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.