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Week 5

  • List some of the ways that you see rehabilitation and decolonization happening throughout the narrative.

The main idea that I took away was the importance of community engagement having guest speakers and elders come in to talk and share information about indigenous history and culture can be a nice change of pace for the students while giving them a new perspective of the culture
they also talked about a river trip, which sounded like a very nice and interactive way to teach the students as they state ” Learning from land and place beyond institutional walls is a return to traditional Mushkegowuk modes of teaching and learning.”
going on the trip helps students build a strong understanding of the environment, spirituality, and build teamwork skills with everyone else who partook in the trip. I feel that any kind of action that goes against the norm in favour of indigenous ways of knowing helps with the decolonization process. I have always felt that decolonization will really show when we affect the student’s minds, show them the errors of the Canadian government and how those errors have affected the first nations people for generations. If we develop our students to have a better knowledge of history and how trauma can be felt through generations than hopefully, we can start to erase some of the racist ideas and foundations that we have built upon to start letting more ways of knowing into the school and out communities

  • How might you adapt these ideas towards considering the place in your own subject areas and teaching?

I personally enjoy being in nature, and as a student, I loved it when my class would go outside. so for me anytime there is an opportunity to teach a lesson in a way to get student outside I feel is a good thing to do. creating lessons that have teamwork and outdoor activities give the students time outdoors which many kids nowadays do not get. some lessons I remember doing was research on clouds for science. in a group of three, we studied the different types of clouds and what they mean for predicting the weather. and to this day I remember that Nimbostratus and Cumulonimbus are clouds that release rain. outdoor activities I feel are very memorable. It can be difficult to find ways to have subjects involve nature so that is when its good to simply take group walks as a class to a nearby park or even have a subject be worked on outside. (practivce math problems in groups on the playground

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Week 4

  • What does it mean to be a good student according to ” the common sense?”

When I think of what a “good” classroom looks like, images of children in their desks, in order with hands being raised to ask questions. I feel like this is how the vast majority of people will think about a classroom. students should be well behaved, polite, raise hands when asking a question, and even more importantly does not cause “waves”

By waves, I mean anything that would disrupt the river of knowledge and information that the teacher is giving to the students. These kinds of waves can be simple like being noisy during class, distracting other students, or not doing assignments. but the major kind of “wave” would be questioning the curriculum, asking “why is this important” or even questioning outdated subjects.

This is how common sense has shaped how we think a classroom should look. however every classroom will look different, every student will have their own needs and every teacher will teach differently than each other.

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Week 3 assignment 1 Idea

I decided on doing the hidden curriculum I found it very interesting when we talked about it in the lecture and wanted to explore more about it. I’m going to explore some of the different ways it can occur. the pros and cons of having a hidden curriculum and I will explore what we should do if we find a hidden curriculum and what should an educator do when they find it. There are lots of articles talking about hidden curriculum but they seem to be about the medical field. this makes sense since it could be potentially dangerous some of the hidden curricula that they could learn in med-school. it may be a bit of a challenge to find peer-reviewed articles but I’m sure I will find something that I will like.

Apart from that, I look forward to writing this it should be filled with interesting material

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Week 2: January 13, 2020

Respond to the following- Curriculum development from a traditionalist perspective is widely used across schools in Canada and other countries (a) The ways in which you may have experienced the Tyler rationale in your own schooling; (b) What are the major limitations of the Tyler rationale/what does it make impossible; and (c) What are some potential benefits/what is made possible.

When I think about how the “tyler Rationale” was designed, it was made in the idea of a cookie cuter conveyer belt-like system that if done perfectly, and all the directions were followed, the community would be granted one fine addition to the workforce. I personally have experienced this schooling practice and I feel almost every person who attended grade school in Saskatchewan would have experienced the “Tyler Rationale” at some kind of level. The idea of being taught things only for the reason of “needing” it to be taught, being evaluated on our ability to hold that knowledge to pass and THEN maybe retaining that knowledge for future use, is how many students see the education system and I hope that we see a change very soon. As stated in the reading “The major weakness and, indeed, strength of the process model is that it rests upon the quality of teachers.” And I agree with this. The better the teacher we have, the more we all will benefit. Having educators that think outside of the curriculum and focusing on other abilities such as problem-solving, communication skills, manners, etc. will lead us down a better path as educators. But there will always be downsides, an educator’s political stance will shape the way they think of what is “good/right.” Also, what they few as important subjects very well could be the standard “Math, English, History” I’m not saying thinking this way is bad, but if we want to see a change its important for our educators to be more educated on all matters. And if we manage to have a broader understanding of what’s “important” then all our students will be able to grow and learn in different ways that are best suited for them.

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Week 1- Jan 9, 2020

  • How does Kumashiro define ‘commonsense?’ Why is it so important to pay attention to the ‘commonsense?

“Commonsense limits what is considered to be consistent with the purpose of schooling. Alternative perspectives, including perspectives that challenge common sense, are already dismissed as irrelevant, inconsequential, or inappropriate. after all common sense does not tell us that this is what schools could be doing; it tells us that this and only this is what schools should be doing.”

It is important to know that what we (as a person/community) understand as common sense is subjective. everything that we know as commonsense was taught to us through repetition since birth as well as the knowledge that has been passed down through generations. So to apply this to the classroom, what some students know as common sense won’t be the same for others especially when it comes to the social rule of the school. as a teacher its important to understand this to help every student succeed.

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Final Reflection!

Over the course of the past seven weeks, I feel like I have grown to understand what kind of teacher I want to become. Every teacher that I remember that had a positive impact is the teachers that really cared for their students and people. With each week and a new aspect to focus on, I can now see many different ways to create an inviting open classroom experience for my students and any student who needs help

Going through each week while analyzing different focus questions really helped me understand what a teacher needs to be aware of. The first 2 weeks were Students & Learning Environment and School and Community this really made me look at who the students were as people while also seeing what kind of community these students live and grow up in. knowing this can greatly improve interacting with your students and relating subjects and examples that they would understand, its also good to get the community together with school activities and after school programs to get students engaged.

Weeks three, four and five were Teachers & Knowledge and Inclusive Education-Diversity & Difference. For me, these 3 weeks felt very connected together in their core ideas. it’s important to understand that every person/ student is different, each student will learn differently and have different views and home life. some children will have nuclear families, others may have 2 dads or 2 moms, some may come from split homes and different religions so as an educator its important to be aware of these things and have a classroom that features all different walks of life and that doesn’t segregate anyone.

And finally, we had weeks six and seven which were Curriculum & Instruction and The Role of Technology. I felt like these 2 weeks really focused on how an educator teaches their class and how the students respond. during these weeks I really focused on what the students were understanding and what they were not, while also looking at how they used technology. And from watching Mrs. P handle her students I can definitely see how a consistent daily plan with a well planned out curriculum makes the daily tasks of teaching a lot easier; As well as the importance of utilizing electronics to benefit the students whether it’s for books, writing papers or as rewards for good behavior/exceeding expectations.

To summarize the past several weeks were a lot of fun I feel like I have learned lots but at the same time feel like I have only scratched the surface on all these topics. You really begin to see how every aspect of teaching is connected to each other and how important it is to always be ready to explore new ideas and technologies, However, I look forward and am excited to learn more about these topics during the coming years.

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Week Seven: The Role of Technology

This week was pretty good but was also very crazy. not sure why but it seemed that every student was getting hurt or having issues with each other. There wasn’t anything that got uncontrollable but was still a lot of work for Mrs. P and myself. during math and daily 5, I went around and helped the students, I really enjoy hearing them say Mr. K; it makes me feel like a real teacher and just makes my day.  But other than that it was a pretty standard day with lots of math and reading. 


I took a look around the school and peek into other classrooms to see how they use technology, from what I could tell the use of technology is pretty standard. some classes have tablets and some have computers. when I asked the teachers they said the computers are mainly used for academic purposes like online books, finding information, and doing research while also getting the higher grades to start writing essays. the younger grades mostly just read and do audiobooks.
In some cases the Tablets are used as rewards for kids when doing very well in class, they may get 20 minutes or more to play a game or watch some educational videos. I know in our class Mr.P uses a kind of digital projector, it has a camera and displays whatever the camera sees on the wall, she uses this to go over math problems and the pronunciation of words when reading stories

I asked Mrs. p about how technology is used in the student’s home, and from what she described its kinda disappointing and sad. she says many of the kids come from low-income homes where they are basically raised by things like computers, phones, and tablets. she said for many parents it is easier and cheaper to just give their kids a tablet then buy things like art supplies, board games, puzzles, activities, and physical games like basketballs, soccer balls, etc. 
When I asked the students what they normally do when they get home about 80% of them mentioned things like video games and tv while some others mentioned playing with pets and drawing. 
I then asked Mrs. P how she personly uses technology outside of what the kids see. She said all the teachers are connected through their own email links, she orders supplies and makes a request through the computer as well. she also said most of the contact she has with her students’ parents are through email or through text only a few parents meet face-to-face.

For the younger grades, Tech is not as big as a priority in the classroom but is still used every day in all the student’s lives, Cant wait for my Final day!! but don’t look forward to saying goodbye to all these students.

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Week Six- Curriculum & Instruction

This week’s class time was definitely lots of fun. To start, we had a person come in from the Regina public school board teaching the kids about the effects of winter. more specifically on how animals change, adapt and live when it’s so cold out. He came with a large amount of Taxidermyed animals and went through them one at a time explaining things like hibernation, camouflage, and adaptations that the animals have made to survive. Of course, all that the kids wanted to do was to touch the animals. But from my own experience, I had an identical presentation when I was a kid. and many of the facts that I know today were because of that presentation so I feel the children did learn a lot even if they were a bit distracted

After the presentation, the class was also treated to another special surprise. Mrs. P the teacher I am shadowing as well as a few other teachers received a grant which allowed them to pick out new books for their classroom. there were roughly 100 new books for the children to read. One of which I read to a small group of students, the story was about a crayon which was labeled as “red” but was actually blue on the inside. a very nice book in clear resemblance to LGBTQ2+ people. 

This week we were to focus on “Curriculum & Instruction.” for my class, most of the things being taught are the basics such as reading, writing, and math. Writing is mostly taught in 2 ways in the class; Mrs P starts off with the new sound or letter that the kids will be focusing on (such as the sounds that “Th” “Ee” makes) she goes over this on a projector while all the students follow along as she goes through a song that makes use of the letter or sound they are learning. once that is finished they go to their tables and start practicing writing it in their books. the books are filled with simple activities that give different examples of when the letter/sound is used. 

Aside from letters and writing, there is math. most of the math is basic counting and patterns (such as 2,4,6- 5,10,15,20 etc) and also teaching them about the hundreds, tens and one’s place and how they work. Again just like writing Mrs. P goes through how to do everything they are covering for that class then lets the students attempt them in their book. Of course, many students don’t fully understand so that’s where myself and Mr.s P would focus in on the students who were struggling the most to try and help them
I feel like most of the children understand the importance of what they are learning especially when it comes to counting as I see many of them counting things when they are playing such as rocks and other kids that are playing a game.
It was an awesome week and can’t wait for the next  

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Week 5

This week was a lot better than the ones before. one student with ADHD seemed to have been very well behaved. he was very calm and quiet and did all of his assignments. It seemed like this was a rare occurrence but he is going to new medication so hopefully next time I see him things will be going good. 

So for this week I kept looking for other ways that the school in the classroom was diverse. One of the things that I noticed throughout all the classrooms was the inclusion of a gay pride flag it was a minor detail but one that really made me happy to see that being represented in the class. Apart from just the flags I also noticed many children’s books with same-gender parents one Dad one mom different ethnicities Etc. It is very important to have many different types of families displayed in these children’s stories to help solidify that not every family looks the same.

Diversity is very hard to spot unless you look at the small details. But one thing that I did notice is that most of the faculty seems to be Caucasian this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it was something I noticed. The students, on the other hand, seem to be from many different places about 50% are from Regina while the others range from places like China and India

When I asked the teacher about how she shows diversity in the class she said is very important to have lots of books and lessons based on other ethnicities and to always look for opportunities such as grants that will give money in support of getting books and events that support ethnicity and sexual orientation. I think since the students are so young they don’t really realize this kind of idea of diversity it just is a normal everyday feeling for them but for me seeing everything really makes me happy and I hope my classroom will be just as diverse.

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Week 4

This week went good for the first half then was complete mayhem for the second half. We started with the daily routine then went onto the reading and writing skills as well as a little Halloween scavenger hunt that they could find in the classroom.

Then once it became french time, everything went crazy. I personally think that many of the children in the class are not aware of “different languages” and what that means. Even though the french was very of basic colors, it took nearly an hour for them to color in 1 picture of a witch. this is where I could definitely see their short attention spans take effect over them. There were children crawling on the floor, screaming, crying wondering around and just not listening to instructions. 

But for this week I was asked: “What are the different forms of diversity you observe within the classroom and school?” there are quite a lot of different ways I saw diversity. There are elders who come in to tell stories and inform about different indigenous practices and to do activities. the classroom got a “United way” sponsorship that gave them $1,200 for books about and from first nations authors as well as money to buy reading chairs and “safe spaces for children who like to work on their own or need quiet time. there was also a room dedicated to tobacco burning and other religious activities that people may want to utilize the room for. There were also different books in the classroom and on their tablets that show different types of families (caucasian, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, etc) something that may not be visible could be how teachers structure lesson plans to be more accommodating for all ways of knowing. I know some religions need to pray at certain times of the day; so teachers may let them peacefully leave the room and do their prayer. there are tons of ways schools can be diverse, everyone comes from different backgrounds and lifestyles and if the school has events and times of the year where families can show their diversity I feel that would be a big step forward for students to grow up with more respect and understanding towards each other