Annotated Bibliography

 Here is the link to my annotated bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13SJxHJLm-8cixD-m7H2FJtZn5k4mB-OcDn9niB6QIQs/edit?usp=sharing

Exit Slip 10/21

 In class we talked about gender and mathematics. We discussed the first woman to win the Field's medal as well as Donna Strickland's Nobel prize. 

The subsequent discussion about women in stem was interesting. Jenny brought up the danger of tokenizing women in stem while promoting them. It was not something I had considered while watching the video, but after hearing it I can definitely see what she was saying. While promoting gender diversity and science we must work to include all people. One easy way to do this is with posters and decorations. Posters celebrating diverse people in science can immediately begin to break down pre-existing stereotypes, but our efforts must not stop there.

Entry Slip: 10/21

 Language is how we communicate with each other. In order to communicate and share ideas we must first establish a shared understanding of the language we use. In science this means carefully defining terms and making vocab lists, but this use of language can also be limiting. Language is the tool we use to describe the world. If we limit ourselves to the language we have already invented we are limiting our ability to discover new ideas. We are limiting the way that we think. In order to enhance our students' learning we must encourage them to explore ideas using other languages, including non-verbal ones. Reading this passage helped me realize why we should include indigenous perspectives and knowledge in our learning. We include them because they can expand the way that we think about the world, allow us to access new understandings, and see the world from a different perspective.

Inquiry Topic

Question: How does SES affect learning in an increasingly digital world?

When we consider how SES contributes to inequity in the classroom the conversation is usually focused on extreme poverty. Issues of transportation, tuition fees, hunger, etc. are brought up. The BC ministry of education is committed to providing financial assistance for these issues but do not consider subsidizing technology. As we shift towards more and more online resources and tools, the impact of devices (including a reliable internet connection) cannot be understated. 

Concept A: Internet Access

What online applications do we use in the classroom. Zoom, canvas, online simulations/other learning tools, all of these require internet access for students to use.

Concept B: Devices/Technology in the classroom

How do we use devices in the classroom. How can we empower student learning using technology while also maintaining equitable classrooms.

Concept C: Resources

What resources are available for students without access to internet/devices. Are these resources sufficient and well maintained?

Exit Slip 10/14

 Watching the videos and the subsequent discussion in small groups was very interesting. One idea that stuck out to me personally was from the Jo Boaler video. In it she said that there is a pre-existing idea that only some kids can be good at math. For whatever reason this  a prevalent idea in schooling and an extremely damaging one as well. Part of overcoming this misconception is encouraging our students to have a growth mindset when it comes to education and learning. I also enjoyed seeing the TED talk from the creator of wolfram alpha as part of that video. In it he said that math requires 4 steps with computation being only 1 piece of the process. 

Seeing the Alfie Kohn video made me question the practices we use in education. What is the purpose of grades? And how do we ensure that grading is achieving these purposes and not creating more issues. It is hard to think about removing grades, because it is uncertain what we would use as a replacement. I think we do need some way to evaluate our students learning, but it is difficult to think of ways that we could accomplish this fairly. 

Entrance Slip: 10/14

 This paper presented an interesting perspective on the teaching philosophy that we currently use. I like the imagery and metaphors of the grid, representing the rigid nature of our current system. The square shape appears in the shape of our classrooms, our schedules, and our teaching philosophy. Yet where do we see such pristine right angles in nature? This idea reminds me of what we learned in EPSE 308 about social emotional learning (SEL). In that course we talked about how we learn things that we care about. We need to form an emotional connection in order for anything to have any meaning. The traditional ideas of worksheets and memorization (of boxes like the image in the reading) are flawed. These activities may help us with recall, but to really learn something we must take a different approach. Even our own thoughts do not follow such a strict grid. We usually don't think in boxes and distinct lines, thought flows like a river. A certain level of standardization must occur to bring some order to the flowing river. The last thing I took away from the reading was that the way we were taught affects our teaching. It seems obvious, but if we were educated in the system using a grid, with straight lines and order, it is extremely hard for us to think in any other ways. Part of the value of this course is to be able to experience some of the ways we might accomplish this, to expand our minds to new teaching possibilities. 

Exit Slip: 10/7

 Today we wrote another sit-spot poem. For this one we took note of how our spot had changed since our last visit two weeks prior. For me the most noticeable difference was the temperature. The air was much cooler than last time. Dew that was cool last time became cold and uncomfortable when it seeped into my shoes. The poem I wrote is below:

The other major difference was the tractor. The tractor took up most of my attention when trying to write my poem. The sound of the tractor drowned out any other noises and the movement drew my eyes away from observing anything else. I tried to look past it, to ignore it and focus on everything else, but I couldn't. I should have instead focused on the tractor and wrote my poem about it. That day, the tractor encompassed my sit spot entirely. 

Afterwards we had a discussion and drew leaves with compasses and straight edges. Our discussion was fruitful. Sheldon brought up a good point about teaching climate change optimistically. The compass and straight edge activity was a good combination of geometry and nature. Looking at the leaves it was hard at first to see the geometric shapes within them. And when I did, I still couldn't translate it to the page directly. I tried at first to draw the edge of the leaf in two arcs. This approach looked similar but did not quite match the shape of the leaf. In a subsequent attempt I tried to use more arcs. If we were to continue I think I could use more and more smaller arcs until I successfully recreated the edge of the leaf. This method would be slow. It would take many iterations and tons of trial and error to recreate a shape that a leaf knows instinctively.