<![CDATA[Vesta Education - VIU Education Program]]>Mon, 04 May 2026 14:08:31 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[February Practicum Reflection]]>Sun, 21 Feb 2016 20:47:36 GMThttp://www.vestaeducation.com/viu-education-program/february-practicum-reflection
Limerick by a Grade 5 student
Limerick, Grade 5 student

#1. What is your greatest challenge and when is it most difficult to be solid and consistent as the teacher responsible for the students in your classroom? How can you tell when your teacher presence is working? What are you doing and what are the students doing? How does this feel for you? Use specific example(s) to help illustrate your reflection.

My greatest challenge has been figuring out the line between being an engaging, enthusiastic and excited teacher, and effective classroom management. The first week was the main part of this learning. I was excited, I was nervous, and I was unsure of my teaching ability, and also teaching new material (never taught before!), so I went overboard on the ‘excitement factor’. This resulted in the kids also becoming excited and talking amongst themselves, and it was very hard to bring them back to attention and to productive learning. As we have said, It’s NOT a party! Never Use the P- word! It’s work- it can be FUN work, but you have to control the class at all times! And riling them up first and THEN trying to get them to focus is challenging.
The flip-side of that lesson was the one day I was very ill and had NO energy. The lesson I presented didn’t hook them- because I have relied on my personality and ‘stage presence’, and I just didn’t have it that day. As a result, they were also not interested in the lesson- review of the books that evening showed that we required a re-teach.
So this brings home the learnings that ‘we teach who we are’ but also that the class reflects our energy. By the end of the two weeks I feel I was doing much better at ‘containing’ my excitement yet still engaging the kids. Still much to learn but certainly having a deeper understanding of this teaching concept.
concrete poem of a dragon, by a grade 5 student
Concrete Poem, Grade 5 student

#2. Share a time during this two weeks when you have structured your learning around clear criteria — this could be a single lesson or a series of lessons within a topic/subject. How have you communicated this criteria to the students? Describe the assessment that occurred during the learning (student self-assessment, student peer-assessment, formative assessment by you). How has this impacted student learning? How has this affected the balance between what you are doing and what the students are doing during a lesson? How does this impact your role as the teacher? How does this feel?

Having clear criteria and breaking things down into steps is the ‘secret’ to good teaching. As this session progressed, my criteria became simpler, the steps became smaller, and the lessons became even more successful. An effective tip was keeping things chunked into Threes. I am still learning how to explicitly link assessment into my criteria, and this will be my focus for the next session.
I’ve also learned that the standard ‘Check For Understanding’ of asking kids to show thumbs up/down/sideways does not necessarily work very well- kids tend to say “YES” to things even when they don’t understand.
I’ve also began to simplify my lessons as I am realizing the amount of time things take, and that my lessons need to give space for facilitated discussion with the class to allow for multiple understanding of a concept. So, Less is More, in regards to individual lessons. Being able to have most kids have a good understanding of a concept before moving on is essential, so spending multiple days on one concept is ok! Fundamentals are important, and it is easier to give the advanced learners extensions that they can focus on.  I have worked out a trial seating plan for next session which seats the strong academic students with the ones that struggle, and hope to be able to have more ‘pair and share’ activities where the stronger students can assist the weaker ones to grasp a concept. We will see how that goes, and much of that will be teaching them HOW to provide peer support etc. So will build that into my planning.

3) Comment on any relationship you discover between your response to Reflection #1 and Reflection #2.

I think that as I fine tune my planning, I won’t need to rely so much on my sparkling effervescent stage presence to ‘sell’ the lesson. As a performer, I create a great rapport with the students, and and very confident standing up and teaching, now I just need to have the substance in my lessons to back that up.
I also will focus on having my prep for my lessons done at least three days in advance, and not be copying things the morning of the lesson. I am very motivated to succeed as a teacher, and have been receiving wonderful feedback and advice from both my sponsor teacher and my VIU supervisor; I can’t wait to get back into the classroom!
]]><![CDATA[Environmental Impact Study Lesson Plan]]>Tue, 02 Feb 2016 02:39:05 GMThttp://www.vestaeducation.com/viu-education-program/environmental-impact-study-lesson-planCradle to Grave Environmental Impact Study Lesson Plan

Differentiated and Adaptable Lesson Plan for Grades 6-12

Connect:
RATIONALE
This lesson plan was developed as a supplemental to many of the Entrepreneur/Business in the school programs that are available for grades 6-12 in BC. It was noticed that many of these programs do not consider Environmental Impact of the products the children create. This lesson plan is designed to be used with the Life Cycle Assessment Worksheet and will allow students to include a Cradle to Grave analysis of their product in their business plan. An Environmental Economics Unit Plan and marking rubric has been included as sample.

BC PROVINCIAL CURRICULUM
K-12 Applied Design, Skills and Technologies Draft Curriculum
Core Competencies:
  • Communication
  • Thinking (creative, critical)
  • Personal and Social (Positive Personal and Cultural Identity, Personal awareness and responsibility, Social Responsibility)
K-12 Applied Design, Skills and Technologies Draft Curriculum will focus on fostering the development of the skills and knowledge that will allow students to create practical and innovative responses to everyday needs and problems. Design involves the ability to combine an empathetic understanding of the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and critical thinking to analyze and fit solutions to the context. To move from design to final product or service requires skills and technology. Skills are the abilities gained through competence to do something and to do it increasingly well, and technologies are tools that enable human capabilities. In Applied Design, Skills and Technologies, students will grow in their ability to use design thinking to gain an understanding of how to apply their skills to problem finding and solving using appropriate technologies.

Grade 6-9

An Applied Design, Skills and Technologies curriculum will be developed and will be available for Sept 2016. The curriculum will encompass content from the four existing disciplines: Business Education, Home Economics, Information Technology, and Technology Education.
Business Education builds an understanding of business skills and concepts in the context of current technology, ethical standards, and in increasingly global economy, empowering students with economic, financial, consumer, and communication skills for lifelong participation in global events.
Using creative and critical thinking, students can work collaboratively to problem find and solve by exploring materials, using tools and equipment, designing and building, developing processes, and communicating the merits of their work. They can learn to critically evaluate the appropriateness of the products they develop and those developed by others. As they explore the role of culture, including local First Nations cultures, in the development of practical and innovative solutions to human needs, they can develop a sense of personal and social responsibility for the products they use and development and their effects on individuals, communities and the environment, now and and in the future.
What outcome(s) does this lesson develop?
The BC Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies curriculum contributes to students’ development as educated citizens through the achievement of the following goals. Students are expected to:
  • Acquire practical skills and knowledge that they can use to bring their ideas from conception to fruition
  • Develop a sense of efficacy and personal agency about their ability to participate as inventors, innovators, and agents of change to solve practical problems in a rapidly changing world
  • explore how the values and beliefs of cultures, including local First Nations cultures, affect the development of products, services and processes.
  • understand the environmental implications of the products they are designing and constructing
  • Investigate and actively explore a variety of areas, including aspects of Business Education, Home Economics, Information Technology, and Technology Education ,and new and emerging fields, in order to develop practical hands on skills and make informed decisions about pursuing specialized interests for personal enjoyment or careers
  • Develop a lifelong interest in designing, making, and evaluating products, services, and processes, and contributing through informed citizenship, volunteer work, or their careers, to finding and solving practical problems.
    Process
LESSON DELIVERY
Background:As an introduction to engineering, you may choose to watch the What is Engineering? video below.

What is Engineering- Wouldn’t it be cool if….  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU1vstn99mc
Engineers consider the environmental impacts to our air, water and natural resources when creating a new product. To do this, engineers consider the entire life cycle of a product — from materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and disposal of the product. These represent all the life phases of a product, similar to the life cycle of an animal found in nature.
For example, butterflies pass through four stages during their life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly. You can use the example of a butterfly and ask students the following questions to help them compare and contrast product life cycles with the life cycles of living things.
  • What are some steps of the life cycle of a butterfly? (Answer: birth, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly, decompose.)
  • What are some steps in the life cycle of a product? (Answer: materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and disposal.)
  • How is the life cycle of an organism similar to the life cycle of an engineered product? (Possible answers: Both life cycles follow the object from birth to death, or beginning to end. Both cycles involve the flow of energy through the lifetime of the object.)
  • How do the two cycles differ? (Answer: Often the life cycle of a product ends with disposal, where the life cycle of a natural organism is recycled into nutrients in the Earth. Looking at the life cycle of a product helps us understand the Earth's natural resources and energy and, particularly, how we produce waste.
If you are creating a product to sell at the Eco-fair, you are being an Engineer! An engineer uses a life cycle assessment to measure how much energy and impact a product has on the environment, from its creation to its final disposal.
Life cycle assessment is a process of scientific investigation that explores the whole-of-life environmental impacts of a product. It is conducted to get a better understanding or the products hidden environmental impacts.
  1. Material extraction: Where did the materials come from?

  2. Manufacturing: What was the process of construction- of creating the product from the raw materials?

  3. Packaging and transport: How is it packaged and transported from place of manufacturing to point of sale?

  4. Use: what is the life span and use of the product? Does it take energy to use?

  5. End of Life: How is the product handled at the end of life? Is it disposable? Is it Recyclable? is it reusable?

Here is a video to explain the above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01tF21O2iso

There are several general steps to determining the overall environmental impact of a manufactured product. The first step is called an inventory analysis.
Inventory Analysis: In this step, the product's energy and materials that are used during the life cycle are calculated. A number value is assigned for energy and physical materials for all the phases of the life cycle (materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use, and disposal of the product).
Impact Analysis: The next step is an impact analysis, where the number values from step one are added together. This final number represents the total impact on the environment. The lower the number, the less negative impact the product has on the environment.
Improvement Analysis: Lastly, an improvement analysis is performed to determine if there is any way to reduce the product's impact on the environment. For example, conserving energy or water during any of the phases of the life cycle or exchanging materials for less hazardous waste producing ones would help reduce the impact.
Engineers sometimes design products with durable parts that will have a long lifespan, and other times they design products that are designed to last a relatively short amount of time, but have easy to reuse or recycle parts. Then, the changes are inserted back into the inventory analysis to determine if the total environmental impact can be reduced.
Materials:
  • Pencils
  • Any simple manufactured product to analyze (i.e. Paperclips, simple toy-- something age appropriate in complexity) with original packaging, if possible
  • Screwdrivers, scissors, etc. for disassembling product if required
  • Life Cycles Assessment Worksheet   
Procedure:This activity gives students an idea of how a life cycle assessment can be useful. The numbers on the worksheet are fictional and are only used to compare the environmental impacts of different objects to each other. In a real engineering life cycle analysis, the numbers of each step are determined using actual measurable inputs and outputs of energy, electricity, raw materials, water, waste and emissions.
Informational Videos
“What is Engineering- Wouldn’t it be cool if…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU1vstn99mc and the “This is your Life Cycle” animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01tF21O2iso
Before the Activity
  1. Gather several metal and plastic products for the students to re-engineer. Some example items might include a broken CD player (or old VCR player if you can find one!), a coffee pot, a stapler or a children's toy.

  2. Provide a selection of screwdrivers, etc. to have the students take apart the products.
With the Students
  1. Lecture: 10 mins
  2. As an introduction, discuss Cradle to Grave and Life cycle assessment. (5 mins)
  3. Watch the “What is Engineering- Wouldn’t it be cool if…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU1vstn99mc and the “This is your Life Cycle” animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01tF21O2iso
  4. Complete a Life Cycle assessment on a simple product at the front of the class. (I DO) (10 mins)

  5. Activity: 20 - 40 mins
  6. Divide the class into their Environmental Economics Teams.
  7. Give each student group a product with which to complete a sample life cycle assessment. (YA’LL DO) (20 mins)
  8. Have students complete the Life Cycles Assessment Worksheet in determining a hypothetical number value for the impact of the provided product on the environment. (Remind students that the number is fictional, and for comparison purposes only.)   
  9. Give students time to complete the life cycle analysis of their product. (Note: more complex products will take longer to analyze than simple products, such as a hair brush. They are more interesting too! Choose your products wisely, noting that if one group has a hairbrush while another has a toaster, the groups may finish at different speeds.) During this time, students can take apart the product to get a better idea of the components and manufacturing process.
  10. Discussion: 10 mins
  11. Ask students to share the total impact analysis score with the rest of the class. Create a class list of products and their scores on the board. Discuss the range of impacts the products have on the environment.
  12. Have students think about modifications they could make to the life cycle of their product. Have them complete their improvement analysis on their worksheet and discuss any improvements with the class. Are there any recurring ideas for improvement in the class?
  13. Remind students that they will need to complete a Life Cycle Assessment Worksheet for their Environmental Economics Eco Fair product. Allow time to do this in a future period.
Safety Notes
Be sure to read any safety warnings that came with the products to be sure that disassembling them will not put students at risk of injury or in contact with harmful substances.
Make sure students are careful when taking apart their products.  If you don’t want students to take apart the product, you can disassemble the product first, and then show students.
Represent:
DIFFERENTIATION
  • You can simplify this lesson for younger grades: consider discussing a 3 step process of Manufacturing, Use, and Disposal only.
  • Have students look up the life cycles of some common products. A cell phone is a good example of a product that has changed significantly over time, from amount of materials, to packaging and accessories. Cell phone parts include the case, display, wiring, keypad, microphone, speaker, antennae, and battery. Have students create a life cycle assessment for the various parts of a cell phone. The life of a cell phone averages about 18 months in the United States. Have students compare the life cycle assessment of a cell phone to conventional landline phones.
  • Have students research more about the development, use and disposal of plastic in products from toy dolls to cars. In fact, plastics account for 25% of all waste in landfills when buried. There are several online web sites that report the amount of plastics in different products and discuss the options for recycling plastics. Have students create a brochure for their school community about the use of plastics and where to dispose of them properly.
  • Have students research electronic waste and again come up with a brochure or information campaign to inform their community about proper disposal. Some electronics contain hazardous materials and should not be thrown out with regular trash.
  • Older Students:  Have older students look up the raw materials (oil, natural gas) that go into making plastics and different metals (ore). Have the students create a scoring system to distinguish different ores and raw materials by their difficulty of extraction from the Earth and limited availability.
  • Younger Students:  Use easier products, such as a mechanical pencil or a tape dispenser. Less complicated products will help younger students understand the concepts behind the life cycle assessment.
Transform:
ASSESSMENT
Pre-Activity Assessment
Class Discussion: Solicit, integrate and summarize student responses.
  • Have the students think about the different parts and pieces that make up a product by holding up a common item, such as a stapler. Create a class list of all the parts of the stapler on the board.
Prediction: Have students predict the outcome of the activity before the activity is performed.
  • Show students several examples of products that they will be analyzing during this activity. Ask them to predict which products will prove to have the largest impact on the environment throughout their life cycle.
Activity Embedded Assessment
Worksheet: Have the students follow along with the activity on the worksheets. After students have finished their worksheet, have them compare answers with their peers.
Post-Activity Assessment
Considering Design Trade-Offs: Have students think about their suggested product improvements from the worksheet. Tell them that engineers must sometimes consider trade-offs in their designs. For example, will reducing the impact on the environment by reducing the amount of materials in the product actually reduce the durability and effectiveness of the product? Have the students decide if there are any similar or possible product trade-offs that should be considered in their suggested product improvements.
Diagramming: Have the students draw the life cycle of their product. On their drawing, have them detail the materials, processes, and energy involved in each phase of the life cycle. The phases they should include are: materials acquisition, materials processing, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and disposal of the product.

Sources:
http://www.teacherstryscience.org/lp/cradle-grave-product-lifecycles
This material was adapted from the Life Cycles lesson.
The TeachEngineering Digital Library is a free, online collection of teacher-tested K-12 engineering activities, lessons and units aligned to educational STEM standards.
Environment Protection Authority Victoria:  Additional life cycle activities for students
]]><![CDATA[Performing Arts Assessment]]>Tue, 26 Jan 2016 22:52:45 GMThttp://www.vestaeducation.com/viu-education-program/performing-arts-assessment
Comic of Artistic Process
http://www.teddyandtom.com/?comic=artistic-process
For this blog, I am focusing on the assessment of the performing arts, as with my Circus program we often present a show as our culminating event, and as a licenced Teacher I will need to be able to assess my students for this activity.

There are conflicting points of view on Arts Assessment  in the research:
  •  Performing Arts as Product:
Drama Assessment should remain objective, and marks are solely based on the final performance. Clear criteria and outcomes are assessed in isolation- the process of creation, rehearsal, and show development is not taken into account. This is reflective of a competitive framework- such as a dance or drama competition, where acts are judged solely on their technical ability. This leads to an easily quantifiable ‘score’ or mark to be conveyed on report cards. This system does have value for students who are already able to excel at the given task- summative assessment enforces the status quo and continues to marginalize students who are still in the learning process.
  •  Performing Arts as Process:
This side of the spectrum focuses more on the learning process, and less on the outcome. Self reflection on the rehearsal process, rehearsal logs, contributions and learning during the lead up to the performance are all emphasized. The performance itself may be critiqued, but assessment of the learning process is the goal.
Venn Diagram of the Artistic Process
https://sandiegoofficedesign.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/frustrations-of-the-creative-process/
As discussed in Arts with the Brain in Mind, there are various and at times competing stakeholders invested in Arts Assessment. The student/teacher/parent dynamic, who are invested in the actual learnings and at time unmeasurable qualities that the arts encourage and develop (compassion, courage, morality, etc), and the administrators/policy makers, who may be focused on test scores and summative outcomes in order to acquire (and thus distribute) funding.
Status quo and old school summative testing philosophies are problematic when applied to the arts, although a product-based assessment stance attempts to do so. Formative and process assessment techniques reflect the realities of the artistic process- that an engaged attempt to “do art” is messy, full of self doubt, and struggle. It is in our reflection on these struggles that the learning happens.
Assessing students on their process is more realistic and reflective of true learning, yet is still problematic in that it tends to be subjective from the teacher’s perspective. It is also challenging to know when the student’s efforts are ‘good enough’ to denote a Pass, or insufficient to reflect a Fail. It is true that some students may be marginalized by a summative marking system, and thus disengaged from the learning process.
The BC Curriculum has moved away from emphasizing summative assessment in all areas. The Arts Education Curriculum Learning Standards and Content focus primarily on process and experience, not product.  Learning Standards such as “Explore identity, place, culture, and belonging through arts experiences” and “ Reflect on creative processes and make connections to other experiences” are stated, along with Content such as “personal and collective responsibility associated with creating, experiencing, and performing in a safe learning environment”. These encourage teachers to focus on process, not product.
6 steps in the creative process
http://lundetrae.com/2015/06/23/how-to-embrace-the-creative-process-and-the-fact-that-it-takes-time/
I feel that a formative assessment of the Arts is a way to include marginalized students in alternative ways of knowing and expressing themselves, and a way to encourage success and belonging in students who may be on the fringe of the status quo system. I am a teacher who is concerned with supporting each student on their learning journey, not just the ones who are already benefiting from the traditional educational system; Formative arts assessment speaks to me on a personal level as a way to reach and encourage those students. My personal values of creating an inclusive classroom that is concerned with social justice and anti-oppressive practice, and including an arts program in my classroom that focuses on personal growth and learning is one way to do this.

Followup:
I was tasked with developing a rubric for our performing arts Myth based drama production this semester. Using my knowledge of arts growth and assessment, my research in formative and summative assessment systems, and input from the class on what is important, I created the following rubric which includes both performance assessment and process reflection.

Sources:

http://www.thedramateacher.com/how-to-keep-performance-assessment-in-drama-objective/
Jensen, Eric.  (2001) Arts with the Brain in Mind. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. USA.
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/arts-education/4

]]><![CDATA[Formative Numeracy Assessment ]]>Fri, 18 Dec 2015 23:51:08 GMThttp://www.vestaeducation.com/viu-education-program/formative-numeracy-assessmentWith the BC Numeracy Standards
Picture
Assessment standards are changing with the new BC curricula, and it’s an exciting time to be coming into teaching. I’ve been exploring my assumptions and researching the new BC Performance Standards, and am impressed with the focus on formative over summative assessment. Summative still has it’s place, of course, and there will always be a role that traditional ‘tests’ will play in our assessment of students, however the new curricula lends itself to larger projects with higher level understandings of the concepts.

For example, the Grade 2 numeracy standards state that “Relatively short questions with a single correct procedure and answer are not appropriate for performance assessment.” (Grade 2 Numeracy p 52)

Another aspect I’ve found interesting is use of the term “Numeracy”. Just as Literacy is more than, yet still includes Reading, Numeracy is not limited to Mathematics. The concept of Numeracy is broken into the following concepts and skills:
  • “Number (Concepts and Operations)
  • Patterns and Relations
  • Shape and Space
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Problem Solving (Grades 8-12)
Numeracy tasks and problems typically draw on concepts and skills from two or more of the curriculum organizers listed above” (BC Performance Standards Numeracy, P. 9)

These concepts are organized into four ‘big picture’ aspects of numeracy: Concepts and Applications
  • Strategies and Approaches
  • Accuracy
  • Representation and Communication” (BC Performance Standards Numeracy, P. 11”

The new Performance standards for Numeracy allow for a more in depth understanding of the student’s level of understanding of the concepts, beyond a simple summative test score and resulting letter grade. “Performance standards answer the questions: “How good is good enough? What does it look like when a student’s work has met the expectations at this grade level?” (BC Performance Standards Numeracy, P. 3)

The standards will be used in our teaching practice by being embedded into the curriculum. We can link our learning outcomes to the standards, and can rephrase into kid friendly “I can” statements. The standards also provide concrete examples of student work of varying quality in order to assist teachers with application. Evaluation is ongoing throughout the term, and can include observations and communication between student and teacher. It also recognizes that some students will need support and be unable to work independently, but will still be able to grasp the concepts (for example, distractable students who cannot stay focused, but who still understand). The standards also allow for assessment to be adapted by the teacher as needed, to reflect the time of year, or differentiation needs of students. (BC Performance Standards Numeracy, P. 6)

By expanding assessment standards to reflect the big picture of Numeracy, the BC gov’t allows teachers more flexibility and application of ‘real world’ mathematics to their teaching. “Numeracy involves concrete applications in which students, confidently and independently, use mathematics to address real tasks or problems in an increasing variety of situations. The ability to recognize the mathematical demands and possibilities in a situation is an important aspect of numeracy. Numeracy is based on mathematical foundations and requires the application of concepts and skills related to the formal aspects of the discipline of mathematics. “ (BC Performance Standards Numeracy, P. 9)

It is important to remember that the standards are just one piece of the Evaluation whole. A combination of formative and summative assessments must be used to create a wholistic picture of a student’s learning. “The performance standards do not address all aspects of the mathematics curricula and need to be used in combination with other forms of assessment to develop a comprehensive picture of student achievement in the BC mathematics curricula.” (BC Performance Standards Numeracy, P. 10)

I look forward to learning more about Assessment strategies in class this semester!
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