Miss M's Learning Space

The creative process, as defined by the Ontario Curriculum , is a flexible approach to learning and exploring the arts. It applies to any creative endeavour such as music, visual arts, dance, media arts, drama, or language arts. There are 8 steps/stages that are continually being revised through feedback. The diagram below outlines the stages, and the dotted arrow indicates the cyclical nature of the arts (i.e. never ending, one project informs the next). The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: The Arts p. 20 (2009).  In practice, this is a wonderful technique to encourage the incorporation of feedback and familiarize students to the idea that feedback is a good thing and shouldn't be seen as punishment. Instead, by having ongoing consultation with the teacher and peers and incorporating self-assessment, the student will produce more thoughtful work that represents more depth and understanding. For example, in dance if students are working at a higher level of Bloom's Taxono...

Throughout this class, we explored several pedagogical theories and how they apply to dance, or how they can be expressed and applied in drama and dance. Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences Gardner's theory was developed in 1983 and proposes that intelligence is not just one ability, but rather a combination of 'modalities.' He also apposes distinguishing someone as having only one modality (for example, no one is only a musical learner), but rather that we possess all modalities and should explore learning through each to gain greater understanding.  The diagram below from GrandSlam demonstrates the 8 modalities of Gardner's theory.  GrandSlam (2015). Multiple Intelligence Theory: Is it Real? In practice, drama and dance provide a wonderful mode of learning curriculum content from other areas. For example, dance can be used to explore word development through the mode of musical, kinaesthetic, and interpersonal intelligences. Or, similarly, ...

Drama is an art that requires students to be comfortable with each other, and there's no better way to get students comfortable than warm ups! This post is to summarize several of the best warm ups I've found so far. Corridor of Voices This activity involves having students stand in a row across from each other (like in the image below).  O'Connor-Tennant, Ross. (2017) The student at the front then walks down the aisle while the students say phrases or words related to the source material. This may be a challenging activity for students who are easily overwhelmed and considerations should be made for them (such as having them only say the words/phrases or don't include this activity if there's no way of incorporating all the students). This activity allows students to understand how the character in source material may be feeling which makes it an effective activity if students can't empathize with a character. It's also simple; there aren...

This post is based on a presentation that I completed with a group of other teacher candidates. We were tasked with teaching a concept from another subject area through dance. We chose to explore the dance Tinikling which is the national dance of the Philippines as a means to explore the development of the country as part of the grade 8 geography curriculum (as detailed below). This dance originated during the Spanish colonial times in the Philippines. The local population of people were enslaved and subjected to punishment consisting of getting hit with thorny bamboo sticks on their feet. The Filipino people became very good a dodging the bamboo and the Tiniking dance was born. Choreographic Form of Dance & Dance Elements We chose to model the choreographic form of Call and Response . In this type of dance one soloist or group performs, followed by a second soloist or group whose performance responds to the first. This can also be referred to as a lead-and-follow activity, o...

As part of our class for teaching dance, we explored the opportunity for a cross-curricular connection between language and dance. The activity we did, specifically, was targeted towards grade 6 students and there is a video of our interpretation of this activity below. Language  This activity involves creating a dance in response to a poem. The poem we used was Christine Jackson's Departures , and it was read aloud while students perform the dance with soft music that adds to the mood of the poem. This connects to the curriculum expectation reading 1.6: extend understanding of text /ideas by connecting, comparing and contrasting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights , to familiar texts and to the world around them. It requires students to interpret the poem's themes and represent them in a different way.  Dance This activity connects to the dance curriculum expectation A1.2 use dance as a language to interpret and depict central ...

As part of our drama course this semester our group connected 5 drama strategies with the grade 8 science strand on cells (understanding life systems). Our guiding theories were The Learner's Theory (Dwyer, 1996) and The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Dr. Howard Gardner, 1983). Guiding Theories The Learner’s Theory (Dwyer, 1996) states that 10% of what children hear they will retain, but 90% of what the teach to themselves and each other they will retain. This is important to keep in mind when planning lessons and activities for students to do. When students say, discuss or “do” an activity they are 70% more likely to understand and retain this information. This is why we have chosen 5 various drama strategies to assist in teaching our science concepts that require students to be active participants. This will ensure students are not only engaged in the lesson, but also grasping the concepts being presented as Dwyer’s theory ensures. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences wa...

As part of the Affiliate Federation Day (sponsored by OECTA) I had the privilege of attending the ' ICanyet Student Driven Student Portfolios ' workshop. The idea behind the workshop was to learn about the power of having a growth mindset in all subject areas and creating a student portfolio in order to monitor progress. The workshop was packed full of information and resources from Dan Montanaro (@mrm1mr), so I've selected my top 3 take-aways to share here. Student Driven Portfolios in Student-Led Conferences I've heard about student-led conferences before, but only briefly and not in great detail. The idea is that students take ownership of their work and behaviours in order to share with their parents in place of traditional parent-teacher interviews. Dan's method was having students save all of their work through the term in a portfolio and then curate the key pieces they think shows their growth as a student to share in a presentation to their parents. ...

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...