Vol. 4, Issue 2 - Education in the Early Years: Debunking the Myths

HEY, TEACH! The Victoria College Education Magazine

Spring 2013 Vol. 04 Issue 2 heyteach@utoronto.ca

In this issue:

“Here Comes the Sun”

Education in the Early Years:

Debunking the Myths

Lesson Plan Template and Sample Feature Interview with Dr. Charles Pascal, former Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Special Advisor on Early Learning

. .and more!

Hey, Teach! is dedicated to developing the philosophies and ideas of aspiring teachers

Letter from the Editor When we advertised for

Our selection of articles continues with reflections from Year Four submissions for this issue, we Vic students currently in schools asked, “Is primary education really in their practicum placements. We just about learning your 1, 2, 3s and also have a unique comparative A, B, Cs?” At Victoria College, piece from a teacher in Beijing Concurrent Teacher Education who spent some time gaining Program students work towards experience in the Canadian school their Primary/Junior teaching system entitled, “My Experiences qualification, which will certify in the Vic Reach Program” (page graduates to teach grades one 9). through six. Perhaps we had heard one too many demeaning For the feature piece, Hey, Teach! remarks about what happens in the is very fortunate to have had primary grades, or perhaps we had the opportunity to interview Dr. just experienced a breakthrough Charles Pascal, former Ontario ‘a-ha’ moment with a primary Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Spestudent. The bottom line was that cial Advisor on Early Learning. our staff was determined to Do not miss his comments in “An investigate, and prove, if we could, Interview with Dr. Charles Pascal: that the early years of learning Mr. Full-Day Kindergarten” really do matter. (page 11-14).

Our issue begins with a snappy piece, entitled, “Laying the Groundwork: The Essential Early Years” (page 3). This piece asks readers to consider the seemingly obvious fact that we had to learn the basic skills that got us to where we are today. As the author shows, it did not ‘just happen,’ but is, instead, thanks to the work of some very dedicated educators in our foundational early years.

We then move on to the wonderful realm of music. “Singing in the Classroom: Let’s Get it Right!” (page 5) is a piece that shares some important insights on vocal development in young children.

“A Bunch of Chatty Cathys…and Charlies” (page 6) reveals an interesting solution to the age-old problem, what do you do with a room full of chatty and distracted children?

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Let us know what you think of this issue or stay in touch at heyteach@utoronto.ca.

Please enjoy!

Evelyn Kondo

Year Five CTEP Equity Studies Major, Sociology Minor

Editor-in-Chief:

Finally, to conclude this issue, we look to the future as we become Senior Editor: teachers in “How Can I Teach Senior Productions What I Don’t Know?” (page 15), Manager: and look back at the teachers who continue to inspire us to this Photographer & day in “Grade Two Reflections” Senior Productions (page 16) and “Here Comes the Advisor : Sun” (page 17-18). Also, be sure to have a look at our new section. It Associate Editors: includes a useful lesson plan tem- plate and a sample lesson (page

19-21).

Associate I wish to thank all of the Hey, Productions Teach! staff for a wonderful year. Managers: I am very proud of the two issues

we have put out this school year and wish the magazine and staff Victoria College all the best in the upcoming years. Faculty and Thank you as well to our contrib- Administrative utors and readers. Together we Advisors: are truly a community of learners.

Evelyn Kondo Veronica Jansen Joanne Lieu

Emma Townson Melody Barclay Michelle Brooks Jessica Leung Diana Pegoraro Alexandra Procopio Amanda Ghegin Tiffany Ng

Professor Cook Professor Eldridge and Ms. Chandrasegaram

Table of Contents p. 1 p. 2

Letter from the Editor

Evelyn Kondo,Year Five CTEP, Equity Studies Major, Sociology Minor

Table of Contents

p. 3 Laying the Groundwork: The Essential Early Years Veronica Jansen, Year Four CTEP, History Specialist

p. 4

The Importance of the Early Years

p. 5

Singing in the Classroom: Let’s Get it Right!

p. 6

A Bunch of Chatty Cathys…and Charlies!

p. 7

Melissa Cataldo,Year Two CTEP, Sociology Major, Italian Minor

Rachel Fawcett, Year Three CTEP, Music Major, English Minor

Emily Carter, Year Four CTEP, English Major, Urban Studies Minor

The Wonders of Kindergarten

Alexandra Procopio, Year Four CTEP, English Major, History Minor

p. 8

What’s in your lunch bag?

p. 9

My Experiences in the Vic Reach Program

Diana Pegoraro, Year Four CTEP, Classical Civilizations Major, Sociology Minor

Ji Min, Beijing Foreign Languages School Teacher

p. 10 Words of Wisdom for Teachers Vic One Ryerson Stream p. 11-14 FEATURE - An Interview with Dr. Charles Pascal: Mr. Full-Day Kindergarten Interview conducted by: Diana Pegoraro and Veronica Jansen p. 15

How Can I Teach What I Don’t Know?

Darren Donahue, Year Four CTEP

p. 16 Grade Two Reflections Julian Swinkin, Year Five CTEP, English Major, History Minor p. 17-18 Here Comes the Sun Michelle Brooks, First Year Life Science, Vic One Ryerson Steam p. 19-20

LESSON PLAN SAMPLE: Imagine a Place

p. 21

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Created by: Madeline Hunt

p. 22

Final Thoughts

Diana Pegoraro, Year Four CTEP, Classical Civilizations Major, Sociology Minor

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Laying the Groundwork: The Essential Early Years Veronica Jansen Year Four CTEP History Specialist

I never thought much about how I learned to

read, or how I was taught to add or subtract.

These are things I have known for as long as I can remember. Reading is second nature, and math — well, there is a calculator on my phone for a reason. I never had a reason to reflect on exactly when, or how, I acquired these essential skills. All this changed, however, when I went back to grade two some fourteen years later, on the other side of the teacher’s desk.

The fundamentals of reading and math are abstract; they require students to link different symbols to a particular meaning. To make things more difficult, these symbols, which we call ‘letters,’ can mean different things depending on where or how they are placed. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had my work cut out for me. A strong grasp of fundamental literacy and numeracy skills is key to being successful in life. Not simply knowing, but understanding why or how these concepts work is an essential foundation on which to build deeper learning.

The primary grades often get a bad rap. Many individuals think that it is all about singing, sharing, finger painting, and keeping your mittens together on a string that threads through the sleeve of your coat.

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Wrong.

The primary years are perhaps the most crucial in terms of learning. Think about it: a house, however fancy or well decorated, is nothing if it has a weak foundation.

And I will leave you, gentle reader, with this: anyone who thinks that he or she can teach young children in groups exceeding twenty, plus do yard duty, help with snow pants, and deal with helicopter parents, is, at best, seriously misinformed. I challenge any CEO to teach a lesson on place value after recess.

The Importance of the Early Years Melissa Cataldo

Year Two CTEP Sociology Major, Italian Minor

People always ask me why I want to be an elementa-

ry school teacher and not a high school teacher. Then they go on to add that elementary school is just like babysitting. What people fail to realize is how integral elementary school is to a person’s socialization and the important effect schooling has on one’s interaction with the world.

First and foremost, the way I see it, elementary school is the foundation of any being’s education. Here is where we learn the basic math skills that we need to know in order to understand algebra or trigonometry. Elementary school is also where we learn to read, without which we would be unable to become full participants in society. In elementary school, students become socialized and begin to create a social script for themselves on how to act in a school environment, as well as on how to interact and communicate with others in general.

This is where we form our first impressions of education and decide whether we like it or whether we don’t.

Of course, you would hope that every student enjoys their educational experiences, but that’s not always the case. In cases where students form negative opinions on education, they make it harder for themselves to enjoy and value learning, which could lead to further negative consequences, impeding their future success.

As teachers, we need to address the stereotypes we face in our society and show our students that they are all myths. It is so much easier to change a student’s mindset at a younger age rather than once the student reaches high school where discriminatory stereotypes may have already become an integral part of the way he or she views the world. We also need to address the issue of privilege and show students how to use their privilege to help others.

Overall, the elementary school system is like the foundation of a home: without a solid foundation you can’t have a sturdy, reliable structure. It is here, in building this foundation of a person’s being, that we can begin shaping the minds of citizens with the intention of improving the society we live in today.

Most importantly, in my opinion, the elementary years are the perfect time to teach students about equity and diversity simply by talking about it.

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Singing in the Classroom: Let’s Get it Right!

Rachel Fawcett

Year Three CTEP Music Major, English Minor

From the alphabet song to daily good morning

songs, educators of young children use vocal music every day. Despite this, many are unaware that they may be putting their students in harm’s way.

Humans have two mechanisms used for vocalizing sounds; the chest voice and the head voice. The chest voice is used in regular speech, coughing, or yelling. The head voice, for women and children, sounds higher and is the correct voice to use for singing. Men are slightly different, and I will address the correct voice for men later on. When a person sings, the vocal folds vibrate, creating a sound. If the chest voice is used, the vocal folds vibrate slowly and broadly, similar to strings on a stringed bass. If the head voice is used, the vibrations are faster and narrower, similar to violin strings.

When a person sings and speaks in his or her chest voice, the wide vibrations of the folds cause them to collide. You may have experienced the result of this collision in the form of a sore throat after speaking loudly at a party or screaming on a roller coaster. If this occurs too often, it can cause vocal nodules.

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Often called ‘nodes,’ these small tissue masses build on the folds, similar to calluses, and prevent speech and singing. They are extremely painful and though they can be removed, a full range of song and speech often never fully returns.

Many female teachers, pop stars, and popular children’s singers sing using their chest voice.

As we are well aware, children mimic what they hear, and so they begin to do the same. Although it is healthy for men to sing in their chest voice, children will hurt themselves trying to match the low pitches, so it is critical for male teachers to gain experience singing in falsetto — the male equivalent of head voice.

While working in a kindergarten class where healthy singing was an issue, I developed the “Owl/Bear” system. I explained to the students that bears cannot sing, but owls can, therefore they were to use their “owl voice” for singing and their “bear voice” for speaking. You will find that if you attempt to “hoo” like an owl, you will naturally use your head voice, and if you growl like a bear you will use your chest voice. This worked like a charm, and all of the children were singing in their “owl voices” immediately. Please note that the head voice can be very quiet in its early development. Do not push your students to sing louder — volume will develop with time. The gift of song is one a child will have forever, so let’s get it right!

A Bunch of Chatty Cathys … and Charlies!

Emily Carter

Year Four CTEP English Major, Urban Sutdies Minor

Once in a while a teacher will come across a

group of students who are well behaved, ready to learn, respectful of their teacher, but they just cannot stop talking to their neighbour! What is a teacher to do? It would not be right to punish a student just because they have so much to talk about. What would you do if the students were talking about the lesson or making insightful additions to the group discussion?

They were more productive with the music than without, and they enjoyed working independently. I have heard from my Associate Teacher since being back at OISE that they have been asking for music every day. I guess I will be going out and grabbing some more classical CDs … who knows what discussions might be inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons!

I have met such a class in my seven week practicum and I think I might have found a solution … classical music! During my recent pre-practicum days, my class was chatting up a storm during an independent work period so I discretely played some classical music from a blockbuster soundtrack just to see what would happen. Slowly but surely, the students’ chatter started to fade and by the middle of the period, you could hear a pin drop.

The next day I discussed the matter with my students, while we were on the carpet together. I asked the class if they noticed a difference between working independently yesterday in comparison to other days, and most of my students said that they were able to focus and got all of their work done. I was worried that perhaps the music would end up distracting them more than the chatter, but it seemed to do the exact opposite!

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f o s r e d n o “The W Alexandra Procopio

Year Four CTEP English Major, History Minor

Upon learning that in my fourth

year of university, I would spend my seven week practicum with a Junior and Senior Kindergarten class, I was embraced by a rush of enthusiastic emotions. I felt extremely excited knowing that I would be interacting with a group of very young students at a grade level with which I have had minimal experience. I was dazzled by the idea of being able to share a variety of nursery rhymes and childhood poems that I hold very close to my heart with my class. I was ready to bring my positive energy and enthusiasm into my kindergarten placement.

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Kindergarte” n

On the first day of my placement, however, I was struck with a glimpse of reality — a reality that appeared very different from the kindergarten experience I had imagined. My lack of experience in a kindergarten classroom made me realize that the structure, goals, and overall expectations in a kindergarten classroom differ greatly from the grade one to three environments I had previously encountered. As a result of my present experience in a kindergarten classroom, my previous perceptions have been permanently altered, and I now understand the overall structure and goals of full-day kindergarten through a new and positive light.

Within a kindergarten environment, students are learning skills that come naturally to most adults; skills that I had failed to remember need to be ‘learned’ by young children. As I observed the classroom setup, the students’ habits, and my Associate Teacher’s classroom management strategies, I realized that the class greatly benefits from play-based learning.

Full-day kindergarten encourages students to develop the social skills necessary in life. Although my placement classroom supports student learning through play and social interaction, the kindergarten class also maintains a high level of routine through lessons, activities, lunchtime, and snack periods. I finally became conscious of the idea that in kindergarten, the learning goals and expectations differ in comparison to those of the higher primary grade levels. I hope to utilize my new understandings to create a fun and positive learning experience for my students. I believe that the integration of play and learning in a kindergarten classroom will open a new window of opportunity for me throughout my journey in education!

n

What’s in your lunch bag?

Diana Pegoraro

Year Four CTEP Classical Civilizations Major, Sociology Minor

In a primary classroom, what

goes into a student’s lunch bag can vary drastically from student to student. In my placements thus far, I have seen everything from DunkAroos to broccoli, Lunchables to salads, and McDonalds to apples. But at the end of the day, it is usually not the primary student packing this food into his or her lunch bag, but the family of that student. I often find myself wondering if some students are being deprived physically and mentally based on their diets early on. Does this deprivation ultimately affect their academic and social progress in the early grades?

The answer is yes, absolutely.

There is no question that eating healthy food is better than eating unhealthy food. There are plenty of studies and reports that demonstrate the value of eating healthy food throughout the day, rather than sugary food that causes the body to ‘crash’ later. These reports ring true not only for adults, but for children as well. The child obesity epidemic in Canada is reason alone to pay attention to this problem; too many children are eating food that is not good for them, and are not getting enough physical activity to balance the effects. But for primary students who have no control over what goes into their lunch bags, this information needs to be more clearly directed at the families, rather than the students themselves. Teaching young children the value of healthy eating in the classroom will never be as effective as those same values being enforced at home and at lunchtime. Schools might be one source of nutritional resources for families.

I have also wondered what giving ‘junk’ food to a child early on does to his or her understanding later in life. We reward students with treats, meaning children enjoy getting tasty, often unhealthy, snacks throughout the day.

During the early years, children are developing habits that will remain with them for many years to come. Perhaps rewarding children with junk food early on could be a contributing cause of ‘emotional eating’ later as adults. And perhaps this early use of junk food as positive reinforcement transfers into a later desire to eat junk food to improve mood. Schools and teachers should henceforth do their best to provide healthy snacks to primary students as often as possible because some students may not always get the same healthy options at home.

Conversely, what happens when students are completely deprived of junk food early on in life? It is possible that these ‘very healthy’ young students will gravitate to junk food later in life, simply because they have never been exposed to them before.

I guess the answer to all of this is balance. Parents should expose their children to a healthy variety of food, without depriving them of treats every now and then.

Moderation can be achieved.

Young children should eat their greens, and a little chocolate too.

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My Experiences in the Vic Reach Program

Ji Min

Beijing Foreign Languages School Teacher

Time flies! It has been almost two

months since I returned to Beijing Foreign Languages School after visiting Victoria College at the University of Toronto. My experience was an unforgettable one and it has encouraged me to improve my teaching and to continue learning in China. The most impressive experiences for me span the two months during which I attended classes in the Concurrent Teacher Education Program and worked with the Vic Reach Program.

I felt so fortunate to participate in the Vic Reach Program, visiting Rawlinson Community School. Now that I am back in China, I am discussing the differences in the school systems between the two countries.

One difference lies in the educational concept of ‘learning for life.’ I was deeply impressed by this concept in Canada. At Rawlinson, the students learn a lot of skills, but teachers usually impart less knowledge from textbooks. Instead, they instill moral values and principles, such as sharing, concentrating, and cooperating with each other. Meanwhile, in China, teachers are willing to focus more on ‘core knowledge’ in a specific lesson,

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but they ignore or spend less time on values or principles during the classroom teaching time. Therefore, while Chinese students focus on content from the textbook, Canadian pupils focus on more practical skills.

Further, students in Canada are encouraged to think more independently and critically in class. They are brave enough to participate and express their own opinions; they may even evaluate their teacher’s performance openly.

I once witnessed a young girl in my class at Rawlinson get hurt by the cap of a pen. She began to cry. The teacher calmly came up and murmured a few words of encouragement to her, and put her little finger under running water. The girl smiled with a few tears still in her eyes, and then said, “I’m okay!” At that moment, questions crowded my mind about what would have happened in my country? Would the teacher blame her or would the child cry loudly? I could not imagine how my little daughter would react if she hurt herself in kindergarten, for children in Beijing are overprotected and even teenagers depend greatly on their teachers and families.

Most importantly, students in Canada are quite capable of time management. At Rawlinson, the kindergarten students were trained well and had a very full timetable. Everyday after lunch, they were required to read or sleep silently for twenty minutes. As a matter of fact, they had many classes and the teacher would remind them of what they should be doing throughout the day. The students obeyed the rules and did as they were told. Nowadays in China, teachers are also paying close attention to time management, so as to promote our students’ sense of independent thinking and learning.

As a teacher and an educator in both China and Canada, I have learned that one should have a sense of obligation to foster students’ physical, mental, and emotional development and to give students the inspiration and motivation to learn and strive for a better life.

Words of Wisdom for Teachers

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FEATURE:

An Interview with Dr. Charles Pascal: Mr. Full-Day Kindergarten Interview conducted by Diana Pegoraro and Veronica Jansen

Dr. Charles Pascal has extensive experience in the realms of early childhood education, provincial politics,

and international philanthropy. In 2007, he was appointed former Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Special Advisor on Early Learning, and in June 2009 released his report, “With Our Best Future in Mind: Implementing Early Learning in Ontario,” that is informing policy and practice within and outside of Canada. This report advocated the implementation of full-day kindergarten across Ontario, and permanently changed the face of early childhood education in Canada. Presently, Dr. Pascal is the coordinator of the PhD program in Early Learning at OISE/University of Toronto, and is a Professor of Human Development and Applied Psychology. Hey, Teach! had the opportunity to sit down with him to discuss full-day kindergarten, play-based learning, and the collective benefits of a better early education.

Q. What factors influenced your decision to endorse full-day kindergarten? What kind of research was done in preparation for this decision?

First of all, a lot of the credit for even the notion of full day learning for four and five-year-olds has to go to Premier McGuinty. That said, there are many people who for many years have been talking about the social and economic benefits of early childhood education. Through people like the late Fraser Mustard, who passed away a little over a year ago, early learning was on the agenda as the best investment one can make—a public investment in terms of future prosperity, poverty reduction, youth violence reduction, as well as a boost to the 28% of kids showing up in first grade who are seriously behind their peers.

There is a companion piece to “With Our Best Future in Mind” called “Summary of Evidence” and it summarizes the best evidence there is about the important social, cognitive, and emotional development of children and how early learning affects that. There has been a lot of research on the economic benefits of investing in early learning and a good deal of that research continues.

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Q. In what ways do you see full-day kindergarten positively influencing young children, and shaping early childhood education?

Full-day learning for four and five-year-olds is going to reduce the number of kids showing up in first grade who are vulnerable. It’s going to add to their social, cognitive, and emotional development, their ability to be resilient, and to self regulate. The influence on young children is proven to be enormous in terms of all aspects of their development. Not only is full-day kindergarten going to return the investment that the public pays through their taxes and influence the development of individual children, it is going to be a great social and economic boost to our society at large.

Q. What, if any, opposition did you receive during the process of implementing the full-day kindergarten program?

One of the reasons why the opposition was so small and the support was so high is because of the process we used to develop the recommendations. We had 83 round tables around the province, so just around those round tables there were about 3,000 or 4,000 people involved in direct conversations about how to implement full-day kindergarten. In addition, another 15,000 plus people submitted briefs. Every major organization dealing with social, economic, or educational issues submitted briefs. We had modules that people could use to run their own round tables in their communities. In this way, the process raised the level of literacy about the importance of full-day kindergarten; but it also raised the ownership of the report. There are thousands of people who actually think and believe that they wrote the report; and you know what, they did. They own the report; they see their fingerprints all over it. So the process of developing input was very transparent and very democratic, and we tapped the best examples of what was already going on in Ontario. On the English Catholic side of the fence, some school boards were already experimenting with full-day kindergarten. On the French side there was full-day kindergarten for about ten years prior to the rest of the province having access to it, so they were doing a lot of the pioneering work before we started our work.

The opposition that was there, which was very small, actually came from a small percentage of stay at home mothers some of whom believe that moms should stay home and dads should work. That’s their view and they have the right to choose. Some think their kids are not ready. But if kids are at home and they’re watching television or they’re being minded with five or six other kids and they’re really not engaging in play-based, curiosity driven problem solving curriculum and activities, it’s not very stimulating. That said, there are a lot of stay at home parents, including some dads, who are very good at just keeping the kids learning and active and having all the kinds of things that they should have. Good for them.

As well, you want kids to learn to start playing not just beside other kids but with other kids. As I said, there are some parents who can do it all at home. But parents need the choice. A lot of people who are against fullday kindergarten say parents have to have the choice to stay at home with their kids.

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Yes, but they sometimes talk in a way, lobby in a way that, really, wants to deny choice for parents who do understand that having their kids in an enriched, not-for-profit, state provided early learning program in an elementary school is fantastic for the kids. A number of times I’ve heard, “my four-year-old isn’t ready.” Well, sometimes when you probe a little bit, the person who’s not ready is the parent. They imagine that their kids are going to be in rows of chairs in the traditional elementary school environment rather than having nap breaks and nutrition breaks. The kids spend most of their days in a play-based curriculum, having fun while learning, and learning how to work and live and play with other kids. The benefits are outrageously wonderful.

The final thing I will say is that full day kindergarten is not mandatory, but for something that’s not mandatory, 95% percent of all families will take advantage of full-day learning for four and five-year-old kids when it is all fully implemented next year.

Q. Are there any particular groups of students that you feel will especially benefit from this program?

Well, everybody’s going to benefit. In some jurisdictions, like the United States, and some people even in Canada are saying, we can’t afford this for everybody. Let’s just have programs for the poor. Well programs for the poor—low-income people—have traditionally been poor programs. They don’t sustain themselves politically at the ballot box. Secondly, I talked before about 28% of kids showing up in first grade far behind their peers and very vulnerable; [the percentage] is going down now because of full-day learning. 60% of that 28% are not living in poverty, they are middle and upper-middle class kids, because vulnerability comes in all different shapes and sizes. In Ontario and Canada generally, we need a universal approach where everybody is getting this, but underneath this universal umbrella, we need a special outreach to kids who may be living in settings that are quite poverty-stricken and need special supports. So I am not saying we don’t need targeted activity, we do. We need special initiatives, but a special initiative doesn’t mean that the whole program should be targeted. There needs to be targeted activity but under an umbrella of universality, which is why every child in Ontario who is four or five-years-old will have access to tax payer provided full-day learning independent of their special conditions and special circumstances.

Dr. Charles Pascal

Q. How is play-based learning beneficial in the early years?

First of all, the word “play” is a bit of a problem because it doesn’t sound serious and parents, of course, want their kids to learn. You want kids to be really highly motivated and enjoying the environment. So if you can imagine a good early learning environment for four or five-year-old kids you are looking at an environment that has play stations, sometimes called learning stations or problem-solving stations, and you have water tables and sand tables and all these other things. (By the way you can go on the Ministry of Education website http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/kindergarten/ and see training materials that talk about all this stuff. If you look for Early Learning, you’ll see experts talking about all different aspects of this including play-based).

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Imagine a four-year-old: she’s got a large container of water, but she also has an empty container that’s one-third the size of the one that has the water in it. She starts pouring, and it starts overflowing from the smaller container. There’s an early learning educator that asks her what’s happening. She tries it again and she adjusts—just imagine what’s going on in the brain. Now, you and I could say as we watch her for fifteen minutes that she’s learning about the conservation of matter. Jean Piaget would be happy that she’s learning a Piaget principle of cognitive development. Now, how is that different from the curiosity and problem solving taking place thirty-five years later with the same girl, who’s now a woman, and a post-doc at the U of T and experimenting in her biochemistry lab? What are we doing in between that kind of creative problem solving and play-based learning environment and post-graduate work in the laboratory? We spend far too much time doing drill and kill—awful pedagogy, old-fashioned stuff. “I have the knowledge; you don’t as a student.” And yet in emergent learning, students already know a good deal. All of our education should be informed by a problem-solving approach.

Q. Do you have any suggestions for beginning teachers who may be teaching full-day kindergarten?

First of all, they should consider themselves lucky for being part of a world-class program — the curriculum materials and the training materials are outstanding. The first piece of advice I have is if you don’t love four and five-year-old children, just stay away from kindergarten! When we talk about the full-day learning curriculum, we are talking about emergent learning, and we are talking about play-based curriculum. Emergent learning is based in the fact that children already have a huge amount of knowledge within. The important role of teachers guiding the learning of four and five-year-olds is to bring out what the kids already know, to connect prior knowledge to activities, and to have those activities take the child further in terms of social, emotional, and cognitive development.

The best advice I can give any teacher of kids of any age is to be a reflective practitioner. As they facilitate the learning of students, they themselves reflect on how they’re doing. If you [find yourself in classes with] teachers who operate according to the paradigm, “here’s the information, if you get it, fine, if you don’t, it’s not my fault,” get rid of them, get out of their classes. But then you have teachers who are dedicated to your success and if they give a particular assignment that 60% of the students don’t do well on, great teachers say “I must be doing something wrong.” Great educators, great pedagogues of kids of all ages are partners in learning. They adapt to the individual differences of every student—they know their students.

My eighteen-year-old daughter and I just finished a book on public education. It is a father-daughter conversation on education, and much of it is based on her own narrative. She was diagnosed with a learning disability when she was in the third grade and there’s a part in the book where we’re talking about her IEP and she says, “Shouldn’t every student, no matter what their age, have an IEP?” Shouldn’t every teacher, when they’re going through Teacher’s College, know how to adapt to the individual differences of their learners and know what those individual differences are? Great educators know the individual differences of the students they are enabling. So my advice: be a reflective practitioner, adapt to individual differences of your learners, and commit in an unrelenting fashion to the success of the kids for whom you are responsible.

Check out the report: http://www.ontario.ca/education-and-training/early-learning-report Learn more about Dr. Pascal’s initiatives: http://www.charlespascal.com/

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HOW CAN I TEACH WHAT I DON’T KNOW?

Darren Donahue Year Four CTEP

A

s an adult, teaching the primary curriculum must be easy, right? Yet in a recent Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment class that taught primary math skills to pre-service teachers, most of us were thrown through a loop with long division of double-digit numbers.

At times like this, I wonder how I am going to teach what I don’t know myself. As an adult, should I not already know everything in the primary curriculum? But I am not the encyclopedia that most people expect teachers to be. In fact, I have not remembered some of what I once knew because the concepts probably did not really make sense to me in the first place. My knowledge of the long division algorithm was based almost solely on the memorization of steps. I remembered the information long enough to pass my tests. After that I just reached for a calculator, forgot a crucial step or two, and long division faded away.

So how can I now teach what I don’t know? In my teacher training program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, I am re-learning my own learning. For long division, I discovered a variety of ways to arrive at the same answer, and not once did I use the traditional algorithm. These new ways have a logical connection to the concept of division; these methods are not based on rote memorization, they are meaningful, and they will be remembered for much longer.

As a pre-service teacher I am learning what I don’t know. But more importantly, I am learning why I don’t know it.

15 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

Grade 2 Reflections...

I don’t remember much. I remember the room

Julian Swinkin

Year Five CTEP English Major, History Minor

well enough, though only in that dream sense where the details aren’t really there. I remember the carpet – sitting on it – and looking up at Ms. Hood who sat in her chair.

It may have been a rocking chair, though it may not have been. I remember a photo from the newspaper of a mosquito magnified thirty times. And I remember Julius Krusinsky, who had been run over while sleeping on a sidewalk grate on a cold April night. I don’t really remember the man – I never knew him – but I remember with vivid clarity the newspaper article that I had cut out and pasted onto a purple piece of construction paper for my presentation on a current event. I remember the strange sensation I had when I read the part about his family visiting him in the hospital, and the fact that he had been an uncle. At the age of seven, it hadn’t occurred to me that homeless people could be uncles. I can still see his face, not quite smiling, hazy in that way that newspaper pictures are, and I realize now how great an impact that picture had on my second-grade self.

Those who argue that primary education has no substance and is just a glorified version of babysitting have not considered the incredible things one may learn at the age of seven. They have not considered the immensely important emotional development that occurs for children at this age. It is easy to forget how vast the world is for a seven-year-old, and how uncluttered and unpolluted one’s mind can be at such an age; it is even easier to forget how quickly this mind gets filled and the incredible influence the ‘filler’ has on that mind.

If grade two had only been about fulfilling curriculum expectations, a massive textbook could have substituted for our teacher; I would not remember the stinging feeling of shame I had finishing my cursive work beside Ms. Hood at her desk after disrupting the others at my table; I would not remember having my first ‘crush’ on a girl called Michey, short for Michelle; I would not remember the overwhelming pride I had at being given the responsibility of taking the photo of our classroom assistant after she had taken photos of all the students.

If grade two had just been about “1, 2, 3’s” and “A, B, C’s,” Julius Krusinsky, the kind man who had had a family but had needed to sleep over a sidewalk grate to stay warm at night, would not live on in my thoughts.

16 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

Here Com Michelle Brooks

First Year, Life Science Vic One, Ryerson Stream

I

still remember my grade one teacher, Miss. Friedman. An avid Beatles fan, she taught us to sing “Here Comes the Sun” for an assembly, and she always had extra cherry-flavoured lip balm when your lip was dry or bleeding. She drank coffee every morning, and you could always catch a whiff of it when you walked into her classroom. We were perhaps the first class she had ever taught. I remember that she would read Junie B. Jones to us on the carpet every day. I excitedly anticipated that moment when she would sit on her rocking chair and take out the book. The class would fall completely silent; it was a marvellous lack of sound rarely experienced in a grade one class.

I would listen to every word Miss. Friedman would utter, completely falling under the spell of the book and her. By grade three, I had grown out of the Junie B. Jones book series.

I remember she used to let all the little girls braid her long blond hair as she read to us. I longed to have hair that long, because I wanted to be just like her. By grade five, I grew out of yearning for long hair and cut mine into a short bob.

I remember science class and I distinctly remember Miss. Friedman giving us candy and bitter-tasting foods to teach us that sweet flavours are detected by taste buds on the tip of our tongues, while bitter flavours are detected at the back. Since then, that theory has been debunked, and in fact I just learned in PSY 100 that each type of taste bud on the tongue is scattered quite evenly all over of the tongue.

I remember Miss. Friedman giving me the reading award, which is awarded to one student in every grade one class, telling me to remember her when I wrote my first novel. Since then, I have not taken a

17 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

single English course at university, and instead have taken mainly science courses. It sometimes seems that everything my grade one teacher taught me no longer holds true, everything I used to think means less to me every day. So what was the point of our early teachers, if much of what they taught us is no longer relevant?

With that being said, I am still a lifelong reader, always inclined to read novels when a moment of boredom strikes. It may not be a Junie B. Jones book that I pick up anymore, but I will select something from the works of Jane Austen or Leo Tolstoy. As for the length of my hair, I have learned that in order to emulate your role model, you do not have to try to look like them by growing your hair long or doing everything that they do. Instead, you must take into account their values and the intricate things they do that make them your role model, and in turn, mold those characteristics into a part of yourself. Miss. Friedman gave me an introduction into the ever-changing world, in which facts do not hold true for long. I have learned that our minds must be adaptive and critical of every bit of information we come across.

In short, we must be lifelong learners, and open-minded enough to accept new ideas and points of view.

I may not be majoring in English, but that does not mean I cannot appreciate it.

You see, Miss Friedman taught me lessons that last and endure over time; they just subtly hid behind the ones I initially thought were the actual lessons. I remember the time Miss Friedman had accidentally given me a perfect mark on my spelling test, even though I had spelled one of the words wrong. Miss. Friedman would write our names on the “Star” board if we managed to get a perfect mark on our spelling tests. I had debated with my grade one self all day long as to whether I should tell her or not. Being incredibly shy, I was mortified at the very idea that she might become angry. I ended up telling her. Miss. Friedman smiled gratefully, and thanked me for notifying her.

mes the Sun

I asked if I ought to erase my name from the Star board, and I still remember what she said to me to this day:

“Why? You told the truth, even though you didn’t have to, and for that you are a real star!”

I keep this in my mind to this very day, and it has shaped my decisions about morality and ethics.

Recently, I have come across my second grade report card. I glanced through it and found quite a few A’s and a couple of B’s. But what surprised me was the loan ‘C’ that I received in music. It was interesting that my teacher had given me a ‘C’ in music. I understood that she was assessing my skills and could not have known that the reason I sang so softly was because I was shy. I deserved that ‘C,’ but I could not help wondering if my teacher had thought about whether I would ever have further potential in music.

No doubt that ‘C’ probably traumatized me as a kid.

It is funny how I went on to receive a mark of one hundred percent in music class three years in a row in high school, but even then, I always second-guessed myself and did not enjoy performing solos because internally, I believed I was not good at music. I do not remember my grade two teacher well, but I do remember not liking her all that much.

This compelled me to look for what Miss Friedman had given me in music in grade one. However, it was not my music mark that bewildered me; it was my reading and writing mark that did. Miss. Friedman had given me a ‘B+’ in reading and a ‘C+’ in writing!

This was from the same teacher who gave me the reading award and told me that I could be a writer someday! I had completely forgotten that I was not always great at English because my early marks became over-shadowed by my much higher high school English marks- and possibly the fact that Miss. Friedman had encouraged me to write and told me that I was becoming good at it.

Since then, I have learned that the world is a tremulous adventure with twisting and turning labyrinths

that lead in many directions. I know that fate and self-prophesy is no match for personal decisions and choices that change the course of your life. Miss.

Friedman gave me the reading award, but what she really gave me was the confidence to choose any path I wanted to walk down and explore. Perhaps someday, I will write a novel, but it will not take a completed novel in my hands in order for me to remember that I can be a good writer. And writing a novel will not make me remember Miss. Friedman any more than I already do.

The insecurities I had as a child from the marks I received in language did not stop me from believing I was good enough to be one of the best in high school English because Miss. Freidman was in the back of my mind telling me so, regardless of the struggle I had with it as a child. I improved because I believed I could, so much so that I forgot that at one point I was not as accomplished as perhaps I am now. Therefore, I never settled for anything less.

As teachers, especially early childhood teachers, it is important not only to assess students fairly, like my grade two teacher did, but also to see the potential in them to improve, like Miss. Friedman did. She is no longer Miss. Friedman; she has since gotten married and changed her name. But to me she will always remain that fresh young teacher, Miss. Friedman, in the spring of her life and career. When I think of her, she sounds like “Here Comes the Sun” and smells of coffee and lip balm. But more importantly, she is behind every confident moment I have ever had, every essay I ever write, and every book I ever pick up. But Miss. Friedman is not just my teacher, she is in essence every successful person’s favourite childhood teacher, young or old, who brought out the potential that each child did not know he or she had, in his or her own special way. A good childhood teacher understands that the failures and struggles of today do not reflect or prevent the successes of tomorrow, and he or she lets young students know that.

18 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

LESSON PLAN Diana Pegoraro

SUBJECT:

Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Lesson Name: Imagine A Place

Learning Expectations: By the end of this lesson, students will: Understand the value of mental imaging, and have confidence in their ability to hold an image in their head and present it on paper. Students will also be introduced to meditation, an important relaxation technique, as well as use their imagination to visualize their perfect place.

Unit of Study: Mental Imaging/The Imagination

Materials/Resources: - Imagine a Place picture book by Sarah L. Thomson - Audio CD of relaxation sounds (nature) - Large white poster paper

Curriculum Area/Strand/Grade Level: Language Arts, Grade One and Two Visual Arts, Grade One and Two

Assessment: - Observation - Anecdotal notes - Work samples

Expectations: - Grade One Oral Communication – 1.3 Comprehension strategies (create mental pictures while listening to read-a-loud or draw or talk about what they visualized) - Grade One Visual Art – D1.1 Create two and three dimensional works of art that express feelings and ideas inspired by personal experiences - Grade Two Visual Art – D1.1 Create two and three dimensional works of art that express feelings and ideas inspired by activities in the community or observations of nature

Accommodations / Modifications: - Increase time, space, amount - Oral explanation

Lesson Reflection: Improvements to be made Strengths

19 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

Mental Imaging

Collaborative/social skill: - Participating fully - Listening attentively - Expressing appreciation - Making responsible decisions

Multiple Intelligences: - Spatial - Bodily/Kinesthetic - Musical - Naturalistic - Intrapersonal

Time: 5-10 min

Introduction/Minds On:

Groupings: Class

Checks for Understanding: - Questioning throughout story – content and expectations - Think, Pair, Share – Tell your partner what you will do at your desk; randomly ask a few pairs to share with the class.

- Observation throughout practice

Time: 30 min

Lesson: 1) Students will sit in a circle, with their legs crossed. I will explain to them that we will be meditating for 5 entire minutes. I will talk to them about how they need to stay quiet, and refrain from being silly (I will be taking notes on who is acting responsibly).

2) They will all be instructed to close their eyes.

3) I will turn on the CD of nature sounds on low volume and tell the students to take deep breaths in and out. For 4-5 minutes I will be giving them prompts about a place they will need to imagine. I will ask them to imagine a place — their favourite place in the entire world. I will ask them questions about what feelings/senses are activated in that place, and what is around them (Is it hot/cold? Is it rainy, or is it very dry? What do you see around you? Are there people or is it quiet and deserted? etc.)

4) Students will be given 1 minute of independent thought.

Groupings: Class, then seatwork

- Students will sit on the carpet, and I will read Imagine a Place to them.

- While reading the story, students will be asked questions about what they see in each of the pictures. They will also be asked if the images are real or fake. We can talk about the imagination.

After the meditation exercise is over, students will each be given a sheet of white paper, and will be told to draw their place. Whatever they imagined as their favourite place in their head, that is what students will need to draw. Perhaps glitter and bright colours can be used for this activity, but too many media materials should not be used because it might take away from the purpose of the activity (to show that students can hold and present a mental image).

Students who finish early can write a few sentences about their place on a separate sheet of paper, describing it as the image they saw in their head as best as they can.

Time: Min. 10 min

Extension / Wrap-up: A few students will volunteer to present their place to the class. Not everyone will have the chance to go, but it will give students the opportunity to see what some other students came up with. I will ask them if it was hard to get what was in their head down on paper, and what they did to remember it.

Groupings: Class Notes / Reminders / Homework:

20 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

Lesson Planning - it’s one of those things that seems like no brainer. That is, until you’re staring at a blank word document, not sure where to start. The task can be daunting. The following template by Madeline Hunt is a great way to approach lesson planning.

Topic: Grade:

Subject:

Time:

OBJECTIVES Ontario Curricular Expectations Lesson Objectives: Social Objectives: MENTAL SET:

Estimated time:

STATED OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE:

Estimated time

INPUT/ MODELLING/ DEMONSTRATION: Estimated Time PRACTICE:

Estimated time

CHECKS FOR UNDERSTANDING:

CLOSURE:

Considerations Multiple Intelligence: Verbal linguistic Logical/mathematical Musical Bodily/kinesthetic Visual/spatial Interpersonal Intrapersonal Natural

21 HEY, TEACH! Spring 2013

Accommodations: Who

How Kind of assignment Breadth Depth Piece Grouping Time Place Other

Assessment:

Self-evaluation Group-evaluation Teacher-evalutation Observation Anecdotal notes Quiz/test Checklist Rubic Interview Discussion Learning log/journal Other

..Final Thoughts..

DIANA PEGORARO

When I was young I thought that teachers lived at the school.

AMANDA GHEGIN

Thanks to everyone involved in this magazine — these past four years have been a blast!

MELODY BARCLAY

I would describe the elementary school years in one word: Essential.

VERONICA JANSEN

All young children should take chances, get messy, and make mistakes!

TIFFANY NG

My favourite elementary school teacher was Mrs. Goodman, because she was my friend.

MICHELLE BROOKS

My earliest school memory is walking into my kindergarten classroom and coming face to face with a giant polka-dotted papier-mâché dinosaur, worn out from having been climbed on and hugged.

EVELYN KONDO

All young children should be inspired to explore, learn, and create!

JOANNE LIEU

My best friend in elementary school always knew how to power play in hockey!

EMMA TOWNSEN

My earliest school memory is reading stories to younger kids in daycare.

JESSICA LEUNG

I would describe the elementary school years in one word: magical.

ALEXANDRA PROCOPIO

My earliest school memory is being sent to timeout in kindergarten for talking too much!

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Thank you to the following people: Victoria College Faculty Advisor, Professor Sheila Cook, Victoria College Faculty Advisor, Professor Jackie Eldridge, Victoria College Program Liaison Officer, Pavi Chandrasegaram, & VUSAC Without their support, the magazine staff couldn’t have done it.