Category: Weekly Reflections

After discussing different modalities of multi-access learning, I reflected on my experience with each class structure. By reflecting on my own preferences, and looking through different resources, I can better understand as a teacher how I must find ways to support all learners!

After our class this week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on how I would implement phone boundaries in the classroom. One point that stuck with me is that taking away phones is not effective. Confiscating a child’s property will only cause them distress and shift their attention away from learning, and children will eventually find ways around this by bringing burner phones to school, etc. 

To effectively teach internet safety and phone use, we must educate students on why boundaries matter and how to navigate responsible use. 

In my experience, I found it difficult to take advice from teachers who weren’t familiar with how kids are using technology today. Because so many educators didn’t learn about tech safety during their schooling, I think there should be more learning opportunities for them, and if needed, guest speakers should be brought in to approach this topic. Even though tech might not be used much in school, internet education is still an important topic that children may not have access to elsewhere. 

I believe the best approach is to be honest about the risks and benefits of technology, while also giving students freedom to navigate their internet use themselves. Each child is different, so our approach will never be perfect, but being open and adaptable is key. In the classroom, I think having a phone pocket system for everyone to use at the start of class is the most effective way to build healthy habits and create shared expectations.

For this week, I decided to reflect on the process of creating my blog and how I’ve been enjoying it so far. After the first class, I felt super overwhelmed and was honestly quite confused about where to begin. But with each week, I feel like I’ve been gradually learning new things as I explore with each blog post. 

I’m grateful that our blog assignment is something we can work on at our own pace. I think learning is done best when it comes from curiosity, and when the student is given the freedom to plan according to what works best for them. Personalizing my blog has been a very rewarding experience, and having an outlet to reflect on my creative learning has helped me find new approaches to learning piano and plan for what I’m going to focus on each week. 

Although I was confused the first week, working through that uncertainty has helped me expand my knowledge and gain confidence in technology. I’m looking forward to asking more questions and finding out more as I go!

After visiting the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, I can’t stop thinking about the impact that this school system has on students. I was skeptical at first, but after the visit, I have been reflecting on the fact that our current school system is something that has been built over time, and followed just because that’s how it’s always been. Although I still have lots to learn and don’t fully understand how this inquiry model works yet, I find it so interesting how engaged students can be with this sense of freedom. One of the biggest challenges of teaching a large, diverse classroom is keeping everyone engaged and meeting a variety of learners’ needs. It was so refreshing to hear that the students at this school want to be at school on weekends and stay up late by choice doing their schoolwork, because they genuinely enjoy it. I definitely will continue to ponder how I can integrate similar strategies into my future classroom in even just small ways, like centers, to understand students’ interests and learn how to incorporate their curiosity into my teaching. After reflecting on what I learned on Friday, my few lingering questions that are…

• Does this structure work for every kid? Would this structure fit the needs of students who love the current traditional schooling system?
• How do attendance rates influence consistency in learning? And if this system were to be implemented in primary years, would attendance be affected?
• How are both math and indigenous knowledge appropriately included in self-directed learning?

After week two, and discussing the concept of “genius hours,” also known as “free inquiry” projects, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to implement this approach in an elementary classroom. Genius hour is a block of time, approximately one hour a week, where students pick their own topic and create a project out of it, with no other criteria. Genius hour is a powerful tool to teach children skills like planning, working independently, researching, critical thinking and reflection, while also fostering creativity. However, because this approach gives students much freedom, it does come with some challenges. 

First off, I always found the hardest thing about big assignments was simply choosing my topic. In an elementary class, I would start off the free inquiry process by spending lots of time planning with the students by asking them about their interests, strengths in school, and things they are curious about. To make sure students are motivated and supported, teaching lessons on time management, discussing goals, and regularly checking in with students one-on-one would be crucial to the process. As a teacher, I would also make sure to provide many sources, including question templates, library books, weekly journals to take note of their process and plans, and reflection questions. 

While the assignment will take many weeks, I would emphasize the importance of effort and hard work in their final project. I would acknowledge their growth mindset and their ability to work through challenges independently. By giving students the confidence in their individual learning, we can further motivate them to participate in all aspects of school!

In the Most Likely to Succeed documentary, the class structure and altered content really stood out to me as a future educator. The one class where the students were to carry the class through communication really resonated with me, because I believe communication is the most important human skill. Although I enjoy English, I’ve never felt confident in my verbal dialogue, as I often struggle to find the right words and feel like I don’t sound “smart” enough. I remember starting university, assuming that just by taking classes and getting older, I would naturally grow my vocabulary and my ability to put my ideas into words fluently. However, that hasn’t felt true so far. 

I related to the film when they mentioned how most children are unlikely to care about a math solution if they don’t understand how they could use it in future situations, as most of the knowledge from my first year courses has already been completely forgotten. But with the structure of the children having to lead classroom discussions, it forces them to understand the material more deeply, find ways to relate to it, or become more comfortable admitting when they’re confused.

I believe that education, especially in primary years, should be more focused on developing personal character traits like communication and confidence rather than academic knowledge. By creating a strong foundation of these skills at a young age, children will be able to understand what learning strategies work for them to better absorb the information they are taught. Ideally, there should at least be a balance of these different aspects of knowledge. With communication, confidence, and a sense of self-awareness, we can raise generations that can build healthy relationships that will support both their social and personal lives and future careers.