The
brilliant Sir Ken Robinson stated, “creativity is as important as literacy”
(2007). Creativity is what fuels me as a teacher and my digital resource folder
reflects this. According to MediaSmarts, “media are powerful forces in the lives of children and youth,
with both positive and negative influences on their social, emotional,
intellectual, and physical wellbeing” and education is the best response to
inform students to be active citizens (n.d.). I strongly agree with this
statement and I think creating lesson plans to inform and aid students in
becoming critical thinkers in this arena is crucial, therefore I including a
lesson plan in my folder and resources on how to teach this to students. Along
the lines of lesson planning, I have also included resources to teach a lesson
based on goal setting. Goal setting has been one of the most influential
informal trainings I have ever received and I believe it can be a motivator for
students but also can aid in getting to know the class and a method of
classroom management.
Moving
along with classroom management, in an age that argues that we have an “ADHD
epidemic”, creating exciting, stimulating and fun classrooms can turn a
student’s school experience around (Robinson, 2007). TEACHERSpayTEACHERS argues
that by sharing lesson planning and education resources with other teachers, we
can refine our skills, enhance our teaching and reach a large and wider range
of students (2014). Using this resource for additional aid in my classroom will
allow just that.
Finally
the Alberta Government emphasizes the importance of taking each individual student’s
needs into account when teaching (n.d.). I have four resources related to this:
two on ESL/ELL learners in Canada and two about teaching in England: where I
plan to teach. The more ways we can educate ourselves as teachers about variety
in the classroom, the better we can do to helping each individual. These
resources give me specific aid and knowledge with teaching students from
different cultures and first languages than my own.
The
next five themes will give visual aid and more in-depth explanation as to why
these are including in my digital resource folder and how they will help me in
the classroom as a new teacher.
Theme 1: Resources for Teacher from Other Teachers
As a new teacher, there are so many different and exciting things going on that sometimes having a lesson plan to guide or inspire can be quite useful. Coming up with my own lesson plans is fun and exciting but when I have piles of homework to mark, trying to juggle all my classes and everything that comes with becoming a new teacher, it will be nice to have a resource that is easy to access: that is exactly what "Teachers Pay Teachers" is. "Teachers pay teachers"was recommended to me by my older sister who is a grade three teacher in Ontario and she uses it often. It is an online resource where teachers can share their materials with one another and also use materials. It will be helpful in the students' future classroom because it always has new, exciting material and can vary what I am normally teaching in class to change things up a bit and keep students engaged.
Theme 2: Self Image and Media: Lesson Plan
2. MediaSmarts & Body Image
3. The Sexy Lie & Airbrushing & Media
4.Online Magazine: Seventeen Magazine
For this specific theme, I have three categories of resources. The first is MediaSmarts website based on body image. This has a teacher component of how to come up with lesson planning surrounding the topic of body image and the media. There are numerous links of other avenues to explore and what to teach students on this website. This is an extremely useful resource for the teacher specifically.
The second resources are both very useful videos to support a lesson or series of lessons based on body image and the media. By utilizing some of the ideas on MediaSmarts, I could tailor the ideas to my specific videos I have chosen. The first is a TEDtalks video about how women are perceived in the media and portrayed. Some of the topics and theory are advanced so it would be more suited to the older grades to watch in the classroom. The second video is shorter and has no verbal parts. It could be used at any grade level to show some realities of media. Both videos are for the students to view in the classroom to further dissect and reflect on.
Finally the third resource for this theme could be used in an online form and in a hard copy to bring into class. This is magazines. I chose Seventeen magazine because after some research I read that is does try to target girls and boys, and is quite prone to using typical sexist imagery, stereotypes and categorizing of specific type of people. However, any type of magazine could be used in hard copy or online. Just like the videos, these can be used in the classroom to further dissect and use as a "hands on" extension of the MediaSmart information and lesson.
Theme 3: Goal Setting: A Lesson Plan
5. HOW TO: Goal Setting
6.Edutopia: Goal Setting for Classrooms
7. Igolu: How to "Goal" Others
The third theme is related to a lesson plan I created while teaching a Korean immigrant grade 9 student the grade 10 Alberta Curriculum for English Language Arts over the summer to prepare her for the upcoming school year. I designed the lesson plan based off the Alberta Curriculum section that talks about setting language goals and using a reflective journal (Alberta Curriculum, 2003). I also based this lesson plan on the very helpful and useful training in goal coaching I have done on numerous occasions through lululemon athletica, such as Igolu and Goal Coaching. Although the curriculum just discusses language goals, I think it is crucial for students to have "plans" for their life: academically, personally, professionally, and emotionally/ spiritually. You wouldn't build a house without plans, so why would you begin your life without plans! I think that this could be really useful for getting to know students, keeping students accountable in the classroom and setting students up for personal success. For example, if a student constantly disrupts the classroom with behavioral issues, we could set personal goals that relate to this problem that the student agrees upon. When an issue arises, we can readdress the goals and remind the student of his/her goals.
The resources that I have used are: a training website that students could use in the classroom OR teachers could use in learning how to set goals, why we set goals and where to begin. The website has a video, pictures, and instructions. The second website is more geared towards using a goal coaching technique in the classroom (vs. the last resource which can be used for adult training as well). It has step -by-step procedure of how to go about lesson planning for goal setting.
Finally is a link to a goal coaching training I did in Vancouver called Igolu. The link I used is to the site in general that has links to goal coaching and numerous other training courses and free podcasts. The Igolu training I did was helpful for learning about who you are being while trying to teach another: what sort of space you are creating for them, what sort of listener you are being, etc. I found it really helpful for helping others with more personal problems and growing as a person. . I think that this is useful for not only a lesson plan on goal setting, but also with dealing some of the informal aspects of being a teacher such as helping kids emotionally and being that space or the helping aid for them. The Igolu link would more be for preparing a teacher, rather than bringing into the classroom.
Theme 4: Teaching out of the Country
8. UK Education/ Curriculum and How to Teach in UK as a Canadian
The two provided links are related to my journey as a teacher in the UK in 2015. My goals as a teacher do not at the moment include teaching in Alberta, let alone Canada. So I found it useful as both a new teacher and new to a country, to take a look at the UK's curriculum. The second link is to a website that I have had an interview with that hires Canadian teachers to teach in England. This will give me some prior knowledge before entering my classroom, which will benefit all my students if I know what needs to be taught in the UK as compared with Canada.
Theme 5: Teaching English as a Second Language
9. How to: Work with ESL Students
10. 50 Incredibly Useful Links for Learning and Teaching English
My final two resources are related to teaching ESL/ELL students. I find this one of the most challenging parts of becoming a teacher, yet it is my strongest area of interest as well. I will be completing a 160 hour training course this summer on working with students that have a first language other than English. This training will help me in the standard classrooms, but also when I teach abroad.
The two links are specifically for teaching students in classrooms. The first is the Alberta government's document for teaching ESL/ELL students: including tips, terminology, relevant benchmarks, and just general terms of behavior. It is a good resource for a new teacher as it is something that can frequently be revisited if a teacher is unsure of what to do with a particular student. The second link has 50 resources for working with ELL/ESL students. The links range from fun online games, to resource centers, teaching references and resource guides such as dictionaries and translators. The website gives a teacher all kinds of resources and options for this arena and ideas for the classroom, that the students can also use in the classroom or at home for extra support.
References
Alberta Government. (n.d.). What
School Administrators Need to know about
English Language Learners and ESL Programming. Retrieved March
15, 2014 from http://education.alberta.ca/media/6550092/eslstudents.pdf.
Conrad, Susanne. (2014). Igolu.
Retrieved March 16, 2014 from http://igolu.com/.
Edutopia. (2013, Aug 16). Back to
School: Goal Setting with Your Students. Edutopia.
Retrieved March 15, 2014 from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/back-to-school-goal-setting-students-teacher-maurice-elias.
Global Democracy. (2013, Nov 5).
Shocking Photoshop Body Evolution [video
file]. Retrieved March 17, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKlVyUJw3TM.
Heldmann, Caroline .(2013, Jan 22).
The Sexy Lie [video file]. Retrieved March
15, 2014 from http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Sexy-Lie-Caroline-Heldman-a.
lululemon athletica. (2014). create
your ideal life with goal setting. Retrieved
March 13, 2014 from http://www.lululemon.com/education/goalsetting.
MediaSmarts. (n.d.) MediaSmarts. Retrieved
March 16, 2014 from http://mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources/find-lesson.
Munir, Wagas. (2014, Jan). 50
Incredibly Useful Links for Learning and Teaching
The English Language. Pakistan Tutor. Retrieved March 15, 2014
from http://pakistantutor.com/50-incredibly-useful-links-for-learning-teaching-the-english-language/.
protocol education. (2014). Teach
in the UK. Retrieved March 16, 2014 from
http://www.protocol-education.ca/.
Robinson, Sir Ken. (2007). Do
Schools Kill Creativity? TEDTalks. Retrieved March
16, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY.
seventeen. (2014). seventeen. Retrieved
March 13, 2014 from http://www.seventeen.com/.
TEACHERSpayTEACHERS. (2014). TEACHERSpayTEACHERS.
Retrieved March
16, 2014, from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/.
UK Government. (2014). Department
of Education. Retrieved March 16, 2014
from http://www.education.gov.uk/.
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