Module 4

Monday, August 9, 2021

I start my module with TED Talk: Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education and the two readings of Effective professional learning communities? the possibilities for teachers as agents of change in schools and Can Online Learning Communities Achieve the Goals of Traditional Professional Learning Communities? What the Literature Says. I begin my search for professional communities on google. I don’t have a clear idea what I am looking for. I am mainly browsing the webpages that pops up in google page and trying to explore my interest.

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

I continue to search for my professional communities. I return to the module 4 notes and check on the Ontario Council for Technology Education (OECT)’s blog sites for their numerous content areas within technology education. I have requested two permissions to join their group: Health Care Teachers of Ontario and Yearbook Teachers.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

I have found that I struggled a little bit with this portion of the course to find my professional communities. I haven’t heard back from the Ontario Council for Technology Education (OECT)’s blog sites. After thinking about this assignment and how I can relate this to my interest. Then I realize that I am belong to a group of “Education the Heart”. Therefore, the Professional Community I have chosen is the Facebook group called “Educating the Heart”. During our navigation of the pandemic in March 2020, my former support teacher has created this space/platform to support each other’s social and emotional health and learning ways to teach our children/students in our lives. This platform aims to share her learnings and passion that she believes and love in education, teaching, learning and parenting. She is a huge advocate on social and emotional development and learning for children and adults. She believes that “our emotional health is imperative to our growth and ability to successfully navigate difficult or stressful situations in life.”

Thursday, August 12, 2021

I again browse in google search to find a blog or site on social emotional learning. I have found a blog/site that I have participated in last year in August on social emotional learning. It is called AEA365. AEA365 is the American Evaluation Association's Tip-a-Day blog by and for evaluators. Dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators 365 days per year. The blog that I read is Assessing Social and Emotional Skills by Amy Hardeman. Hardeman (2019) states five considerations when measuring Social Emotion skills are

1. Cost, time and other resources

2. Mode of Delivery

3. Culture and context

4. Ethics

5. Purpose and utilization assessment

(Hardeman, 2019)

Here’s the link to the blog: https://aea365.org/blog/yfe-tig-week-assessing-social-and-emotional-skills-by-amy-hardeman/

See below for my response:

Friday, August 13, 2021

Today I focus on the analysis of these two professional communities: Facebook group of Educating the Heart and American Evaluation Association 365. I feel that these two professional communities provide open learning spaces support my learning. I believe that these resources and information can assist me as an educator to my professional context. To be honest, I have struggled in September 2020 when navigating COVID and return to work last year. I believe that mental health and social emotional learning are equally important for our students. Having a learning space with like-minded educators will provide me new resources and ideas to grow as a professional. Blitz (2013) states that “[t]he online environment frees teachers to collaborate without the typical time, space, and pace constraints of traditional PLCs and lets teachers access and share knowledge rapidly and comprehensively” (Blitz, 2013, p. 7).

Saturday, August 14, 2021

My rationale for choosing “Educating the Heart” as my professional learning community is because I believe that social emotional learning (SEL) is important to students and adults’ mental health, social skills, and academic achievement.

SEL’s importance and effects (Castilleja, 2014)

• SEL helps students and adults develop specific social and emotional competencies that have been linked to positive outcomes

• SEL teaches these skills explicitly and provide opportunities for practice, feedback, and application within content areas and throughout the school setting

• SEL aims to reduce problem behaviours and increase pro-social behaviour

• SEL believes that students learn best in a safe and well-managed learning environment

• SEL focuses on preventing problem behaviours before it occurs

• SEL supports using assessment information to help establish organizations that are committed to effective practice

• SEL promotes caring and positive interactions between staff and students

• SEL contributes to positive school environment

Currently, there are 269 members in the group. About 22 members are my Facebook friends, they are also colleagues. By exploring the Facebook group “Educating the Heart” would allow me to explore its conceptions of curriculum, philophical foundation on SEL based curriculum design. This facebook group as well allow me to explore resources on how we can support each other and our students during this pandemic. We could also share ideas on Social Emotional learning in this platform. According to Ontario Leadership Strategy (2013-2014), collaborative learning cultures has direct impact on school improvement and student achievement.

What philosophical foundation does SEL based curriculum design connect to?

Reconstructionism – focuses on skills and subjects needed to identity problems of society (Ornstein, 1990, p.105).

Progressivism – Knowledge leads to growth and development, focuses on active and interesting learning (Ornstein, 1990. P. 105).

I believe that both Facebook group of Educating the Heart and the blog of Assessing Social and Emotional Skills by Amy Hardeman are related to the reconstructionism and progressivism theory of education. They are focus both on learner-centre designs and society-centre designs. For people to reform society, they should understand how themselves can contribute to the society. This occurs through an individual growth process, leading to increased awareness of self and others. SEL curriculum fits into the humanistic design. According to Ornstein & Hunkins (2013), humanistic design is “an approach to curricular design and instructional delivery that would allow individuals to become fully functioning persons” (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2013, p.168). By integrating SEL curriculum, students develop cognitive and social skills and abilities to become functioning members of the society.

Reference:

Blitz, C. L. (2013). Can Online Learning Communities Achieve the Goals of Traditional Professional Learning Communities? What the Literature Says. REL 2013-003. Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic.

Castilleja. (2014). Counselling and Social Emotional Learning. Retrieved from: https://www.castilleja.org/page.cfm?p=942902

Ontario Leadership Strategy (2013-14). Ideas into Action: For Schools and System Leaders. Bulletin #3. Winter 2013-14. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/leadership/IdeasIntoActionBulletin3.pdf

Ornstein, A. C. (1990). Philosophy as a basis for curriculum decisions. The High School Journal, 74, 102-109.

Ornstein, A. C., & Hunkins, F. P. (2013). Curriculum: Foundations, principles, and issues (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.