Author: kathrynebert (Page 4 of 5)

Action! — Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Educational Video

March 2, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

Video is a great tool for learning because it allows opportunity for reviewing, rewatching, slowing down and repeating. Educators can use lecture recordings, screencasts, talking head videos, presentations, classroom recordings, interviews, simulations and animations. It is also more accessible for all learners as subtitles can be added. Video allows us to see the unseeable, such as a time-lapse metamorphosis video or a slow-motion hummingbird flapping its wings. Additionally, a search on YouTube can help you learn just about anything. Below are resources from Michael that I want to keep handy so that I can practice video editing later.

Lecture recordings

Screencasts

Talking head video

Presentations

Classroom recordings

Interviews

Simulations

Animations

Tools for creating video:

Jing – Jing will allow you to record whatever is on your screen, this is called a screencast. You could run a presentation using PowerPoint, show off a website, display pictures, or demonstrate how to use a piece of software. Once you have created your video you can share it on Screencast.com

Biteable – Biteable allows you to create short videos by combining audio, media, and text. You can then save your video to YouTube for sharing

Open Broadcaster Software – Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.

Screencast-O-Matic – Allows for the creation of up to 15 minute videos capturing your screen or webcam. You can save the video file to your computer and/or upload it to YouTube.

PowToon – PowToon supports the creation of animated videos presentations. A free account will allow for up to 5 minute watermarked videos. You can’t download the video file for free but you can host and present the video on the PowToon service.

Videoscribe – Videoscribe supports the creation of whiteboard style animations, incorporating images, text, voice, and music. There is a free 7 day trial of the software available.

Your cell phone! – Your cell phone likely includes a camera capable of filming quality video clips. Create a video lecture, question and answer session, or tour and upload your video to YouTube for sharing.

Record from your webcam – Webcam recordings can be created with the apps Photobooth (iOS) or Camera (Windows) which are built into the operating systems.

If you have Microsoft PowerPoint on your computer you can create a video using the software.

Commercial Tools – There are also tools like Adobe Premier, Camtasia Studio, and iMovie which will allow you to create video. These tools cost money so I have not recommended them to you, if you have access to them please feel free to use!

Yoga pose involving strength — Photo by Patrick Kool on Unsplash

Yoga & Strength

February 26, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

During our EPHE 311 class last week, I was doing a push up and realized that it was easier than a push up has ever felt before. I was confused at first because I couldn’t remember the last time that I did a push up. Quickly I realized that the cause of my easier-than-usual pushup had to be because I had been practicing yoga frequently. This was the first time that I really felt like yoga was making a difference for me physically.

I always hear people say that practicing yoga regularly improves your strength and physical health/appearance, but I wasn’t sure if I really believed it… until I felt it for myself. I always thought traditional strength training was the only way to get stronger, but it turns out that practicing yoga regularly and holding certain postures for a long period of time can drastically improve not only balance, coordination and flexibility, but also strength!

Below is a good yoga video focused on building strength:

While it is important to balance all types of yoga, tending to the spiritual, emotional, and physical health, the physical aspect (Hatha yoga) is why many people do yoga, and kids can also greatly benefit from the physical aspects of yoga!

Sparked by my curiosity, I decided to look into how yoga can improve children’s lives in a physical way. The article “The effects of yoga practice on balance, strength, coordination and flexibility on healthy children aged 10-12 years,” talks about the improvement yoga can make in children’s lives by increasing their balance, strength, coordination and flexibility. They use the term ‘healthy’ children because there are many studies done on how yoga can benefit ‘non-healthy’ children, so this study is based off of ‘healthy’ children.

The Study

For 8 weeks, 26 children participated in this study, practicing yoga led by a registered yoga teacher for 40 minute sessions, 1-3 times per week. Multiple tests were done to assess the children’s balance, strength, coordination and flexibility before and after the experiment. The results were that the trial did not improve their strength and bilateral coordination, but it did improve their balance and flexibility.

Although this study did not conclude with improved strength in children, it did state that it may benefit people by improvements in energy, muscle tone, fine motor coordination, flexibility, postural alignment, cardiovascular fitness, attention, concentration, behaviour and relaxation.

‘Non-healthy’ children, such as children with asthma, behavioural disabilities and cancer have been studied to see their improvements due to yoga, and were found to have increased hand-grip strength, endurance and motor performance.

While research in how yoga affects children’s balance, strength, coordination, and flexibility have been limited, there are studies that show that yoga improved children’s flexibility and balance. Unfortunately, strength has not been shown to significantly improve from yoga in children, but this may be because of the lack of studies.

Reference

Donahoe-Filmore, B., & Grant, E. (2019). The effects of yoga practice on balance, strength, coordination and flexibility in healthy children aged 10-12 years. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 23(4), 708-712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2019.02.007

The art of inquiry collage — "The Art of Inquiry" by Candace Nast is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Innovation & Inquiry – Jeff Hopkins

February 25, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

We were lucky to have Jeff Hopkins, founder and principal educator of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) that opened in September, 2013, present to our class this week. Jeff has taken his passion for inquiry-based learning and opened a school that he hopes will become mainstream, so that everyone can learn based on their personal preferences, experiences and interests, creating intrinsic motivation and a love for learning.

The steps of the inquiry process

At the PSII, students are gifted with learning through free inquiry. As Jeff stated, inquiry is great, but students must know how to tackle and handle their inquiries. So, the school takes teaches them how to do so.

The first day of school – help develop questions:

Many students will say that they are not interested in anything and therefore cannot think of an inquiry question. What these students do not realize, is that literally ANYTHING can be their inquiry, so of course they are interested in something. Jeff stated that he has yet to find something that cannot be turned into an inquiry.

Additionally, Jeff stated that you want to help them develop questions by giving them ideas, but you do not want to just give them questions, because this takes away a lot of the learning process and creativity in discovering your own questions.

Research:

The next step in the school’s inquiry process is to start researching the chosen inquiry. This can be done by typical research through reading, through experimentation, through talking to people and more.

Refine questions:

The next step is completed once students become comfortable with the vocabulary around their inquiry topic. Students can refine their questions or come up with new questions. The goal is to make the questions as specific as possible!

Develop learning activities:

The students at PSII will develop learning activities that will help them dive into learning about their inquiry. This can be done as a project or something in the community, as a series of lectures at PSII, or basically anything the students want!

Assessment:

PSII measures competencies from the BC curriculum based off of goals that students made for themselves alongside their teachers.

How can this be applied to public elementary schools?

As a future educator, it will be my job to teach the curriculum to students, however there is no set way of doing this. Many teachers split up the curriculum into arbitrary subjects, like containers, but Jeff warns of the dangers of this. He says it is good to be interdisciplinary and teach multiple things at one time, as an inquiry does. Since we don’t have to complete things in a certain order, and in elementary school we do not need a mark for a course, we can merge subject areas together to complete the curriculum in that way. This way of teaching and learning considers the whole person and what they need in order to learn and grow. As a teacher, this way of school is an alien structure to most, but it is not ‘unstructured’. Rather, teachers must go with the flow and ensure students know what they are to be doing.

While this idea of teaching and learning intrigues me, it is all so new and unfamiliar, and is not what I have witnessed within schools, so I will keep these ideas in mind, however I am not sure I will be able to follow them exactly. I think that slowly integrated this way of education will be how I navigate inquiry-based learning into my classroom.

I will exit this blog entry with a final quote from Jeff Hopkins,

“The whole is greater than the sum of the parts!“

‘Three Little Birds’ on Guitar

February 25, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

For my first song to learn, I chose ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley. I have been learning from Andy Guitar, who teaches how to play this song in his third day of his ten day beginners guitar videos:

What it entails:

To play ‘Three Little Birds,’ you must be able to play the A, D, and E major chords. The strumming pattern is simple and on beat. Each chord is strummed for a count of four (one barre).

The song:

Intro

4 barres (16 counts)

Chorus

Don’t worry about a thing,

D A

‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright.

Singin’: Don’t worry about a thing,

D A

‘Cause every little thing is gonna be alright!

Verse

Rise up this mornin’,

Smiled with the risin’ sun,

Three little birds

Pitch by my doorstep

Singin’ sweet songs

Of melodies pure and true,

D A

Sayin’, “This is my message to you-ou-ou:”

Repeat Chorus

My thoughts…

I have really been enjoying learning to play this song! I am struggling with changing chords, especially from E to D major, but I have noticed my improvements every day. The hardest chord for me is D major, and it gets played frequently in this song. I struggle to press the chords down firmly as I feel my hands are pretty small and cannot grasp the guitar properly. Some tips that have helped me work on my D major chord are:

use the very tip of your fingers
don’t have your nails too long (sad face)
rotate your hand so that it comes away from your guitar, this way you won’t accidentally touch the other strings with your fingers
play each string individually to see how they song
PRACTICE!!! Your fingers are going to hurt, so you have to take it slowly, but don’t give up on it!

Man playing guitar — Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash

Don’t fret about it – My guitar journey begins!

February 18, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

In music class, we have been tasked to learn to play either the recorder, ukulele or guitar. Luckily, I have a guitar that has been sitting in the corner collecting dust, just waiting for someone to pick it up! I am thankful that music class has given me the opportunity to do something that I have always wanted to do.

Where to begin?

I had no idea where to start, so I began with something familiar. YouTube has countless videos for learning guitar and I happened across one channel – Andy Guitar – that really resonated with me. I began his 10 day guitar for beginners videos. Below is day 1:

Andy is a great teacher, and I have gone through 5 of his videos, taking extra days to practice his teachings, before going to the next video. So far I have learned:

String Names (from thickest (top) to thinnest (bottom) strings)

E (6)
A (5)
D (4)
G (3)
B (2)
e (1)

Strings are referred to by either their letter or number, depending on the person. A good way to remember the letter names is through this jingle: Every Adult Dog Growls Barks eats.

E Major, A Major, D Major, G Major and E Minor Chords

E major:

“File:E major chord for guitar (open).svg” by Ashaio is marked with CC0 1.0

A major:

“File:A major chord for guitar (open).svg” by Ashaio is marked with CC0 1.0

D major:

“File:D major chord for guitar (open).svg” by Ashaio is marked with CC0 1.0

G major:

“File:G major chord for guitar (open).svg” by Ashaio is marked with CC0 1.0

E minor:

“File:E minor chord for guitar (open).svg” by Ashaio is marked with CC0 1.0

A Riff (a repeated melody throughout a song that makes up the base of a song)

“Born in the USA”

This was a good riff to begin with for me, as I only had to focus on playing one string at a time. It challenged me to move from string to string quickly and smoothly.

Final Thoughts

Although my fingers are sore (OW!), I am happy with how I am progressing and think that I am on track to meet my goals for the midterm. I am learning the song “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and the riff from “Wild Thing”

Love to learn — Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Inquiry Based Learning

February 17, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

Last week in class, we were joined by Trevor MacKenzie, who informed us about inquiry based learning. MacKenzie is an educator that promotes inquiry, meaningful learning and the discovery of what people truly love to do. As a future educator, I hope to implement inquiry into my classroom, as I think that giving students choice about what they are learning can help them be enthusiastic and passionate about their own learning.

Types of Student Inquiry

https://www.trevormackenzie.com/exclusive-sketchnotes

When teaching with inquiry, it is important to note that inquiry does not mean it is a free for all. Students must be equipped with the proper language and tools and must know the layers and dynamics of inquiry, before getting thrown into a completely free inquiry and being told to go for it. A good idea is to start small and work your way up, beginning with a structured inquiry, then controlled inquiry, then guided inquiry, and finally a free inquiry once you know your students are prepared. This is also a great opportunity to get to know students one-on-one by sitting down with them and working through some of the inquiry process.

10 Characteristics of the Inquiry Classroom

https://www.trevormackenzie.com/exclusive-sketchnotes

Teaching with inquiry can be an amazing way to get students to be intrinsically motivated and loving to learn.

Meditation Pose — Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash

The Lost Teachings of Yoga

February 8, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

I have chosen ‘The Lost Teachings of Yoga – How to Find Happiness, Peace, and Freedom Through Time-Tested Wisdom’ by George Feuerstein as the yoga philosophy book that I will read. Since I am already extremely busy with school, I have decided to listen to the book on Audible so that I can listen to it while doing others things such as working out, driving or doing housework.

This book speaks to the spiritual aspect of yoga, which has been slowly lost over many years as yoga has become more Westernized. Feuerstein says that many yoga teachers focus only on the physical aspect of yoga (Hatha yoga) and not at all on the spiritual, emotional and healthy mind side. Freuerstein talks about the five moral virues that have been lost overtime with yoga, and that these teachings could offer guidance with problems we are facing around the world.

The seven branches of yoga:

Râja-Yoga (Royal Yoga) – liberation through meditation and deep concentration
Hatha-Yoga (Forecful Yoga) – liberation through physical transformation
Jnâna-Yoga (Wisdom of Yoga) – liberation through teachings from higher wisdom that discerns between the real and unreal
Karma-Yoga (Action Yoga) – liberation through self-transcending service
Bhakti-Yoga (Devotional Yoga) – liberation through self-surrender in the face of the Divine
Tantra-Yoga (Continuity Yoga) – liberation through ritual, visualization, subtle energy work, and the perception or the identity of the ordinary world and the transcendental Reality
Mantra-Yoga (Yoga of Potent Sound) – liberation through recitation of empowered sounds

The five moral virtues:

Non-harming
Truthfulness
Non-stealing
Greedlessness
Chasity

These five virtues are interconnected and aim to develop healthy relationships between all beings including nature.

My thoughts…

While I appreciate learning of the original teachings of yoga and agree with the overall goal of a happy, kind and peaceful life, it will be hard for me to practice all of the branches of yoga and all of the virtues all of the time. However, Freuerstein did state to not kick yourself if you cannot practice all of these, but to just do your best and work toward them all of the time.

My practice with Yoga With Adriene this morning ended in a nice phrase that relates to this topic:

“…commit to something regularly so that you can be happy and healthy in body [and] in mind and spirit because when you feel good, you look good. If you want to have a good body or feel good in your body, you gotta tend to all parts” (Yoga with Adriene, 2017).

Overall, I think that it is so important to build a happy and healthy spirit as well as a happy and healthy body. Both are interconnected and should both be practiced!

References

Freuerstein, G. (2014). The lost teachings of yoga. Sounds true.

https://www.audible.ca/pd/The-Lost-Teachings-of-Yoga-Audiobook/B0719C292K

Yoga with Adriene (2017, April 9). Healthy body yoga – yoga with Adriene [Video]. YouTube.

Social Media & Professional Responsibilities

February 7, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

Jesse Miller from Mediated Reality presented in our class this week and educated us about the professional responsibility we as future educators hold when it comes to technology and social media use.

Critical Audiences

As educators, we must be conscious of what we post on social media and the internet in both our professional and personal lives. I recall when I was younger my mom and my teachers stressing how important it was to be careful with what you posted online because it could be around for your whole life. I am thankful now that I was taught this because posting inappropriate content as a younger person could affect me in my journey to becoming a teacher and affect me as a teacher.

Now that I am almost a teacher, it is important to remember to continue posting only appropriate content. There are three audiences that may criticize my use of social media as an educator:

The public and parents
Staff
Students

Something that Jessie said that stood out to me was that if you would not want your students and students parents to see it, you probably shouldn’t post it.

Main Points

student information should never be shared
social media does more good than harm
understand your school’s policies and regulations
have open discussions with students to guide them in digital literacy
post carefully
get permission

Exude happiness and motivation — Photo by Natalie Grainger on Unsplash

Yoga & Motivation

February 1, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

In one of my classes this semester, motivation has been discussed thoroughly. When thinking about how to motivate my future students, I must also look at what motivates me. We have discussed the importance of intrinsic motivation, doing something because you like doing it rather than for some external reason such as a reward or punishment.

It is difficult to say that doing yoga every morning is intrinsic, as I am doing it because of this class and the need to complete a free inquiry in order to pass, but I can feel that I actually enjoy the practice of yoga and yoga in itself is motivating me.

Yoga has helped me wake up earlier than I would without it. It feels good to move my body, even if t’s just for a few minutes and low intensity. I feel like I am more productive throughout my day, and my body has never felt better.

I believe that I will continue to practice yoga beyond this class, as it helps me feel motivated and focused. I feel intrinsically driven to practice!

The Power of PowerPoint

February 1, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

In class this week, we learned about the multimedia learning theory and about image, video and audio editing. It is widely known that learning is more productive when multimedia (different forms of media combined) is provided. As future teachers, it is important for us to learn about ways we can make learning more efficient. In class, we learned about photo editing, which may help us in the future. Also, it is really fun!

PowerPoint

As a technologically illiterate person, I was pleased to find out that Microsoft PowerPoint is a great tool for photo editing. It is good for graphics, allows for photos to be brought together, and is easy for younger students to understand, so I can pass on this information to my future students. Below are some creations I was able to make on PowerPoint.

Author: kathrynebert (Page 4 of 5)