*This post has been written as part of my journey through my Master’s Degree in Curriculum & Planning through Brandon University. In 2013 Manitoba Education Minister Nancy Allen announced the implementation of a revised math curriculum that focused on, “… developing math skills, procedural thinking, conceptual understanding and problem solving to ensure students are getting a solid foundation” (Manitoba Education Press Release, 2013). The curriculum shifted from an inquiry-based approach, often touted in the media as “discovery math”, to an algorithm approach that focuses on deep-level numerical understanding. Levin (2008, p. 11) stated that, “5% of clients complaining can lead to… Read More
Our Curriculum Situation in 150 Words
On Saturday I shared my Curriculum Situation that I created for my Introduction to Curriculum class that I am currently enrolled in. While the entry that I created was specific for me, the assignment itself was collaborative and we were tasked with merging our situation with those of two other students in order to create one complete Curriculum Situation that we felt accurately represented us as a group. To complete this task we each created our own situations, like the one I shared, and then went through to determine where our similarities and differences laid. Once… Read More
My Curriculum Situation in 150 Words
This semester I am participating in an Introduction to Curriculum class through Brandon University as part of my Masters program requirements. While there is a traditional class held in-person on campus I am one of 15+ students who tunes in via teleconference and online modules due to distance. Our course assignment is a large project that is slowly created piece-by-piece through the semester and is a collaborative work between two or three people. I am very fortunate to have a good friend in the course who lives only 20mins away and is also on Mat leave right now as… Read More
Digital Literacy and the ICT Curriculum
As members of the future workforce and society, today’s students require guidance and education, in order to successfully navigate and utilize the digital world that they were born into. Acknowledging the importance of becoming digitally literate, the provincial and territorial governments of Canada have been developing various forms of information and communication technology (ICT) curricula, which will assist students in their skill development. School-age children have a unique set of experiences awarded to them due to the digital age in which they were born. However, their birth date alone is not sufficient to equip them for navigating the digital world… Read More
The Social Media Debate: Should Schools Be Using Social Media To Connect with the Community?
“The first step in building strong relationships in schools is the first step for building any strong relationships: talk to each other. The more we communicate our hopes, desires, and needs within the school system, the more ideas and solutions we will have to discuss, the more plans we will have to put into action, and the more support and enthusiasm we will have for seeing those plans through.”[1]Communication is essential for building and maintaining relationships with school stakeholders, but how can schools easily communicate information to the masses without it becoming a time-consuming task?… Read More
The Four Critical Digital Skills We Are Failing to Teach Our Students
“… Young people as a whole have enthusiastically integrated a variety of networked media into their daily lives, and can text, upload photos and blog with relative ease. However, using media effortlessly isn’t necessarily the same thing as using it well. Young people are mistakenly considered experts in digital technologies because they’re so highly connected, but they are still lacking many essential digital literacy skills.”[1]Classrooms are now filled with students that, from a generational standpoint, are coined, digital natives; born into the age of digital technology and familiar with computers and the internet from an early age.[2] Does an increase… Read More
Encouraging Student Voice Through Social Media
I am currently working on my Master’s degree in the Curriculum & Planning Stream with a focus on tech integration in the classroom. My first class, Educational Issues, involves the completion of four different assignments: 1 blog post, 1 presentation, and 2 papers.This past Saturday our professor drove up to our community (abut a 2hr drive for him) to watch our presentations. We were each responsible for creating a 15min presentation on a topic of our choice and participated in a Q & A session immediately following. My presentation topic was Encouraging Student Voice Through Social Media and I chose… Read More
Manitoba Provincial Report Card Pressure
“…teachers indicated that, on occasion, they had to phone in sick in order to complete their report cards on time and they acknowledged that others did so as well.”[i] In 2010 the Manitoba government announced the development of a provincial report card that would standardize assessment reporting across the province using both a parent-friendly format and plain language.[ii] While provisions were put in place to gain meaningful feedback from teachers, parents, and administrators before the mandatory implementation in the fall of 2013, an unstandardized execution has left many Manitoba teachers feeling the pressure. In a 2014 survey conducted by the… Read More
Masters Here I Come!
Earlier in the year I submitted my application for Brandon University’s (B.U) Masters of Education program. After completing my Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education, and working in their own-campus residence program for 5 of those 6 years, wanting to reapply felt like going home. Last month I shared my pre-admissions writing test, which was the second portion of the application process, and I am now happy to announce that I have officially been accepted into the program! Starting in the fall of 2014 I will officially be a student again (only this time by distance),… Read More
Fanning The Flame of Curiosity
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”[1]Can an individual’s pursuit of knowledge ever truly cease? Educators the world over are diligently attempting to arm their students with the skills and values so that they can become life-long learners; learners who recognize not only that education is not limited to the confines of a classroom, but also that self-guided learning often times provides the most rewarding and valuable experiences of all. In a profession that is built upon the ignition of students’ curiosity, there are many teachers who not only end their formal education with… Read More