Body Measurements Exit Slip

That was a pretty interesting exercise to say the least! I learned a lot about the relevance of the imperial measurement system, and why many people still use it today. I have often heard that this system is very useful for those in the trades industries, since it’s a fast way to measure, say the width of a wooden plank, with just your fingers instead of needing a measuring device. As a biologist, it is also fun to see that many ancient civilizations have already discovered the body proportion ratios and such, so this was a very fun exercise that I would do in my measurements unit. My favourite measurement is still the wingspan to body height ratio being close to 1:1. So knowing that I am 1.72m tall, I have used my wingspan to measure a bunch of stuff, especially in IKEA. Those will be fun tricks to make my students appreciate how practical and fun could be!

Inquiry Project

I would like to do my project on the motivation of students cheating, and the effects that cheating have on their development. We talked about cheating in our EDCP 442 class, and I was genuinely so fascinated about it. I remember cheating in a science quiz when I was in high school, so it is very interesting for me to come back to this as an adult on the other side. We learned that some of the main motivations behind cheating is that the students want to get into a good school, and that they assumed everybody else is cheating. I also want to know what the effects of cheating is in terms of development, since cheating is essentially a habit. If the students were getting away with cheating in high school, they might make a habit out of it, and start to cheat in real life. And lastly, I want to touch on what we can do as educators to discourage such behaviour. I know the whole concept of marks is to blame, but I want to find out more on how we can combat this :)

Marking Debate Exit Slip

Personally, I am not a big debater. So I wasn't a fun of the activity, but I never knew that I am pretty good at setting the scene and being confident to express my thoughts!

But unfortunately, the debate did feel one-sided, since all of us have the mindset of marks being outdated. Especially right after watching a video on how marks are detrimental to students learning, I feel like all of us TCs already have the pre-conceived notion of the effects of marks not being an effective tool of assessing students.

Though I think the debate was important to illustrate the good parts of marking, and why we should keep marking. Since being a teacher isn't always black or white, it was pretty valuable to see the other side and figure out what we can come to to meet in the middle.

So again, not a big fan of the activity because I don't like debates, but still glad that we did it regardless to see both sides of the marking perspective :)

Drawing in the Garden Exit Slip

(Don’t mind me writing this a month late lol)

I really enjoyed the drawing experience, since I have never drawn anything with charcoal before. I have been doodling for most of my life, usually on notes and stuff, so I have always enjoyed drawing. I like to draw characters, from video games and such, so I didn’t have a lot of experience drawing nature things. So from this experience, I enjoyed the process of sitting in nature and just drawing things I can see, especially my classmates :)

Though, in terms of math, I didn’t think the drawing exercise was super related. I think it’s more useful as an example, rather than a lesson. I loved the idea of “being bad at drawing,” but as you draw, it doesn’t really matter how good you are. I like the relationship between that and math, since a lot of people assume that they are “not at math.” I also thought it was interesting to see rigid edges of human-made objects versus the curves and stuff in nature. I dropped my biology teachable, but if I were to ever teach biology, I think this would be a perfect exercise! I can get my students to draw something in nature, and talk about why nature doesn’t have a lot of straight lines (biology favours high surface areas, which is why we don’t see straight edges). 

So all in all, a fun exercise, I don’t think I will use it in a math class, but it is a great lesson to learn in terms of “being bad at drawing.”

Effects of Grading Entrance Slip

Grades are such an interesting topic, on one hand, students are motivated by grades, but on the other hand, they are motivated because they are stressed about getting good grades. At the end of the day, the stress of grades is trickled down from post-secondary institutions. Because they want to see high grades from their students, the students, their parents, and us teachers all want to make sure that they are all good enough to meet those requirements. Grades feel very dehumanizing, as it just comes down to whether or not a student has gotten a checkmark or not for answering questions properly. Math is very logical and objective, making it an easy subject to assign marks to, but math is also very easy once you’ve memorized all the patterns. I was able to get into BEd with my math grades because I did so many practice exams, but since I didn’t really “learn” everything, I have forgotten almost everything I’ve learned in upper-level math, especially on proofs. I was very stressed about my grades just to get into BEd, even though my teaching experience is more than enough. So to me, grades is just a formality type of thing, it really doesn’t matter. Employers don’t care if I can prove Fermat’s Little Theorem, they just want to know if I can be a good teacher. It feels like a traditional thing that we all have to follow by even though it’s becoming less and less relevant.

From a teacher point of view, grades are the easy way to assess a student. I would love to use Canvas or WebWork so I don’t have to do the marking at all. But, I know that the students wouldn’t learn anything and only be motivated by green check marks. Math is such a beautiful language, it is such a shame to see so many students treat it as a subject to score high marks on. The problem feels exasperated by the math tutoring companies out there too. It’s always “Mathnesium,” “Math4Me,” “Math Tutor School,” and “Kumon.” I rarely see biology tutors or even English tutors, it just feels like math is a subject dedicated to grades. 

And speaking of which, grades should be a measurement of competency, but mastery. Getting 100% shouldn’t be about knowing 100% of the material, it should indicate that the student is ready to move onto the next topic. It should be a form of feedback to let the students how they are doing, instead of something they stress over to pursue. As mentioned in the article, students feel fulfillment through intrinsic motivators, and I think it’s up to us to help them understand that grades don’t mean much as long as you are learning new things. Even with EDCP 441, I still am unsure of how to tackle assessment without grades, but that’s something that I am looking forward to finding out :)

Also, I love how Charlie in the article mentioned a MP3 player as a reward… made me realize that this paper was published in 2010…

Math Poems Exit Slip

As mentioned in class, I didn’t enjoy the activity because I just don’t enjoy poetry in general. I find them confusing, hard to understand, and a bit traumatizing from my education in China. I still think they are a vital part of language and society, just not my cup of tea :)

Here are the haikus I wrote as I was sitting by the cabbage field across from Teij in the distance:

(Words)

Teij sits across from me

Cold autumn chills and gentle winter breezes

Teij shivers across from me

(Syllables)

Sprouting from the earth

Flower of lettuce, big green leaves

Hotpot udon soup