Oct 3 - Entrance Slip

 "Learning the Grammar of Animacy" is a beautifully written chapter by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer in which she highlights the absence of words in the English language that effectively include "things" in nature as our family members. My mum tells stories of me as a toddler being taught to respect everyone, and so I started calling fruits as kela ji - Mr. Banana. I viewed it as someone who gave me sustenance when I was hungry. As an adult, I find it interesting how this is considered funny but endearing in Hindi but grammatically incorrect in English. We grow up being taught the importance of saying the right terms for every little thing we are taught in class and eventually lose sight of the many perspectives that can be taken into account, as Dr. Kimmerer mentions. While I think it is beneficial to learn the scientific names and the names of many mathematical objects, I think it could be just as beneficial to teach our kids to respect them all and see them as beings.

Now living, loving and playing in Canada, I cannot help but think about the many immigrants that come here due to a variety of reasons and how we force, to a certain degree, English upon them. To avoid passing by another beautiful perspective to view a certain concept being talked about in class, I think we need to encourage our ELLs to talk about how their ancestors' point of view as well. As well, educating ourselves and our students on the indigenous perspectives is, in my opinion, one of the best things we can do as part of our efforts towards Truth and Reconciliation.

Sept 26 - Exit Slip

 

Reflecting on today's class, I really appreciated a new way of approaching nature that whenever I take/harvest anything from nature, I need to ask permission and give my thanks and a gift back to nature. I think when we talk about including indigenous perspectives in our classroom, we sometimes forget that it's not just pedagogical approaches we need to include, it is the whole way of living life. I was able to experience this in today's class when we all sat down and made rope using the materials we gathered, and Madison braided my hair. We shared our thoughts about how we feel when we try to incorporate some indigenous perspectives (which are somewhat similar to the perspectives of my ancestors as well) and it solidified my thoughts - I feel thankful to have been invited to participate in indigenous ways of knowing and learning.

Sept 26 - Entrance Slip

 The writing 'Common Threads - Weaving community through collaborative eco-art' raises some good points about re-learning skills that we as a community have stopped participating in. I do agree that the convenience with which we are able to acquire things we need has made us reluctant to learning the skills that are essential. This made me think of my dependence on store bought Indian delicacy, called Achaar, which are pickled vegetables or fruits, and complaining about it not being as good as my grandma's. Pickling in Indian culture might soon become a lost art if we don't learn to do it ourselves. In the writing, it is also mentioned that once oil is hard and more expensive to extract, outsourcing goods might not be possible. I had previously thought about this, but now having read it, this is not my internal dialogue anymore. It made this idea more concrete for me and I feel a sense of urgency to learn new skills so that we as a community only have to depend on ourselves to fulfill our needs.

Sept 19 - Exit Slip

During today's class, we spent some time colour matching different objects in nature with human (computer) made paint chips. This activity was very enlightening as it brings a perspective forward that I resonated with - you do not always find the perfect solution and that is okay. The deeper lesson of not being able to perfectly replicate nature also got my attention.

The second activity was fascinating as I never knew that on majority of the days of the year, the sun does not rise in the east and set in the west. I found it very calming and meditative when we traced the path of the sun by measuring the degrees with our bodies. This is definitely an activity I will be doing with my students when they complain to me about daylight savings and the days being dark and gloomy.

Sept 19: Thinking about Teaching and Learning Gardens

 In my experience as a student, outside classrooms were not part of my education journey because there was stigma around learning in a garden - How can serious leaning happen outside a traditional classroom? Now I feel fortunate to be living in Vancouver, where there so much beauty in every direction you look and I like the idea of incorporating that in my classroom. 

When I think of teaching and learning gardens, my brain automatically connects them to indigenous ways of teaching and learning. I am not completely sure if western education also has elements that connect to outdoor classrooms - I would love to find out. My hope is also to learn more about indigenous perspectives so that I can incorporate them into my classroom as well. But considering an outdoor space by itself, I think it is such a different environment than a classroom and just the lack of walls, in my experience, encourages students to think.

Sept 12 - Exit Slip

 

I very much enjoyed the drawing activity in class today. At first, I was not sure what the purpose of the activity was but when Dr. Gerofsky talked about thinking of doing math in the same way as we think of art or music, it made a lot of sense to me. We do not have to be good at it to do it. In my own process of drawing the above picture, I noticed that I focus more on the one scenery rather than separate objects occupying the bigger space. This made me realize that I would benefit from learning how to scaffold tasks for my students. On the brighter side, I realized why I am good at solving word problems - I take into account all the little details provided.

Sept 12 - On Becoming a Reflective Teacher

 My initial thoughts as I finished reading this article were that this is some great information and very helpful advice as my goal is to in fact become a reflective teacher. I identify and agree with the qualities that Grant and Zeichner use to describe a reflective teacher. My primary reason that pushed me to pursue the teaching profession is my own personal experience with math teachers. My relationship with my elementary school teacher in India was non existent. It bothered me that she didn't put in any effort or reflect with the class on what she taught and my experience with my after school teacher was an abusive one. I am doing this program and aiming to be a teacher to not be like those teachers and I think reflecting and thinking about my actions is a great way to achieve that goal.

Grant and Zeichner bring up interesting points about "Wholeheartedness". While I do agree that a good teacher is reflective not only when it is convenient for them, but at all times, I also think that there needs to be room for a teacher to have their own boundaries to preserve their mental well being. I think if a school or a classroom is not working out for a teacher even after putting in all the effort that she is capable of, she should be free to explore other options. Maybe someone else can do that job better than her and do the students justice!

I personally really found the "How To Begin" section very enlightening. I am at the stage of this program where I am thinking about my practicum more intensively and I'm starting to have dreams about it, for better or for worse. So, I appreciated and double underlined all the advice given in this article.