Month: April 2023

What did I learn about creating a blog? Well I learned that one of the worlds most used platforms for websites, WordPress , is not nearly as easy to use as say an Iphone. It is not user friendly at all.

I thought the classmates blogs were interesting. I found most others to be better at writing than me. I found some were really good at getting to the answers of the questions and were really able to tie the reading together with their profession (refrigeration mechanic). I loved the layout of some and not of others (Tumblr doesn’t look that professional). I learned some people posted each blog post in the first forums comments, not many people had Creative Commons logos and some people were very secretive and you couldn’t see theirs, access denied. But again what really stood out the most was how well everybody could write. Also their personalities seemed shiny and excited to read the required reading (whether it’s genuine or not I do not know) but they presented as delighted in the assignment.

The strength of my blog is that I don’t sound like Kamala Harris. I am not trying to be profound, but more have a casual little jig, where I put thoughts to paper.

I think the layout is decent, and I spoke truth in my articles, not what the teacher wants to hear. I tried to create it for me, as I am the one who keeps it now that the course is done. 

What were its weaknesses? Well the writing is probably stalled at a grade 10 level. My heart was only half in it which is probably apparent in the writing style on the topics that were required book reading / replying. Also the content is unexciting and I wouldn’t want to read it unless I was required to.

For a mark for my blog- I think it would be about a 4.2/5

I believe I did all the required things, Creative Commons, extra media tidbits like videos and an actual link to my blog that you could click on. Always more than 100 words.

I did not continue it on from my other blog like requested, but that was a conscious choice out of personal preference to separate them incase I need to look back at certain courses to find the content easier. I figured it would be fine since it’s my blog. Yes I have good “breadth” on the topics. I spent many car rides thinking about the topics through and through. I covered all the topics. My content isn’t spaced evenly over 8 weeks but that is because my contract at the university finished part way through so I had more time to hustle and get this done. My writing is not very sophisticated so that knocks me down a few ticks.

I just feel my blog is better than some, not super awesome. I put good effort into making it custom and fun and I think my mark reflects that. I did do some good learning as I finally have clarity on if I can hug students and how I want to approach phones in the classroom that I did not have before. So two burning questions, I have resolves to. 

What are some learning activities I plan to take part in after I am done this course? 

It can be divided into two sections.

Things that I should do for work:

I also plan on taking the indigenous course that the school likes us to have when we apply for jobs. I cannot find it online now, but every year I apply for a job it is on the posting and can be taken free through TRU since I am staff.

I would love to go for an all expenses paid trip to a conference. I love hotels, vacations from family and eating out. It would have to be an actually interesting conference though, and not a stuffy one. I don’t know about any conferences yet, as I don’t quite yet identify as a teacher. Every book I have had to read for the sake of this course has been really boring and brutal so as of now I have zero books I am looking forward to reading for work. I would like to shape my course lessons a bit better though and make them super engaging and interesting. I’m talking funny video clips, interesting stories, neat games. I really want to make school fun again.

Things that I want to learn in my personal life:

Well definitely the learning CAD (Computer Aided Design) that I talked about in my last blog post. It’s something I want to learn for myself and my students. I am also going to take a night course for intro to welding. Being sessional I can take it for free in the evening and I cannot wait as I love any sort of trades courses. I dream of building a table but was never a fan of the big chunky wooden legs and wanted to do a classy wood top with metal legs. Yumm! I also plan on learning how to use my friends wood CNC and maintaining it for them. How exciting the world of doing is. 

So yes, after this course, I plan on actually adding fun learning into my life and I can’t wait.

For this blog I decided to talk about a video I have watched a few times and I am constantly thinking about and talking about with friends. It’s just had such an impact on me, so I was happy to watch it again for this project. Long story short, in Dunedin, New Zealand a study got underway in 1972. Every child born in that town in that year was put into a longitudinal study. They are the longest studied humans on earth and there are about 1000 of them. They are even allowed to confess to capital crimes to the scientists and not suffer any charges. Every year they get studied. It’s very interesting and I highly recommend spending a night and watching them. I do give very good recommendations so go ahead and watch them.

That all aside, I wanted to talk about something that piqued my interest the most. It starts at 33:10 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqThvpFck3s which is in essence episode 1 of the series. It’s when they talk about what makes people successful. Is it the smartest child who grows up to be successful? They have actually figured out how to spot a successful child at age 4 by checking their self control. A child with very good self control is way more likely to become successful. 

But how do you test a 4 year olds self control? The marshmallow test of course. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s when they put a child in a room in a chair, in front of a table. They put one marshmallow in front of them. They tell the child, you can have this one marshmallow now, or if you wait 15 minutes and I come back and the marshmallow is still there, then you can have a reward of another marshmallow or a pretzel. Some obviously ate the marshmallow right away (bad self control) and some were totally able to wait, having learned great skills in self control. Whether they looked away, sang songs or turned their backs, they had already learned this skill.

So what does this mean for those of us at age 4 that would have gobbled down that first marshmallow? Are we totally screwed? No!! That’s the remarkable thing. Self control can be learned at any age. Some scientists make what I think is a fantastic point, that if we could teach self control in school, we could save the taxpayers billions of dollars. The typical person that eats unhealthy their whole life, gets told they have diabetes or high cholesterol, and are unable to make changes. They simply lack self control to make the dietary changes. If they could garner the self control to stop eating the problem foods, the hospital system would be way better off and so would the patient.

This is just a fantastic story. We can learn self control at any age, as self control is the bigger predictor of a successful life (being happy, earning a great income, having friends etc.).

Episode 1 that I was talking about full episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqThvpFck3s

Episode 2 full episode if your curious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjkGXuM1Dhs

Episode 3 (only place I could find it really…. It’s a really good one too though!)

The nature versus nurture argument is investigated. It is a genetic switch which is thrown by life events; nature loads the gun but nurture pulls the trigger.

https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/when-genes-mix-with-the-wrong-environment/umc.cmc.56m3befc03fqtgs08qwqyxqz4?showId=umc.cmc.1hs0yhhkxyt9d4w5oo8tv6f3q

Episode 4 

Finally we take a look at the effects of modern life and ageing; how excessive cleanliness affects asthma & allergies, how poverty gets under the skin to cause lifelong damage, and predicting mental illness by looking at the back of people’s eyes.

https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/dirt-is-good-dirt-poor-is-bad/umc.cmc.24skhtxhcfmu52yg2gvf58sha?l=en

What does the next five years hopefully look like for me? Well I hope at about the end of 5 years there is a full time job for me in the department I am in. I am very happy with where I am right now, not working full time for the university. The university is a huge engine with code of conducts, special places you submit things that are broken and need fixing, different committees and even just a random huge number of people who are technically my bosses. That being said some of the goals I would like to have in the next five years are as follows.

1. Understand who runs the university organization. Who are all the different department leaders? Whose role is what at the university? What are all the different dean roles (why are there so many) and who are the deans? What employees are in TRUFA and what is that? What employees are not in the union? What are all the roles the university is always trying to fill in the university? To find out all the answers to this I am legit just going to have to do a paper. I will spend some time writing down my questions just like above, and use everything I have to find out the answers. Maybe a fellow instructor will actually help me with this. It could be a great resource for new instructors like myself to help them get acquainted with university dynamics. It’s easy to measure my success on this. If you ask me any question to do with staffing at the university departments, I should be able to muddle an answer. Even just knowing what department I teach in, who my dean is and what their role is would be an improvement.
2. I would like to have a close to full time position at the university. That is the path I am headed down already. I am currently waiting in the trenches, updating my schooling. If for some chance I am unable to get a job in the department I am in, I feel I can easily switch to electrical instructor. So my goal though is to be in the role I am now, just a little less than full time (waiting on retirements). But that is really a big goal. I fill my spare time with electrical side work, and other odd jobs, so that I can always be available when the university calls. That includes all my other jobs, knowing the university is my primary source and that I have a preference to them. This goal is obviously measurable by achieving the goal. Some mini goals along the way though are getting right of first refusal for the content I actually teach already. I must have my PIDP done before I can even apply for that right of first refusal, I am working on that currently.
3. I want to learn autoCAD or something similar (Sketchup). I have another teaching side job, in which students build different wood working projects with me. I want to be able to make prints that show what we are building with the actually measurements and 3D model of it. Cabinets and sheds and all in between. This is totally do able. I am not sure yet if I will do it online through free youtube courses or if I will try and find an online course to buy and learn. I did some poking and nothing really jumped out at me for AutoCAD online classes. If there is something online I will apply for Professional Development Funds to pay for it. If I can’t get that and it’s expensive, I will just do the free courses on Youtube. I will be excited to complete my first drawings online and this will help me out in my other teaching jobs, as well as I can see being able to use it with the university as well. Tying it into lesson plans for the students to really test their diagrams building skills and it will be a funner class day. Or maybe it’s just me who thinks it will be fun (as I’m learning during this course).
4. I want to stay out of the politics of the university. Staying home with kids really makes it easy to get back to work and not gossip. I just want to go to work and do my job, I don’t want to talk about fellow employers. I do understand it’s a trap you can fall into. I am going to do the best I can to not do that. How can I measure that. Do I talk about other workers badly behind their back? Do people keep feeling like they can complain about others to me? If I do not engage, people doing bad behaviours like those should stop. I will have to self reflect on this often. Do I come home and complain to my husband about how bad some people are at work? If I’m complaining to my husband that’s also a loss on this goal. I need to just make sure to “brush your shoulder off”.

What do I think of about chapter 16 and 17 in Brookfields book? Student resistance and how we respond to it is what it’s about. I must say there wasn’t too much talking about why students resist that was new to me. We have resistance for things our whole life from friends and family so this cannot be foreign. It did ; however, offer the extra reminder that you will always have resistance in the classroom. No matter how dialled in your lesson, students learning and stresses from their houses go in waves. Obviously we are trying to limit the resistance to not spread to other students, and we are also trying to limit each students individual resistance. Let’s be real, some classes are not for every soul. I hear horror stories of having to do lame classes such as micro economics, only to also be required to do macro economics afterwards. It sounds awful. The students I teach are in an employment preparation program. But does that mean they want to be there? Many times it’s their home shares or parents trying to get them off video games and out in the world, while the student does not want to be there or working afterwards. With students like that I try to spin that we are enjoying the company of others, we are trying college out like so many others have. I do know you cannot force somebody to care, but sympathizing with their “pain” is always appreciated. We want to know that our thoughts makes sense and are heard. Some other tidbits I will remember is that I love love love hands on lessons. I just assume everybody else must. But really everybody does not love it. Is there tasks I can give them that still help us who are working, but float a little more of their desire? Maybe taking measurements or producing drawings for our task. Either way good to always remember that. Modelling behaviour is another task I do often on practicum placements. As the book said, it’s a great way to show students we walk the walk and talk the talk. I like students to see that they can sweep a job site for 4 hours and still have a good day. Do you put a podcast in one ear? Tell stories to eachother about our childhoods? Do we make small chat and laugh as much as we can? Do we give ourselves a goal? Do we try to get as many compliments as we can whilst doing it? Was the sunshine out? Was I excited to not have to see customers today? Was it nice to zone out and work lonesome? I want them to see that I am doing all these things, and they can do them too if they work for them.

Something in the Exercising Teacher Power Responsibility chapter (Ch.18) got me thinking about me in the class that I teach. The paragraph on Consistently Fair (pg. 245) striked me as something that I don’t do. It only rings through as blaringly obvious because I can feel that other students see it too. Whether it’s allowing students to be late and not commenting on it (while others I will) or student phone use, I am not consistent. I will try to explain why I feel I act “unfair” to begin with so you can see my train of thought. Let’s take phone use. Some students come into my course addicted to their phones. Other students come in and are able to put away their phones if they need to. Those students won’t be on it on a job site if it’s not allowed, they can turn it off for a movie in their spare time etc. Some students understand responsible use of their phones, where another group absolutely doesn’t. On job sites they might be whipping their phones out with some sort of an excuse all the time, even when told to never have it out. During lectures from special guests they will be looking down at their phones, and it’s obvious they aren’t paying attention (#disrespectful). So even when I tell the students there is zero phone use in class, I actually don’t mean that. What I really mean is, “if you can prove that you are responsible with your phone, then feel free to use it. But if you are not responsible with your phone, you do not get that privilege.” They way the unfairness is perceived by students is them wondering why such and such is using their phone and it’s ok. Or why others didn’t get in trouble for being late. Reflecting on this it totally makes sense. But I really am still not a stickler about no phone. I am totally fine with it, if used properly. My class is in very different stages of intellect. Some students blow through an assignment in 5 minutes, while others spend 25 minutes resetting their passwords and logging on (most days of the week). So there is plenty of downtime in my class for some students. This is why a bit of phone here and there is fine for me. Sure I could give others more work, but is that entirely fair either? This gives me very good reflection though. Next time I begin class I will talk about exactly these facts. The difference between responsible phone use and irrespossible. When is an ok time to check your phone, or an even better time to check your phone. Why it matters what others perceive when on our phones or pondering why they are feeling the need to always be on their phones. I think the biggest take away will also be that I believe they are in college now, and they are responsible adults. If they can prove they are responsible with it’s use, it is fine to use it here and there. This is not scrolling for 20 minutes in class, but this is a flexibility of the absolutely no phone rule to perhaps check their personal email etc. I am excited to try this new system out as I have been debating just this in my mind for a long time. How to implement a rule I don’t care too much about, except when it’s taken advantage of.

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Reading through Chapter 2 in Brookfield’s book talking mostly about how critical reflection is super important was interesting. I did not however find it uber enlightening. We are constantly being barraged with quotes from the media telling us to reflect on our lives, reflect on our actions, reflect on our goals. The idea of inner reflection is not a new one. I do see how as they say, teachers who choose not to reflect regularly can actually have a less enjoyable teaching experience. Yes it is always about the students, but I firmly believe the teacher should enjoy their job, and can enjoy their job with the right mindset. Continual growth is the spice of life, the spice that everybody around you can feel. So don’t be shy, get that feedback so you can experience that reflection. With the 3 levels of lenses that can help give feedback (students, colleagues and literature), you are bound to find some areas you didn’t quite realize you could be doing better at. Are you slowly letting the students be late after every class (even though you teach an employment preparation program)? Are the goals you’re making with students too large and scary for some, and they are nervous to speak up? All 3 of your lenses can offer an amazing map for how you can improve your craft, which in turn will make yours and the students days more enjoyable. Who doesn’t like going to work when they are good at their job? Below is a great example of some feedback from students. It’s a just for fun clip. And not how you should actually act. 

This work by Janessa Boomhour is marked with CC0 1.0.

To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0