Linked above is the teaching unit that a peer and I created last semester for our language and literacy in the elementary or middle school classroom course. It centers on perspective and point of view and includes 3 lessons that use different strategies to teach perspective and point of view.
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My name is Bryn Willis, my pronouns are they/them, I’m 19 years old and I am currently studying at the University of Victoria. I am originally from Richmond, but for the past several years I have been living in Delta, and next year I will be returning to live in Victoria to continue into my 3rd year of the 4-year B.Ed. Elementary education program. Read below to find out about my interests and academic experience!
Over the past 2 years at the University of Victoria, I have had the opportunity to take the following courses:
Teaching:
- EDCI 302: Literacy and Language in Elementary or Middle School
- EDCI 250: Elementary Field Experience Seminar I
- ED-D 301: Learners and Learning Environments
English:
- ENGL 135: Academic Reading and Writing
- ENGL 200C: English Literature, 1800-1914
Science:
- ASTR 101: Exploring the Night Sky
- EOS 120: The Dynamic Earth
Social Studies:
- SOCI 103: Canadian Society
- POLI 101: Canadian Politics
- EDCI 303: Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Canadian Education
Math:
- MATH 161: Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers I
- MATH 162: Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers II
- EDCI 300: Mathematical Processes
PHE:
- EPHE 310: Physical Education for General Classroom Teachers I
- EPHE 311: Physical Education for General Classroom Teachers II
Theatre:
- THEA 132A: Exploring Theatre Through Dramatic Process I
- EDCI 305A: Drama Education as a Medium for Learning I
Other:
- ASL 100A: American Sign Language I
- EDCI 306A: Music in the Elementary Classroom I
- EDCI 336: Technology Innovation in Education
- EDCI 307A: Art in the Elementary or Middle Classroom I
I would consider myself to be a very enthusiastic person. When I find something that piques my interest, I tend to get very interested in that topic and I try to become an expert. With this being said, I have found that I have quite a few interests in varying areas so here are a few of them!
- Working with children
When I was 5 years old and began elementary school, I remember wanting to be an elementary school teacher because I could help people and create fun activities for others. In high school, I went on to peer tutor 3 classes over the span of my grade 11 and 12 years: 2 grade 8 drama classes and a junior choir class. That was my first proper experience with being a mentor to younger students and it only solidified my plans to become a teacher. I now work at the Boys and Girls Club as an activity leader and I am really enjoying it. Being able to spend time with and create relationships with kids has been an amazing experience and I am looking forward to being able to do so in my future classroom.
- Languages
I am fluent in English and French and I am also currently learning Danish and American Sign Language. I was in French immersion from kindergarten through to grade 12 and this is where my interest in languages began. I also tried to learn Welsh a few years ago because, though I do not have any Welsh heritage, my name is Welsh and translates to hill or small mountain. When I found this out, I thought it would be really fun to become proficient in Welsh so, using the app Duolingo, I started to learn. Sadly I got busy with school work and extracurriculars so I gradually started to forget to practice more and more until I ended up stopping. Once I am done with learning Danish perhaps I will pick Welsh back up again. One activity that I have been planning on incorporating into my future classroom for the past while is a word of the day! I would begin every class with a new word written on the board that is in a language other than English. I think that this will be a small and fun way to begin some students’ interest in language.
- Musical theatre
Since before I could remember, I have had an interest in musical theatre. During my childhood, my family had a tradition where every boxing day we would go to the Metro Theatre in Vancouver to see their traditional Christmas pantomime. When I was about 7 years old, I decided that I wanted to audition for the show as soon as I was old enough. I auditioned when I was 9 years old but didn’t get in, but then I auditioned when I was 11 years old and I got in! This sparked my love of performing and I went on to continue performing in musicals all the way until I graduated high school. I have met many of my close friends through musical theatre, including my two best friends of 7 years. Along with musical theatre, I also took dance lessons from the age of 3 until I was 17. I took lessons in ballet, jazz, tap and hip hop and I eventually went on to compete in tap dance for 2 years.
Teaching Philosophy Statement
All too often, students will go through the public school system feeling as though they are hopeless, not good enough or not worth believing in. Many neurodivergent students feel left out of the classroom environment because they struggle with social cues and interactions with their peers. As an elementary school teacher, you see the same group of students 5 days a week for about 9 months, if any teacher says that they will not leave a lasting impact on their students, they need to reevaluate the impact that they carry as a teacher. I believe that no student should be left behind during their education. As teachers, we are around our students constantly and are given many opportunities to teach them lessons that are not directly stated in the curriculum. I want to make sure that all of my students feel welcome in the classroom and that all of my students know how to create a caring and welcoming environment.
In EDCI 336, we had the pleasure of having Tracy Humphreys, the chair and executive director at BCEdAcess join our class as the guest speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed Humphreys’ presentation because inclusion and the best practices to ensure inclusion are things that I am quite interested in.
I have heard people say things before such as “oh well I didn’t have iPads when I was in school and I did fine.” While I do see that maybe some folk can get through their education without the assistance of newer technologies, for some, these technologies are crucial in their learning and communication. I would also like to raise the point that, along with technology, education and our ways of teaching have also advanced so it only makes sense to use new technologies as tools for teaching.
Before hearing Humphreys’ presentation, we were tasked with watching a video about a student who uses a tablet to communicate since he is non-verbal. Along with the video was an article that was written by the student where he described how he is affected by his disability and how the tablet helps him. Watching the video of him using the text-to-speech feature on his tablet, and then reading what he had written was very eye-opening for me because I was not (and still am not very) educated on how disabilities, such as the student’s, that cause folks to be non-verbal affect the person with the disability. I had made the assumption that the level that someone is able to communicate is the same or similar to the level of cognitive function that they have. My assumption was proven very wrong with this student’s story as it was clear that he has very proficient cognitive function and can actually form very eloquent and complex thoughts.
This proves just how vital technology such as tablets with text-to-speech features, or any device that one is able to type on can be for students who are non-verbal or who have difficulty with communicating their thoughts verbally. If we as educators were to stick with the old technologies that were once used and thought of as “the best”, then many students with verbal communication difficulties would feel trapped and unable to fully express their complex thoughts and feelings.
Retrieved from https://www.inquiringteacher.com/10-characteristics-of-the-inquiry-classroom/
In class, we were lucky to have Trevor Mackenzie talk to us about the importance of inquiry in the classroom. We were shown this graphic and asked to consider what we feel we are already incorporating in our teaching practices as well as what we feel we need to work on in order to foster an inquiry classroom.
Though I have not had much classroom experience, I do work in afterschool care and I feel like many of these characteristics apply to my job there.
Here are the characteristics that I feel I am already incorporating:
1. Nurture student passions and talents
I feel that I do this whenever I am talking with the kids at my work and they tell me about their interests. I love to ask kids questions about things that they are passionate about because it shows that I care about them and their interests, and I also get to learn about the things that they like.
2. Empower student voice and honour student choice
At work, I don’t like forcing my kids to do things that they don’t want to do. There are of course some exceptions to that depending on the activity and the situation. But, for example, if I say to my kids that today we will be playing Mario Kart on the Wii, but they all agree that they would much rather play Just Dance, then I have no problem changing to Just Dance. The same goes for if the kids have thought of a modification for a game we are playing in the gym. As long as the modification is fair, and all of the kids agree to make that change, then I see no problem with this.
I do not believe that the teacher/adult should be the all-powerful dictator of what the kids must do. In the case of school, as long as the kids are learning and we end up covering what is stated needs to be covered in the BC curriculum, I see no problem with making changes that are suggested by the kids.
I especially do not believe in forcing students to do things that they are not comfortable with such as a dissection or a debate on a topic that is too personal for the student.
Jesse Miller joined our zoom class as a guest speaker and prompted us to think about our social media usage. I have actually been on social media since I was 8 years old. I remember that when I got a Facebook account when I was that age, I thought I was plenty old enough. Looking back on it now, I would not want any 8-year old to have a Facebook account because they are way too young to know about the dangers of having an online presence. I asked my mum if I could get the account because my older brother was getting one and I felt left out since I would have been the only one in the family without one.
Next, when I was 11, I joined the writing website Wattpad where I had two accounts and wrote short fiction stories. I gained over 100 followers on there, so I would consider my time on Wattpad to be the beginning of me learning how to speak to followers and have an online presence.
The next year, I then joined Instagram where I made a personal account to share with my friends, and a fandom account where I posted about my favourite YouTubers.
Reflecting now that I am older, I have come to realize just how prevalent social media has been in my life. Whether I realize it or not, I have most likely been influenced by what I have seen online and I really have grown up with the concept of trying to gain likes in order to feel validated.
As I’ve gotten older however, I feel that I’ve come to realize that likes and comments on social media posts are often arbitrary and do not affect how much I am liked by my family and friends
I have some experience with using audio for learning however, I would like to learn more and hopefully use it with my future classes.
For an assignment last semester in EPHE 310, we needed to explain our lesson plans that we had created while also showing the lesson plan on screen. In order to do this, I began a zoom with just myself in it, shared my screen with the lesson plan on it, and then recorded the zoom call. After this, I put the recording into a video editing software called Filmora9 in order to touch up the sound. I bought a subscription to this software in April 2020 because I found that I had needed to edit some videos that year for various projects. I also had an idea for a compilation video that featured videos of my friend group from UVic and I needed to buy a subscription to the software in order to get rid of the watermark. I figured that I’ll probably use it in the future so I bought a lifetime subscription and gladly, I have used it since buying it so I do not regret my decision.
After transitioning to online learning for the end of the second semester last year, I remember that my math professor had decided that she would rather finish off the year with asynchronous meetings as opposed to our usual 8:30 am synchronous meetings. Because she was now posting videos for us to watch at any time, she now also had to do a similar thing that I did in my EPHE 310 lesson plan and post a video of the notes, along with a recording of her explaining them to accompany the video. I really liked this way of teaching us because I was able to pause the video or rewind in case I didn’t understand something, or in case she was going too fast. Then, if I needed extra clarification, her office hours were still open for questions.
Googling myself is actually something that I remember trying when I was a lot younger. I think it was the summer and my brother and I were on the family computer and we were bored. I believe the only things that came up for me at that point in time were my Facebook page and a photo of my dance studio that had been in the newspaper.
Now that I am googling myself at the age of 19, I have found that I have a much larger online footprint.
When googling my name, my Facebook and my Linkedin pages show up in the first four hits. I then ventured to the second page of results and found my YouTube account as well as this blog on our class list of learner blogs!
Then, once I clicked on images, four images of me appeared on the first page alone.
Retrieved from https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-arts/sleeping-beauties-3023651
Retrieved from https://www.delta-optimist.com/local-arts/magic-carpet-ride-2990830
Retrieved from https://www.delta-optimist.com/living/deltas-new-theatre-company-3079663
Retrieved from https://www.devilsadvocatenews.com/at-the-moment/winter-formal1
All but the last photo were from various theatre productions I have been a part of and were featured in the local newspaper as well as their website. The last photo is from when I was in grade 8 and I performed in our school talent show that the school humbly titled “Extravaganza”. My high school has a blog that is run by students, so that year, there was an article about Extravaganza featured in the blog.
Next, I looked through the videos section of Google and was actually shocked to discover no videos of me or that had any relation to me at all! I thought that, because my theatre photos had shown up, there would definitely be a video of a performance somewhere on Google; but there were none to be found after looking through the first three pages of results.
Next, I tried adding my hometown to my name in the Google search. Similar results came up on the “all” page, so I clicked on images. Any guesses as to what came up in images? Yep, more theatre photos!
The entire first row of photos all have me in them, plus the first two in the second row!
Because I knew that photos from the shows I was in were being put in the newspaper and therefore also on the newspaper’s website, I was not very surprised at the photos that I was able to find when googling myself. However, since I hadn’t googled myself in a little while, I was slightly taken aback by the number of photos that were put in the newspaper that I had been in.