I (Cathy) love special occasions. Just give me a theme and I suddenly have an opportunity to be creative. Lately, my outlet is a three dimensional mode of expression- cupcakes! I can experiment with my designs using colour, texture, size, shape, and taste. For my Valentine’s cupcakes, aside from the cake and icing choices, there were a multitude of affordances (decorative toppings) to choose from. For this dozen, I decided on a range of tastes and textures: cinnamon heart candies, red and white jube jubes, tiny snowflake hearts, red sugar sprinkles, silver balls and message hearts. Remember those tart tasting message hearts? They say things like “hug me”, “I love you”, “kiss me”, and now there is one that says “text me”- so new literacies! This is truly a multimodal sensory experience for me (the designer) and everyone that gets one (the receiver of my communication). I see this as a perfect example of my Western culture influences channeling through me to create a social semiotic representation of my caring. But I won’t tell that to my husband. All he will see a pretty cupcake that is “Mmmmm, delicious!” And that’s fine too. I am not sure if this is what Gunther Kress had in mind when he created the Centre for Multimodal Research, but it works for me. Happy Valentine’s Day all!
Category Archives: Teacher education
Reflecting on Our Strengths and Weaknesses
I (Cathy) was reading a literacy newsletter yesterday and was intrigued by an article by literacy educator, Clare Landrigan. She reminisced about a saying her father used to share with her, “Everyone’s greatest strength is their greatest weakness and their greatest weakness is their greatest strength.” I have heard this before and tend to agree with it. I have referred to it often while exploring Brookfield’s critical incidences with my student teachers. We would reflect on the possibility of how our greatest strength could be holding us from recognizing our own literacy assumptions.
What intrigued me about Landrigan’s article was the educational perspective she introduced that I simply had not entertained before. She asked her readers to look at the weaknesses of her students and try to see them as their greatest strength. For example, the student who cannot sit still . . . has the potential to be incredibly productive and he student who takes forever to do something . . . is attentive and thoughtful. What a wonderfully productive way to look at the students we teach, regardless of age. It also might help us recognize positive aspects in ourselves when we are feeling particularly critical. What is your greatest weakness?
Professional Identity
Today I (Clive) was teaching my School and Society (social foundations) course in the preservice program. Our topic was professional identity. What a class we had! We discussed:
· Teachers’ perception of their role
· Motivation and satisfaction
· Challenges of teaching
· Work-life balance
· Confidence
· Stance in relation to system mandates
I selected a number of quotes from our chapter on professional identity from our upcoming text: Growing as a Teacher (Sense Publishers). The students took turns reading these quotes aloud which proved to be very powerful. We brought the “voices” of the teachers into the class. Here are a few of the quotes we read:
Classroom teachers have an enormously challenging job; I didn’t realize that when I first started teaching, but now I do. And that hasn’t made me any less effective, if anything it’s made me somewhat more; because now I’m kinder to myself. I see that basically the teacher sets the atmosphere of the classroom, and if you’re constantly stressed out and trying to attain the impossible you become a frustrated and burnt out person. (Felicity, eighth year teacher)
The most important aspects of my role are ensuring that my students develop a positive sense of self; that they acquire a love of learning; and that they develop a world perspective, with compassion and understanding for other people. Embedded in that are social skills; but it’s bigger than that, because I want them to see beyond their own life and community. This view of my role is broader than it used to be. If you’d asked me when I started teaching I would have said the world citizenship component was important, but it didn’t play into my daily practice to the extent it does now. (Tanya, eighth year teacher)
Coming out of my inner-city pre-service program, where the emphasis was on being a change-maker and inspiring every kid, I had to learn that it can often be slow going and I have to not feel defeated if I fail to accomplish everything I hoped for. Because…you really, really need to enjoy teaching to last in the profession, and it’s draining and can get frustrating. I’ve always worked in inner-city schools, so I’m mentally prepared for it…[but] I’ve had to learn not to take things personally. Otherwise you go home and things rest in your mind and you get physically sick. (Jessica, fifth year teacher)
Basing my teaching on where the students are and where they need to be [according to the standards-based approach], I found I ended up teaching to the test; and the whole fun and love of learning went out the door. So I changed my process, and asked: What am I teaching? What skills need to be taught? How can I get that across to them in a way that they’ll enjoy? And then after reflecting on it, and seeing where it didn’t work so well, I asked: What should I change? (Lucy, fifth year teacher)
Made me smile
When I (Lydia) came across this comic on Facebook it made me laugh. I thought a chance to smile might be nice on such a cold winter day.
Just Call Me Paul: The Ethnicity Saga Continues
On Monday I (Clive) shared my previous blog on multicultural education and stereotyping with my social foundations class. This proved to be a great literacy activity on blogging as a writing form that both teachers and students need to master, one that helps us clarify our ideas and make our communication more precise. It also renewed our conversation about how to approach ethnicity in the classroom. We went round the whole class, each person commenting in turn on the blog. No one chose to pass and everyone was interested in what others had to say. A couple were struck by my profile of “Mike”: they had no idea that people of Irish and Scots background might look down on each other. On the whole people liked the blog, but they continued to refine points and add personal stories.
We heard a new story of complex ethnicity from a class member of Indian ancestry who grew up in Madagascar, lived in a French-speaking environment for several years and became fluent in French, spent time in India where she was told she spoke Hindi with an accent, and then moved to Canada where she hopes to teach French as a second language. What is her ethnicity?
Then on Tuesday the wonderful personal essay “Just Call Me Paul” appeared in one of our local newspapers. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/changing-my-name-doesnt-mean-im-betraying-my-identity/article16406166/
G. Paul Sileika’s grandparents migrated to Canada from Lithuania over 50 years ago. In the 1970s when multiculturalism was on the rise his parents decided to give him a name that “reflected their ancestral origins.” They named him Gintaras and called him Gint for short. With rich humor, no self-pity, and trenchant common-sense he talks about the impact of this decision on his life. The whole article is well worth reading.
What struck me especially was how he felt his identity was lost. “Before I can even begin to build rapport with someone or connect on a common interest, my name catches his or her attention. Before I can share my personal story one is already written for me.” Because the name was unfamiliar and difficult to pronounce correctly (the “G” is hard), many called him “you” or simply nothing. Long after finishing university he finally decided to switch to using his middle name – Paul – and hasn’t looked back. He says he believes in multiculturalism and is proud of his heritage, but wants to go by Paul in informal contexts and G. Paul in formal ones; if anyone asks what the G. stands for, he’s “happy to tell them.”
Of course, although you can change your name you can’t change your accent or physical appearance. But Paul’s story illustrates well how we should often move beyond such markers, rather than dwelling on them unduly – as so often happens in multiculturalism classes. While prejudice and discrimination must be studied in depth and actively opposed, there’s so much more to a person than the ethnicity of their parents and grandparents. We must also explore and celebrate their constantly emerging individual identity, of which their complex ethnic identity is just one part. Otherwise, like Paul, much of their identity may be lost.
Writing a Review Takes TIME
I (Cathy) discovered, having just submitted my first academic book review, that the process takes TIME. The T in my acronym represents allowing for lots of time to move through the process. The I represents investigating the journal for which I am submitting. The M is for mining the book under review. The E is for editing- of course- what would writing be without editing? I developed my TIME acronym through both the experience of writing the review and doing some homework on review writing. One of the suggestions I came across, which was a valuable piece of advice, was to allow one month to write the review: two weeks to read the book; one week to write the review; and one week to edit the work. This turned out to be true. There was no hurrying the process. I also spent time reading many other reviews from the same journal for which I was submitting. This was the investigation part. I compared five reviews for style, content and length. One was much more academic in style than the others. All were not hesitant to praise the work. This was reassuring, as I liked the book a lot. The mining part was the surprise. As I read the book, I listed the things I liked about it and possible flaws, only to discover that when I got to the end, it was not enough information. I had to read it again and work harder at comparing the chapters for content consistency, look for related themes and any patterns the editors may have requested. I also spent a lot more time scrutinizing the forward and conclusion and discovered some great quotes I had missed the first time. This was similar to reading a book in order to teach it. Impressions are not enough. I needed more meat. And finally came the editing. After several iterations, I thought it was ready for someone else to see. I gave it to five people to read. Every one of them found corrections and made suggestions. Some I used, while others were stylistic suggestions that I let pass. All were insightful. The best part though, was the response. When one of my friendly editors replied, “You really made me want to read this book!” then I knew the review hit its mark. Like I said, I liked the book. Oh, and by the way, the book is called Literacy teacher educators: Preparing teachers for a changing world. I recommend it! BTW The journal I submitted to is called Research in Teacher Education. Excellent resource! Check it out… http://www.uel.ac.uk/rite
Mapping my morning commute
On twitter this week I (Lyida) read about a storytelling project that invited teachers to use digital tools to capture and represent dimensions of “their world”. The representations (e.g. pictures, video, audio) were publicly shared on a blog. It would be interesting to use aspects of this idea in a teacher education literacy course but I wanted to experiment with it first.
Telling Stories in Pre-Service
I (Cathy) instruct part-time at Brock University. Many of my mid-term evaluations from my pre-service students read, “Please, tell more stories”. It made me laugh, but it made a point. We all love stories, no matter what our age: family stories; folktales from another culture; scary stories… it doesn’t matter. So today, in our first classes for 2014 I focused on storytelling, but turned the tables somewhat and encouraged my student teachers to be the tellers. They were asked to share personal stories about their teaching practicum, which they had completed just before the winter break. I started us off by sharing a story about a disastrous placement I experienced many years ago when I was a student teacher. The flood gates were opened. My, oh my, such stories! Hilarious stories about indignant kindergardeners; touching stories about tough grade eight boys weeping because they thought they had hurt the student teacher’s feelings; frightening stories about overly demanding associate teachers; and joyous stories about building up deflated ELL students. The passion in the room was palpable; it glowed in their eyes, exuded in their hand gestures and spilled about the room with the rise in the decibel levels. Clearly, they loved working with the kids, the learning (good and bad) and the chance to make a difference. They loved teaching, and even in this climate of little prospects of obtaining a teaching position for a few years, they were exactly where they belonged. And so was I. Cathy
Perils of Proofreading
We had a wonderful Christmas and now back to work. Clive and I have the proofs for our upcoming t
ext Growing as a Teacher: Goals and Pathways of Ongoing Teacher Learning. This step of the publishing process is mixed: it is so exciting to see the page proofs but then there is the painstaking step of proofreading. Clive is the best proofreader – me, I am the worst. I think this is because I read so quickly that I skim over the mistakes. I just do not pick them up. When I was a classroom teacher, I used to teach my students strategies for proofreading knowing full well that there are readers like me who just do not see the errors. Thankfully Clive is such a careful reader that he spots each one. Next we will place electronic post-it notes on the manuscript flagging each correction. This step I find nerve-wracking because this process is quite finicky. Sometimes I get the post-it note placed in the exact spot, other times, I fiddle and fiddle with the placement of it.
We want to give a shout-out to Sense Publishers https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/authors/auth-clare-kosnik-/who are publishing this book. This is the third book that I have done with them and they are an absolute joy with whom to work. Consistently, they have great project managers and the page proofs tend to be fairly clean. Wish us luck! Clare
Research in Teacher Education Journal
Clare is on the International Advisory Board for the Research in Teacher Education Journal. This lovely journal which focuses on teacher education with a range of topics of interest to international readers. The latest issue is available with papers ranging on topics from foreign language instruction in rural Columbia to lifelong learning in UK primary schools. They are more than happy to take any fledgling PhD students who might be looking for their first opportunity to be published.
Check our their website http://www.uel.ac.uk/rite/
Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education 