzWMr

— Spencer Burton (@spencerburtonca) July 20, 2016

After a week of volunteering, it was time to bring out a bit of competition by “Getting our Game on!” We channeled our inner Tom Cruise by planning mission impossible, broke into teams and played our hearts out in a sports circuit, and gave er’ a go with some Australian sports taught to us by X-Movement. We finished off the week with an awards ceremony, followed by hitting those strikes bowling and splashing around at the Waterloo Rec Center.

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After a busy, hot summer, we wrapped up our day program getting wet and refreshed at our “Wacky Water Week”! We tapped into our inner artist and created some amazing paintings using water guns, got soaked running relays and capturing the flag, had a fiery time in the gym when Drumfit came to burn some calories, and relaxed afterwards by creating some tie dye shirts. After spraying the participants with water all week, it was time for them to get some revenge in reverse paintball, where everyone got the chance to paint the program leaders from head to toe, and wash all of the paint off using water guns, sponges, pails, and eventually the buckets that held all of the water. We capped off our week with a trip to Wild Water Works, where we slayed the slides, laid back in the lazy river, and went wild in the wave pool.

We said goodbye to the day program and hello to the overnight program by travelling to Camp Impeesa, located in Ayr. For the next two weeks, we spent our days playing cards, board games, going on hikes, making bracelets and paintings, swimming, and even a little bit of rock climbing. We celebrated the nights by singing around the campfire and making s’mores, watching movies and eating popcorn. We partied with a dance, topping off the night with ice cream sundaes.

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Just like that, summer program came to a close. All of the excitement and fun of the summer came to a wrap. The friendships and relationships built this summer brought everyone closer, and the sense of unity and closeness extended out to everyone who came into contact with the summer program. The staff at St. Dominic Savio did an amazing job at accommodating the needs of a constantly changing program, the peer leaders jumped right into their role and quickly became members of the team, the coordinators who connected all of the participants to the program, our fantastic guests and trip locations who provided memories that will never be forgotten, and the one on one support workers who did an outstanding job in insuring that everyone felt welcomed and supported at the summer program, we would like send a great big thank you to all of you for becoming a part of the summer program, and making this summer one to remember.

We want to send a big shout out to Mitch Bewick, whose 6 years involved in the summer program is coming to a close. His amazing contributions and guidance in that time has lead the program to new heights and success, and he has helped set the bar higher each year for the next team to reach. We want to wish Mitch all of the best in his future endeavors, and look forward to seeing his continued success.

Until next time, Summer Program!

Written by: Summer Program Staff 2016

Category: Personal | LEAVE A COMMENT

August 29

Start Living Acceptance

This summer, while working at Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region, I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful gentleman by the name of Ryan McTavish. Ryan and I immediately recognized each other, and it wasn’t until a few days later that Ryan found the link – we had been babysat by the same babysitter years and years ago! Here is a little bit about Ryan:

My name is Ryan McTavish and I am a 23-year old musician and Autism activist. I was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 5. Last year in 2015, I hosted my very first show to raise awareness for Autism called Rock For Autism Waterloo, with special guest, Canadian music legend Fred Penner.

This year, to continue my advocacy career, I created a video called “Start Living Acceptance”…and my coined phrase, “Stop talking awareness…Start LIVING Acceptance” began to spread.

… And this exactly what blew me away about Ryan. He stood in front of a room of support people, each with their own views about what it means to support someone with autism, and shook our mindset about awareness. Yes, awareness is important when it comes to individuals with varying abilities, but it is not enough. We must learn to accept others for who they are and display this mindset through our every day interactions with others.

Here is Ryan’s message:

https://vimeo.com/162201973

Ryan has now created a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to create promotional mechandise, which will begin to be printed, if enough funding, by the fall or winter. These T-Shirts will contain the phrase “Stop talking awareness…Start LIVING acceptance” in some way, and the distribution of these shirts will help give Ryan’s advocacy campaign a boost to spread further. The shirts will be sold to numerous supporters, including friends, families, organizations, and any place I will speak or perform. PLEASE go support Ryan’s message here.

In the words of Ryan himself:

Thank you for all your support, and START LIVING ACCEPTANCE!

Category: Personal, Teaching | LEAVE A COMMENT

SPENCER BURTON

Learning about learning.