Class 6 (Oct 9) Exit Slip

WE MADE APPLE CIDER TODAY! 🍎It was so much fun, and the apple cider we made at the end was delicious! At first, I wondered how apple cider making was related to the course, as it was super fun, but not too closely related to math and physics. However, after our discussion about playtime with Esmie, I realized that the activity wasn’t just about making cider, but also about bonding, relationship building, and working towards a shared goal. 

We naturally split up the tasks like a conveyor belt, assigning roles to each of us. Some people were in charge of washing the apples, some were cutting the apples, some were mashing them, some were working with the cider press, and some were managing the whole situation, keeping it organized and smooth. I felt that by working together toward the same goal and contributing to the process, it really brought us closer and made our bond stronger like a community. I accidentally cut myself while chopping the apples, but I felt so thankful for Jimena, Danielle, and Susan for helping me treat the wound, and Yuki, for washing the bloody knife. I felt thankful and fortunate to be surrounded by people so caring and supportive in this class. 

Today’s activities also reminded me of the importance of experiencing physics when learning it. When students actually get to do things, to play around with concepts, make predictions, observe, and discuss with each other, they are experiencing them rather than just memorizing them like textbook facts. And by having time to play and explore ideas with peers, students can have a deeper connection to the concepts while feeling a sense of belonging, teamwork, and connection in the class. I think that by giving students time to play, they can learn so much more than just plugging in numbers into equations.

Class 6 (Oct 9) Entrance Slip - Refocusing Our Efforts: A Shift From Grading to an Emphasis on Learning

I had fun reading this article. The part about teachers focusing on engaging the students in learning, making learning fun and engaging for them, stood out to me. I have always considered sticking to the curriculum as a checklist, working to ensure that students master all the learning outcomes, and grading students’ understanding as one of my primary responsibilities as a teacher. But after reading the article, I started to feel that it is not the case. I think that students still should aim to understand and try to apply all the concepts in the curriculum, but they don’t necessarily have to achieve Extending in every area. I thought of the candy crush metaphor I learned in EPSE 317. Sometimes, it is ok to just get two stars out of three for some levels, and you have the freedom and option to challenge yourself for the third star only if you want to. I also thought about one of our discussions in LLED 361, on a proficiency scale rubric, do we read from the top down, where everyone is 100% perfect unless or until they make a mistake, from the bottom up, where everyone is a zero unless or until they earn their way up, or from the middle out, where everyone is given some credit for capability to start with. We also discussed the column rubric, as one of the TCs mentioned that if students don’t know what the ceiling is, they will produce higher-quality work. By leaving space for interpretation, giving students some freedom in the rubric so that the rubric is something students are also participating in, and adding unexpected, above expectation things that students did to the marking scheme, I feel would make grading less stressful and learning more meaningful for students, as they are focusing on what THEY can do, instead of what the TEACHER wants them to do. 

When I was in high school, I liked being assigned percentages for my work. I saw grades as a challenge for myself, which motivated me to study hard. I still remember in social studies 10, I set a goal for myself to get an A for the class, which meant that I needed to get Extending for almost all of my assignments. Because of this goal, even though I didn’t enjoy the class, I was motivated to pay attention in class and try my best on my assignments. I felt that because of this challenge, I learned more than I would have with my lack of interest in the class. For me, grades served as a way for me to gamify my learning journey, to make learning fun, and as an indicator of how well my understanding was. A negative aspect I thought of about grading and tests when I was in high school was how a careless mistake on a test would result in a deduction of marks, which made me feel that all my understanding and work done to understand the topic had gone to waste, and made me very frustrated at myself. Regarding the topic of tests, I also remember when studying for my midterms of finals in my university physics classes, I would always cram them last minute, and rely on my short-term memories during the tests. The results usually turn out well, but it was mostly “not knowledge”, as I was just “[blurting] out all the stuff [I] memorized” last minute. 

Thinking from a teacher’s perspective, assigning grades in assessments seems like one of the tasks teachers have to do to represent students’ understanding to universities, parents, and students, so that they can know where the student is without having to go through all the work that the student has done. With how the whole system works now, I feel that the teacher is not in control of whether to assign grades or not, but I think there are strategies teachers can use to lessen the emphasis on grades and encourage students to step out of their comfort zone to experiment and explore without worrying about their performance as they take risks. Below is a list of ideas I have summarized from my experience and from the reading, to shift the focus from grading to learning:

1. Allow students to "experience relatedness and connectedness"

    - Showing students a cool phenomenon, then explaining the concept, so that they are genuinely interested in how things work

    - Incorporate group work activities

    - "Encourage students to invent explanations for everyday observations related to [the] topics"

    - Incorporate students' personal interests and culture in the lessons

2. Let students experience "perceived competence"

    - Provide "completion mark" opportunities for some of the learning outcomes

        -> To not penalize weakness when students develop it, so that students can develop on skills and learn without worrying about their grades

    - Provide retest or alternate ways to show their understanding so that students feel more comfortable learning

    - Provide more than one opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding

    - Reminding students that "their success did not have to be defined by a letter grade"

    - Having the lowest grade weighted less can decrease students' stress in their marks and motivate them to take risks

3. Make students “feel ‘freedom from excessive external pressure toward behaving or thinking a certain way” - Give students the freedom to choose what assignment to do, to show what they know for the same learning outcome. -> Firm goals, flexible means - Give students the freedom to choose “a topic that was of interest to them” - Have the class “discuss criteria and create a rubric for the project” - Have open-ended design projects where students can utilize their learning from the unit to apply to the projects

Class 5 (Oct 2) Exit Slip

In today’s class, we talked about conic sections and where we can find and feel them in our daily lives. I found the idea of circling, ellipsing, hyperbola(ing), parabola (ing) super cool. The process of doing the shapes, the process of experiencing the shapes, makes these concepts a lot more dynamic than just concepts in the textbook. When brainstorming, I noticed that we all chose different ways of expressing our ideas. Some groups were writing down equations and solving them, some groups were drawing them on the board, some groups were talking about their thoughts, some groups were acting the shapes out with their bodies, and some people visualized the shapes with paper. I was reminded that there are so many ways of expressing ourselves, our ideas, that it is not just limited to all the different languages we speak. Nature also expresses themselves in their own way, so we can also learn from their perspectives, learning to “listen” and discover how things function around us would make this world such a fun and less lonely place, like “a neighbourhood of nonhuman residents”, as the reading described. 

We also watched a video on indigenizing math, teaching calculus of finite differences through startblankets. I really liked how well the Indigenous culture was incorporated into the curriculum. I was reminded of the Science First People’s Teacher Resource Guide (https://www.fnesc.ca/sciencetrg/) that was introduced to us in our EDUC 440 class. This resource is similar to the Math First People’s Teacher Resource Guide in the class blog, but instead of math, the book includes a lot of resources for science teachers to integrate First People’s knowledge and perspective into secondary science classes. 

Class 5 (Oct 2) Entrance Slip - Learning the Grammar of Animacy

I was amazed by how beautifully written this reading was. I was reminded of the second sit spots activity we did when I was reading the part about “[turning] off the voice in my head until I can hear the voices outside it. I thought of how many random thoughts I had in my head during the activity in the beginning, and after I was aware of them, and put them aside, I was able to hear so much more that was around me. 

Teaching scientific terminology in the classroom, I really liked how the author talks about “to name and describe [a concept] you must first see”. I believe that learning physics can be a lot more fun and relatable if students are introduced to the knowledge by knowing what the concept looks like, before knowing what the concept is called. Just like when Jim Thunder in the reading started by telling a joke in Potawatomi, making the author wonder what he was talking about because they couldn’t understand the language, then spoke about “how lonely those [languages] will be, when their power is gone”, when no one could understand them anymore. By introducing the terminology associated with the concept after allowing students to observe the concept taking place, students can feel the concepts themselves before assigning them to a specific name, which can make the terminology more meaningful and personal. The author also wrote in the language they were learning on sticky notes. This way, the author puts themselves in an environment surrounded by the language, which can improve their mastery of the language. Similarly, in physics classrooms, like what we learned in the physics pedagogy class, having a vocabulary list on the wall for students to see all the time, and incorporating the terminology in discussions, can help students learn and get used to the terminology, which I feel is also a good way to teach scientific terminology in the classroom. 

One of the ways to Indigenize my own classroom and curriculum that I thought of when reading the chapter was to remind students to be aware of their surroundings, and respect all animate and inanimate things, just as they would treat other human beings, just like how the article said, “teaching them to know the world as a neighborhood of nonhuman residents”. This can include introducing examples of how physics takes place in nature, what the roles of physics in the life of other animals are, so that students can be invited to learn from other living beings. Moreover, encouraging students to learn from their peers, reminding them of “the capacity of others as our teachers, as holders of knowledge, as guides”. By inviting students to learn from different perspectives, reminding them that “there are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us”, students can develop their abilities to interpret and learn from both the environment and their peers. 

Class 4 (Sept 25) Exit Slip

On Thursday, we learned how to make rope. I had so much fun with the process that I couldn’t stop making it throughout class. By the end, I had a rope so long that it would be used as a jump rope! We made the rope with long grass. I was fascinated by how simply twisting the grass in specific ways can turn the thin, fragile strands of grass into something strong enough to hold a person’s weight. I was also surprised by the variety of materials that can be used for rope making: bulrush, waterlily leaves, corn husk, and so many more materials that we can see in our everyday life. 

Looking at the rope I made, I noticed the thickness was very uneven, especially the sections I did while also trying to pay attention to what Susan was sharing. It reminded me of what I learned in EPSE 308 about how multitasking can make work harder and lower our performance in the quality of work. I realized that my rope looked the most even when I was fully immersed in the process, concentrating and enjoying the moment. 

When exploring other types of weaving, I experimented with plain weave using bulrushes, and Elsa tried rope making. I was able to show her how to extend her strands, and she was able to use her past weaving experience to help me finish my piece. I liked how we were able to exchange our knowledge: Susan sharing her knowledge of string making with the class, I passed some of Susan’s knowledge to Elsa, and Elsa sharing her knowledge of weaving with me. Together, we were able to build on each other’s knowledge to create a result that everyone was proud of.

This experience reminded me of teaching. Everyone comes from a different backgrounds, so everyone can add different strengths to the class, and by sharing what we know while learning from others, the classroom can become a more engaging, inclusive, and fun place for everyone.

During sit spots, we walked around with some color swatches to match the color to what is around us. I found out that even though many of the colors were named after natural things, such as creeping vine, buckwheat yellow, oat bran, dew drops, and dark forest green, a lot of them didn’t seem to match the actual tones I saw in nature. They were a lot brighter and vivid in general, so instead, many of them matched with the clothes of my classmates more closely. This really surprised me, and it made me wonder how the colors were named. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this activity! :)

Class 4 (Sept 25 ) Entrance Slip - Building for Change From the Ground Up

I had fun reading this article. The part where it talks about acknowledging where our stills are “best suited to aid the community and where [our] internal needs for creative fulfillment can be satisfied”, and “sharing the skills for making something with others” really spoke to me. This reading reminds me of my high school friend. I like to bake, and my high school friend grew up in a family where her dad likes to go fishing and her mom grows different fruits and veggies in their backyard. Whenever I bake cakes, bread, and cookies, I would share with my high school friend, and she would share with me the fish her dad catches, or the figs and lettuce that have grown in their backyard. By doing this, I felt a sense of community, and I felt proud of what I was able to bake and share with others, like the emotional boost the article mentioned. 

I don’t think globalized consumerism is completely a bad thing, as it seems like what the article is saying. Growing up in Taiwan and moving to Canada, imported goods are one of the few ways I can have access to the food I am used to eating growing up, to connect with my identity and culture. So I feel like there can be a balance between community resources and outsourced products. 

Applying to physics classes, in our pedagogy class, we were introduced to many demonstrations that can be built with cheap, accessible materials to visualize concepts for students. So instead of buying imported demonstration equipment, we can find ways to utilize what is around us to teach physics in an interactive way. Hopefully, in the end, we can be like the article says, “[create] situations that fulfill emotional, physical or spiritual needs [that] can subtly open one’s thinking to a new world of possibilities and show people what they didn’t even know they were missing”.

Class 3 (Sept 18) Exit Slip

In today’s class, we picked apples and focused on sounds. I was surprised by how many apples we ended up having just by picking 3 apples per person. I am really excited and looking forward to making apple cider, and I hope it turns out yummy! We also took some time in today’s sit spots to focus on the sounds around us in the garden. When drawing the sounds, I used two colours to differentiate the human-made sounds and the natural sounds. I chose to use two colours for myself, because I am both a human and a part of nature. And I chose to draw both the object making the sounds and the pattern the sounds make me feel. We also came up with performances of the sounds we heard. I was surprised by how many sounds we could mimic with our voice and body, and I had a lot of fun watching what everyone came up with. I noticed during sit spots that it seemed to be a lot noisier today than last week when we were drawing. I think it could be that today is a loud day or that by changing our focus, we are also changing our perceptions. Applying to classrooms, during incidents, giving students strategies to shift their focus away from the incident itself might help students calm down and think of what happened more objectively and less emotionally.

I had fun in today’s class and I am looking forward to what we will be doing in our next class! :)