Annotated Bibliography Week #1

Shelemy, L., Harvey, K., & Waite, P. (2019). Supporting students’ mental health in schools: What do teachers want and need? Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 24(1), 100–116. doi:10.1080/13632752.2019.1582742 

 

It's crucial for teachers to understand, approach and identify mental health in their classroom. A lot of teachers believe managing students' mental health is a part of their job, so this articles sheds light on the need of training teachers to understand that they are not therapists. This articles explores what UK teachers need the most in terms of training to help their students within the classroom in a study done by Shelemy, Harvey and Waite. The conclusion is that teachers can benefit from training to help early stages of those who are struggling and access to resources that is more applicable. 

 

Borrelli, I., Benevene, P., Fiorilli, C., D'Amelio, F., & Pozzi, G. (2014). Working Conditions and mental health in teachers: A preliminary study. Occupational Medicine, 64(7), 530–532. doi:10.1093/occmed/kqu108 

 

This paper will help with pinpointing the specific aspects of the teaching occupation that contributes the most to teachers' mental health. It includes a study done on teachers in Italy that aims to find out specifically what kind of working conditions and to what extent would become harmful to teachers. In other words, work conditions that would bring them to a state of anxiety and depression. Their results from surveys shows that mental health has association with high job demand and low social support.

Final Class Reflection

 I think this was a really cool class to take part in as it was blended with the Physics cohort. I learned a lot about inquiry and I think everything I learned from this class will be very helpful when I teach within the class. The level of content was perfect since we had so many diverse students and backgrounds. It's a good starting point for all of us. I loved the bell activity and the coloured pieces of paper activity. It was very nice to be able to explore open ended activities, tasks, and problems so we can incorporate inquiry within the classroom. I don't think any of us would be good teachers without learning what it means to inquire within the classroom. I'm glad we had you as a teacher, Susan! 

Dec. 2 exit slip: Embodied bellringing combinatoric patterns

I think the bellringing activity was so cool and the music that we created with the patterns was so magical! It's definitely a great idea to incorporate music in the lesson. The activity even gets students moving. It's short but intriguing, and explains a lot about combinatoric patterns. If I introduced this activity in my classroom, I think students would be very excited to hear the new tune after each round - because I definitely was! I believe it can also make students think a lot using their eyes, ears and touch, and notice special patterns and how it relates to math. 

The origami paper activity was also really beautiful to create. I think the concept can be applied when another medium is used. This activity can be extended and altered to students' interest. I love when math can be represented with such visually pleasing artwork, because it really takes away the boredom students are used in with traditional ways of teaching.

Inquiry Project + Reflection

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CnRU7JGusJvsSnI6mvLya38olM_OBifJ/view?usp=sharing

Teacher's Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health

By: Bonyo + Ealin + Jordan

Doing this project allowed me to really dig deep on Teacher's Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health. It made me more aware of all the realistic challenges teachers have to go through. It was very informative at times, but it also gave me a lot of reality checks. It's almost like reading all the red flags of my future. What's good is that we also made an effort to include things on how to manage those emotions and our mental health, so I was very relieved to have already found solutions to such prominent problems we will all encounter. I was worried that many students in the class will be bored and not pay attention to our presentation because a lot of people think our topic is very "self-explanatory" and that because it's in the future, they don't need to think about it now. I just hope that even if they didn't pay attention, if they ever find themselves struggling with their mental health, they can think back to our presentation and get some resources and strength from it. It's indeed a very big topic, so I'm excited to how much we can extend this topic when we take the inquiry part 2 course in January!

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.  

  

Inquiry Project

We decided to break down Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing into three categories that we thought were most relevant to teachers currently. Considering that there are so many more unwritten responsibilities teachers have to take on due to covid, teachers are having a harder time dealing with their own mental health. It's a teacher's responsibility to adapt their teaching style accordingly, and with covid as a main issue that's affecting students, teachers are forced to go above and beyond to only meet the basic needs of their students. There are so many last minutes changes and so much more to prepare that it's reasonable for teachers to forget about putting taking a breather and putting themselves first. Even outside of covid, teachers have unwritten responsibilities that parents might put teachers on for their children. 

Considering that teachers can go through so much, we thought about whether the resources teachers have access to are actually helpful and if so, to what degree. It's interesting to learn about what the communities and schools have to offer for teachers and what are some programs that directly help teachers with their emotional wellbeing within the classroom. The last aspect we really wanted to focus on was how teachers might regulate their own emotional wellbeing and self awareness. It's true that when we are teaching, it's not about us and it's about the children, but that statement is too broad to stand by itself. Teachers need to have the right mindset and be in a good mindset to deliver a good lesson. This all boils down to the teacher's mental health and emotional being. From there, we also thought about extending a little bit to how teachers might help with student's emotional well being within the classroom that can also in turn help the teacher. 

 

Exit Slip Oct 14

    Some of the biggest takeaways from the videos we watched today in class are that everyone has a different mindset and the differences between one dimensional and multidimensional math. Through discussion, I realized the importance of understanding that students who memorize methods are the lowest achieving performers, and highest achievers are the ones who discover and link the 'how' and 'why. I grew up in a traditional setting, where we would be asked to listen for most of the class time then we either do problems over and over again or do homework at home. Looking back, my classes all had low participation and a lot of us just wanted an A so they would be forced to learn. In fact, traditional learning produces underachievers and an inequitable classroom. What's more important is that students should want to learn without that incentive, and that learning shouldn't be associated with percentages or grades. Since percentages might foster a negative environment, educators can consider feedback instead. Students still need guidance for the specific material they need to improve in so in order to eliminate the anxiety and competitiveness in the classroom, students can think of feedback as a positive thing and will look forward to improve instead of feeling defeated if they didn't get an A. From my group members, I related to them when they mentioned the time that is associated with mathematicians. A lot of people have a misconception that all math teachers should be able to do math really fast but what's important to consider is that intelligence isn't related to the speed of how you do certain questions. 

    I learned that effective math tasks should give students different ways of seeing, methods, pathways and representations for the math concepts. With these kinds of math tasks, the opportunities for learning and developing a growth mindset are increased. One of the many things that resonated with me was that we need to stop teaching calculating and start teaching math. 

Entrance Slip Oct 14

     The invisible grid that appears everywhere in the education system and also school building reminds me of jail or the army. Especially when the articles describes that the grid-like chart makes claims of control and ownership of intellectual spaces. This is similar to jails because the individuals area all locked up into rooms. Where they are and how long they get in each room is all decided by prison warden and officers. As for the army, this analogy is similar in ways where there are certain rules of how they represent themselves, the hierarchy that exists, and the rules people are forced to follow.

    I agree with that grids do give a sense of comfort and familiarity as a lot of humans live their day to day life in an organized way. Any big events or ideas can be dealt with more easy by breaking it down into sections. Teaching complex, un-categorizable, unpredictable things can be absorbed by students more easily by breaking them down into grid style so it's also easier to memorize. 

 

    Considering that I think the grid that exist in schools is metaphorically similar to a prison, I think the outdoors and nature  is seen the same way for inmates to be able to take a step back into the real world, outside of the prison. The fact that doing activities in an outdoor environment like at a garden lets people engage in reflective practice and gives them time to take a pause and step away from the hectic daily routines is very true in my opinion. We've been having most of our classes outside in the garden and I do feel that way too. It's a good change of environment, like a breath of fresh air into my busy schedule. At times the outdoor classroom might limit the activities a class can do, so a good balance of two would be perfect. On the other hand, there are a lot more creative outlets for individuals to explore and fun activities that can be tied into math learning that would be harder to enjoy in a room.

 

    The math subject has a lot of misconceptions, where a lot of students think it's just filled with theorems and old concepts. The passage in the reading where it talks about incorporating new ways to become ecological teachers is filled with questions  in my opinion because we can renew students' mindset on how math can be exciting and current.

Exit Slip for Oct 7th

The activity of identifying and drawing shapes for my leaf was really interesting. I realized I was looking at the leaf with a lot of details in order to do this activity and I found so many interesting lines and shapes within such a simple piece of nature. This activity is helpful for students who wants to extend their creativity for shapes. I found myself critically thinking about what shapes I can fit inside the leaf and that special angles and lines can help me recreate the leaf. 

My poem/observations of the garden two weeks later:

tomatoes exploding its’ decay 

addition of grey fuzz to the color bed

sun sprinkling sparkles into the garden

cracklings no more from under our feet 

damp bed from the cold and wet morning

leaves are wilting, plants are falling 

the cold wind takes the colors away 

planes are the new birds 

the wind ripples through the trees 

crinkle leaves on the ground and they disappear 

touch the leaves on the plants and all that’s left is a damp palm 

Entry Slip Oct 7th : Moshe Renert on math and climate change

    I think it's very suitable for educators to incorporate sustainability in mathematics as we're currently trying to change teaching math towards inquiry within students. Instead of feeding students the theorems and formulas, it would give students a more impactful learning experience if they're able to make their own discoveries, read stories, and do problems that are more relatable. The things they learn within the classroom will stay in their minds for longer and increase interest within the subject. Climate change in our world today is very real and it's already been impacting all of us drastically from using compostable straws to high levels of temperatures in the summer. That's why, I think it would only make sense for students to see the world using sustainable mathematics education through renewed mathematics. I agree with Renert that "Mathematics is popularly conceived of as a pure body of knowledge, independent of its environment, and value-free". A lot of students sometimes don't even want to try math problems because the question looks boring and complicated. I want to change that misconception where if they see a problem, whether it's actually hard or easy, they should be excited to figure the problem out, and have a similar mindset when people want to try out new games or puzzles.

    Some of the ways and ideas educators can use issues of the environment in their lesson is to include descriptive modeling in problem-solving. Word problems are good for when you want math topics to be relatable and to imagine a representation of what specific math topics looks like in real life. One can also understand and start to notice how math shows up in real life within word problems. If educators can incorporate sustainability, students can think about important current issues that is affecting all of us while understanding and learning math. I appreciate how Renert describes that "a critical stance could also be constructive for mathematics educators who wish to approach issues of the environment, such as climate change." In other classes, we talk a lot about social issues and I believe that talking about sustainability and climate change issues are just as important and relevant for students.

Exit Slip Sept 23rd

I'm really bad at poetry but that didn't stop me from just writing down what came into my mind! I tried to incorporate all of my senses and looked at things with a magnifying glass while including some instances of what we see as giants in nature.  

Sensory Activity/Poem:

i feel …

the fuzz on the tomato leaves, the damp surface, 

the smooth skin on the firm tomato, 

uneven ground, 

the mazes in the kale leaves, 

the tomatoes melting into the soil,

bright sky,

the soft breeze blowing against my skin, 

explosion of green, yellow, red, and brown,

birds chirping,

bugs crawling around 

What do they feel?

The braiding activity was super fun and I made a really really long rope! I think it's amazing that everyone in the class found their own little space and started making things out of raw materials or just strips of cloth. It's a good activity to "tie" (haha) in math subjects braids and knots with the nature. Instead of getting students to just sit in the classroom and listen to information, students can explore this new skill at their own pace and also take a breather in their busy schedules. 

Entry Slip for Thurs Sept 23

I really enjoyed thinking about the question: "what if we began to make some of the things that we need for ourselves again as a cultural and social norm?" I feel that the society we live in right now is working towards promoting consciousness of our environment and that deals with people being conscious about the type of food they're eating, the type of clothing they're buying, and how they're living every day life. One can even say that it's the trend to be resourceful, to be able to learn certain skills so that you can make your own clothes, to be able to take care of your body and the environment by choosing the right foods to eat and things to buy. A lot of the conversation today always surrounds what company is ethical and have the future of the earth and people a part of their vision for their company. I really think all these topics relate to thinking about making things we need for ourselves again as a cultural and social norm. Another quote that stood out to me was about how this way of living can not just change the world and environment, but also within the school and our own lives. I recently learned many skills like knitting and riding the bicycle. Although riding the bicycle is less about what we need in life, I thought knitting would be a more suitable answer as it can provide clothing for one's needs. Both of these skills gave me a great sense of enjoyment and I was definitely proud of myself for these accomplishments. With these experiences, I can really relate to how the reading explains that the skills learned can give the individual self esteem. 

 

The video about the braid was super interesting as it reminds me of how my boyfriend's mom likes to braid my hair since she always wanted a daughter. She always teaches me new and different kinds of braids and the braid shown in the video was very similar to one of the braids we've attempted. The pattern is super interesting and it looks very complicated but once you get the hang of it, all you need to do is to repeat the steps! I am also really interested in the simple Turkish lace as it really reminds me of some knitting patterns. I definitely want to try to make a bag using this technique one day!

Exit Slip: Sept 15th

    From today's class, the biggest takeaway for me is the activity when we drew in the garden. During the assignment, I noticed that it was a really relaxing activity that ties really nicely with angles and math. I will definitely try to incorporate this activity in my classroom in the future. I thought the activity will be able to introduce a unified feeling for all the students as they will be focused on doing the same activity with making decisions for themselves. The topic is all about exploring the different shapes and angles that exist in the real world while highlighting what they see and discover on their own. Math can sometimes be too theory based for students and that it might be hard to understand and relate to. So, including aspects of going outside, stretching, walking around, and looking at things up close, will help students feel relieved and possibly become excited to dig deeper into the topic.

    In addition to incorporating math with an outdoor activity, this activity can help students destress and think about nature they might not always think about when they're walking outside. It certainly helped me discover more details within nature and hear my breathing. I was able to zoom in and zoom out of not just what I was looking at, but also of thoughts I had in my mind.

Entrance Slip: Grant & Zeichner: On becoming a reflective teacher

    In the article, it talks about how teachers were permitted at some degree of personal discretion in the selection of content and materials. I think this is still applicable in 2021 as teachers been trying to move education for that cater more for the students and to teach material on students' needs. To focus more on what the students' truly need and how they can learn more effectively and more engaged, there are still options about the kinds of classroom structure. I believe in another part of the article, the idea of being reflective and unreflective and how it's defined is still very true in Vancouver today. It's something that I have been thinking a lot lately - that teaching is not just about getting the information to the student, but making sure that I'm openminded, which is to actively listen to more sides than one and be open to the possibilities of mistakes within beliefs. Something that really caught my attention was about how our ideas are only ideas because it's a widely accepted view, and it's not something we actually think about and believe in, and not something we have examined carefully. I find that a lot of us share our experiences and views only because it aligns with whatever topic the class is talking about, but we don't always think about what makes that certain experience good or what needs improvement. 

    After reading the article, I find it very interesting that they include possible opinions that disagree with the claims made in the article. It helps the reader analyze and think more about why using reflective teaching skills works. I would say it allows more room for the readers to explore and to help with any possible questions raised while reading the bold claims of the direction education was moving towards. Some of the headings or beginnings of a section start off with a question to help teachers think critically since they plant a question that would motivate you to think of possible solutions or answers to it. 

Exit Slip : 'Teacher Man' and teacher inquiry: Frank McCourt

    After watching Frank McCourt speak about his experience on how he got into teaching, there were a few things that stuck out to me. I consider his story to be quite motivating as it's an example of starting a life in a totally new environment, humble beginnings, with no qualifications to what he ended up with in his career and in life. One thing that I definitely changed my mind was when he mentioned that his way of teaching is considered as an extension. It makes sense to incorporate projects and assignments related to what the students already enjoy doing but it's easier said than done. I've noticed for myself that increasing and changing my mindset into creating extension instead of just planting new information in student's head, it would make the experience for students more enjoyable. This resulted in thinking about how math is already everywhere around us, and the question that came out of that is 'How can I show my students that math IS already everywhere around us?'.



    Although his story is quite motivating in my opinion to watch in 2021, it might not seem the same if I were to witness this story at the time he was finding opportunities for a job. The circumstances individuals were facing back in the day is definitely different from society now, so it makes me think about how the story might seem impossible to certain less privileged individuals or women who had different rights and opportunities as men. He had books readily available as his resource and that's how he was able to hold a conversation with a dean that gave him the opportunity to be admitted into the program. The thing is, having access to so many books is considered very lucky already so although his story is still inspiring and motivating, I think it's also important to keep in mind the situation he was already in compared to what other individuals had to face on a day-to-day basis.

Hello!