ABOUT ME

My name is Cassidy van Leeuwen. I am a practicing artist as well as an OCT certified teacher & art instructor. I am passionate about colour, diversity, visibility and dogs! Mix in a little movement, a little laughter, and a lot of fun and you’ve got me!

This is a work-in-progress space for open professional reflection, for sharing wins and new experiences, and will continue to evolve as I grow alongside my students in my educational practices.

Bringing it with the Bulletin Game

I got the opportunity to take my first LTO teaching contract this year with an awesome grade 3&4 group earlier this year. It was definitely full-on in comparison to the daily supply work I was getting so complacent in, but I grew to love them so much over the course of the month I spent with them. I was totally stressed out and overwhelmed most days, but they were so kind and funny and bright and made me laugh so much, it made it worth it. This group of students had been without a permanent teacher since the winter break when I met them in early February, so we started with an initial conversation about what they WANTED to learn in Language and Math with me over the next few weeks. “We don’t even know division yet!” Pshhh, of course they did! They knew multiplication. Same, same… but different.

Taking on an LTO with not much communication from the last teacher is definitely tricky (especially when they hadn’t been in the class for 3 weeks before officially taking leave). The beginning lessons felt like the students were often so bored/beyond my multiplication and math facts review, trying to grasp where they were at. Finding tasks that actually challenged them and slowed them down a bit always felt like a huge win. The grade 3/4 split was also something new for me to manage, and be mindful of my expectations when instructing the whole group. Luckily most of them were math wizkids, and we got to learning about division and inverse operations pretty smoothly.

We completed this Guess Who? activity with 12 student-written math sentences answering questions describing themselves. Students were instructed to include 5 multiplication sentences, 5 division sentences, 1 addition and finally 1 subtraction sentence. In addition to the math being correct, they were also awarded marks for following these instructions.

I got to tackle my first bulletin board with this class (they still had some Christmas tree mosaic up in February!) and I got to show off my version of a little classroom TLC. The self-portraits are too cute! And the art-making was a great motivator to push them through the math task. Multiple rpunds of editing were needed with pushes to try to come up with math sentences a little more complicated than “x 1” or “÷ 1” (could’ve been a great opportunity to introduce prime numbers, now that I think back on it…) and reminders about following instructions for the operation limits (luckily we can easily swap around some of the same numbers to turn a multiplication sentence into a division sentence [and vice-versa!]), but I am certainly very proud of the final products, no pun intended.

Onomatopoeia Art

I love when we can find ways to integrate art into any other areas of curriculum. Traditional literacy doesn’t have to stop at simple reading and writing. Visual and alternative literacies are becoming more and more important in the contemporary world and accessing global communities.

This project asked students to think about the meaning communicated in shape and colour, and to find a synthesis between their chosen onomatopoeia word and the message they want to portray. This activity was a fun wrap-up to a unit on figurative language devices where we learned about simile, metaphor, hyperbole, alliteration, personification and idiom!

We had lots of fun watching videos in class that explained some of these devices that you can watch below! Cue cringing students at Miss. V’s cheesy videos. Warning: the onomatopoeia video is a tad aggressive!

This was a successful lesson taught online during the lockdown period, and we ended up showing off our creations on camera over Google Classroom. Some students didn’t have access to newspapers or magazines to cut up as the background collage, so I provided print-outs of text-heavy pages as well as many suggestions on alternatives to complete the project. I think it’s always super helpful for students to see what the difference between level 2 and level 4 work looks like, and of course, I made my own version during the work period in real-time but made myself available to help out as the students completed theirs.

Eye of The Dragon

I had mentioned this project in a previous post. This was one of the first lessons I got to totally take the reins on. and I had so much fun teaching it! We started by quizzing students on close-up photos of unique animal eyes and seeing if they could identify the species. We discussed that eyes - the eyeball in particular, is round, but is mostly characterized by the surounding shape. How do we create shape? We create shape through the type of creature/species (e.g. cat eyes vs. reptile eyes), in humans: by culture /genetics, and in art: by style (e.g. anime eyes, cartoon-y eyes, realistic eyes).

We went on to break down and draw the different parts of the eye, as seen below:

Students were reminded this was just the basis of an eye and that they were invited to create their own version and investigate any styles that they were interested in inside their sketchbooks. We went on to talk about what an organic shape was, and think about the different textures they could create depending on what creature or theme they intended on drawing - what they wanted to put around their eye.

Students were given 11 x 17” paper and told to draw in pencil first, which they could trace over with black sharpies upon completion of the project. In later lessons, we would discuss the use of complementary colours to create focal point. The students were to intentionally decide on a colour palette to suit the mood of their piece. They used pencil crayons to create and develop gradation and blending techniques. The students really dove into this project and I am super pleased with the results. Well done!

"I CREATE..." Zine

Creating Zines is an awesome little activity for any age group!

A zine, pronounced “zeen” (like the end of the word magazine), is a homemade publication. There are no set-in-stone rules for making zines.

• zines can be about anything you’re interested in. Really!

• there are all kinds of zines including: fanzines (a zine about something or someone you love), cooking zines full of recipes and tips, comic zines, art zines, poetry zines, and personal zines where people write about their daily lives.

• the content and appearance of a zine is completely up to the creator

• can be as simple or as complicated as you want

The example shown above was made using the prompt “I create…” to illustrate 7 of the Elements and Principles of Design (and one extra independent design), but I have also used this format for my Grade 4 & 5 groups to curate writing and drawings from their Poetry Unit. I taught my students this simple way of folding and cutting for the book’s construction (zines can be put together and bound in many ways) and asked them to use a combination of text and imagery on each page to show off some self-expression and creativity in the spirit of zine-making.

In this lesson, we discussed and came up with some examples for elements and principles such as:

• Line

• Shape & Form

• Space

• Colour

• Value

• Texture

• Balance

• Movement

• Rythym

• Contrast

• Pattern

• Unity

• Emphasis

• Perspective

Students came up with some really great ideas and I think this quick project could be taken so many fun directions. While we only worked on this for two lessons or so, students could take this larger and collaborate on zine projects. Each student can work on a page of the zine under one common theme, passing it around the class and having a submission for each student as a community project, in which reproductions made by photocopier could be easily shared with families and the school.

My Future Classroom

An image I created to illustrate some of the attitudes I want to take into having a classroom of my own someday. I think I was hesitant to post this when I had first drawn it as a reading response for one of my classes, but stumbling across it tonight while cleaning up my desktop, thought it might be worthwhile to put out into the world. I deferred my practicum for my second year of teachers college and won’t be with students again until May, and definitely miss the energy I get from being in a classroom. Revisiting this piece with distance from any embarrassment any of its “teacher’s college-y” and “cringe-y” -ness has reminded me of that warmth and excitement I always hope is translated in my teaching style. I love the energy of this drawing and can’t wait to bring new light to my next classroom.

How to Teach Anti-Black Racism

The Anti-Black Racism area of the Social Studies curriculum is a subject I am both inspired and lost in. I believe there are so many tangents and avenues to pursue deeper learning unpacking the realities of racism in the world today and wish to encourage this exploration with my students. This subject most closely relates to the overall and specific expectations for Strand A – Heritage and Identity: Communities in Canada, Past and Present. The mind map poses many questions and proposes talking points to approach this sometimes-difficult subject matter. I thought a mind map was the best way to express how one idea might stem from another and show how ideas are interconnected and related. While this is a Social Studies related topic, I wanted to incorporate my teachable, the Visual Arts, and specifically social justice art, as an interdisciplinary way for students to reflect and make sense of their feelings about something they both have experienced and continue to experience in their own community.

Establishing ground rules about creating a space where all students feel safe is necessary to the introduction of this subject matter. While instructors often want to introduce with a strong hook, a reminder to not lead with trauma is important for these lessons. The classroom should be a space of love and respect where we are mindful of our words. 

Who, what, where, why and how are simple, easy questions to begin with but open up further conversations. Many of the tasks within these lessons will be discussion-based and incorporate a reflective practice, via writing, drawing or in whatever options students see fit. Observation and collection of writing samples can be used for assessment for and as learning. By posing the question “What is racism and where have you experienced it?” is a question posed for learning that asks of students what they already know about the subject, and brings directly it into their focus by seeing it as something that is happening right now, not just in the past. 

Direct instruction can be used to talk about the historical context for racism (why and who does racism serve), as well as definitions of key terms such as bias, white privilege and systemic racism. Direct instruction should be broken up by activities in the classroom, working in pairs and groups to deconstruct the meaning of these terms or reflect on video resources shown in class. There are opportunities to use literary sources (by black authors) in other classes to demonstrate both historical and contemporary racism. Pointing out themes in these books and discussing how they relate back to the umbrella of anti-black racism will be important throughout the entire school year. As often as possible, black representation and black excellence resources should be used in the classroom.

In my teachable course four year 1, we had a guest speaker visit to speak about art for social change. Jimmy Baptiste is a black artist living in Wakefeild, Quebec who worked alongside Kalkidan Assaraf and Allen André to create the We ‘Gon Be Alright’ mural on Ottawa’s Bank Street in 2020 as a part of the city’s mural grant program (http://jimmybaptiste.ca/wegonbealright). Inviting this local artist was meaningful for me, and hope that the experience would be similar for my students. Representation matters, not just in the images we see, but whose creating them. He spoke of the idea of creating an uplifting message in the community, the collaborative practice of art-making was not just for the artists, but also with passers-by on the street. While the empowering visuals of a strong black woman’s face were loosely in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd protests against systemic anti-Black racism; justice and police reform, this mural was about a message of hope, solidarity, and movement towards a brighter future. The high visibility of such a large mural was echoed in contemporary culture as photos of the typography used were attached to a COVID-19 online article that went viral. I thought this artist talk was a meaningful way to introduce social justice art and inspired the essential question “How do we make art to inspire social change?”

Thinking about assessment of learning, I would like to address activism and how to move forward. I had found an article about Grade 6 students at a Toronto school who had made posters about anti-Black racism that were displayed and then later defaced in their community (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/students-posters-toronto-racism-vandalized-1.5632897). While this is a disgusting and pathetic act, I also thought it was very meaningful to speak to a contemporary local Canadian context for racism. While I hadn’t fully developed a summative task, I thought it would make for an interesting project to have students choose to work independently or collaborate on Black Lives Matter posters/protest signs and respond to hatred/backlash from certain members within their community. I would hope to discuss the power of protest, movements (Black Lives/Civil Rights), mass groups of people and community change in relation to this task.

PED3151 - BLOG 1

 Having differed my practicum for year two, I was unsure of what I could contribute to a blog post to be written under the guiding topic of “Teacher as Researcher.” When I think about a researcher, my mind is drawn to an image of an individual working directly in the field, making live observations, probing questions, investigating and analyzing data, and making meaningful connections to real-life situations. But here I am, another semester in a global pandemic, reading PDF page after page, hypothesizing made-up case studies behind the safety of my computer screen. I struggled in teacher's college a lot last year, never having participated in a fully academic post-secondary program. All the reading and reflecting felt overwhelming and I had trouble meeting deadlines, motivation and prioritizing assignments. I struggled a lot with my identity and choice to come into this program at the time, was I trying to fit a square into a circle? I’m an artist, not a teacher! How will I tackle all these curriculum expectations and edujargon? Do I even believe in traditional schools and stuffy report cards? I just want to paint pretty things, I don’t know how to sit at a computer and write, I can barely make it through reading more than a couple of paragraphs before disengaging and falling asleep… Thankfully my professors and instructors at OttawaU were empathetic and kind as long as I was forthcoming and communicated my academic struggles. By mid-October, I had moved from Toronto to Ottawa to be placed in one of the Ottawa Carleton District Schools, only to have the observation block of our practicum in November canceled. We had a solid three-week block scheduled in December, which we almost made it out of, though my grade 5 class came into contact with a student with COVID-19, and unfortunately had to stay home to isolate for the final three days before winter break. Despite this, I came alive in this time. I was reminded how much I loved teaching and being with people and this awesome age group. I hated teacher's college, but I loved teaching; there was a light at the end of this tunnel. 

The rest of my year one practicum was rocky. Government-mandated stay-at-home orders and extended breaks complicated things, but I still felt like I had a connection with my students, even over the screen. I had some fairly successful lessons over Google Classroom, and felt like that platform gave me a little more organization. A lot of the units I introduced in class felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants, and staying up late figuring out my lesson for the next day. I felt like a chicken with my head cut off, and my Associate Teacher assured me that’s how teaching is - that most teachers just had a few jot notes written out as lesson plans. I wasn’t implementing practices I had learned in teachers' college, like posting and addressing learning goals and intentions before lessons, or handing out rubrics/grading criteria with assignments. Even if lessons were successful, I knew I wasn’t planning them by looking at curriculum documents. Looking back on these things now, I feel ashamed and as if I've done those students wrong. 

We've learned a lot this semester about assessment practices and assessment for, as, and of learning. Though we talked about these things in year one, I feel like these words carry much more significance and weight for me now. I sincerely hope to do as little harm as possible as a future teacher. One of my professors last year had claimed this as her teaching mantra during one of our sessions and those words resonated so much for me. While I am not in the thick of it this semester, and miss being right in the action, I've found my learning deepening and becoming much more meaningful through personal connection with content. 

While I still sometimes feel overwhelmed with the "paperwork" side of the profession I'm entering - curriculum documents, IEPs, lesson plans, curriculum maps, and the like, I have grown an appreciation for their necessity. I remember a moment during my practicum last year, a few minutes after the bell had gone and there was a boy on his knees on the ground still collecting all his papers and books and getting on his jacket, while all of his classmates had long gone. As my Associate Teacher and I were patiently waiting, knowingly sort of shaking our heads, I turned to her and said "I had a soft spot for him because that was like me as a kid - papers flying out of my backpack in every direction, juice boxes exploding in my bag, always leaving one mitten behind... I would often show up to picture day with unbrushed hair and wearing a sloppy jogging suit because the form never made it home to my parents." She was surprised and questioned me, saying she couldn't believe that about me. 

When I moved back to the Toronto area this year (hence the deferred practicum) and back in with my parents, my mother showed me a bunch of my report cards from elementary and high school, thinking I'd be even more curious about them now that I was going to be a teacher. Going through them brought up a bunch of negative feelings and I ended up skipping straight to my grades in visual art, barely skimming through the rest. I wasn't a stellar student in general and didn't even achieve very high grades in something I think I'm pretty damn good at, going on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts, as well as a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Illustration. This basically just underscored and solidified my opinion on how traditional schooling and grading doesn't say anything about who you are and what you're capable of. One thing I had noticed while skimming was that I repeatedly got the "doesn't speak up in class" comment. 

Three weeks ago, I was diagnosed with adult ADHD and have begun stimulant medication to help me regain control. I have been curious about this for a while and brought up my personal concerns to different medical professionals at different stages, often being dismissed when I was younger as depression or anxiety, and more recently as sleep apnea or simply that "a lot of people are experiencing these symptoms during COVID; you should try to meditate!" I encourage anyone experiencing symptoms you are curious about to seek advice from different medical professionals, until you find the answers that you are looking for. You know your body best. From my research, I've learned that females are often misdiagnosed or will not get a diagnosis until later in life. As stated previously, I have never participated in a fully academic post-secondary program and had only started to experience difficulties when I came to teacher's college. I was able to exhibit hyper-focus in hands-on activities like art-making and tended to gravitate towards socially engaging, active jobs on my feet, knowing I would frequently fall asleep at cubicle desk jobs in my early twenties. I have engineered my life in such a way to avoid the things that make me feel inadequate - i.e. not working to my fullest potential. Women have a tendency to exhibit inattentive ADHD, which makes it hard to focus, pay attention to details, stay organized, listen, and remember things. [1] Some of the characteristics of inattentive ADHD, such as being shy or impulsive, are often viewed as personality traits rather than symptoms. [2] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls (12.9% vs. 5.6%). [3] However, research suggests that this disparity is not because boys are more susceptible but instead because girls are consistently underdiagnosed. [2] 

Psychological distress, feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and chronic stress are common. Often, women with ADHD feel that their lives are out of control or in chaos, and daily tasks may seem impossibly huge. Our culture commonly expects women to fill the caretaker role. When things feel out of control and it's difficult to organize and plan because of ADHD, taking care of others can feel nearly impossible. This societal pressure also may greatly increase a woman's feelings of inadequacy. [4] Since receiving my diagnosis and starting medication, I have felt more in control of my life in the past three weeks than I have in years. While I do experience feelings of depression and anxiety, they never felt like the route of the problem, and being told I have adult ADHD symptoms instead, had been an entirely validating experience for my identity. 

Though my own sense of self, physical and mental well-being, and identity are all important to this story, I ultimately end up bringing these ideas back to my teaching practice. I think about the child after the bell with his disorganized desk and school bag; I think about a quirky artsy girl in my grade 4 group who was constantly late to school in the morning, struggling with her self-confidence as she was beginning medication for her ADHD; I think about how assessment and report cards can bring about such horrible feelings, and how there are sometimes hidden messages in the commentary. While I can't say exactly what this all means at this point, I know receiving my diagnosis has made me a much more empathetic teacher to experiences of students who might be struggling with the same things I was struggling with in grade school and continue to in adulthood. I am catching up with unfinished projects and deadlines long-passed at the moment, and I'm not in a practicum school with those students yet, but I know how much better I will be able to show up for them in the spring. I realize the importance of being prepared for them and planning. Being adaptive and moving beyond my plans, turning them into living documents will also be important, but this is where my empathy superpower comes in. I am excited to greet my future students with this deepened understanding and learning under my belt. 

1. Quinn PO, Madhoo M. A review of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in women and girls: Uncovering this hidden diagnosis. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2014;16(3). doi:10.4088/PCC.13r01596 

2. Skogli EW, Teicher MH, Andersen PN, Hovik KT, Øie M. ADHD in girls and boys – Gender differences in co-existing symptoms and executive function measures. BMC Psychiatry. 2013;13(1):298. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-13-298 

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Reviewed November 16, 2020. 

4. Low, K. ADHD in Women: How ADHD Symptoms Commonly Present in Women. Very Well Mind. October 22, 2021. 

MacSkimming Outdoor Education Centre Field Trip

A handful of my teachers college colleagues and I attended a (COVID-compliant!) field trip to the MacSkimming Outdoor Education Centre in the city of Ottawa’s east end. This outing consisted of a guided 2km trek through the bush on snowshoes in some of the loosest, deepest powder I’ve ever stepped foot! There was a strong emphasis on observational skills and using the land and nature as a teaching resource. Not just for biodiversity studies/science - but across areas like math, physical education, visual art and more! The ephemeral nature of learning and creating and adding a physical, tangible element to the lessons (feeling how deep the snow is, the chill in your toes, exerting yourself through the walk) actually lights up different areas in the brain to deepen understanding. We picked up sticks to draw in the snow with, and later described to each other what we noticed about those sticks, what we wondered and what those sticks reminded us of. With the recent push for social-emotional learning within school curriculums, this outing provided the perfect opportunity to get outside, get some fresh air, reconnect with nature, meditate and reflect. We must keep in mind that many students do not engage in any more physical activity that what we provide them with, so even though we we’re huffing and puffing in our masks, we were doing something great for our bodies, and inherently our mental health.

We recently had a guest lecturer in our First Nations, Inuit & Métis Education course, Knowledge Keeper Ignacio Torres Ramirez, who spoke about Amatlán, Mexico and taught the stories of the land as teacher for daily and community life. I made many connections between this presentation and our MacSkimming trip. One of the stories from the presentation spoke about rural Mexican education and how teachers in these under-resourced schools often use dirt floors as blackboards. In the name of “progress,” the government created a solid floor program, where they were coming and laying concrete floors pf buildings and homes, causing widespread illness in the south, where people often sleep on floors as they do not have beds. The concrete absorbs moisture which would then affect their lungs. The interpreter, Lisanne Morgan states, “When there was a barrier between the earth and person, illness came.” When rural teachers protested the concrete floors within their schools, they were accused of wanting indigenous children to remain backwards, where having a concrete floor would be considered progress. “If you use a stick and the earth is your blackboard, you can’t do it inside anymore, and you have to go outside. Well, what happens if it’s raining? How are you going to teach? At least inside you can sit on the ground, you can use the dirt as your blackboard and you can learn how to write letters and all kinds of things.”

There was a stop on our trek where we stood in a circle and were asked to write our names in the snow using the stick we had collected. We were also asked to draw an experience of ourselves with nature. We walked around the circle and viewed each participant’s work, knowing that it would be left there in the snow, but that that snow would eventually be covered by more snow, disturbed or melt into the spring. I though this simple exercise was so beautiful, and reminded me so much of the Mexican rural teachers. The drawing posted below was something I created in response to the presentation, which really emphasizes the use of land/nature as a teaching resource.

“What does progress look like when you’re going backwards, how can you start to explain a so called backwards progress? […] We need to think about progress as cyclical, which means that you once in a while have to start going back in order to go forward.”

— Lisanne Morgan

Cyclope Blinking Origami Eye Project (Grade 6/7)

Teaching art during the pandemic can be quite difficult as many students may not have access to art supplies. In the name of equity, it is best to design lessons with simple materials that aren’t costly and easily accessible for all. Not every kid will have an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil or a full set of paints at home - so check your privilege/assumptions at the door!

The visual art period I teach to a grade 6/7 split on Fridays was exhibiting low participation for online assignments during the lockdown. Because this period was asynchronous, I felt there was even more of a disconnect to engaging students and getting them excited about creating. We had started another art project, Eye of the Dragon (more on this in another post…) that the vast majority of them were super excited about, so I tried to choose a lesson that could relate to that while their other projects were still at school. The slide deck below was posted to the Google classroom with visual and written instructions, as well as my own attempt at the origami eye. I tried filming a tutorial, but I will admit my video editing skills are rusty at best - I wanted some parts sped up and to overlay some narration. I did however tape my phone to the top of my desktop to film my hands and the paper folding in a cool Art-Attack-esque kind of aerial view. Goals to work towards for my very likely future in the online-teaching world!

We did have a handful of students submit their work and I encouraged them to post on the Google Classroom Stream if they were comfortable doing so, so that their classmates could could comment and get inspired by their work. My modelling of the task seemed to spark the interest of some as well. It is important to create exemplars alongside your students to encourage them to take risks, explore, be vulnerable, and make mistakes!

We also did this activity synchronously with my Grade 4 and 5 classes, and had them describe the steps in a procedural writing assignment. Lots of fun to writing.

Some samples of student work…

And my personal attempt!

Novel Study Drawing Timeline (Grade 5)

Before the winter break, my grade 5 class was doing a novel study on Rules, by Cynthia Lord. Students were asked to draw a significant event from the novel. They were also asked to write 1-2 sentences describing the event in their drawing (some of these appearing on the backside). The following language period, students presented their drawings to the class and we discussed where in the story that event occurred - was this towards the beginning of the book or more towards the end? Each drawing was stuck up on the wall with tape, so that it could easily be shuffled around as more and more students presented their work. In the case where multiple students drew the same event (for example, Jason's party) we took a deeper look at what was being depicted in the drawing, coming to a consensus with the rest of the class on what order the drawings should be placed in. I love engaging multiple literacies, that is, going beyond just reading and writing, to really engage students with content. Bonus points when we get to play with pencil crayons and markers outside of the art period!

Math Warm-Up (Grade 4 & 5)

Everyday as part of our math lesson, we run a Math Warm-Up activity, which takes up about 10 minutes of our period. It is a consistent daily activity where we look at temperature, dates, and time to collect number data sets. To keep the activity exciting, each week we add a new feature to the exercise, such as calculating the median of the data set, then the following week introducing the mode, and the following week inviting students to calculate the mean. The photos below are from the first day of my practicum in November, but we are now onto dividing †he fraction of “days left of school” and then converting that into a percentage. We use the Apple weather app as our data source, and have recently begun to think more critically about things like the day’s high, which can only be calculated truthfully in hindsight, at the day’s end. The students track this information in their math grid notebooks, and asked to make predictions based on trends in the previous days. We also graph out daily highs for the month as a whole and assign a set of questions on Google Classroom for students to answer. The students love this activity, especially volunteering their predictions for what the temperature was at 8AM. After practicing this everyday, they’ve fully memorize all the criteria and will call me out on anything I skip. I have to admit, I am a little rusty at my roman numerals! This is just a fun, quick, low-pressure way to introduce new concepts that we will dive further into in our numeracy units, while providing an example of where they will see it in the real world.

PED3154 - Characteristics of the Intermediate Learner

PED3138 - Inuit Pedagogy

A drawing created in response to a presentation made by the Nunavut Sivuniksavut, a silattuqsarvik (Inuktitut for "a place and time to become wise"), dedicated to providing Inuit youth with unique cultural and academic learning experiences that will allow them to develop the knowledge, skills and positive attitudes needed to contribute to the building of Nunavut (https://nunavutsivuniksavut.ca/). One of the presenters told an anecdote about instructors complaining that many of their Inuk students weren’t responding when asked questions directly in school. Inuit people often communicate with body language, where a micro movement of the eyebrows lifted can mean yes and a scrunch of the nose can mean no. Seeking some cultural understanding of the students we are teaching (a few simple words in their language, knowledge of traditions, etc.) would have told her this. We are always communicating - try to gain some understanding.

PED3114 - Social Justice Blog Post

https://www.smore.com/61kbw-becoming-what-we-ve-never-been

A in-progress painting response to Part 4 of the Seeing White series from the Scene on Radio Podcast., based on the word of Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, a professor of communications and critical culture media studies: "What you have to understand is we're trying to become something this country has never been." This series focuses in on the social construction of whiteness and the episode breaks down the colonial history of America and the myth of equality since the civil rights movement.

PED3114 - Literature Anthology

https://www.smore.com/am6qy-torn-between-two-worlds

A literature anthology for the junior learner based on books under the theme of conflicting racial identities. The three titles in this collection are written by authors of colour and centre around themes of conflicting racial identities for the central protagonist. Each of these books, ideal for readers at the Junior Intermediate level (grades 4-6), provide representation and relevant themes for the ongoing cultural discourse prevalent in today’s media. While exploring the complicated, multi-layered issues of racism and displacement, the books presented here will hook readers through the common universal experience of lacking a feeling of belonging. Regardless of the racial identities presented by your students, representation of differentiated voices helps to develop a sensitivity and the awareness so important for navigating global communities, reaching far beyond the classroom walls. It is through stories told from the perspective of “other,” and exposure to relevant, accessible human experience, we can help to break down racial barriers and dismantle the cultural hegemony that dominates Canadian classrooms and literature.

PED3150 - BLOG 1

The first semester within the Urban Communities Cohort has been such a rich, engaging experience and I am incredibly appreciative to be a part of a group committed to social justice, diversity and inclusion. I’m not sure what I was expecting at the beginning of entering this teacher’s education program; writing this reflection now, that person seems so far away. In just ten short weeks, I feel like I have fully immersed myself into thinking critically about society as a whole, and how schools function within and reflect that society - and perhaps most importantly, how schools can be used to change society. Schools should be used as tools for social mobility and classrooms should be designed for the success of all students, but so often fall short of this delivery. Inequalities within the schooling system have been brought into the forefront in this pandemic, and we must address and deconstruct these issues so that we can rebuild.

 I have struggled myself with these new platforms for learning and the less-than-desirable learning conditions, but know in my heart that from this struggle comes growth. It is important for me to remind myself that I am in a constant state of learning and will forever remain a student - even upon completion of this program and achievement of a teaching certification. I will be able to empathize with my students and their challenges because I too am a student, and I too can share in this lived experience. Teacher’s college has taught me that this role I aspire to take on is not the authoritarian, be-all and end-all source of knowledge, but that I will be a member of a community of learners. I have just as much to learn from my future students as they do from me, and the diverse lived experiences found within urban schools will only serve to enrich the global citizenship I strive for. 

As a portrait painter in my spare time, I am absolutely fascinated by people. Principal Sherwyn Soloman  from Le Phare Elementary School delivered some powerful words in one of our initial PLC meetings that have stuck with me all semester; “we are teaching kids, not subjects.” These meetings held throughout the term have been valuable for our growth as teacher candidates, and the “Hard Conversations” group talk was especially impactful. The work and passion of Principals Sherwyn, Geordie Walker and Kristin Kopra have been infectious for me and have helped to inspire my “why” for teaching on the days that I struggle to keep up. Notes from that presentation have been some of the most valuable words I have written down all semester - and we have done A LOT of writing. I value all the self-reflection and purposeful observation incorporated into the design of this course. The program definitely practices what it preaches, and I’ve been able to incorporate so much of myself as an artist and as an individual into assignments. 

The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) Standards of Practice and Ethical Standards are care, respect, integrity and trust. In my commitment to students and their learning, I aim to prioritize the relationships I foster with students, parents, guardians, colleagues, educational partners, other professionals, the environment and the public. The value of community and responsible global citizenship has been so meaningful within our online classrooms throughout the semester and I can’t wait to make further connections with my students in the first practicum. While I have always considered myself a people person and hold my own honesty and compassion to a high standard, I hope to develop better planning skills and familiarize myself with the various Ontario Learning Curriculums - and how exactly these large, intimidating documents look in real-world practice. My previous instructional and coaching experiences have been within private sector business in the fields of art and fitness, I am determined to take on the new challenge moving into the public sector. I will strive to hold myself accountable to the Ontario standards of education in the classroom setting.