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My Masters of Arts in Education (MAED) journey at Michigan State University has been enriching at many levels. The courses I took to complete this degree were extremely beneficial, widened my horizon on teaching and learning and pushed me to reflect on my teaching practices and philosophy and continuously update them to fit with the environment I am teaching in. In this section, I showcase the different projects that I did throughout the program.
My learning can be classified into three major themes:
Education Inquiry: It made me reflect on education and realize the different forms education can have, and the various approaches and perspectives educators can adopt in their pedagogies.
Online Teaching, design and assessment: The digital world we currently live in has made its impact on education as well. COVID was the catalyst, but the opening up of the world and globalisation had already paved the way for the emergence of online education. It made me understand the digital affordances that I can use in my pedagogy as well as the constraints and the various factors that need to be accounted for in designing online classes and assessments to insure student engagement and equity especially during the pandemic period.
Inclusion and dealing with challenging learners: In this theme I learned about the importance of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) and its effectiveness on students' behaviors and challenging performance. I also learned how to better reach my students and modify my teaching style to their learning needs rather then expect them to adapt to my methods.
Click on the pictures to see my work in each of the themes...
Educational Inquiry
Educational Inquiry
Photo coourtesy of dreamstime.com
Educational Inquiry... Technology's Impact
This area of work raised my awareness on the different aspects of education. In this artifact I demonstrate my ability to reflect on a sample of them and understand the affordances of each approach. Starting from the history of education, studying its philosophy, moving on to looking at it from a teacher’s research perspective based on classroom experiences and reflections through Paley's The Girl with the Brown Crayon book. To then explore the different ethnographic contributions they bring to it through autobiography through the movie The Whale Rider novel of Witi Ihimaera and movie production by Niki Caro, after that through different biographies in history and finally reflecting on our minds, the curriculum of education, and all the learning done beyond the classroom walls. After this holistic exposure I tried to understand the impact of technology on learning through my personal learning adventure in this autobiography.
Educational Inquiry... Beyond the Classroom Walls
Learning is not just a transfer of knowledge. More importantly, it is the way we handle this knowledge and how we use it... Some learning is done in the classroom, but is only effective when we are able to apply it beyond classroom walls. Other types of learning are done during our daily lives and activities. It is a multifaceted process that is never complete: it is in perpetual evolution. In this essay, I share my reflection on education after being exposed to different forms and experiences of the learning process, the impact of the learning environment and the close link and interdependence between them.
Expertise shows the ability of the teacher to adapt their instruction to various audiences and in a variety of contexts.
After being exposed to the various learning theories and working on the assignments, I was able to connect my personal teaching and learning experiences with what I have learned from theories and concepts in this course.
There are no two identical learning processes: The existence of various types of learning, and the multitude of factors that shape up the learning process, from social, to cultural, habits etc. are all so interrelated and constitute the final unique learning path each individual undertakes.
In this poster I explain the difference between experts and novices, and the various stages if the cognitive theory of learning through schemas assimilation and accommodation as Piaget explains it.
Image created using www.piktochart.com
My Language Heritage.pdfEducational Inquiry... The Impact of our Language Heritage
“Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going” Rita Mae Brown
Literacy instruction can be highly influenced by language diversity. If used wisely the latter can become an important teaching tool for literacy instruction. We all have different language heritages and should use them and build on them for literacy learning. I share with you my presentation on my personal language heritage, my reflection on a diverse and multicultural classroom environment as well as a classroom observation and lesson plan project. In the three of them I present the impact of language diversity on education and how to plan a class for a diverse and multicultural group of learners.
The Surge of a New Era - Education Online
The Surge of a New Era - Education Online
The Surge of a New Era ... Teaching Students Online
With the recent COVID pandemic that struck us worldwide and the lockdown we have all been subjected to, educators were all pushed to adopt and embrace online teaching. As simple as the concept may sound, online teaching can be very tricky. I learned how to transform my physical classroom into an online classroom, adapted to the needs of my students. I designed and developed an online ESL course module catering for grade 4 students of the french school system. In the process, I had to factor in all the challenges and issues that come with it and try to compensate for the human social contact and body language that are present in a typical face to face class.
Teaching is teaching whether online or F2F, but the requirements of each are different, the challenges are not the same.
Teachers need to be more informed and trained on digital tools to excel as online educators.
Although recording screencasts might seem an easy task, I realized that there are many factors to take into consideration when doing it; the process actually reminded me of a movie production. Eye contact, clarity of pronunciation, etc. But that is only one aspect. We tend to forget that individuals in our audience do not have the same means. This course has taught me how to make my screencast more accessible to everyone
This project brought to my attention the importance of accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), as well as the wide availability of digital tools to communicate with my students virtually while enhancing their engagement in online learning. In This website I demonstrate my ability to design an online class that employs various digital tools and is accessible to all learners in compliance with UDL guidelines.
The Surge of a New Era ... Electronic Assessment
Assessment is a process, feedback is an integral part of this activity. Designing an assessment is very delicate as it involves many factors. Only by accounting for all those factors is a good design achieved. Its main goal is to help the students reach their learning objectives, and to help the teachers to better adapt their teaching/assessment processes to the learners particular needs. Once aware of these factors, it helps to put them in a checklist in order to ensure they are factored in, in our assessment design.
An assessment design checklist (ADC) also serves as reminder that nearly all assessments can be improved. It raises awareness on the importance of clearly stating the objectives of an assessment, of giving feedback to the learners to push them towards their learning goals. Hence, it pushes educators to modify their teaching plans and better adapt them to the students particular needs, all the while ensuring equity and equal accessibility to all the students. More importantly, it becomes a reminder tool to think more critically and improve assessments. Click on the picture to check my ADC. This checklist reflects my awareness of the different factors that I consider when designing an assessment, and the importance I give to lesson objectives /assessment objectives, feedback, and equity.
Want to know more about electronic assessments challenges? Check my blog.
The Surge of a New Era ... Design Thinking
Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.
Design thinking is a lifestyle that can be applied not only in an educational context, but in every challenge/problem faced in life. It is a fantastic way to really understand a problem, find the root cause that is triggering it and work on the most appropriate remedy for it.
In this assignment I understood the importance of each of the five steps of the design thinking process, and their interdependence on one another.
I realized that designing a process or a solution is not only about coming up with an idea and testing it: It is only when you really understand the problem through empathizing with the concerned audience and when you actually define the primary root cause of the problem that you can generate effective solution ideas. However that, on its own, is not enough. Ideas need to be tested and feedback on them is important to understand how to improve the process to reach perfection. It is a never ending dynamic and interactive process that can always be improved, and adapted to its audience. We are all designers!
This essay reflects my understanding of design thinking as a work in progress that requires testing, failing, getting feedback and improving. It is only when you try and sometimes fail, that you learn. Many times, unsuccessful attempts lead to much more successful new ideas. Find out more: click on the image.
CEP 817 Final Reflection.pdfInclusion and Dealing with Challenging Learners
Inclusion and Dealing with Challenging Learners
Inclusion and Dealing with Challenging Learners... When the Chips are Down
“Learning disabilities: the real challenge is educating those who don’t have one.” Richard Lavoie
Formal educators, parents, adults, we all have a share in this, whether we like it or not we are all educators, and we all participate in shaping up these little beings into becoming good adults who in turn will shape up future generations. In this essay I examine the rationale behind behaviors and how educators' behaviors can actually serve as preventive measures to learners challenging conducts.
Content Area Unit Plan - Final.docx.pdfInclusion and Dealing with Challenging Learners... Inclusive Plans
“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.”
Rick Riordan
It only takes a little modification in an educator's lesson plan to cater for the various needs of all learners. Students have different needs and there is no "one size fits all". This assignment is a grade 2 math lesson plan that exhibits my understanding of modification to cater for students with some special considerations. A skilled educator would choose the teaching methods best suited for their learners.
"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn"
Ignacio Estrada
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