Mapping Soundscapes

 

Tyler's Inquiry Walk

 Link here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DNoQTmlf3FOGNYJaOP9IZeiPRXH01aCWqKlUQMl_ZMY/edit?usp=sharing

Reflections on Practicum and Thoughts of the Future

 

1. Name: Tyler

2. Teaching specialty/specialties: Math

3. Highlights of your teaching practicum experience: 

1. Experiences that you remember with a smile (learning, growth, “I love this job!” sorts of things)

It's going to be hard to pinpoint just a few instances because I felt I was smiling throughout my entire practicum. It was a joyous opportunity that really allowed me to flex my creative muscles and try different things. Coming into practicum I didn't know what to expect and thought I would just be doing chalk-and-talk style teaching, but I was able to expand and work in a thinking classroom with 2 very progressive SAs who set me up to try different ideas. I would say that my relationship with the students both inside and outside of my class made the experience worth it. I was able to build relationships and connect with students and they made the job fun. It made coming to school every day easy and I looked forward to making fun activities so I could see their faces.

I also got the opportunity to hold an event at the school, which was a lot of work to put on, but also super gratifying. 

 

2. Challenges: Things that were a struggle, perhaps in the “We learn and grow through challenges and hardships” category of “learning experience”

One of the challenges I found was matching my style of teaching to my SAs' style. Since I had 2 different SAs, with 2 classes I was coming into the middle of teaching, I felt that I needed to (somewhat) match their teaching styles. The reason for this is that the students were already used to being taught a certain way and I didn't want to mix things up for them halfway through the quarter; they were already under a lot of stress to begin with, then a student-teacher comes in mid quarter which could be even more difficult. One of my SAs also challenged me to having 3 or 4 activities per day for the gr.9s I was teaching, to always keep them actively engaged. This was difficult at times, but once I got my time management down, was quite fun.

3. Ongoing learning: Things that, at the end of your practicum, had you thinking, “I want to learn more about, or work on developing my skills in .…” (?)

I think during my CFE was one of those moments as I got to work in the school in a different capacity. Instead of being in the classroom, I split my time between the library and resource center. In both of these areas of the school I think there are lots to learn about. I am definitely interested in teaching resource now and have a deeper understanding and respect for school librarians.

Inside the classroom I think I would like to continue on working on purpose. As mentioned in the question above, I was tasked with having multiple activities ready for my students, but often I struggled with purpose. Why was I making them do this? What's really important about the activity? How is it applicable? How can I make this more than just questions? How can I make this meaningful?  

4. Reflecting on the way the video, “Message from the future II”, plays with the notion of messages across time: What is the most important thing that would write in a letter to your future teacher self (e.g. five years from now)?

There is no such thing as a perfect teacher, and you're never done growing. Being a teacher is like walking along an infinite line of progression; we always want to improve ourselves, self reflect, and become better, but we should never be complacent and think we're done growing. Never think that there's nothing left to learn. If you can't find anything, seek it, there is always someone out there willing to teach you and facilitate your growth.

Contrarily, don't be too hard on yourself if things don't go right right away. There is no magic or secret formula to being a great teacher, and everyone takes time to get to where they want to be. If you start slow, it's ok. If you start off great, don't forget to maintain yourself, take care of yourself, and be mindful of your own personal well being. Listen to others, learn from others, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

5. Post-BEd plans: e.g., if you have already secured a teaching job, what/where? Or, some other sort of job? Or, further studies? Or, if you don’t have solid plans, what are your hoped-for post-BEd options?): Note: The purpose of this question is to provide us (Amanda and Mati) some context to get a sense of your interests and potential needs as you move into your career

I currently have a job with the Richmond School District (SD38) as a TTOC and got hired during my practicum. It was definitely an amazing moment and really has me excited. I've grown up in Richmond and my family is here too.

In the next few years I also plan on continuing my education, hopefully getting into a Masters program. I have looked at some of the ones offered by UBC and have talked to my Practicum school's VP about possible options as well. In a perfect world I would get into a Masters program sooner than later, as well as continue to teach. I am waiting for some more job postings to open up during the summer. Another possible option would be to take more courses in regard to becoming certified for full time resource (as mentioned above), which would also push me into 5+ range. One of my CFE SAs has given me a list of all courses I would need to take to be certified for resource. 

1. Anything else? If there is anything else you would like to share, please do! Amanda and Mati would love to learn more about you -

Even though we've been in class for the last couple weeks, I'm still trying to get my bearings straight. Shifting from in person practicum to all online school hasn't been the best and personally, I don't really enjoy it. I'll come around though, I always do :) 

A little bit about me though, I love anything visual and hands on. The more stuff we can do through play, the better, I just find that critical thinking aspect mixed with a little abstractness is wonderful. I've played hockey all my life and continue to coach, and I love trying different hobbies. Over the last few years I've picked up photography, and this past year I picked up customizing shoes and other clothing. Cool side note: One of the other students in the math cohort actually got me to customize a pair of shoes for their daughters' birthday. It was awesome. Can't wait to learn more about both of you as well! 

Tyler’s share

 

Course Reflection

My ideas have changed drastically throughout this course, mainly with how to incorporate many different aspects into my pedagogy. At first, I believed that the best kind of teaching was done in a lecture format -- however, throughout the course I've realized that this doesn't inspire kids to inquire and reach for more. We can be doing so much more as teachers than just handing out/giving notes to students; it's our job to make school engaging and worth coming to. 

I really appreciated the first reading about Frank McCourt, I found his journey so interesting, and loved his ideas of authenticity. I think that it really helps with building student-teacher relationships and can really set the tone of the classroom you like. I also learned a lot from the Jo Boaler video about mindsets. I still find myself trying to use words of encouragement and making note of effort over product -- it's something I'm still working on though as it's so much easier to comment on a students' production. 

I don't really have any recommendations for the upcoming Inquiry 2 course, although I would like to put some more theory to practice. I would like to try to attempt to put our inquiry 1 projects into practice though; or at least see what would happen if we tried. 

Inquiry Project - Reflection

Here is a link to slides

Through this inquiry project I was able to learn a lot about how little climate change is implemented into the mathematics curriculum -- but also where we can implement it as well. Our second activity (which we didn't get to do) was centered around graphing and real-world questions that could potentially be asked in a math class. I think it's important to learn how to implement realistic mathematics education (RME) as well as types of questions that make the work applicable. I think carrying on with Inquiry 2 would be to design more coursework around climate change in math. Perhaps finding a way to implement it in all facets of math, not just 1 unit like linear equations. How can we creatively intersect and develop different units with climate change. 

I definitely thought that graphing and understanding data would be a big part of our research for implementing climate change into the classroom -- but an unexpected direction would be the use of higher grade level math like trigonometry where we an teach climate change. I'm excited to keep exploring and finding information on this topic

Inquiry Project - Slides + Annotated Bibliography

Slides

Bibliography