Category: Weekly Reflections

Technology and Inclusion

Tracy Humphrey and Kaori Lau gave an engaging talk on how technology can be used to create a more inclusive classroom. They are part of a group, BCEDAccess, that are there to support parents and guardians to learn and advocate for their children as well as promote affordable access. An important concept that they brought up was the invisible backpack.

Image from: http://nybra.com/our-practice/insights-events/the-invisible-backpack/

As teachers it is important for us to understand that every student has an “invisible backpack”, meaning that there are things going on in their lives that we may or may not be aware of that is impacting them in our classrooms. In terms of their talk, they related it to how students may struggle with certain challenges in the classroom, which may not be apparent from just watching them work.

They discussed the main challenges associated with inclusivity in the classroom with access was at the top of this lists. They discussed this being a challenge as there is a lack of funds for the schools. Supportive technology that can be used in the classroom, such as speech to text technology, EA’s, translators, and microphones, may not be part of funding on the school, meaning that it falls on the parent and/or guardian to provide those tools. Another challenge they discussed is a lack of support for the students from families and teachers. This is due to the fact that there is a lack of resources to prepare them to support the individual. Although there have been improvements, teachers need to be given additional knowledge in order to support students in the most effective way. From this presentation, I am interested to see what improvement are made before we graduate and start working as teachers.

Supporting Innovation and Inquiry in Education

Jeff Hopkins, founder and co-principle of the pacific school of innovation and inquiry, discussed the value of creating a school that teaches in a zone of proximal development. As shown on the image below, this is different for each individual as their current knowledge and experience may differ from their classmates. This is why Hopkins has developed a school that deals with each student individually, allowing each to gain the most from their education.

Differing from the traditional school, the pacific school of innovation and inquiry uses an emergent/personal curriculum. This means that the wants and needs of the learners appears in the teachings. The school/classrooms are also visually quite different from other high schools. The students are given autonomy of the atmosphere they want to learn in, rather than moving from class to class sitting in desks facing the front of the room. Lastly, assessment is done quite differently. Throughout the semester students are asked to come up with a main question, based on something they are interested in, then research to find out more. Once they gather enough information they are to come up with another questions then develop and execute a learning activity based on their previous research. Rather than just marking the final product, assessment is done throughout the stages of the project allowing students to shift their work and continuously improve throughout.

Trevor Mackenzie discussed the importance of curiosity and powerful feedback in the classroom. Firstly, he relates curiosity to a campfire, explaining how a curious student is inviting to others and causes them to be curious as well. By creating and/or empowering a curious student we are also creating a better classroom atmosphere. A curious student can be seen to result in better attendance, higher achievement, and less behavioural issues. Secondly, we talked about feedback and assessment. He highlighted the importance of kind, specific, and helpful feedback. This can be done through teacher feedback, peer feedback, or self-reflection. All are important to the improvement of student achievement. A note that he made about feedback that really stuck with me is the importance of separating it from the mark. On a test or assignment if the last page has the grade and then feedback, most, if not all, students will see their grade and ignore the feedback. I know that in high school I was definitely that student. This is why Mackenzie emphasized the importance of giving feedback separately in order for the student to digest it before receiving their grade. This presentation was very impactful to how I see myself assessing students in the future. 

Jesse Miller gave an impactful talk on technology and how the evolution of it is affecting the classroom as well as our everyday lives. There has been a clear shift on social norms that are the result of technology, more specifically social media. In terms of technology, Jesse emphasized how prominent cell phones are in the classroom. As someone that has teachable in social studies and PHE, it was interesting to think about the difference of the impact in each class. As discussed, cell phones are not a large problem in PHE as the students are not able to be on their phones while running around and participating in physical activity. Social studies on the other hand is a setting where students may be on their phones more often. An easy way to hopefully get students away from being on their phones in setting a clear expectation at the beginning of class and using gentle reminders if needed. In terms of social media, I think that it allows teachers to open the conversation up about access and validity of what you see online. This then can be tied into social studies as a platform for research and understanding biases within certain content/ideas. Miller also discussed safety in regard to technology. In terms of being a teacher, we discussed safety through boundaries. This includes keeping social media private, which is a new obstacle as it has become such a prominent part of society. Although I had previously thought about this and understood the importance of not showing students my life that has been posted, I did not think about it in regard to me seeing the students. This is important as setting the boundary of not sharing social medias is protecting your safety as well as your students. Jesse Millers discussion is important as it starts the conversation and gets us to continue to think about it as social media and technology continues to progress. 

Most Likely to Succeed introduces a new form of education, moving away from a lecture, assignment, and test format of schooling. It challenges the current education system that has been in place since the industrial revolution. The shift in their classrooms has encouraged student engagement, focusing more on their development of soft skills. I was intrigued by the approach done by Mark Aguirre, who taught the class in a way that really highlighted student centred learning. Although it really forced students to do it themselves, I do have reservations about his technique. I believe that his format of teaching would not benefit students that have anxieties around public speaking as well as those that need more structure. Besides these challenges, the structure of the class creates a safe environment for students to engage in thought provoking discussion, allowing them to learn without the use of a lecture. This is only one example of how high tech high is trying to shift the curriculum. The film also documented the school project led by Mike Strong and Scott Swaaley, showing a different model for students to present the knowledge they gained throughout the year. This concept was quite intriguing as students were not graded based on completion, as seen by the one student that was continuing to work on his project throughout the summer. This makes me wonder how these students do once out of high school and put into college classrooms that are most likely lecture and test based. Although 98% of students were accepted into college, it does not measure the success of the program. It would be interesting to see how the students fared in their courses, measuring their ability to take tests and retain lecture information in comparison to students that went to other, more traditional curriculum based schools.