Inquiry Project Annotated Bibliography

Topic: Teacher's Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing

 Inquiry Project Annotated Bibliography By Ealin, Jordan, Bonyo 

Exit Slip Nov 18 : My Plan for the Annotated Bibliography

I plan to talk to my SA how she personally deals with her mental wellbeing, and asking whether there are good contacts within the school community to get more information and resources. I also want to talk to the administrators to see what they do to help teachers. It'll also be interesting to talk to counsellors to see if they have heard of any ways teachers in the school or district deal with their mental well-being. In addition to see what resources they have from the district, I want to see how they personally cope with stress and how specific topics like how they were able to adapt and transition to a new type of teaching when covid hit. This might also lead to how the union supports teachers and their contracts affects teachers on focusing on their mental well-being (for example, limited sick days. Teachers might not take a day off for their mental health because they don't think they are "sick" so they will leave that quota for when they are actually "sick").

For the interactive activity, I'm currently thinking about getting the class to try some "winding down" and "brain breaks" for teachers to do during the day. Our goal is for teachers to realize that they will eventually be burnt out and it will be okay. So when that happens, we can prepare them on what they can do by listing out how they usually destress, so they will have a list to refer to when that happens. 

Marks, grades and their effects in schooling

     As the teacher bird, I've learned that it could be easier to assign percentages that can be translated into letter grades for evaluation assessments compared to a number on a learning map. No matter what type of final evaluations, it should act as a type of feedback for students to know what to work on next. For a student bird, getting percentages isn't always a good thing as it produces stress in students. Specifically, when students get an 85%, they would want that extra percentage just to get a boost to the next letter grade. The question here is, what's truly the difference between an 85% student and an 86% student? If we got a few teachers to mark the same student, their mark can also vary drastically. This puts students into greater stress when it's between 49% and 50%. From the article, it explains that teachers also get fixated on marks and I agree with this because some times when teacher are giving up assessments, teachers run out of reasons to give students especially when the assessments is given out for the wrong reasons. When I say "wrong reasons", some examples include teachers trying to get the class average higher or lower, teachers needing to show parents concrete evidence of why students deserves a specific grade, etc.. Due to many reasons, teachers tend to forget the real reason and purpose for accurate assessments, and this leads to moving further away from focusing on what the students truly needs to get an accurate evaluation of their knowledge and skill. Due to such high focus on grades and percentages, students complete assignments for the sake of getting an A instead of chasing after inquiry, losing their motivation for the subject. 

 

    Something that I also agree with from the article is that student won't need rewards if they get enough stimulation within the classroom. Students tend to only do well with an external reason, like they will get some type of reward. That system will create bad learning behavior since they will only do well if they get a reward, but eventually they will run out of rewards or they will stop receiving rewards, and that's when people usually lose "motivation". Although it might be fixed with self discipline, not many people can transition and develop their own self discipline quickly. Therefore, if activities within the classroom can stimulate their minds and belief for the topic in a positive way, they won't need the external factor reward for them to move forward in the first place.  

Inequality and Gender Norms in Math

 It's very worth celebrating to hear that women is finally getting more recognition on their knowledge and efforts within the math and science field. I would say that although it's worth celebrating, it's also a relief that women's efforts are finally being recognized whereas men got the opportunity to celebrate since the beginning. In other words, I think women finally being recognized is just a reply for all the advocating people have done all these years. It's important to not only focus on celebrating but also to realize that it took a long time for such progress. Therefore, I think it's very important for educators to start incorporating and to teach students that we should celebrate women since we are just as capable and worth recognizing.

 

Specifically, when we teach certain topics and we want to emphasize great contributors, we should include both men and women who have impacted on what we learn today. It depends on what the dynamic the classroom is in and who the students are but even within the classroom, all genders should be treated and celebrated equally. It'll be very helpful for students to emphasize that anyone, no matter what race or gender, can be successful and look up to whatever role model they choose to, and it's okay if they don't act or look like those role models.