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Entrance Slip (Sep 11)

Despite being written decades ago in a different place, the article makes some valid points in developing my ideas about teacher inquiry. Dewey’s three attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness remind me that my inquiries should not only ask “what works” but also “for whom, and at what cost?” In physics, this could mean questioning why I often default to cannonballs when teaching projectile motion. What message does that choice send? A more thoughtful approach would be to draw on the sidearm “whip” shot in lacrosse, a sport with cultural significance for many First Nations. Shifting from a generic cannonball to a culturally specific example reflects open-mindedness, acknowledges responsibility for the hidden curriculum, and shows wholehearted dedication to teaching all students. It also requires me to seek out resources beyond the standard curriculum. What feels dated is the article’s framing of the reflective teacher as a lone actor resisting a uniformly trad...
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Entrance Slip 9/18

While reading the article, I stopped at the idea of the garden and living ecosystems as co-teacher. To be honest, I haven’t really thought much about teaching outside a classroom before. Despite not explaining things out loud, the living ecosystem still “teaches, inspires and speaks” (p.109). We are “ observers at all times, learning from the garden itself ” (p.110). This really clicked for me when I thought back to our class the other day during the sit spot drawing activity. During our discussions I noticed the birds chirping, ants crawling, and bees moving from flower to flower. None of those things were “teaching” in the traditional sense, but they made me more aware, more curious, and more attentive. If I were to teach science in a high school garden, the first activity that comes to mind would involve microscopes and drawing (Science 8), inspired by our sit-spot drawing exercise. Students would create detailed scientific sketches of a specimen of their choice—potentially produci...
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Nov 6 Inquiry Status

Originally, my inquiry topic was how can we balance teaching for understanding vs teaching for assessment. However, after the short practicum I have had a slight change in perspective. While tests can cause stress and anxiety, it is extremely difficult to find an efficient alternative that accesses students as well as a test. With that in mind, I want to dive into more test policies and grading schemes that can help reduce the stress of students while giving just as accurate of an accessment of their learning if not better. One example is from my SA where they are given a mark based off the proficiency scale instead of a letter grade or percentage and then given the chance to correct their answers to get a bump up the scale. Alternatively, I saw another where there are retests for every test but there are no part marks given on the retest to still give incentive to do well on the main test.
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