1. Key Takeaway From Week 8: Standardized tests are mandatory, but I am not convinced they benefit me or my students in any given year.
2. Key Takeaway From Week 7: A fair and equitable teaching practice is the very foundation for being a professional teacher. Inclusivity is necessary at all times
3. Key Takeaway From Week 6: All students are able to learn and succeed, but not all in the same way or on the same day
4. Key Takeaway From Week 5: A fair assessment that reflects the teacher process is essential to continued, effective learning
5. 4) Mid-September - Making Instructional Decisions
5.1. Zoe Brannigan's Classroom
5.1.1. Desks set up in small groups rather than rows
5.1.2. Children get a chance to Skype other children from around the globe
5.1.3. Constructivist lessons: children construct their own learning through problem-based learning
5.1.3.1. The classroom is not just a teacher lecturing, but students working and learning together and teaching each other
5.1.4. Small groups work together on certain topics
5.1.5. Teacher gets a chance to work one-on-one with students while other students work in groups
5.1.6. Students get a say in what projects they work on
5.1.7. Universal Design for Learning
5.1.7.1. Three guiding principles
5.1.7.1.1. 1) Provide multiple means of representation
5.1.7.1.2. 2) Provide multiple means of action and expression
5.1.7.1.3. 3) Provide multiple means of engagement
5.2. Determining what to teach
5.2.1. Diagnostic assessment
5.2.1.1. What do students know at the start of the course?
5.2.2. Backwards Design
5.2.2.1. 1) What do I want my students to learn?
5.2.2.2. 2) How will I determine whether or not they have learned?
5.2.2.3. 3) What will I teach?
5.2.2.4. 4) How will I teach?
5.2.3. Common Thread of Learning Objectives
5.2.3.1. Philosophical objectives found in mission statement
5.2.3.2. Global objectives found in curriculum guide
5.2.3.3. Broad learning objectives used in unit plans
5.2.3.4. Specific learning objectives
5.2.3.5. Assessment questions
5.2.3.6. Topical unit and lesson plans
5.2.3.7. Instructional methods
5.2.4. Bloom's Taxonomy
5.2.4.1. Six cognitive objectives
5.2.4.1.1. 1) Knowledge
5.2.4.1.2. 2) Comprehension
5.2.4.1.3. 3) Application
5.2.4.1.4. 4) Analysis
5.2.4.1.5. 5) Sythesis
5.2.4.1.6. 6) Evaluation
5.2.5. Stiggins’s Achievement Targets
5.2.5.1. Knowledge
5.2.5.1.1. Declarative knowledge: facts, terms, concepts, and generalizations
5.2.5.1.2. Procedural knowledge: procedures or problem-solving methods
5.2.5.2. Reasoning
5.2.5.2.1. Process of answering questions through analytical problem-solving
5.2.5.3. Skills
5.2.5.3.1. Abilities required to put procedural knowledge to use in a fluent fashion and in the appropriate context
5.2.5.4. Products
5.2.5.4.1. Student creations that reflect current skill and ability levels
5.2.5.5. Attitudes and Dispositions
5.2.5.5.1. Interests in certain topics; the desire to learn more about a topic
5.2.6. Universal Instructional Design
5.2.6.1. 1) Create a welcoming classroom environment that emphasizes academic and behavioural success.
5.2.6.2. 2) Determine the essential academic components to be taught/learned and the preferred behavioural outcomes.
5.2.6.3. 3) Provide students with both clear expectations for learning and feedback about their learning progress and social conduct.
5.2.6.4. 4) Implement a variety of topically suitable instructional methods.
5.2.6.5. 5) Provide a variety of ways for students to demonstrate what they have learned (assessment).
5.2.6.6. 6) Make appropriate use of technology to enhance learning.
5.2.6.7. 7) Encourage and initiate teacher–student and student–student discourses about learning topics/tasks and behavioural expectations.
5.2.7. How People Learn Framework
5.2.7.1. Knowledge-Centredness
5.2.7.1.1. What should be taught, why is it important, and how should this knowledge be organized?
5.2.7.2. Learner-Centredness
5.2.7.2.1. Who learns, how, and why?
5.2.7.3. Community-Centredness
5.2.7.3.1. What kinds of classroom, school, and school-community environments enhance learning?
5.2.7.4. Assessment-Centredness
5.2.7.4.1. What kinds of evidence can students, teachers, parents, and others use to see if effective learning is really occurring?
6. 5) Late September - Assesing Student Progress
6.1. Key ideas
6.1.1. Understanding by Design
6.1.1.1. We should teach and assess for understanding and tranfer, and also for critical thinking, creativity, and working with others
6.1.1.1.1. What's most worth understanding are the large, transferable concepts and processes within and across subjects.
6.1.1.2. Just because students know doesn't mean they understand
6.1.1.3. Think big, start small
6.1.2. How can I teach math in a way that makes it more interdisciplinary?
6.1.3. How do I incorporate storytelling into my lessons to make learning more meaningful to the students?
6.1.4. Learning Styles
6.1.4.1. Visual
6.1.4.2. Auditory
6.1.4.3. Kinesthetic
6.2. Interplay between Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
6.2.1. Curriculum Requirements
6.2.1.1. Teacher refers to curriculum guide to determine what students must learn.
6.2.2. Assessment Decisions
6.2.2.1. Teacher decides how students’ learning of the material will be assessed.
6.2.3. Instructional Content
6.2.3.1. Teacher decides what must be taught to students in order for them to learn the material that will be included in the assessment activities.
6.2.4. Instructional Methodology
6.2.4.1. Teacher decides on the types of instructional methods that will be used to teach the content.
6.3. Three purposes of assessment
6.3.1. Diagnostic assessment
6.3.1.1. before the instruction
6.3.2. Formative assessment
6.3.2.1. during the instruction
6.3.3. Summative assessment
6.3.3.1. after the instruction
6.4. Selected-response vs. constructed response assessment
6.5. Criterion-based vs. norm-based assessment
7. 6) Early December - Individual Differences: Intellectual Abilities and Challenges
7.1. Key ideas
7.1.1. Ken Robinson
7.1.1.1. Intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct
7.1.1.1.1. We think visually, kinesthetically, abstractly, in movement, etc. We all have different abilities in these areas
7.1.1.1.2. Intelligence is interactive. Creativity comes about through the interaction of the different ways of seeing things.
7.1.1.1.3. Everyone is intelligent in their own way, even if it's not academically/book smart.
7.1.1.2. Learning For All
7.1.2. Special education
7.1.2.1. Nothing more than good teaching that is prepared and conducted slightly differently in order to accommodate the special learning needs of students with exceptionalities.
7.1.2.1.1. High-incidence exceptionalities
7.1.2.1.2. Low-incidence exceptionalities
7.1.2.2. They sent me to gifted class in grade 6 and I lost all my motivation to work hard because we were all told we were smart all the time.
7.2. Carroll’s Hierarchical Model of Intelligence
7.2.1. Fluid intelligence
7.2.2. Crystallized intelligence
7.2.3. General memory and learning
7.2.4. Broad visual perception
7.2.5. Broad auditory perception
7.2.6. Broad retrieval capacity
7.2.7. Broad cognitive speediness
7.2.8. Processing speed (decision speed)
7.3. Intelligence as Structures
7.3.1. Theory of Multiple Intelligences
7.3.1.1. 1) Linguistic
7.3.1.2. 2) Logical–Mathematical
7.3.1.3. 3) Spatial
7.3.1.4. 4) Musical
7.3.1.5. 5) Bodily– kinesthetic
7.3.1.6. 6) Interpersonal
7.3.1.7. 7) Intrapersonal
7.3.1.8. 8) Naturalistic
7.4. Intelligence as Processes
7.4.1. Analytical/Componential intelligence
7.4.1.1. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
7.4.2. Creative/Experiential intelligence
7.4.3. Practical/Contextual intelligence
7.5. Inclusion model of special education
7.5.1. In Canada we try to include students with special needs into the ordinary classrooms to the greatest extent possible
7.5.1.1. "What's needed by some is good for all"
7.6. Individualized Education Program
7.6.1. outlines a student’s individualized educational goals, the services that a student with exceptionalities will receive, the methods and strategies that will be used to deliver these services to ensure that goals are met, and the placement in which all of these will be provided
7.6.1.1. Six Phases
7.6.1.1.1. 1) Identification
7.6.1.1.2. 2) Diagnostic Instruction
7.6.1.1.3. 3) Referral
7.6.1.1.4. 4) Assessment/IEP
7.6.1.1.5. 5) Educational intervention
7.6.1.1.6. 6) Evaluation of student progress
8. 7) Early February - Socio-Cultural Considerations
8.1. Key Ideas
8.1.1. Chimamanda Ngozi
8.1.1.1. The importance of getting multiple perspectives about people and their culture
8.1.1.1.1. When you learn about someone's culture from only one perspective, you start to form stereotypes and narrow-minded opinions
8.1.1.1.2. When you hear about a group of people in one way over and over again, that is what they become in your mind even if it's not the whole picture
8.1.2. Julien S. Bourrelle
8.1.2.1. How can we connect different cultures?
8.1.2.2. How do we stop using our own cultural lens when we judge the intentions of others' actions?
8.1.3. Strategies for working with diverse learners
8.1.3.1. How do we close the achievement gap that persists by race/ethnicity, socio-economics, language, and disability?
8.1.3.1.1. 1) Demonstration of high expectations
8.1.3.1.2. 2) Implementation of culturally relevant instruction
8.1.3.1.3. 3) Establishment of caring relationships
8.1.3.1.4. 4) Parent and community involvement
8.1.3.1.5. hj
8.2. Teaching Diverse Learners
8.2.1. 1) When teachers use knowledge about the social, cultural, and language backgrounds of their students when planning and implementing instruction, the academic achievement of students can increase.
8.2.2. 2) Most teachers are of European descent from middle-class backgrounds and speak mainly English, while many of their students are from racial and ethnic minorities, live in poverty, and speak a first language other than English;
8.2.3. 3) Teachers need to be aware of the embedded structural conditions that determine the disparate allocation of educational opportunities within schools
8.2.4. 4) Teachers must take action to alter the disparate educational opportunities afforded to groups of students who differ from one another racially, culturally, and socio-economically.
8.2.5. 5) Teachers need to be aware of family and community values, norms, and experiences so they can help students across the boundaries that sometimes exist between home and school
8.3. Critical Consciousness of Teachers
8.3.1. political values and beliefs
8.3.2. an ideological clarity
8.3.3. a socio-cultural consciousness
8.4. Stereotype Threat
8.4.1. the fear, existing either in your own eyes or in the eyes of others, that your behaviour will confirm an existing negative stereotype about your identity group.
8.4.1.1. Leads to prejudice and discrimination
8.5. Socio-Economic Status
8.5.1. indicates an individual’s social class based on education, occupation, and income.
8.5.1.1. SES has by far the greatest impact on scholastic achievement.
8.6. Parenting styles
8.6.1. Authoritarian
8.6.1.1. attempts to shape, control, and measure children’s behaviours against fairly rigid standards
8.6.2. Authoritative
8.6.2.1. a constant series of balancing acts: between expectation demands and encouragement to achieve, between establishing rules and meting out discipline, between fostering student independence and providing parental influence, and between open communication and direct advice.
8.6.3. Permissive
8.6.3.1. openly tolerant and accepting of nearly all children’s actions, rarely making behavioural demands or invoking restrictions, and does not purposefully distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable actions.
8.7. Banks’ Dimensions of Multicultural Education
8.7.1. Content integration
8.7.2. The knowledge construction process
8.7.3. An equity pegadogy
8.7.4. Prejudice reduction
8.7.5. An empowering school culture and social structure
9. 8) End of School Year - Standardized Achievement Tests
9.1. Arguments for/against Standardized Testing
9.1.1. For
9.1.1.1. Opportunity to compare educational outcomes across schools and boards
9.1.1.2. Opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the school system
9.1.1.3. Offer a means of accountability for schools/boards to ensure they are meeting their goals
9.1.2. Against
9.1.2.1. Encourages "teaching to the test"
9.1.2.2. The tests do not account for cultural differences among students
9.1.2.3. Minorities can get lost within the overall numbers
9.1.2.4. Leads to student disengagement
9.1.2.5. The tests are suited to evaluating 21st-century skills such as creativity, technological ability, and teamwork
9.2. Standardized testing in Ontario
9.2.1. Grade 3 EQAO - reading, writing, mathematics
9.2.2. Grade 6 EQAO - reading, writing, mathematics
9.2.3. Grade 9 EQAO - mathematics
9.2.4. Grade 10 OSSLT - literacy
9.3. Criterion-references vs. Norm-referenced
9.4. Achievement test vs. Aptitude test
10. Key Takeaway From Week 4: Differentiated instruction is a must if all students are to reach their full potential
11. Key Takeaway From Week 3: All students learn differently, but there are common aspects that benefit all students. A regular classroom structure is the most important thing that all students need.
12. Key Takeaway From Week 2: Intelligence can be developed with a growth mindset. Process is the most important aspect of education and learning
13. Key Takeaway From Week 1: There is a lot of planning that happens before the school year. Teachers need to prepare for a wide range of students every year
14. 1) Early August - Planning for the Upcoming School Year
14.1. Guiding Questions
14.1.1. What is the purpose of school?
14.1.1.1. Seth Godin
14.1.2. What motivates students to do well in school?
14.1.3. How do we promote learners' autonomy?
14.1.4. How can I make math class more fun?
14.1.5. What is the best way to analyze and reflect on my own teaching practice?
14.2. Educational Psychology
14.2.1. Best described as the understanding of the psychological principles that govern the interactive human behaviours involved in the teaching and learning process.
14.2.2. Commonplaces of education
14.2.2.1. teacher x student x topic x setting
14.2.3. Foundational topics
14.2.3.1. 1) Learning and cognition
14.2.3.2. 2) Development
14.2.3.3. 3) Social and Cultural influences
14.2.3.4. 4) Motivation
14.2.3.5. 5) Behaviour and classroom management
14.2.3.6. 6) Individual differences
14.2.3.7. 7) Assessment and evaluation
14.2.3.8. 8) Teaching and instruction
14.2.3.9. 9) Psychological foundations of curricula
14.2.4. Steps in the research process
14.2.4.1. 1) Observation of Phenomena
14.2.4.1.1. An educational phenomenon does not fit within current explanations.
14.2.4.2. 2) Formation of Questions
14.2.4.2.1. Research questions are generated.
14.2.4.3. 3) Application of Research Methods
14.2.4.3.1. Research methods reveal relationships between phenomena.
14.2.4.4. 4) Development of Guiding Principles
14.2.4.4.1. Similar research outcomes regarding the same topic become guiding principles.
14.2.4.5. 5) Development of Theories
14.2.4.5.1. Collections of principles about related phenomena merge into theories.
14.2.5. Fundamental approaches to research
14.2.5.1. Quantitative
14.2.5.1.1. Descriptive
14.2.5.1.2. Experimental
14.2.5.2. Qualitative
14.2.5.2.1. Idiographic
14.2.5.2.2. Ethnographic
14.3. Teacher Planning
14.3.1. Curricular Planning
14.3.1.1. The learning experiences and goals that teachers develop for their classes in light of students’ characteristics and the teaching context.
14.3.1.2. Three elements
14.3.1.2.1. 1) Educational Purpose
14.3.1.2.2. 2) Learning Experiences
14.3.1.2.3. 3) Evaluation
14.3.2. Instructional Planning
14.3.2.1. teacher-centred approach vs. student-centred approach
15. 2) Late August - Considering Child and Adolescent Development
15.1. Key Ideas
15.1.1. Classrooms should focus on what children can do, and not the things they can't do.
15.1.1.1. Adora Svitak
15.1.2. Classrooms should sound more like a discussion than a lecture.
15.1.3. Instead of praising intelligence, praise hard work and effort.
15.1.4. Use "not yet" instead of "wrong" or "fail"
15.1.4.1. Carol Dweck
15.1.5. Always promote a growth mindset in the classroom
15.2. Developmental Influences
15.2.1. Development is specifically defined as a series of physical, cognitive, and social changes that occur within children.
15.2.2. Principles of Development
15.2.2.1. 1) Development follows an orderly and logical progression.
15.2.2.2. 2) Development is a gradually progressive process, but it does not necessarily occur at a constant rate.
15.2.2.3. 3) Development involves quantitative and qualitative changes. This means that in addition to knowing more about something, individuals learn to think differently about these very same things.
15.2.2.4. 4) Individuals develop at different rates.
15.2.2.5. 5) Development results from genetics (nature) and the environment (nurture), with genetics setting the limits of developmental potential and the environment determining how much of that potential is realized.
15.2.3. Teachers must recognize their ability to either positively or negatively affect how much of each child’s academic and social potential is realized.
15.3. Six most influential developmental theorists
15.3.1. Piaget
15.3.1.1. explained how cognitive development and learning take place
15.3.2. Vygotsky
15.3.2.1. emphasized why it is important to allow students to construct their own knowledge
15.3.2.1.1. Zone of proximal development
15.3.3. Chomsky
15.3.3.1. described how and why language develops
15.3.4. Erikson
15.3.4.1. focused on how an individual’s sense of self develops
15.3.5. Kohlberg
15.3.5.1. clarified how our sense of right and wrong (morality) develops
15.3.6. Bronfenbrenner
15.3.6.1. outlined how different spheres of influence affect an individual’s social development
16. 3) First Week of School - Establishing a Positive Learning Environment
16.1. Key Ideas
16.1.1. Information has become a commodity in the digital internet age
16.1.1.1. Students who succeed in a knowledge-focused school may not succeed in the information age.
16.1.1.1.1. Tony Wagner
16.1.2. We designed our education system for the "average student", even though no student is average in every area
16.1.2.1. All students have "jagged" learning profiles, i.e., strengths and weaknesses in different areas
16.1.2.1.1. Memory
16.1.2.1.2. Language
16.1.2.1.3. Knowledge
16.1.2.1.4. Reading
16.1.2.1.5. Vocabulary
16.1.2.1.6. Curiosity
16.1.2.1.7. Perceptual
16.1.2.1.8. Cognitive
16.1.2.1.9. Interest
16.1.3. Average destroys talent
16.1.3.1. If a grade 10 science textbook assumes that the student is at a great 10 reading level, a great science student who struggles with reading will struggle to read the textbook and miss out on proper development.
16.1.3.1.1. Todd Rose
16.2. Dynamic Classroom Management
16.2.1. Five global principles of effective classroom management
16.2.1.1. 1) Develop caring, supportive relationships with and among students.
16.2.1.2. 2) Organize and implement instruction in ways that optimize students’ access to learning.
16.2.1.3. 3) Use group management methods that encourage students’ engagement in academic tasks.
16.2.1.4. 4) Promote the development of students’ social skills and self-regulation.
16.2.1.5. 5) Use appropriate interventions to assist students with behaviour problems
16.2.2. Three fundamental understandings and implications
16.2.2.1. 1) Positive behaviour support
16.2.2.2. 2) Classroom discourse research
16.2.2.3. 3) Self-regulated behaviour management
16.2.3. Results in more positive student behaviours, enhanced student psychological security, and better teaching and learning.
16.3. Three Fundamental Student Needs
16.3.1. 1) to belong and feel connected and to sense that teachers believe in them and will treat them with respect
16.3.2. 2) to feel autonomous and possess a sense of self-determination and to feel they are expected and permitted to have ownership, responsibility, and accountability for their actions
16.3.3. 3) to feel competent, successful, and accomplished