Miss M's Learning Space

A few weeks ago I was able to attend the professional development workshop called  Creating a Positive Junior/Intermediate Classroom Environment: Using Restorative Practices to enhance Classroom Management and support Mental Health.  It was an incredible experience; I had never really heard about what restorative justice is until this conference. Restorative Justice in a Nutshell If I could summarize in one sentence I would say that restorative justice is a process where the perpetrator and the victim of violence or harassment can meet to hear each other's side of the story and find peace and closure to move forward. In a classroom setting, this can be done fairly quickly with the teacher acting only as a facilitator (i.e. not probing or stating their opinion) while the students involved in the incident can share their perspective on what happened. In it's most formal form , restorative justice is used to help 'restore the harm caused by crime.' The facilitator

While I was on practicum at Rosedale School, I had the opportunity to run the 'Winter Warm-Up' fundraiser with the other teacher candidates at the school. The idea behind the fundraiser was to collect as many non-perishable food items and warm winter accessories (i.e. hats, mittens, scarves, etc). The results were overwhelming. As a school we collected 465 total items to donate to Good Shepherd. We also held a competition between classes in order to encourage donations. I'm happy to say the class I was placed in came in first with 180 items collected. MacCuish, Megan (2016). The tree with items collected in the Rosedale Lobby. MacCuish, Megan (2016). The bulletin board recording our progress.  

 On Wednesday I had the privilege of attending the Ontario Ministry of Education's professional development presentation called  Building Futures . The two workshops I was able to attend specifically were:    promoting well being: developing positive conditions for learning; and  supporting students with special education needs.  I won't go into extensive detail, but I found there were a lot of common themes throughout the workshops and I'd like to highlight several key messages.  First, we can't 'fix' students' problems or 'make students better;' all we can do as educators is promote positive mental health and well being. This was a powerful moment for me when I heard this message. We can do everything 'right' as an educator and still have students who are in distress, and we need to leave it to the experts at that point. This is a concept, in general, that I struggle with. I want to fix everything all the time, but I've learne

This week we focused on math assessment and feedback strategies. In terms of assessment, we went through the basic forms of assessment and their function in math. Assessment for learning: formative, ongoing assessment to guide instruction. Assessment as  learning: formative, ongoing peer and self assessment to guide instruction. Assessment of learning: summative assessment to gauge learning and can be used to guide further instruction. These terms and their function are detailed in the Growing Success document. I've previously posted a summary of these forms of assessment on my blog here . We also talked about different ways of providing feedback. There are several options in addition to products (i.e. tests, quizzes, assignments, etc) that can be used to provide feedback such as conversations, self-assessments, math journals, etc. In terms of providing written feedback we honed in on several aspects of meaningful feedback: specific, personal, and positive. For our web

This week we discussed the idea of using intuition when approaching math problems. Essentially asking yourself 'what is this question trying to ask me' as you work through or initially approach a question.  Take, for example, the video below. Now, a lot of those students probably didn't understand the problem but tried to solve it anyway with the numbers provided. Had they trusted their intuition that something was off they would have been significantly more successful.We need to teach our students that it's okay (and even encouraged) to question why they're doing something; why they're learning something. Knowing 'why' allows them to make connections between math to math, math to self, and math to the world. These connections are critical, since learning math within it's context allows students to truly understand where it fits and what it means.  Another idea that was discussed was taking the abstract-ness out of math whenever possible.

This week I had the privilege of attending Brock University's Arts Matter Conference . The day was divided into 4 workshops and concluded with a performance, and I thought I would share some of the ideas with you here. Dance We began the day by exploring dance in the curriculum. I haven't done a lot of work with dance before so this was completely new to me. We talked about how miming isn't the same as dance and were introduced to Action Pak cards . These cards are a teacher resource designed to level the playing field in the realm of dance and make it accessible to all students - especially those who are uncomfortable because they don't 'know' dance.  Drama In drama we explored Story Drama and it was truly powerful. Basically, you read part of a book (we used Henry's Freedom Box ) and do activities at each pause to help you understand and connect with the book. We did a couple of Tableaus depicting various scenes and the most powerful activi

People often dislike math because they believe that math involves memorizing rules and methods, and should be learned in isolation involving correct/incorrect answers. They also often believe there’s no room for creativity and they need to be able to do math quickly in order to be good at math. These assumptions/beliefs are incorrect and don’t accurately represent what math is about. In order to facilitate healthier beliefs about math we need to allow students the opportunity to explore math reasoning (i.e. discussing ideas and problems with peers and allowing them to 'reason' to an answer). In addition, we need to teach math in the context in which it exists rather than in isolation to any other mathematical concept. The video below summarizes this idea. By presenting students with the opportunities to explore math and also by showing them where math can go, I think we can inspire creativity and a curiosity in math that will allow them to be successful. 

One of my biggest pet-peeves is when teachers test the speed student's can complete a math problem. Being fast at math has nothing to do with how well someone knows math. For example, I consider myself fairly competent at math and I enjoy solving math problems. However, I don't have my times tables memorized and it takes me time to solve questions. I find that whenever I'm tested on speed and compared to my peers I get really stressed and completely shut down. This is a great concept to both encourage students to realize as well as practice (i.e. don't have timed activities and/or tests). Another great point that was raised this week was a discussion around making mistakes. According to research, when students make mistakes in math more synapsis in the brain fire and allow the brain to grow. Below is a video that summarizes this concept.

Is knowing something memorizing it? This was a topic of debate in class last week. There were basically three sides to this debate: Yes, students need to memorize times tables in order to know multiplication.  No, students don't need to memorize times tables in order to know multiplication, they only need to know how multiplication works.  A bit of both; students should understand what multiplication is but also memorize the tables so they can actually solve multiplication questions.  My opinion is that memorization does not represent knowing something . Quite the opposite, in fact. I can't memorize anything - if something has no meaning then I will forget. Instead, why don't we teach students a strategy for solving multiplication? There are so many! Then, they can solve any multiplication question they face without memorizing anything. They 'know' how to do multiplication if they can solve a question. Nowhere does it say we need to do math quickly.  The

I'm sure we've all heard about growth mindsets before by now. Generally, a growth mindset is one where you embrace challenge and believe you can accomplis anything you set your mind to. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, is one where you believe your mind is 'fixed' and you can't learn something you don't know naturally. It's summarized in the following graphic. Retrieved from: http://big-change.org/growth-mindset/  In math, especially, they're important. As discussed briefly last week, there is not a great attitude towards math in our schools. Part of addressing that, is breaking the idea that only some people are good at math and those who aren't never will be. We need to praise students for effort and encourage them to continuously seek challenges and opportunities for growth. The following video discusses this idea as it relates to math. This idea of not praising students for being 'smart' is new to me, but I can immediatel

The title of this video is a little harsh, but the message is worth listening to.

Autumn Clip Art #14312 http://goo.gl/rKZvv1   The school year has begun again, and with that we have a new, condensed, math class. For our first class we did some ice-breaker activities and played a math game, as well as introduce the assignments for the semester. The ice-breaker and game were ones I haven't heard before, so I'll share here. Toilet Paper Ice Breaker The first was a toilet paper introduction. As we walked in, we were instructed to grab as much toilet paper as we wanted. Later in the class, it was revealed that we had to share one fact about ourselves per square. I liked it because it gave everyone the opportunity to say what they wanted to about themselves rather than the prescribed questions. Plus, it's a little silly/goofy so it broke the ice even before we shared facts about ourselves. Game about Squares This game  is an addictive one, so be warned! Our professor introduced this game without any instruction. Since we had to figure i

During my down time this summer I decided to take a media literacy online module offered by Brock. I've distilled here some of the take-aways from this module. This video is a great introduction to what media literacy is . As a side note: Jennifer Thiessen has several videos diving into media literacy and it's influence on children on her youtube channel .  Key Concepts of Media Literacy :  Media are constructions Audiences negotiate meaning Media have commercial implications Media have social and political implications Each medium has a unique aesthetic form In addition to evaluating media's message, it's important for students to apply their critical thinking to evaluate the legitimacy of resources. For example, when choosing resources to inform their opinion they need to understand where the information is coming from (i.e. is the website trustworthy and founded?).  There are several ready-made lessons for direct-teaching critical evaluat

I've begun a new role outside of Brock as a Beyond the Bell educator with the YMCA, and part of that role is creating programming to teach students social skills. It's a daunting task, but I thought drama would be an excellent way of practicing conflict resolution. Here's what I came up with. Let me know if you have any more ideas or potential tweaks I can make to this one. :)

This social studies class at Brock has opened my eyes to some fascinating teaching strategies that make learning meaningful for students. For example, I was always scared of inquiry - now I feel much more prepared to attempt it in my own classroom. I've also learned the value of enthusiasm. Not everything I'm excited for will thrill my students, but you can bet that if I'm bored, they're bored too. I feel much more prepared now, especially after all the incredible presentations, to make my classroom engaging and even exciting for students. We learned about the value of role playing to assume a perspective, and strategies to help students understand their place and impact (at a local, national, and even global scale). The strategies we learned are not easy to implement. They require a skilled teacher who has incredible control of her/his class in order to make smooth transitions and learning accessible for all students. However, despite how challenging these strategi

For our inquiry unit plan, we chose to cover grade 6, strand A: Communities in Canada, Past and Present by asking the question:  What does it mean to be Canadian?  To say the least; it's a daunting question.  Summary Our inquiry cycle will be delivered in a loop; we will start with a similar assessment task to the one we finish with. Our assessment tasks require students to answer complex questions about Canadian identity. By the end of the unit, students will be expected to synthesise everything they’ve learned in the unit to answer similar questions to the ones from the beginning of the unit. Each lesson will be addressing a topic that is asked in the final assessment.  Each lesson addresses one of the following aspects of Canadian identity:  immigration,  physical geography,  canadian identity through art,  multiculturalism,  legalities of immigration,  perspectives of immigration,  inclusivity in education,  canadian cuisine,  development and the envi

https://goo.gl/QDX8bO  It’s important to include primary sources in lessons for several reasons. Foremost (in my opinion) is that primary documents have no ‘filter’ or ‘bias’ - the information is straight from the source and didn’t have to pass through a third party before getting to you (like textbooks). And, they are clear about the perspective they represent. For example, a textbook represents only the perspective of the people who wrote it (so they included what they felt was the relevant parts of history) whereas if you examine different people from the time period through primary documents you’re going to get their perspective and know that’s what you got, and likely get a very different story. In addition, by including primary documents, students learn what it takes to gather information from scratch. The information, or timeline for example, isn’t perfectly organized already for them - they have to become the historical ‘detective’ and figure out the information they need

http://goo.gl/ookMfI What is genius hour ? Genius hour is a time that students can use to investigate a question they are curious about. It has to be a question that Google can't answer though! It's almost like a personal inquiry project. For my genius hour project  that I completed during the fall, I chose to explore lactose-free cooking. Specifically, I wanted to see if it's possible to make lactose-free mac n'cheese that is just as good as the real stuff. Why you might ask? Well, unfortunately, I am severely lactose-intolerant. It causes me intense, chronic back and gestational pain, so I've had to cut it out completely. :( I've tried to make dairy-free pizza before and, although it didn't taste the same, it was still delicious! My goal for this question was to see if I could combine a series of dairy-free mac n'cheese recipes in order to make the  ultimate  version. Check out how successful I was here !

The exploration of print making presents a wonderful opportunity to learn about texture. In our class we created prints of various stencil sets in order to create balance and texture in a piece. My final product.  Our 'critique'.  I focused on the element of texture and the principle of balance. As a class, we chose to explore the element of texture in a literal sense by rubbing crayon on paper that was on top of various textures. This created a wonderful bridge between tangible textures and artistic texture. In addition, we were trying to create some sort of balance in our work. Mine was asymmetrical balance since it’s less on one half of the paper - it looks almost like something expanding towards the right. Sample of materials used. We used printer paper, crayons, and stencils to start and eventually moved to multiple textured surfaces around the room. This activity would be most suitable for grades 4-6 since it doesn’t require a high degree of fine motor s

Scientific literacy isn’t necessarily having the skills necessary to be a professional scientist, but rather a way of understanding (in general terms) scientific processes, including questioning, in order to make informed decisions about matters that have a scientific element. Especially when this understanding impacts decisions made at the ballot box. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/aipdIO  A scientifically literate society would benefit the field of science itself by having more recruits, greater support for scientific research and more realistic public expectations of science. However, realistic decision making and support depends on society knowing what scientists do and valuing what they do. At a personal level, people who are scientifically literate are better equipped to evaluate and respond appropriately to scientific and pseudoscientific arguments used by advertisers, commercial organizations and politicians, and better equipped to make important decisions that affect t

We were asked in class to create a lesson plan exploring the cross-curricular opportunities in social studies. So, my group decided to create a lesson about residential schools taught through drama and role playing . The general concept of this lesson is to take on a role and then reenact in accordance with your role in response to a certain situation. In each group of four students there are two Martians and two Earthlings. The Martians are representative of euro-Canadians and the Earthlings represent FNMI people (the profiles and situations are at the end of the lesson plan document).

As a class, we were asked to find a truly innovative lesson plan to critique. While we all found wonderful lesson plans, they weren't necessarily that innovative. Innovation describes something that hasn't been done before. The lesson plan I found was about exploring what it means to be Canadian through metaphor was interesting, but not necessarily innovative. The idea is from Inquiry PACs and uses the following poem as a launch point. Does anyone know any really innovative lessons they can share?

The most obvious benefit to teaching financial literacy directly is that dealing with money is something students are going to do for the rest of their lives, and is typically one of the most stressful parts of one’s life. Learning about budgeting is such an essential skill. But, beyond the benefits to the student themselves, it’s also beneficial to society as a whole. People who are knowledgeable with money will typically carry less debt, and the economic crash of 2008 was largely the result of people buying houses they couldn’t really afford and driving house prices artificially upwards. Ideally, if students learn how to create an accurate, livable budget, then they won’t overspend and get deep into debt . The following EDUGains videos about financial literacy in Ontario elementary schools and acting out distribution of wealth through drama outline different aspects of financial literacy as well as ideas for incorporating it into your classroom. Some ideas I thought were really

I thought I knew a lot about FNMI history and beliefs, but now I realize how wrong I was. As I’ve learned more about the first peoples of Canada I have grown a profound respect and admiration of them. It wasn’t until I read the “ Exploring the Ethical Standard for the Teaching Profession through Anishinaabe Art ” resource that I truly realized my lack of knowledge. The piece of art for the ethical standard of care has a drastically different meaning then the one I interpreted. My interpretation was that we need to care for all people (referring to the elderly people on the sides), but in reality those people are caring for the story that is being conveyed by the teacher in the middle. Before that, I didn’t realize the importance of the story, and I knew about the oral history traditions but never applied that knowledge. This resource is phenomenal, and definitely worth a look since it provides a FNMI perspective on the teaching profession. The Ethical Standard of Care. Artis

This demo, from Bill Nye the Science Guy, would make an awesome introduction to the grade 8 water systems unit. The purpose of this demonstration is to explain thermohaline circulation. Thermohaline circulation is a factor that affects the circulation of water in the oceans (it is explained in more detail in the scientific explanation section). The idea behind this experiment is not simply to teach students what thermohaline currents are, but rather to build a foundation of water system knowledge so when students move into the inquiry stage of the class they can understand the effects of global warming on ocean currents and what that means for other ocean systems as well as earth systems. When explaining what the experiment represents, it’s important to include the impact this phenomena has on other earth systems. For example, scientists have speculated that the current slow down of thermohaline circulation could lead to a a dampening of the warming being experienced in No

Kid’s Help Phone is a relatively well known hotline that offers immediate support to children and teens experiencing a crisis or who simply need guidance and support. Their website explains that the hot line is 24/7, and the counselors on the other end of the line will not tell you what to do, but rather will provide the caller with information in order to help them make their own decision. Any calls made are anonymous, and the language used on the site to encourage people to call if they need to is kid-friendly and non-threatening. However, the Kid’s Help Phone website offers a lot more than just the phone number for their help line. In addition to their live chat feature, they have an ‘ info booth ’ tab which contains information on a wide range of topics including, but not limited to: LGBTQ issues, bullying, emotional health, violence and abuse, friendships, family issues, physical health, FNMI issues, and even have a whole section devoted to sexting . The pages contain a wide ra

As part of our social studies class, we created a lesson that integrated social studies, drama, and language arts and attempted to teach children about different perspectives involved in historical events. We chose the residential schools and framed the lesson as if Martians had moved to earth, and each student was given a character to play (whether it was a Martian or an Earthling) as well as a situation they had to resolve and present dramatically. I will explain further in a later post, but the results of the lesson on my peers at Brock was fantastic. Walker, Amanda (2016).  Before I get into detail about what happened during the run-through, tough, I need to discuss some of the challenges of creating this lesson. For starters, it took us a while to come up with an idea that really hit home the concept we were trying to get at. We started by facilitating a privilege walk where every student moved forward/backward based on their profile, but we decided it wasn't pointed en

During my placement, my associate and I attempted an inquiry project that completely failed. The intention was for students to do research on a person they found inspiring, and then share the biography with the class. Then, each student would try to find connections between their inspiring person and other people’s. For example, one person did research on Malala Yousafzi who was heavily influenced by Gandhi, and someone else in the class was researching Gandhi so they would (in theory) discuss why they think Gandhi had an impact or how Gandhi had an impact. However, it was exceptionally challenging to facilitate. Each student was working at a different pace, and several would make statements like ‘no one has ever inspired me’. In addition, several would look up a few facts and then be done for the day and play on their devices (which was hard to police considering the general chaos in the room). As a result, I never felt like I could facilitate all the unique learning challenges, whet

If you had asked me yesterday whether I thought an inter-disciplinary system was a good idea I would’ve agreed with you, but now I see why it’s such a good idea. The comment “ comprehension is comprehension whether it’s in science or literacy ” really resonated with me, and made me think back to how I struggled finding meaningful content for my grade 7s when I was teaching language arts during my placement. I had the Nelson Literacy set which is a wonderful resource, but all the articles were examined in isolation. There was no connection between the articles and the student’s own life. I think if I’d approached it through the lens of integrating multiple curriculums it might have been more engaging for students. I also think the idea of having a large project that is worked on in multiple classes is a great idea since here’d be no gaps between stages of learning and students would learn more explicitly how to carry skills across various subject areas. Currently, when students take a

Professional Teaching Goal It's all about the connections. http://fondationdiagonale.org/connectedness/ Since social studies, history, and geography (which I have shortened to ss/h/g for the purposes of efficiency) are so closely tied to what's happening in the world around us, I think I need to spend more time reading the news and staying connected with current events. In class, we had a large group discussion where we talked about past events related to current events was a real eye-opener for me. And when I say current I mean literally that day. Everything that happens can be related to something that happened in the past or something that happened somewhere else. However, prior to that discussion I didn’t know that much about current events. Granted, I’ve heard of almost everything, but I don't really ‘know’ much about it, let alone know enough to make the kinds of connections I'd need to in order to facilitate current, relevant learning for my students. Mov