Oct 21 Exit Slip - Gender, Sexism, Equity?

 I went to my undergrad in math in UBC, and looking up their directory here. We see that out of the two Assoc. Head in different affairs, one is male and one is female. Looking at the faculty list, we see that there are many male names but also female names. I counted roughly for one female professor there is about 5 male professors on the list.

Another interesting thing I noted is that most often, the full tenure Professors are male after 5-6 years of being at UBC, whereas female professors that have spent just as long are often still Associate Professor, although I don't know if the metric for tenure is based not on time but on say research. I also noted texperhat most tenure Professors have graduate education from US Ivy League or private well known institutions, which I don't know if it would factor into UBC's decision of hiring or advancing their title. It seems that even though we emphasize mastery and it's never too late and we learn at different rates, those that do the best starting from childhood will have an advantage into pursuing their dream jobs. Those that did good early on in say high school can move on to top institutions if that's their goal and make connections by being at those famous places with alumni and other current students.

Speaking from my own experiences though, I have taken quite a handful of math courses talk by female Professors, and I have had an equal representation when I sent for advising for math major related topics. (Not to name names but I also find that the lectures given by female Professors are often more interesting and engaging than the other ones I received, but that probably depends on the background of each Professor as in how much teaching did they do and how long they have been teaching undergrad classes)

Getting Started for Inquiry Project

 

1.      Define your question Your topic should be fairly specific	Search Topic: what effects does standardized testing have on student learning and the education system?
2.      Analyze your topic concepts	Concept A	Concept B	Concept C
	The effect of standardized testing on student learning	The effect of standardized testing on the education environment	The effect of standardized testing on policy making for education system

 Standardized testing has always been a big part of my life, and interestingly it seems that students who are only a few years younger than me would have no standardized testing at all! One of the discussions I had with Jack was about the FSA, and how the BCTF opposes it, and how the Fraser Institute uses results to rank schools. We also talked briefly about the old provincials and other similar items such as the SAT, and whether or not there are benefits to keep them or consequences that would convince us to move away into something else. We talked about whether it gets into the way of learning, as in we are teaching to get high marks and not for understanding or making the connections, and we talked about whether standardized exams are a fair/equitable way for students or for others as a metric to measure something of their interest. (Grade inflation?)

Oct 21 Entrance Slip - Marks, grades, effect on classroom

1) What are your "student bird" and "teacher bird" thoughts about assigning percentages or letter grades in the assessment of student work? What do the grades indicate? How are they arrived at? Whose purposes do they serve? What are positive and negative aspects to giving grades? to be assigned grades by an instructor?

The student bird of me is thinking back to the time I was in highschool. Mostly when I was in grade 12, I agree with most of the interview key findings at the end of the article. Grades are stressful, often gets in the way of learning, and often we would choose the easiest way to achieve the highest grade, because we need them for admission. Grades are used as competition, to compare to what other people got and what my parents' other friends' kids got, and of course competition exists as in what kind of programs and options you are able to access after highschool.

The teacher bird says that it doesn't necessarily stop there. Want to get into a popular major? Good post-graduate program? Not all emphasize on grades, but having good grades won't hurt your chances, and often it's a foot in the door when they lack more accurate indicators of your ability. Even in society, we live under the economics model where we have to put ourselves out to do work to survive, and salaries put people in tiers. Of course, being the wealthiest person isn't everyone's goal nor should we normalize that, but to some degree we need to achieve a personal minimum before we get to even talk about choices and what we really like doing.

2) What are some of the unintended side effects of grading? How do grades and marks in themselves format the social relations and learning situations in a classroom, a school, a district?

Assigning grades, and using grades as an indicator of ability, create stress for students and parents. Grades are seemingly comparable, the higher the better, capped at 100 percent. This creates an implicit pyramid, where high achievers are at the to with good grades and they get all the praise, while learners who scored low are now looked down on, seen as those that need help or are bad kids so to say. There are many students that could be high achieving but the grading system just does not work in their favour. Maybe they take more time to learn and demonstrate, but at the end of the course they can synthesize and demonstrate very well. Ideally that's what matters, but a simple average of their tests would penalize their early performance compared to later. 

Using grades as a metric for whether a student gets access to certain opportunities also pose the same challenge. Higher grades, better person? Or higher chance to succeed in those opportunities? The answer is not really, and companies in the Silicon Valley have found that grades have no predicting power at all, and you might as well just flip a coin! (Though good grades get you into a reputable program, probably land your first internship, and subsequently allow you to have a greater chance to even interview at said companies if that's the end goal).

Finally, grades over schools, districts, certain region,etc, can also be problematic when it comes to resource distribution. Is it equitable to split resources evenly? Or more to "better" schools or "worse" schools? This is something Jack and Dion and I are thinking of as one of our inquiry project ideas, and we just love talking about these topics. Some schools are better according to some metric, such as Fraser Institute ranking and the FSA exams, and provincials that no longer exists, and those places also happen to have higher property prices and higher income. It's hard to say which is the cause and effect, but they are certainly measurable and affect policy making.


3) Could you imagine teaching math and/or science without giving grades? How could a teacher encourage learning without having an emphasis on grading?

 

If I was born 10 years ago and come into to this program, I would probably have a very hard time thinking what else would there be in place of grades in a classroom. However, I am lucky in that sense where we are already shifting our  curriculum to standards-based testing, and we have at least one class talking about how we do that as an educator in the classroom without simply lowering the bar, giving ourselves an unreasonable amount of work to do, and so on. To that degree, I can see how I will make an attempt to use the mastery model combined with the proficiency scale to move away from just letter grades calculated by taking averages of test scores, and I think doing that benefits students as well as teachers.

Oct 14 Exit Slip

 Today we talked about the inquiry project, and we had some lively discussion about topics we are passionate about. The particular one I talked to Jack with was how standardizing test, specifically the FSA and GNA, and we were talking about how the BCTF really wants to get rid of the FSA while the ministry continues every year. We talked about the Fraser Institute rankings and how it affects schools, parents, districts, etc.

We then switched gears, and had an impressive video about multi-dimensional mathematics, the inquiry based classroom, and the focus on mathematical education being off track for the past 40 years or more. The classroom shown in the video where students walk up to the board, take initiative and solve complex real life problems, use the vocabulary learned and discuss with each other how to approach it left the biggest impression for the day. While there may be some concerns about other students who may not be participating in the  classroom, it is an engaging, student-led classroom and one that takes a lot of trust in the room with the teacher and students to do. I aspire to have a classroom like that in my career, where students take on the responsibility to discuss and learn in an innate way that isn't coerced by extrinsic things like grades or whatever. It's a bit of a stretch to be able to do that by the end of the extended practicum, but hopefully one day when I am working throughout the year I will be able to have that kind of open environment!

Oct 14 Entrance Slip : Gridded Teaching

• how these ideas interact with your own hopes and concerns about taking up the profession of teaching
• what images and metaphors you take away from the reading
• things you agree and disagree with, wonder about and/or can extend to other ideas about teaching in a fast-changing and uncertain world.

I think we have been out in the garden a lot, probably more than what some of us would do in a entire year by now. What I find interesting is that when I look around my place, we have boxes and drawers and rectangular beds and desks and all of that, and never once did I pause to say oh that’s too many grids in my sight. We like to plan, to put things into sorted bins and I argue that some it is human nature. We like to be organized, predictable, and with groups in a grid like fashion for safety and comfort. 

Granted, sometimes it is something of a past relic, like how we just love eating loads of fat and sugar because it was good for survival but likely not when it’s so easily available now. I would say that much of the classroom structure suggests some kind of power hierarchy, where teachers stand in front and are in charge of everything and everyone else listens. Taking them outside that environment, whether it’s inside or outside, and take interactive activities and maybe interacting with some natural presence can be a great way to foster a sense of community and students ability to be an empowered student on their learning journey. 

I like the contrast of the images between the orchard garden and typical school setups, where desks and doors and hallways are all painted white and bleach and straight lines. The garden does not pose the same structure, yet we find just as much comfort if not more having our feet in the soil. 

Some questions remain as to whether all students will like the outdoor style of teaching and interaction. Maybe some just like to be orderly, predictable, inside a nicely sheltered place to learn where they do best.

Sept 16 Exit Slip

 Oh no I have forgotten to post an exit slip for Sept 16 and I'm afraid I did not have a picture of the drawings we did in class. We got some watermelon, and we picked natural and human made things to draw about. What we noticed was the use of straight edges, 90 degree angle, along with regular shapes like rectangles and triangles were most often found in human made things, where patterns and symmetries are simple and easily identifiable. Moving on to things in nature, leaves, trees, fruits, etc, they might look simple at first, but as we try to draw them, we realize that there is quite a lot going on that simple circular and straight lines aren't good enough. They have unique, symmetrical, recursive patterns, varying curvatures, and lots more that make capturing them in a simple drawing difficult, and we learn to appreciate the complexity of nature.

Oct 7 Exit Slip: Climate change, leaf drawing, sitspot poem

 Just before the long weekend on Oct 7, we met once again in the Orchard Garden! We took some time to visit our favourite sit spot again and try writing a poem with our senses again. Later we picked our favourite leaf and try to recreate them with geometric designs. In the process of doing that, we grow a little attached to the leaf and also recognize many simple things we don't necessarily pay attention to: symmetry, curvatures, different geometric shapes that exist in things we design and things in nature. We discussed about our readings on backsourcing and climate change as part of an educator's journey. How can we make sense of what is going on in our world, and how do we make sure students can relate to that instead of feeling disconnected with random formulas and figures?

Poem ish:

It’s been 2 weeks since we are back at orchard garden. The sun still shines, shedding warmth on our skin, but the air is cold and dry. The grass is not freshly cut like last time , and the leaves are turning dark green, white ish, and dry. Tractor comes from behind, a noise unmistakable. Hummingbirds fly around the sky, very crisp chirps that we can all hear. My hands are cold, so is my face, but my body is warm when not exposed to the cold wind. Some more leaves are on the ground , yellow, brown. The dews on grass, making it glitter in the sun. Tiny droplets in rainbow colour, right beside the soil bed. The little yellow flowers still blossom when autumn leaves fall. 

Oct 7 Moshe Renert on math and climate change Entrance Slip

 Something that made me stop while going through the article was the author's description of the disconnect between classroom education and urgent societal problems such as climate change, "a growing disconnect between the preoccupations of my professional life and the increasingly loud calls around me to attend to the problems of ecological sustainability" We sit in our air conditioned classroom, with rows of desks and projectors and laptops, and we talk about abstract reasoning and calculus and all that. If I were to guess the percentage of content on climate change or any other social issue in math would likely fall below 1%. Sometimes seeing people who protest holding up sign saying the Earth is flat and climate change is not real, it makes me think whether we have done enough as educators to inform people about issues and ways to research and verify with sources.

Another quote that surprised me was "many adults are having a hard time comprehending large number and as a result find it difficult to relate to issues of the environment". I am probably one of them, and so are many of us. When we see some large technical figure, we just gloss over it because it's someone else's problem, but if we are talking about carbon emission of cars on the road, it's everyone's problem. When you go and try to enjoy a bike ride but a shiny pickup truck just loudly approaches you, you can feel the air quality. How can we integrate this into our teaching? I really like the analogies the author has referenced about Co2 and throwing bags of garbage out on the road and the efficiency of forming protein in red meat vs vegetables.