Noelyn's PROF 311 Blog

Religion has always played a crucial part of my life. However, I believe that religion is a very sensitive topic with students. I have always been educated in the Catholic school system and wish to teach in it one day. Based on the discussions I’ve heard in my own PROF class, I always felt that some people have a wrong assumption with how issues are dealt in the Catholic school board. The manners in which issues are dealt with, in general, vary from school to school. This is the same with Catholic schools. I feel though that sometimes when these differences are seen in the Catholic school board it seems so much more “different” in the way it’s viewed and highlighted.

I believe that every student’s faith should be celebrated despite what it is. I found the following ministry article which guides administration with how religion should be incorporated in the curriculum in an appropriate manner: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/curricul/religion/religioe.html. Since my own connection to my faith is strong, I would never deny someone the opportunity to celebrate their own faith/beliefs. With this being said, I would not let my own beliefs interfere with the ways in which I interact with my classroom/deal with issues that may arise with my students. As a future teacher, I want to create an environment which promotes inclusivity despite one’s religion.

Mr. Facchini was THE grade eight. Ever since junior kindergarten, I would see him in the hallway and look forward to getting him as my teacher in grade eight. Every year this desire would be the same. He was the cool teacher, the teacher everyone wanted. One day in grade six, my class was told that Mr. Facchini passed away due to a long battle with cancer. My dreams were shattered. I was told that youth workers were available if and when anyone needed to talk to someone about their feelings. I just got out of my class and went to speak to one.

Death and grievance is something I personally struggle with. I do not take the loss of a loved one well and cannot bear to watch others deal with it as well. Since I have personal struggles with this topic, I worry that I will not be able to deal with it effectively on a professional level. I have found resources and spoken to other teachers about how they approach grief in their classroom. One resource I found helpful was: http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/1927-how-to-help-your-students-deal-with-grief-and-loss.

This year, I am the dance president of the Queen’s Indian Student Association’s Dance Team. The week before our competition, our team dealt with major losses: one of my dancer’s father passed away and another’s grandfather passed away. It was something that left me very emotional. However, I had to address this issue with the team and help them cope with it while teaching them ways we can support the dancers who were directly impacted by the loss. I felt that this was a step towards becoming better at dealing with issue professionally. As a future teacher, I want to be able to create a safe and welcoming environment for students to feel safe enough to share their emotions. I also want to create a relationship with all of my students where he/she feels comfortable enough to approach me with their grief. It’s a sensitive topic for many to deal with but I believe it is a topic that shouldn’t be ignored.

The role of a teacher is not limited to a classroom. At times, he/she is also required to sit during an IPRC meeting. IRPC stands for the Identification, Placement and Review Committee. The purpose of this committee includes[1]:

• Deciding whether or not the student should be identified as exceptional;
• Identifying the areas of the student’s exceptionality. The approved list of exceptionalities are comprised of (but not limited to): behaviour, autism, learning disability, giftedness, blind and low vision and language impairments.[2]
• Deciding an appropriate placement
• Reviewing the identification and placement at least once in each school year.

An IPRC meeting can be requested by the principal of the school. The principal attends this meeting along with a representative of the student or parent, another resource (i.e. teacher, board support staff) and, if necessary, an interpreter. Together, they come to a decision regarding the student’s placement in a special education program.

Until taking PROF classes, I had absolutely no idea as to what an IPRC was. It was obviously occurring while I was a student myself so the administration definitely did a good job with being discrete about it. I think it’s important for a parent to understand what an IPRC is before going into a meeting. I found that the Limestone District School Board has an amazing resource available for parents about IPRC: http://www.limestone.on.ca/programs/special_education/IPRC_Parent_Guide. 

I believe that Diane Malbin’s quote fits this situation the best: “Try differently rather than harder.” As a prospective teacher, it is my job to bring forth various methods to the table in order for the student to choose one that adapts best with him/her. I found an additional resource called a LEIC (Learner, Environment, Instruction, Curriculum) – which is similar to an IEP – for a student named Nikki which helped me view accommodations in a different set-up: http://www.fasdoutreach.ca/files/downloads/NikkiSchoolwideAdapt.pdf. It is my aspiration that with the help of these resources I will be able to attend to each of my student’s needs in the best way possible.

“English is my second language,” I tell my friends and their reaction: shock. I enjoy the English language and embracing all the grammatical rules that comes along with it and etc. I may not sound like an ESL student, but I am. My elder sister and I are separated by 15 months. She went to school before me and went through ESL classes. By the time I started junior kindergarten, I was immersed in English. My older sister’s old teacher encouraged my parents to speak in English at home as well. Today, I have lost my fluency in native language. It’s unfortunate that I had to sacrifice my roots and culture to be able to speak English as well as I do now.

During my time with Kumon Learning Centre, I encountered a student named Harleen. Harleen was enrolled in the English program at Kumon. She was fluent in Punjabi and had great difficulty speaking in English. She did not understand anything I was saying to her and, therefore, took no interest in it. At times, I would notice her daydream because it was easier to do doze off than do her work. I would even find her asleep during her stay at Kumon! I found myself frustrated sometimes, because she would have no desire to put any effort towards doing her work. What I didn’t realize at the time was that she was probably just as frustrated because she didn’t know where to start. I am proud to say that, three years later, Harleen was doing fantastic in her Kumon work and was able to read fluently in English – even above her grade level.

I gathered some tips and strategies to use with ELL students from a teacher named Susan from an e-mail I received from E-Note Teacher’s Corner:

1. Use pictures and diagrams whenever possible—even cartoons. Incorporate them into verbal instruction and visual presentations. Avoid using videos-too much information too fast. Also avoid using English idioms and slang in instruction.

2. Make the most of eye contact and body language. For instance, if you turn away from the class for a moment when writing on the board, stop talking. This was a habit I had to break that required effort-it’s never easy for me to stop talking! Make sure students can hear your voice clearly and watch your face as you speak.

3. Use peer coaching and team work. They allow ESL learners to develop their language skills in more relaxed settings. This site offers a quick review of teaming (effective) vs. “group work” (not so much):   http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Teamwork.htm

4. Connect ESL learners with on line resources they can use independently throughout the year to develop their skills. Set aside class time for kids to work alone or together on these sites, to explore what they find or to complete specific assignments. A really good one: http://www.englishclub.com/  In addition to offering lots of ESL learning activities for students, it includes special features for teachers.

5. Establish a “secret signal” so that ESL learners can let you know if they don’t understand without drawing attention to themselves in class. Especially sensitive kids will pretend to understand to avoid feeling embarrassed. Now that I think about it, this is a good idea to use with all students.

6. Explore and embrace cultural differences. Display multicultural bulletin boards of people, places, and customs; recognize holidays observed in other countries. This site offers guidelines to follow in creating boards that will enrich your students and your curriculum: http://www.ehow.com/list_6038043_multicultural-bulletin-board-ideas.html  Also, hundreds of color photos of multicultural bulletin boards (K-12) can be found on line using standard search engines. I would include some I located very easily and really like, but the URL is longer than this column! Find some you think are cool. It won’t take long.

7. Write notes to your ESL kids (or make encouraging comments on their papers) in their own language. Google translator makes us all multilingual. http://translate.google.com/ It will mean a lot to them that you reached out in this way.

This is another resource that I came across from this Teacher Corner: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/curriculum/PDFs/ESL_Modifications.pdf

As an ELL myself, I’m quite excited to encounter future ELL students. This is because I am excited for them to learn a new culture and language but I would also encourage them to continue embracing their native culture. As a prospective teacher, I want to be able to celebrate every student’s native language while celebrating the English language together as a class.

I never understood Amanda in elementary school. She always had an extra teacher with her. She was hardly ever in her class. She always made “weird” sounds and spoke out of turn. This is how I thought about her and autism in elementary school. She was never in my class, but Amanda’s presence was obvious in our school. None of my teachers took time aside to educate my class or I on what autism was. We just came to our own conclusions about Amanda.

“Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological [or biological] disorder that affects the functioning of the brain.”  It is “characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction and by restricted, repetitive, and stereotypic patterns of behaviour, interests, and activities.” (Manitoba 3) This is what my classmates told me today. Amanda has autism, but it was never addressed. I don’t think that Amanda should have been singled out, but I think there should have been a class discussion or project examining different disorders like autism. This way, the school community could have understood a bit more as to what Amanda was going through. 

I never directly have taught a student with autism; however, I have gone to school with one which was Amanda. I remember graduating elementary school and seeing Amanda at a stage where she would be able to say “thank you” or “good bye.” It was always made my heart smile. Not only was it moving to see what perseverance can do to a student, but just seeing her improvement escalate was amazing as well.

Something that really bothers me is one’s choice of words, especially when someone uses “retard” or “retarded” in the wrong sense. “It’s a condition, not an adjective,” is what I tell my peers and friends. Some people ignore this and continue to use it as an adjective. It bothers me more when it comes from my friends. Obviously, I’m doing my part with addressing the matter but you cannot force someone to become educated with the harm of using such words. I found a movement that had the same perspective as I did called “Spread The Word to End The Word.” Here is a short clip which explains what the movement stands for: http://vimeo.com/37960890 

As a prospective educator, I would want to educate my future students about the power words hold and to be cautious of which words they use and and which context they use them in. Also, I would like to educate my future students about what ASD actually is so they do not hold any false representations/assumptions about something so commonly seen in their academic career.

—

Manitoba Ministry of Education. Supporting Inclusive Schools: A Handbook for Developing and Implementing Programming for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Winnipeg: 200

You have 75 minutes per lesson. You have many points to cover, a few activities, a couple of administrative tasks AND a whole bunch of accommodations to make in between all of that. I think the toughest accommodations to make are with behavioural exceptionalities. Its difficulty is apparent when constantly revising your classroom management strategies. A few tips I gathered along my research in this area was to allocate enough breaks for the student, to get students to think “out loud” when problem solving, and to keep lesson plans fairly simple and flexible. I found many more neat insights to teaching students with ADHD here: http://www.addinschool.com/highschool.htm. Personally, at times, I feel helpless when something is not under my control. So I cannot begin to imagine how to keep someone in control when he/she has lack of self-control. It’s definitely something that I need to get a feel for because literature can only help you to an extent.

As a prospective math and French teacher, I have a big fear in teaching these subjects and encountering students with behavioural exceptionalities. I found a few resources that could help future math and French teachers with regards to teaching students with ADHD.

• http://research.aboutkidshealth.ca/teachadhd/resources/ADHD_and_Math_Disabilities.pdf
• http://www.vccaedu.org/inquiry/inquiry-spring98/i21hodge.html

 Since I haven’t had much experience in this department, I always try to imagine teaching a student like Bart Simpson. I feel like he would be a handful to teach but the most rewarding. In this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE, due to Bart’s behavioural problems, he has become so behind in the curriculum and his new teacher notices this. I aspire to be a teacher who does not carry on with the curriculum with my other students and ignore the student with the behavioural problems. Rather, I hope that I will be able to cater to the needs of this student so much to the point where I am able to get around his/her exceptionalities, deliver the curriculum and still create an atmosphere where their individuality is celebrated regardless of what it comes along with.

This week in PROF class, we examined education for the visually and/or acoustically impaired. I have never worked with students on my practicums that deal with these conditions. So I do not have much to add on to the topic as far as experience goes. However, I learned a lot during this week’s seminar on education for blind students. Besides the accommodations we went through, what really caught my attention was the topic of fostering independence and dependence at the same time when delivering lessons to students with disabilities.

Students with physical disabilities will require more time and guidance with their work; however, when does the teacher draw the line and let the student learn independently as well? It is important for every student to establish independence in addition to learning the curriculum. One of the seminar presenters expressed that, “Effective educators must teach social skills and listening skills as needed, fostering a realistic mix of dependence and independence.” The key words are realistic mix. It is a priority to future educators to teach themselves during their teaching career on how to be in touch with reality.

I was trying to think of ways in which I can create this realistic mix but I hit a dead end. I then started to research. I came upon this super helpful resource: http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/fr/fr15/Issue3/f150302.html. The author states, “Don’t hover. Don’t overprotect. Keep a watchful eye. Use good judgment. Step in when necessary, but base your interventions on the idea of an independent future for the child, not on the idea that blind people cannot be expected to do certain tasks.” The same ideology can be applied to students who are deaf/hard of hearing. My thoughts before reading this article were solely, “How will I be able to help this student to the maximum I can without hindering their independence as a learner?” After reading this article, it clicked to me, “Yes they need help, but who said they need as much help as I exaggerated it to be? If I don’t have confidence in their abilities to perform their task despite their physical disability, how does this encourage the student to be confident?”

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that every human being needs help once in awhile. The visually and/or acoustically impaired are humans too so they need help just like every other “average Joe.” Of course, they may need more assistance than others at times; however, I feel that because I myself cannot imagine performing tasks without my eyesight/hearing, I place this on the physically disabled and think that the job at hand is bigger than what it actually is.

I will admit that this new train of thought will take awhile adapting to and will definitely help in the long run with my lessons/pedagogy as an educator. There are many resources that teachers are not familiar to that will help improve their teaching styles with students who are visually and/or acoustically impaired. (This site referred my a fellow peers includes many tips for teachers in my situation: http://www.theitinerantconnection.com/teachers.htm). As a future teacher, I believe that by pushing every student (regardless of their physical abilities) to be more independent as they grow, I will help them on a personal level and also not hinder their potential.

Oct 28th, 2011

I pulled this blog up, ready to write about bullying and my views towards it, but just could not get my fingers to move. This is probably because the word itself brings back a lot of memories. I was a victim of bullying. I was always that person who did the right thing and got good grades – two traits that can be easily picked on. Though bullying brought about a lot of negative feelings during my childhood, it also made me become a stronger person. I became someone with confidence. During the times I was being bullied, I absolutely despised when my teachers got involved. Why? They just made things worse. By my teacher acknowledging the fact that she was aware of the situation at hand, it just made the bully even angrier. Now, from an educator’s perspective, I know my teachers just did their job. My only worry is how do I get involved without making the situation worse? It is a big fear I face, but I hope to overcome it with my future practicums and teaching experiences.

 During this week’s PROF class, we discussed how it is important to educate your class on bullying – which I totally agree with. Due to the amazing new television programs we have available, we can always relate bullying to a lot of popular TV shows including, a personal favourite, Glee. There are many times when I watch Glee and tell myself, “Oh I am going to show this clip to my students one day.” It’s realistic and to the point. Though the main purpose of Glee is their singing, I find that their second goal is to highlight issues related with bullying. Here is a clip of Matthew Morrison aka. Mr. Shuester talking about his views on bullying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VaykR_GaFk. This type of teaching would get the student more engaged since they would already be acquainted with the TV show or at least heard about it. For example, I remember the concept of classical conditioning better, because in my prof for PSYC 100 class linked this concept to a clip from the TV Show The Office. Even reading classic novels that touch upon the subject of bullying would be a nice way to connect literacy and bullying.

As always, I come to this point of my blog where I am confident in linking these practices to one teachable and not the other. I could show a Glee clip before a math lesson, but it will not be as effective as watching it in French for my French classes. While Gurjit discussed bullying and how it may look like, I started to brainstorm ways I can incorporate this with teaching math. One way I decided is to bring up one equity issue per week and introduce it and discuss it for 20-25 minutes during one particular lesson of that week. This way I can give time to highlight on these issues but also manage to deliver the curriculum. Of course, I will come to a better judgment of how to deal with this issue after more experience. There are also many resources to prepare me for this. For example, during this week’s PROF class, I learned about an opportunity where I can link social justice to my math lessons. I just need to be alert and know what resources I have available to me that will assist me in highlighting all sorts of equity issues in every subject and grade level I am able to teach.

During my own practicums, surprisingly I have not faced issues where students in my class were bullies/being bullied. I am more surprised because my last placement was in the area I grew up in – one which was known for its crime rate and gang violence. Everyone was accepting of each other and celebrated each other’s diversity. Hopefully, if I do face these issues during my placement/teaching career, I take use the knowledge that this class has given me alongside with my own experience to better emphasize the issue and effectively deal with it.

I am a firm believer that bullying is not the answer to any problem. I have always expressed this thought in my day-to-day encounters with peers and even in my own classroom management. I believe in the power of respect and always make it a point to mention this before teaching my classes. As mentioned in our readings, “Being safe in relationships is a fundamental human right. Every child and youth has the right to be safe and free from involvement in bullying” (Craig 4). As a future teacher, I hope to create an environment where every student feels safe, free, and comfortable to express and celebrate their identity, values and beliefs. For some, it takes personal experience with bullying to encourage them to discuss it; for others, it takes hearing horrible stories to encourage them. Whatever may be their motivation, I hope each teacher realizes their duty and purpose to take steps closers to abolishing bullying in their own classroom and then progressively work to accomplish this goal outside the classroom. I am up for the challenge, are you?

I would like to conclude this blog with another video clip. I hope every educator, including myself, will be able to have the courage and confidence to address bullying like this one man did. I also hope it will reach every student just like his talk did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDBiqUWRtMo.

Oct 21st, 2011