Develop an ongoing teacher's identity while learning to aid in the development of the student's i...

1. Amount and type of teacher engagement at various grade levels.

1.1. Student-centered discussion groups and teacher as the facilitator that guides the discussions.

1.2. Relevant to the videos from the Teacher Channel we watched during the January. 14 lecture.

2. Ideas of philosophical conventions to education.

2.1. Finding a personal philosophical niche in the world of education.

2.1.1. "Your Philosophy of Education": Perennialism - education needs to be based on universal truths conveyed through the classic and knowledge that has passed on from the past, society deeming what needs to be taught.

2.1.2. "Your Philosophy of Education": Essentialism - Education based on asserted skills and fundamental knowledge that are deemed by society to be essential to improving society. A "Back to the basics" approach.

2.1.3. "Your Philosophy of Education": Progressivism - The need to "progress" education and knowledge by encouraging student's to guide their own teaching, expand their individual learning and ideas, and provide constant inquiries leading to lifelong learning.

2.1.3.1. Personal Reflection: I think my education philosophy at the moment is most similar to progressivism. I believe asking questions is important to learning, and being able to refute against traditional knowledge can expand students abilities to come up with new innovative ideas and approaches.

2.1.4. "Your Philosophy of Education": Existentialism - Students "exist" to choose what they have to learn and leaves them determine "truth". Students are their own independent learners and the teacher is only the facilitator that guides the students as a resource.

2.1.5. "Your Philosophy of Education": Social Reconstructionism - Preparing students to reconstruct society and to create a new social order for the betterment of society. Introduces them to social problems and self determines how they will approach these issues, similar to existentialism.

2.2. Kids Dialogue about Philosophical Dialogue (Video): Applying philosophical dialogue in classroom discussions to help students gain new perspectives in and outside their classrooms by sharing ideas.

3. Organization of classroom structure and pedagogical approaches to meet the various learning needs and abilities of students, and is conductive to learning.g

3.1. Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning (How people learn.) Listed from decreasing difficulty in applying to learning. 1.) Creating: the ability to apply divergent thinking. 2.) Evaluating: Synthesize generalizations and patterns to come to conclusions. 3.) Analyzing: Deconstructing available knowledge. 4.) Applying: Application of theory and practices. 5.) Understanding: Ability to find connections between ideas. 6.) Remembering: Straight forward memorization of facts and knowledge.

3.2. "The people demand that knowledge shall not be the concern of scholars alone. The uplifting of the whole people shall be its final goal." (Henry Marshall Tory, 1908)

3.3. Robinson (2010): As students go through the education system their ability to think creatively in a divergent matter decreases due to the strictness of established "universal truths".

3.3.1. Questions for Inquiry & Discussion in-class: Is it possible to apply divergent thinking in getting the answer to a simple math question?

3.3.1.1. In-class Discussion: Most students argue that it is possible to apply divergent thinking to basic math skills. Giving examples of the different ways to get to an answer of a multiplication question.

3.4. Efforts in schools in supporting inclusion for students with "special needs".

3.4.1. Coding allows assessment on the level of support a student needs based on three codes of disabilities: mild, moderate and severe, thus provides additional financial assistance to schools with aiding students with "special needs".

3.4.1.1. Personal Reflection: This point can also be connected to "learning the social understandings of various cultures of students" discussion bubble. It is not important just to know how we can provide an inclusive environment for "special needs" students but also providing the ability to understand them as people, though with disabilities, they should be treated with respect like any other human being.

3.5. Personal Reflection: It is important to establish a environment that maximizes learning. I think the ideal classroom environment would be one that allows freedom of thought, classroom discussions, and is engaging and comfortable to various students.

3.6. McDonough (Guest Lecture): Inspiring education as a means to not eliminate policies of tradition education but to provide a shift to the more important focuses in preparation of students for the ever changing future.

3.6.1. Harvard Project Zero I saw... I think... I wonder...

4. Learn the social understandings of various cultures of students that we will encounter.

4.1. Wallace (2007): Gender as a social construct of traditional hegemonic practices that continue to exist among the teacher's and student's in the school system and environment..

4.1.1. Personal Reflection: Common gender rationales need to change especially in the education setting, especially since we are not living in the prevailing times. I think it is ridiculous to think that male and female have their standardized role in education (males seen more on the prestige end of the spectrum like principals, professors, etc. while females are seen more like "children caretakers" working in elementary schools), there are people who still think like that. It's plain ignorance and we need to counter that issue.

4.2. McNie (Guest Lecture): LGBTQ remains a hidden curriculum in schools and that needs to be changed.

4.2.1. Personal Reflection: This guest lecture helped me to developing a firm understanding that there will be students in my class who identifies as LGBTQ, the ways to approach a situation where bullying is involved, and various ways to support these students that identify as LGBTQ. I firmly believe that the issues pertaining to LGBTQ that arise in and out of schools should not be a hidden curriculum, it should be discussed and taught among the younger generations similarly to how racism is discussed it school nowadays.

5. Subject of teacher professional identity. What is to be accepted or unaccepted in a professional teaching environment.

5.1. Gleddie (Guest Lecture): Teacher and student relationship is based on ethical and moral understandings in a teaching profession. There should be a distinct boundary between being a friend, which is necessary at times, and being a buddy, which is unacceptable in an environment of learning.

5.1.1. Personal Reflection: Developing a trusting relationship with your students is essential in for students to better facilitate their learning with utmost positivity. It has to be a relationship in which both sides, the student and teachers, are willing to give. If a student is aware that their own teacher cares about their learning and wishes them to achieve well, they will project that with better grades, thus is beneficial for both sides.

5.2. Yurick (Guest Lecture): Six general criteria associated with a profession: 1.) Discrete body of knowledge that creates separation between professionalism. 2.) Formal period of preparation and continuous growth in a particular field. 3.) Large degree of autonomy associated with a profession with the need for professional decisions and judgement. 4.) High level of cooperation between professionals. 5.) The ability to influence and change professional policies. 6.) Serving a higher greater societal purpose is key.

6. Approaching Aboriginal students in the school setting in context of their connections to the history of Aboriginal schooling in Canada.

6.1. Building Bridges: Epistemology is a constructive process that strives to achieve community-based knowledge and wisdom-in-action.

6.2. Building Bridges: "Learning styles" found to be "recurrent learning strengths" instead, in Aboriginal students.

6.2.1. Building Bridges: These learning strengths include: - Holistic > Analytic - Visual > Verbal - Oral > Written - Practical > Theoretical - Reflective > Trial-and-Error - Contextual > Decontextual - Personally relational > Impersonal acquisition of isolated facts and algorithms - Experiential > Passive - Storytelling > Didactic sessions - Open-ended answers in need of constant reflection > Close-ended answers

6.3. The older aboriginal students had this to say about their learning: "You don't take a class; you take a teacher." (Hampton & Roy, 2002, p.17).

6.3.1. Personal Reflection: I believe this quote will forever shape my ongoing morale as a teacher.

6.4. Personal Reflection: I took a EDU 211 and a Native Studies course during last Fall term 2013. Both of those classes taught me about the intergenerational loss of hope and pain, and the failure to understand the epistemology of love and to portray love adequately to their own families due to the effects of Residential Schools on it's survivors which is passed down through generations endlessly, unless healing occurs. Most Aboriginal students in a contemporary school setting are unable to accurately socialize, portray emotions and make friends because they are refused the cause of care and love from their own parents that is required in developing good social abilities. Some teachers look at this situation of Aboriginal students as being rebels, like they do not want anything to do with school. So teachers limit their attention towards those students. Though in actuality one of the main reasons that an ever increasing number of Aboriginal students skip or drop out of school at such early ages is because they think their teachers would not care if they did well or not in school, and some see that physically from their teachers. The teachers are not providing the reasonable attention towards these Aboriginal children, just because it takes a little extra effort to help make a change in these students. These uncaring teachers at times are not oblivious or irrational, they are just lazy.

7. History of education.

7.1. Peters (Guest Lecture): Public education, started to become predominant during the 1900s, was a result of Canadians believing that there should be compulsory schooling for all. Control over public education was "public" meaning that federal or state control transferred over to being locally run and soon became provincial education with standardized curricula within each province.

7.2. Wilson (Guest Lecture): Eugenics was a social movement from the 1865-1945 that aimed to improve the quality of human populations by changing the kinds of people there were intergenerationally through the use of controlled science of technology, overall foundation at that time was thought as a "civilizing mission". It had an affinity with other forms of population intervention like Residential Schools, because it eliminates ones individual livelihood based on social constructs at the prevailing time that they are currently a deficit to society, and the need to eliminate the "bad traits" is a given to improve society.

7.2.1. Personal Reflection: I believe that the eugenics program was somewhat used as a proxy in excluding those who did not meet the educative standards the province had laid out by pre-eliminating these possible individuals, controlling their existence through sterilizing those present with undesirable traits.