On average, I try to blog at least twice a week, but this can reach up to four or five times a week depending on what is going on in my life. I also spend time each morning reading through various edu-blogs (my version of the morning paper) and try to keep up with Twitter throughout the day. This has become my routine and I feel like I have benefited ten-fold from the networking opportunities that my PLN has granted me. Last week, however, I found myself completely pull away from my computer and my iPhone… Read More
Do Your Students See Aboriginal People/Culture in the Classroom?
During the fall semester of this past year of university I took the course, Teaching of Aboriginal Studies. For my followers who are from outside of Manitoba, this course is a provincially-mandated requirement for all educators in Manitoba as of 2008. Throughout this course I posted periodically about guest speakers we had, projects we completed, and curriculum documents that we worked with. (These posts can be found under the Aboriginal Perspective label). I really enjoyed this course and felt like it opened up my eyes and made me realize how important it is, as an educator, to ensure that… Read More
Don't Take Credit For Teaching Me
There has been a specific video popping up everywhere online this week: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. You probably know the one I am talking about: Jeff Bliss, from Texas, telling his teacher how she should be doing her job. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look: When I watched this video I couldn’t help but think of my experiences in the classroom and some things definitely jumped out at me. The first thing was how the teacher handled the situation. The video, unfortunately, doesn’t show the lead up to this conversation but the student… Read More
Dr. Kathie Nunley Part 2: Layered Curriculum
*The following is Part 2 of a two-part reflection on a PD session I attended by Dr. Kathie Nunley. Part 1 of this reflection on, A Student’s Brain, can be found by following the highlighted link. Layered Curriculum, developed by Dr. Kathie Nunley, is an instructional method based specifically on her work with neuroscience and how the adolescent brain functions. It is developed as a means to effectively meet the needs of the adolescent learner by taking into account how the brain processes information and reacts to various stimuli. One very important factor in this method… Read More
Dr. Kathie Nunley Part 1: A Student's Brain
Today all the teachers and support staff in “T-Division” had the opportunity to attend a PD session with Dr. Kathie Nunley, an educator and brain-image researcher from the eastern US. I was immediately excited because I have always been really interested in how to engage different parts of our student’s brains and differentiate instruction to best meet their individual learning styles/needs. I can definitely say that I was not disappointed by this PD session! Dr. Nunley is not only just extremely knowledgeable about her subject area but is also a very humorous and engaging speaker (I spent a great deal of the… Read More
Whose Job Is It Anyways?
“…These fall more under the purview of the resource teacher. My focus is on the content material as I am a secondary teacher.”[1]Whose responsibility is it when a Senior Years student is unable to comprehend the material presented in his or her content area courses? Upon reaching Secondary School, there is a more predominant release of responsibility onto our students. More often than not, they are expected to take appropriate notes, read/watch assigned material in preparation for class, study independently and ask for help is they believe they need it. What happens, however, if our students are unable to comprehend… Read More
Where in the World is… Whole Brain Teaching?
I know that there will be some of you out there that have been wondering where my Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday posts have gone. Is it because I have been busy with my student teaching practicum? Partially. The main reason, however, is because I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on who I am as a educator and what my personal teaching philosophy is. In my first semester of my education degree I was asked to create a document that described my personal teaching philosophy. What did I believe the purpose of education was? What… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! WBT in High School
Can Whole Brain Teaching be used in a high school setting? Here are some concerned comments I’ve pulled off the WBT Forum. “I like what I’ve seen so far with WBT but can see how older kids might think it’s beneath them.“ “I like the idea behind this educational approach but I’m a little concerned that these techniques will be “too young” for my students.“ “ I’m very very VERY nervous about student ‘buy-in,’ particularly at the beginning of the year.” “My concern is that high school students would find this technique too silly and ridiculous… high schoolers are “insanely”… Read More
WBT & Differentiated Instruction
Dr. Carol Tomlinson Today in class we viewed a video on Differentiated Instruction by Carol Tomlinson, (view her website here). We talk about Differentiated Instruction in every single one of our education classes. If you are not familiar with this topic, it centers on the idea that every classroom is going to have students that represent a broad spectrum of learners and, as teachers, we must plan for these differences. We need to keep in mind that our students are going to be coming into our classrooms with different ability levels, different learning styles, different backgrounds, etc and we need… Read More