Category: Weekly Reflections

In class a few weeks ago, we had a great discussion about multi-access learning pathways in school environments. We discussed the different ways this can look, the benefits of it, and real examples of implementations of this model at the University of Victoria. If you would like to explore the subject further, here is the link to the presentation by Valerie Irvine.

I find this model very interesting because I have never experienced this learning format before. I have taken fully in-person classes and fully online classes, but never a course that had options for both that students could choose between. I have experienced in-person classes that integrated online learning in the case of a teacher’s illness or extreme weather conditions, but the option of attending class online was not a frequent option.

While, I am generally on board with this model, I have some personal reservations. Through all my years as a student, I have always felt that I learn and focus best when I am physically in a school environment. I wonder if I would focus as well if I attended online class on a more regular basis. Even though I personally would prefer to attend class in person, I appreciate that the multi-access learning model opens up ways for all students to be able to participate in the course in their own way. Some students have a long commute, some have children or other family members to take care of, and some have health-related issues that prevent them from attending class in-person. Additionally, the multi-access learning model allows for change. You could attend class in-person one day, and the next day attend online. If you are having an off day, or something comes up, there are options for participating in an environment that works for you.

In our course, we have also discussed how this model can be applied to elementary school classrooms. One of the suggestions was to create a blog for your class so that parents of children who miss school could catch up on the material that was missed. I like this idea because it creates a way for students to stay up to date, for parents to be able to see what is happening in the classroom, and it creates a record of the teacher’s lessons and activities for future years.

Thinking more about the multi-access learning model made me reflect on how I could implement it into my future classroom. I found a book titled “Online by Choice: Design Options for Flexible K-12 Learning” by Stephanie L. Moore and Michael K. Barbour that discusses different options for blended learning in schools, meeting learner needs, and building an online community. I haven’t had a chance to read the whole book yet, but I have already found it really helpful in terms of guidance for implementing online learning options in the classroom.

Although online learning is something that can make me feel uneasy, I am open to exploring ways that I can implement it in my future classroom with the end goal of helping my students. I think an approachable way of starting with this would be to create a class website or blog, and then different things can be implement as you go. I appreciate that multi-access learning and blended learning can create ways for students to be active in the classroom in a way that they wouldn’t necessarily have been able to with out it.

— Sofia 🎀

A few weeks ago, I watched a session with Cable Green, the director of Open Education from Creative Commons. He had a lot of interesting things to say about access to educational resources and barriers in our education system. When I looked into his role on the Creative Commons website, I found that he “works with open education, science and research communities to leverage open licensing, content, practices and policies to expand equitable access and contributions to open education”. I linked the Creative Commons website and the page about Cable Green above if you would like to learn more about what they do!

He started by talking about what inspired his work with open education. He explained that the late 1990’s and early 2000’s brought lots of change to education with the creation of the world wide web and increased access to computers and laptops. This lead to a unique opportunity to be able to share resources with people all over the world, the only problem being that everything is copyrighted by default. So Creative Commons created a way for people to share their knowledge and retain their copyright, but also allow for other people to use and modify your resources.

I find this topic very interesting, especially because I don’t know as much about copyright as I should. I am more familiar with copyright in the context of books, because I’m used to opening up the first page and seeing the the copyright and publishing details. To seek more clarification on exactly what copyright is, I found this great video on Youtube made by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. I linked below for anybody who would like to take a look.

Also on the Creative Commons website is an “About CC Licenses” page about the different types of licenses they offer. The most permissive option is one that allows reusers to “distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator”. This license allows for the most change from the original material and requires that the original creator is given credit. At the other end of the spectrum is the most restrictive license, which allows “reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator”. I think these licenses are so interesting and a great way to share resources with people around the world! It seems like an easy enough process and allows for more access to knowledge in all kinds of situations.

Learning more about copyright and Creative Commons led me to think about how I could teach these topics to my future students and encourage digital literacy in my classroom. I found a great article on Edutopia.org titled “How to Teach Copyright and Fair Use to Students“, by Karen Lagola. The approach to introducing this topic certainly depends on the grade you’re teaching, but I think this article has lots of great tips that could work for all grade levels. For example, one of the suggestions is to “Empower Your Students as Creators”. I think that this could work as early as Kindergarten. Although they are probably not posting their work on the internet, the principle of respecting their work and them as creators of it is important to introduce. Once you get to the older grades, you could start introducing them to the terminology, what it means, and guiding them through the processes of creating their own licenses for their work through Creative Commons.

I’m glad that through this online recorded session I was able to learn more about copyright and Creative Commons licenses. As I enter my teaching career this is something that I hope to teach my future students about. Technology in our world is only becoming more abundant and innovative so it’s important that young students know about how to properly interect with other people’s work on the internet.

I hope that this post can be helpful to others like me who don’t know a lot about copyright and Creative Commons licenses, but would like to. I’m happy that during this process I found some resources that can hopefully help my future students as well as other teachers.

— Sofia 🎀

This week, I had the pleasure of touring the Pacific School for Innovation and Inquiry in downtown Victoria, founded and co-run by former Gulf Islands School District Superintendent Jeff Hopkins. Our class had the opportunity to hear from Jeff, tour the school, and speak with some of the students. I entered the experience not knowing what to expect, and I left inspired and intrigued.

Jeff started the session by talking to us about the mission behind the school and how the school works. The students choose an inquiry question and attend sessions that help them along with their research and broaden their knowledge on related topics. By exploring their inquiry, the majority of students meet curriculum requirements and sometimes even graduate early. At first, I was skeptical about this model of schooling, but after hearing Jeff speak about the school and answer all of our questions I found myself wishing that I could have gone to a school like this when I was in highschool.

My favourite part of the tour was getting to see the creative working space. As a sewer and general textiles enthusiast, seeing this space was so exciting. They have tons of bins of fabrics and other materials, sewing machines, sergers, mannequins, and even a loom for weaving. I couldn’t help but imagine all the projects I could make and how it could all connect to learning outcomes in other subjects. The textiles space is not the only creative workspace they have. The studio also houses a small theatre, a small woodworking shop, a ceramics studio, and music rooms.

Another thing that stood out to me was a term that Jeff mentioned: the Zone of Proximal Development, developed by Lev Vygotsky. I recognized the term from my Grade 12 psychology course, but it was interesting to hear Jeff talk about it in the context of the school’s approach. The diagram below is a visual for the term. Essentially, it describes the zone between what is too easy for a learner and what is too difficult. The zone represents the optimal content that challanges someone. Jeff mentioned how this term is very important for the school’s model but also for us as elementary school teachers.

Zone of Proximal Development Diagram, PSII Victoria

Overall, I’m grateful for the opportunity to have toured the school. I had never been exposed to this type of school growing up and I think it would be so cool to be a student there. We had the chance to talk to some of the students and they seemed so focused and inspired. I very curious to see how this model of school will expand and how its approach can be implemented in more schools in the future!

— Sofia 🎀

“Most Likely to Succeed” is a documentary film directed by Greg Whiteley, released in 2015. The film explores new perspectives to education including a relatively new approach from High Tech High School in San Diego, California. The school’s focus is heavily weighted on “soft-skills” like confidence, leadership, and group collaboration. While focusing on two Grade 9 classes, the film shows the process of their learning throughout the year. Each class works with two teachers, for example one physics teacher and one humanities teacher. The students would explore both subjects and at the end of their term, create a project to feature in the school’s showcase, open to the students’ families, friends, and community.

This approach fascinated me because this is not something that I had seen or considered before. In theory, the emphasis on entrepreneurship, leadership, confidence, and collaboration in a high school setting is a great idea, but like some of the parents of High Tech High students, I was a bit skeptical. The parents’ main concern is that their children won’t be able to succeed on standardized tests that will secure their way to a post-secondary institution.

In the film, they explain the reasoning behind High Tech High’s approach. Their rationale is that while students in standard secondary schools pass tests and get accepted to universities and colleges, they don’t retain any knowledge from their courses long-term or learn any useful skills for a world outside of school. So, High Tech High aims to teach kids those skills through an in-depth exploration of some subjects, rather than a surface level one of a wide breadth of subjects.

I do agree with their reasoning, but the unknown results fo this experiment made me nervous while watching the film. Ten years ago, when the film was released, High Tech High was still relatively new. So there wasn’t any information on their long-term success rates in the film. As I looked into the current success rate of the program on the High Tech High Website, I saw that 82% of their graduates in 2022 attended college and that 95% of their senior students “indicat[e] readiness for college-level coursework”.

The video above, is one that I found on youtube while exploring High Tech High. It shows a preview into a class at High Tech High creating video games and interactive art pieces inspired by their conversations about propaganda and social movements with their English teacher.

As I reflect more on the glimpse into High Tech High from the documentary and the youtube video, I keep thinking about how cool it would have been to do a project like that when I was in school. Projects like making a mechanism out of gears that represents a theory on the chute of civilizations, or the daunting task of writing and producing your own play on Ancient Greece seem very nerve-racking to me. However, I imagine that the students must feel so proud and accomplished when they present their projects at the showcase.

Even if the students at High Tech High do not follow a traditional school model, I have no doubt that they are learning useful skills for their adult life. I recognize their rationale and I’m curious to see the results of the school after a few more years. Overall, I think it’s great that they are trying something new that will hopefully inspire generations of innovators and leaders.

— Sofia 🎀