Edmodo is a free online learning management website that was made in September 2008 by Nic Borg, Jeff O’Hara and Crystal Hutter. The platform is aimed for kindergarten to grade 12 teachers to use in means of communication, collaboration, and teaching of lessons with their students. In terms of communication, Edmodo provides students with a safe space to academically communicate with their peers and ask their teacher questions, through use of Edmodo parents are able to make an account and quickly ask their childs teacher questions. In regards to collaboration, Edmodo provides students with the opportunity to collaborate and work together on academic projects/assignments with their peers. The educational platform also allows the opportunity for teachers to collaborate with their colleagues, which can be beneficial in creating cross-curricular lessons. In relation to the teaching of lessons through Edmodo teachers can add their lesson slides and classroom content to the website so that students/parents have access to the material outside of class time. Despite Edmodo’s inclusivity for students and parents it is a teacher-centric platform when it comes to its layout, philosophy and how you can only access the site once invited by a teacher.
Month: March 2021 (page 1 of 3)
My most recent volunteer experience was the UVic Field Experience that ran for four months. For this experience I was a student teacher in a grade one class where myself and another student in the cohort prepared educational activities, worked with students in groups and individually, supervised recess and aided the teacher with general classroom activities. Through out this recent experience I mainly worked with a student with special needs, and it was absolutely incredible to see the amount of academic progress that the student was able to make. It truly opened my eyes to the importance and impact of teachers who use inclusive education practices.
I was first introduced to working with elementary aged children through the Peer Tutoring program at the high school I attended. In this program grade eleven and twelve students spent an hour and a half every day volunteering in a class that needed additional help, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be placed in a nature based kindergarten/grade one split. In the class my duties were to do the prep work for activities, working individually with students, leading group activities, observe PE class,supervising outdoor time, working in an outdoor classroom setting, and assisting the teacher and kids in daily classroom activities. I volunteered in the same classroom for three years, which was amazing as I was able to form connections with the kids and watch them grow into avid learners!
For three years I participated in Pass It On Girls, by SWOVA (Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence & Abuse), which is a program that brings together girls in high school with girls that are in middle school. The older girls then individually mentor one of their younger peers and once a month the whole group meets all together. This program was a great experience as it reminded me of how intense it is to be a pre-teen, while I hope to teach early elementary grades Pass It On allowed me to see how important it is for pre-teens to have positive role models and outlets.
Similar to Pass It On I volunteered with the Big Brother, Big Sister program where I mentored a fifth grade student and provided emotional support, modelling of positive behaviour, and preparing fun/educational activities. The student that I was paired off with was having difficulty in and outside of school, and during our meetings I was able to see the student step outside of the negativity and smile. The experience was incredible and allowed for me to recognize how important it is for children to have free-time and someone they can just chat and build lego with.
I was first introduced to this TEDx Talk when I was researching inclusive education for an assignment. Ms. Jan Wilson goes into the issues that occur, for everyone, when there is no special education funding in schools, it also demonstrates how inclusive education does not just mean placing a special needs student into a “normal” classroom. I believe this video is a great introduction to the topic of inclusive education because it highlights the importance of inclusive education and explains how it is beneficial for everyone in the classroom.
TED. (2015, May). Jan Wilson: Reimagining Disability & Inclusive Education [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/CtRY_1mZWWg
The article above speaks of inclusive physical education but specifically from the perspective of elementary school-aged students with disabilities. The article also delves further into what activities made the disabled students feel positive towards physical education and which activities made them have negative feelings. I believe that this article supports my inclusive education based teaching philosophy because it highlights the importance of modifications and inclusion in physical health education. Not only that but it is an extremely useful resource to have in my teaching toolkit because it is a perspective that I do not have.
Goodwin, D. L., & Watkinson, E. (2000). Inclusive Physical Education from the Perspective of Students with Physical Disabilities, Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 17(2), 144-160. Retrieved Oct 29, 2020, from https://journals-humankinetics-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/view/journals/apaq/17/2/article-p144.xml
The above linked Person Education Essay focusses on A.S Neill’s Summerhill school where students are self-governed and students can learn where, when and what they want. This connects to my teaching philosophy in how Summerhill encouraged students to pursue their academic passions, and how it highlights the significance of students having free time.
For many years I have spent time daydreaming of the perfect school so I was very excited for the above assignment where we were asked to design a school, with a curriculum, experiences, aims for service, philosophy, and instructional methods. The School Design Proposal I created encompasses what I believe are important features in schooling and dives into the importance of personal satisfactory education.
The above planning assignment features a lesson plan for a Volleyball unit that I created. While the lesson was made to be inclusive I have also added possible modifications and preemptive measures that should be taken to make sure that all students thrive. I believe this assignment ties into my teaching philosophy by how it displays ways that I plan on teaching inclusively.
Growing up on Salt Spring Island there were never any academic extra-curricular activities, however there was an abundance of athletic extra-curricular activities. Throughout my time in elementary, middle and high school I participated in soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, horseback-riding, and mainly volleyball. While I did not understand the importance of athletic extra-curriculars when I was younger, I am now able to see how they were beneficial. Being a part of a team further developed my social and communication skills, built friendships, and provided me with a community of like-minded people. Individual sports such as tennis and horseback-riding taught me self-discipline, concentration and self-esteem. In general, having the opportunity to be physically active made me an overall healthier and stronger child.
I played volleyball for over eight years, and during that time I was named most valuable player as well as team captain. It was an incredible experience to see my team become stronger through out the training season and see how the team became a positive community that we could fall back on when our academic lives were difficult. Because of this experience I was able to better understand the importance of athletics as a stress-reliever, and in the future plan on teaching my students about the benefits of being active, as well as providing them opportunities to be active.
ASTR 101 – Exploring the Night Sky
ASTR 102 – Exploring the Cosmos
CYC 166A – Development: Conception to Childhood
CYC 166B – Development: Adolescence to Adulthood
EDCI 250 – Elementary Field Experience Seminar I
EDCI 300 – Mathematical Processes
EDCI 302 – Literacy and Language
EDCI 303 – History + Philosophical Foundations of Canadian Education
EDCI 305A – Drama Education: A Medium for Learning I
EDCI 306A – Music in Elementary Classrooms I
EDCI 307A – Art in the Elementary or Middle School Classroom I
EDCI 336 – Technology and Innovation in Education
ED-D 301 – Learners and Learning Environments
ENGL 135 – Academic Reading + Writing
ENGL 146 – Contemporary Literature
EPHE 310 – Physical Education for General Classroom Teachers I
EPHE 311 – Physical Education for General Classroom Teachers II
HSTR 230A – Canada to Confederation
MATH 161 – Math for Elementary School Teachers I
MATH 162 – Math for Elementary School Teachers II
SOCI 103 – Canadian Society
While I am only in the second year of the Elementary Education program my teaching philosophy is mainly focussed on inclusion. As an educator it is not only my job to teach my students but it is my job to create an environment where all of my students feel confident, comfortable and are able to thrive. Through my field experience in the fall semester of 2020 I recognized the importance of personal satisfactory education, because of this in my future classrooms I will work with my students to identify their satisfactory education goals and provide them with the tools needed to achieve them. When speaking about inclusion in the classroom I mean making sure that all students are able to participate in every aspect of the academic day. Through out my time in the EPHE 310 and 311 courses I have been using any opportunity I can to further my understanding on how to create physical health education (PHE) lessons that can be modified and adapted to any of my future students possible needs. Additionally to inclusion I believe teaching children about emotional regulation and personal wellness are vital to having a positive classroom environment full of students who are thriving. Both emotional regulation and personal wellness can be taught through various methods but the method that stuck out to me the most was physical health education. Once I have my own classroom I will use PE games, such as self-control bubble or red light green light, and physical activities, such as yoga to teach my students about emotional regulation and personal wellness
The focus of this journal article is on the impact that inclusive education has on all students, covering the impact that inclusion has on both their cognitive development as well as their socio-emotional development. I believe this article gives a great insight into the benefits of inclusive education, while also dismissing the idea that inclusive education is harmful to students without special needs.
Ruijs, N. M., & Peetsma, T. (2009). Effects of inclusion on students with and without special educational needs reviewed. Educational Research Review, 4(2), 67-79. Retrieved October 29 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S174793 8X09000189?via%3Dihub
Most of my experience in the education/childcare field has been through volunteer work, however I have listed my paid experiences below.
My first paid experience with childcare work was at the local Unitarian Fellowship, where I, often by myself, cared for eight to twelve children with ages ranging from eighteen months to eleven years old, preparing and teaching educational activities. This position was chaotic due to so many children at various ages, and was definitely an introduction to childcare work. Working in this position was a valuable lesson in the importance of organization and activity planning.
I was later contacted by one of the parents of a child I worked with in the Peer Tutoring program and was hired as a nanny for their four and seven year old children. In this position I prepared food, prepared and taught educational activities, and general kid activities for nine hours a day, including evenings and split shifts. While nannying is more of a childcare experience compared to teaching, I believe it was a valuable experience because it taught me a lot about children’s emotions and personal abilities.