What are your plans for the province wide Pro-D day Oct 25?

 

Friday October 25 is an exciting day: the annual BC Province-wide Professional Development day for teachers across the province! This is an important chance for us all to meet, share new ideas and skills, and improve teaching across BC. It's something teachers have fought for through our union (the BCTF), and we need to use it well every year.

***There are all kinds of conferences and professional development activities happening on Friday, and you are expected to attend one of them, let me know on your blog which one you will be attending, and to report back and reflect on your experiences on your blog afterwards! Your reflective blog post should include a brief summary of the session(s) you participated in, and your thoughts on what you learned, what you liked best, what surprised you, and what you would like to follow up on.

Many of us will be at the BCAMT/ Northwest math education conference at Whistler, but there are other events available too:

• The BCTF website has links to all the provincial PSA (Provincial Specialist Association) conferences 

• The UBC Teacher Education Office (TEO) has links to both PSA and other UBC and museum-based pro D events on Friday

• For those with literary interests, the Vancouver Writers' Festival at Granville Island always coordinates with the Province-wide Pro D day so that teachers can attend

You may find other museums, etc. that have special Pro D activities for teachers this Friday.

Whatever you decide to attend, you should be attending and fully engaging with the opportunities to learn from fellow educators, network with other new and experienced teachers, and gather resources and ideas for your own teaching and learning.

Have a wonderful Pro-D!

Since next Wednesday is already our last class before your short practicum…!

  

Here are some things I want to share with you as you prepare for this adventure!

(And perhaps  a few more thoughts on ‘classroom management’…)

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving weekend and a great practicum! And we’ll still have class next Wednesday as well, of course 🌿

Homework for our Wednesday October 9 class (due on your blog Tuesday Oct 8, 9 PM)

 For our next class, you have two things to post:

1. Your reflections on your non-curricular individual microteaching today. Please photograph and post your self- and peer-assessement sheets from your lesson, and write your own reflections on what went well, what could use improvement, and what you might do differently next time.

2. Go to the pdf of Thinking Mathematically. Read chapter 3 (Responses to Being Stuck, pp. 45-57) and write your concise response to it, including two things that were "stops" for you.

Then go to Chapter 11 (Thinking Mathematically in Curriculum Topics, pp. 181-230). Choose one of these puzzles and post your choice in the comments on this post -- first come, first dibs (so that everyone chooses a different puzzle). Work on your puzzle in the form of a two-column solution -- one column for your mathematical work, and the other for your process, emotional reactions, dead ends, productive approaches, etc. The process is as important as the solution here!

Assignment #2: Group curricular microteaching in class Wednesday October 16

 

Now that you've 'gotten your feet wet' with some beginning microteaching, you're ready to move into curricular co-teaching (in the microcosm of teaching your peers in our class).

Here are some instructions for your group microteaching next Wednesday:

• We will form six groups (of 3 plus one group of 4) for the nineteen students in our class.
•  Each group choose a topic from the BC Math Curriculum that is the right length for a 20-minute co-taught lesson. 
• We will aim to have our 6 lessons span all the grades and streams in BC secondary math program. That means that no two groups can teach the same topic, and we should choose topics from Math 8 and 9, Foundations and Precalc 10, Foundations 11 and 12, Precalc 11 and 12, and Workplace/ Apprenticeship 11 and 12.  (Note that you will be teaching from a variety of grades and programs in your practica and in your teaching career!)
• As we form groups in class today, I will ask each group to list their members and their topic in the comments to this post. If two groups have chosen the same topic, one or both will need to change.
• You will need to do a group lesson plan, to be posted to your individual blogs by Tuesday Oct 15 at 8 PM (so that Malihe and I can take a look at them and give you feedback before Wednesday's class).
• Again, we will have self- and peer-assessment forms so that you'll get feedback from your whole group. You will be teaching half the class (approximately 7 of your peers), and will be posting photos of your self- and peer-assessments and your own reflections on this curricular microteaching on your blog.

We will be looking more closely at the BC Math Curriculum and ways of teaching topics in class on Oct 9 to help you prepare and choose your topic.

***Note that co-teaching does not necessarily mean that three people each lecture for 6 minutes!

Be thoughtful and creative about ways that you can share the responsibility for the lesson without necessarily talking at the learners the whole time. Think about participatory activities, explorations, problem-solving, group work, student inquiry, arts-based approaches, embodied learning and all the other ways of teaching and learning math we have been working with. You can't do everything in a short 15 minute lesson, but do try to get away from exclusive lecture and note-copying, even in this brief lesson.

Looking forward to a great day on Wednesday Oct 16!

Schedule: (TBC)

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Check list: What should be on your blog by October 4 (today)

Hello everyone! I will be sending out marks and comments on your blog posts very soon, and wanted to clarify what needs to be posted on your blog to date.

In case you are missing any posts, please catch them up by October 19th at the latest! After that, we will 'close the book' on the September and October blog posts, and carry on with the new work once you return from your practicum.

If any of your blog posts gets a mark of 1 or 1.5, that means that there is something you have left out, not addressed, or not dealt with in sufficient depth. Please add an **EDIT: ...  and revise any posts that fall into this category, also by October 19th at the latest!

Remember -- your assignments (including your blog) need to be up-to-date and done to a high standard to pass your courses, and your long practicum depends on you having passed all your courses to date.

Here's the list of blog posts that you should have completed so far for our EDCP 342 class:

1. Skemp on mathematical understanding (reading response)
2. Skemp class discussion report & response
3. Eisner on curriculum (reading response)
4. Favourite and least favourite teachers (personal reflection)
5. Locker problem (problem solving process & solutions/ approaches/ extensions)
6. Lockhart's Lament (reading response)
7. Math/ Art project (Assignment #1) -- account, photos and reflections
8. Battleground Schools (reading response)
9. (upcoming: Non-curricular micro teaching lesson plan)
10. (upcoming: Non-curricular micro teaching peer and self assessment and reflections)

Thanks for the great work you are doing throughout the course!

Non-curricular microteaching in class Mon Oct 7 -- post topic by Friday and lesson plan by Sunday evening!

Next Monday, Oct 7 is an exciting day: our first microteaching in our EDCP342 class!

In preparation, you should:

1. Post the topic of your microteaching lesson on your blog by 9 PM Friday (Oct 4). I will take a look at all the proposed topics, and let you know if there is any problem (like a duplication of topics). 
2. Write and post your lesson plan for your 10-minute lesson by 9 PM next Sunday, Oct 6). Your lesson plan should be one page long, and should include the essential features we will talk about in class (I will post photos of our blackboards). You are welcome to use lesson planning templates you find online, but please customize them to suit your own purposes!
   
3. Give yourself the time to 'walk through your lesson' in your mind (and possibly to rehearse it) before our class on Monday. 

I will prepare self- and peer-evaluation sheets based on our discussion today, and everyone will receive evaluations from all the others in the group. Please be helpful to your peers by offering them a constructive and honest assessment of both the areas that were strongest and those that need some work.

For your post-micro teaching reflection, please photograph, scan or summarize your self- and peer-evaluations and post them), and then reflect for yourself what your learned, what worked well, and what you want to work on for your next microteaching session.

Instructions:

Mon Oct 7

Non-curricular individual microteaching

80 minutes

4 tables of 5 people

10 minute lesson + 5 minute "bumper" for self- and peer-assessment

Choose a non-curricular topic very familiar to you!

(We will be doing group curricular microteaching next week -- this is your warm-up!)

**Added Oct. 7:

Group 1: Mostly movement-based (in hall/ classroom as needed)

1. Taha (how to ride a motorcycle)
2. Brandon (rugby)
3. Leon (breakdancing)
4. Mark (rules of chess)

Group 2: 

1. Saiya (card game)
2. Josh (Skincare)
3. TsáKtalay’pa (Vehicle pollution)
4. Teij ( Digital logic)
5. Krystal (Mandarin)

Group 3:

1. Jasmine (ASL)
2. Carson (Maplestory game)
3. Manveen (Periodic table of joy)
4. Sahl (How to listen to & have a conversation)
5. Caris (Chinese fortunetelling)

Group 4:

1. Madison (Czech language & culture)
2. Jacob (Jung)
3. Raymond (Insurance)
4. Andy (Texas Hold’em)
5. Nizar?? (no lesson plan or topic posted)

Note: Groups with 4 presenters will join other groups for the fifth presentation and will offer feedback to the fifth presenter.