Week 1
Kumashiro defines 'commonsense as things that people take for granted or what people assume everyone should know. But I also think that common sense is different for every community and every family. It is important to pay attention to common sense because everywhere you go common sense is different, even just in your own town it is likely that some people have different things that are common sense to them but not necessarily to their neighbours. By paying attention to the people around us or places we have visited we are able to learn new things.
The commonsense understandings of curriculum and pedagogy I bring into this course is that curriculum is what the students need to know and be successful with in order to pass the class. The teachers don't choose what the curriculum is based on, it is from the government so all schools in the province are the same. School grades are grouped together by age, school goes Monday to Friday, 9:00- 3:30.
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Week 2
Tyler's Rationale
1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes?
3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
I have experienced the Tyler rationale in my school, similar to most others I'm guessing, through standardized testing. In high school I had to write departmentals so the teachers made sure they taught the material that was going to be on the final and that was all. It made the classes not as exciting because the teachers felt rushed to make sure we knew everything so there was very little time for experiments or other activities in class.
In the Smith 2000 document it explained the main limitations of the Tyler rationale, which I think are that students aren't able to express themselves and everyone has different learning styles and abilities. When I was in high school I noticed that lots of my classmates learn in different ways and when it comes to having a choice for assignments there is always a variety that is chosen, it is never 100% to take the final/ do a test. With me personally I like being able to do a project or group presentation, or at least having the option to do it. Also, with the standardized testing it is harder for students to express themselves and show who they are which I think is an important part of school.
The benefit of having the Tyler rationale is that students from all schools in the province are learning the same things. With that being said, some teachers might have a little different way of teaching the material but the final result is all the same.
I think we need to move past the Tyler rationale and develop schools to teach kids in various ways. The curriculum needs to be adapted and changed as the years progress. The world is always changing and so are the needs of students, so education should be too.
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Week 3
Benefits of a Sex Education Curriculum
Sex education can be useful in decreasing the number of teen pregnancies. There are major health affects that come along with sexual activity including HIV infection and AIDS. Documents and courses have been used to try to reduce the number of adolescent sexual activity, pregnancy and STDs. These programs try to educate student about contraceptives to those who are sexually active (P. B. Smith et al 271). A School in the States had health educators come into the school and teach students about sexual activity. The students were asked to answer various questions at the beginning and end of the sessions.
Students were given the opportunity to ask questions about various topics, one of them being about STDs, sex, reducing risks, and then any general questions. Student were also asked to say what they liked about the program and what they disliked. As always there is a wide range of interests among the student and the results showed it. Some students found the program interesting while others thought of it as a waste of time (P.B. Smith et al 277-279).
For the rest of my paper I plan on looking at other experiences and results in schools that have had similar programs and experiences. I also plan on looking at the teacher perspective on the course and what it is like teaching the content to students.
Peggy B. Smith , Janet P. Realini , Ruth S. Buzi & Mario Martinez (2011) Students’ Experiences and Perceived Benefits of a Sex Education Curriculum: A Qualitative Analysis, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 37:4, 270-285.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2011.582433
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Week 4
A "good" student is one that follows the rules and does things the teacher wants. The students don't act up or cause the teacher to have to discipline them. A good student isn't loud or disruptive, they follow the teachers directions, and listen quietly and don't interrupt. We need to think about why these students might be acting up and whether it is something we can change or not. Students with different learning disorders can cause them to misbehave or not seem like the "good" student that every teacher wants.
The students that are well behaved and listen to the teacher seemed to be more privileged. Students who can remember the information and get good marks help students be "good" especially when they are young because good marks makes kids happy but if they don't understand the content and get bad marks then it can become frustrating for the kids.
The Painter's text shows how the past was what education was like. The goal back then was to prepare the men for work and focus on giving the men a career for the future. The article shows the history of Euro-Centric thinking and how it has shaped our views. Its showed how they though their own way of learning was better then what other counties were doing.
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Week 5
How might we begin to address the ways in which the systems that we teach our curriculum in are intrinsically homophonic, transphobic, biphobic and oppressive towards queer and trans people?
To address the ways the systems we teach our curriculum in are intrinsically homophobic, transphobic, biphobic and oppressive toward queer and trans people we need to learn and teach people about the topic. Like we had in lecture, inviting speakers to come talk about the topic, it made the class very interesting and helps give a different perspective about the subject and maybe even from people first hand like we listened to. In a classroom it is important to acknowledge LGBTQ subjects and accept and support different students pronouns.
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What does integrating queerness into curriculum studies mean to you? What will it look like, sound like, feel like in your classroom?
I think it is important to integrate queerness into the curriculum and classroom. I want to educate students about the topic and have them understand different LGBTQ terms and treat it as something normal and not something that as seen as different. My classroom and I will be a safe place for students to talk about anything related to LGBTQ topics and all students will be and feel accepted.
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Which rule/discourse should the teacher follow: providing the duty of care for all students, or maintaining a classroom free from any notion of sexuality?
I think it is important that teachers should follow the notion in providing care for all the students. It is important for all students to be educated and sexuality and LGBTQ should start to become more common in classrooms. Sexuality should be talked about among students as it allows them to express who they are. Not talking about it would be like covering up their identify and who they are.
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Week 6
Teachers are critical in developing or reforming the curriculum. They are the ones teaching the information and they know what is working and what isn't. As new generations come they know what needs to be changed based on society and what's going on around them. "It soon became evident that, amongst teachers, there was widespread discontent… The heart of teachers’ discontent was the rigid system of testing and the lack of public and professional input into decisions about what should be taught" (Levin p.4). It shows that teachers don't get much say in what the curriculum is based on yet they are the ones teaching it.
The article by Levin also explains how it is the government who, in a way, is responsible and controls everything so education should be seen from a political view. This to me from a teacher perspective would be difficult when it comes to curriculum because the government wants to please the largest crowd with the littlest effort. So they won't make accommodations or variations to suit all needs of kids because they don't know what the needs are in each school, but the teachers do!
(The Saskatchewan Way) document mentions that experts know more about their subjects then most teachers do (p.17). I can see this to be true but then it makes it hard for teachers to get the input they should have when reforming or changing the curriculum. Also a danger with curriculum development is that the production is not usable by most ordinary teachers. Curriculum should me made and adapted so that teachers can give the most to their students as that is the ultimate goal, educating the students.
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Levin, B. (2008). Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be learned in schools. In F. Connelly, M. He & J. Phillion (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of curriculum and instruction (pp. 7 – 24). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Available on-line from:
http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/16905_Chapter_1.pdf.
The Saskatchewan Way: Professional-Led Curriculum Development. Available on-line from:
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Week 7
From what I can remember in my K-12 schooling is that it was mainly personally responsible citizens and participatory citizens out of the 3 mentioned in the What Kind of Citizen? The Politics of Education for Democracy article by Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne. In elementary school it was pretty much all personally responsible citizens because I would take part in different activities like pep rallies or spirit teams. Also fundraisers, cleaning the playground, reading buddies, and donating to the food bank. Where as then in high school I was a member of the SLC (student leadership council) where I would organize different event and activities that happened throughout the school. We were never taught about citizenship in our classes specifically but I can remember doing the different activities and then talking about it after. Especially with things like cleaning the playground and relating it to Earth Day, doing different toy drives at Christmas time or donating to the food bank would also allow teachers to share the importance of why we do it.
By looking at these different kinds of citizens it helped students to question different things and become better people. Student became more responsible by participating in the food drives and fundraisers and hopefully it will encourage some to want to organize different events like this or even more importantly, figure out why we are doing these events and how to solve the problem. As a teacher I think it will be important to try to implement all three of these types of citizens because to me they are all equally as important. There will be the students that do their part by donating and participating and that is all and there will be others who will want to take it a step further and organize the event and hopefully even come up with a solution! As a teacher I do think it will be very hard to teach about the Justice-Oriented Citizens since I haven't had much experience with it.
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Week 8
Some people might not think Hip Hop should be taught in schools and see it pointless compared to classes like math and English, but I don't think that is the case. Hip Hop in a classroom can be used to help student learn about diversity and racial issues. By teaching students about diversity and racial issues through Hip Hop I think it can help them connect to the material better because it might be something they are more interested in, instead of just laying out facts and information from a textbook or power point. It can help students get a different perspective on the situation and then see how it is related to real life current issues. I think the CHHP was a smart idea to implement, with the fundamental elements that were mentioned. Having something that is participatory and youth-driven, foregrounding race, racism, and gender, challenging traditional paradigms and has a balance of critical thinking, reflection, analysis and action (Akom, 2009, 56). Hip Hop is something that students already know about and connect with so by implementing it in the classroom I think students will enjoy learning more about it. Having Hip Hop in the classroom could take student a step further into identifying different issues and how to address and fix the problem.
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Week 9
As I think about what my classroom and teaching habits will look like, I think back to the teachers I had both good and bad throughout school. As I become a teacher I will be able to include things that I enjoyed and thought were important from high school but also to learn from and try to incorporate new ideas and ways of learning. I will make sure to show critical pedagogy throughout my classroom as I think it is important for kids learning. I think it is important because is has showed to have "emerged as an effective way of centring the cultures, languages and experiences that diverse students bring to classrooms so as to increase their engagement and academic achievement" (Lopez, 2011, 77). I want to allow students to be able to share their ideas and learn from one another. I will do my best in teaching and educating myself on the topics so I can teach the students to the best of my ability and allow them to take the most from the course. I think if I don't know much about certain topics then I will reach out to the community for a guest speaker to allow us all to learn more, this might also allow for more diversity in the classroom. I think a main goal of mine will be to make sure my classroom is diverse and have everyone feel welcome.
A sense of place is also important for students and I think having place-based learning is essential for the growth of students learning. Incorporating community learning and ideas in the classroom will be important to me since students need to learn more about where they come from and there surroundings than the common written tests and information.
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Lopez, A. (2011). Culturally relevant pedagogy and critical literacy in diverse English classrooms: A case study of a secondary English teacher’s activism and agency. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(4), 75-93.
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Week 10
First of all, good on you for standing up for something that matters and seems to usually skipped over.
As a teacher I think it is very important for students to learn about treaties since we are all treaty people. In Claire's video it explained how teachers are leaders and it is important for us to be good role models for society and the way students will then view society.
If a teacher is able to not include Treaty Ed because they don't see the point or don't have a connection with it, then it is the same as the student saying they don't want to do math or English because they don't like it or will never use it in the future. Its sad to think your classmates don't want to include Treaty Ed in their classrooms even if they don't have any First Nations students. We don't have students from WW2 but we still teach about it and learn about history. I think they need to look at it differently and see other peoples perspectives on teaching it and how important it is.
I think it is important for people to know that Treaty Ed is teaching about the history of treaties in Canada and not just about their culture. Some might not understand this, which is why they find it hard or useless. Learning that we are all treaty people is also important for students to know. Showing that we are all on treaty land, and we should learn the history about it. Knowing that we are all treaty people might make the students more interested in learning about Treaty Ed since it can relate to them. I think if you are also able to incorporate it through your classes instead of just only talking about Indigenous People it will allow students to be more interested and be able to connect to the content.
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Week 11
I was always good at math so it was easy for me to enjoy doing it in school. Throughout the years learning math was pretty similar, learning the content, doing practice questions and assignments, and then having a unit test. This never really allowed for different learning styles or for people to express different ways of showing they know the content. I never really thought further into the content we were learning and didn't notice that it could be oppressive. Last year taking math 101 is when I learned about base-20 instead of just base-10, along with roman numerals. At the time I didn't see the point in it since base-10 is so common to everything I see and do. After reading Teaching Mathematics and the Inuit community by Louise Poirier I see the importance of incorporating different ways of mathematical learning
Some of the ways in which Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas that I found was learning math and numbers through base-20 instead of base-10 is a big difference to me since it totally changes what the answer might be or how things are valued. I found it interesting that students were able to learn in their first language during the younger grades but then had to learn in French or English when they got older. I also thought it was cool that the Inuit community has a different calendar and way of keeping track of days and months is very different. Their traditional calendar is relying on "when the caribou's antlers lose their velvet" (pg. 60) is a very different way of counting days in a month. It seems like the Eurocentric ideas are more formulas and equations where as Inuit ideas have different ways of finding the answer and going beyond the Eurocentric way of learning.
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Week 12
How has your upbringing/schooling shaped how you “read the world?” What biases and lenses do you bring to the classroom? How might we unlearn / work against these biases?
Which “single stories” ( Chimamanda Adichie’s talk) were present in your own schooling? Whose truth mattered?
I always had the opportunity to participate in sports and clubs, and didn't have to worry about money or being judged on my race. My home life defiantly created a lens on what I thought a good home life was and with being able to have a close family, I fall into that lens. The books I read were mainly written my white men like it was mentioned in the lecture this week but I feel like lots of them touched on different issues further on in high school. They were all through the lens of a white male but I think it is at least a good start in showing different cultures and races. I think some of the books we read in school were good and useful but it will be important for me to try to incorporate others as well, to allow for a diverse classroom. The single story of middle class white people and families is what I related to most in my schooling and home life. Wanting us to be successful and get jobs to provide for our families. As a student I had a bias that Indigenous people weren't as smart or educated compared to white people. White privilege is a bias that I think takes over my lens on how I view things. I was able to have a good education and speak my original language and not be told I need to change the way I talk or do things. I think it is important as a future teacher that i recognize these biases and different lenses and change or use them to incorporate different ideas and learning in my classroom.
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