Category: EDCI 336 (Page 2 of 3)

This is a category for the EdTech course. Please add this category in addition to the relevant edtech assignment category(ies).

Kids practicing yoga — "Kids Yoga" by Georgia National Guard is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Educational Yoga Videos

March 4, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

“Yoga is the artwork of awareness on the canvas of body, mind, and soul.”

– Amit Ray, “Yoga and Vipassana”

Inspired by our class this week on educational video, I decided to dive into some educational yoga video!

This video by Krishna Sudhir from TED-Ed on YouTube talks about what yoga does to your body and brain.

Yoga Sutras – defined yoga as the restraining of the mind from focusing on external objects in efforts to reach a state of pure consciousness

Overtime, yoga began to incorporate physical elements.

3 core elements remain in common day yoga:

Physical postures
Breathing exercises
Spiritual contemplation

This blend has a unique sense of health advantages:

boosts strength & flexibility
improves heart and lung function
enhances psychological well-being

What have studies shown?

it is tough to make specific claims
it is difficult to determine which component of yoga is improving which health benefit

Flexibility & Strength

stretching helps muscles become more elastic
no one form of yoga has been shown to improve flexibility more
helpful at reducing pain and benefits breathing related to some chronic conditions

Psychological Effects

little conclusive evidence of how yoga helps
there is evidence to suggest yoga can help reduce symptoms of stress

Classroom Recordings of Yoga

I have been starting to think about how I can incorporate yoga into my classroom. Educational videos from other teachers are helpful so that I can see how they teach yoga. Here are a few that I’ve found, that would be classified as a “classroom recording” educational video

Standing Yoga Sequence

Chair Yoga

Physical Activity Breaks – Ready to Learn!

There are so many educational yoga videos available. As a teacher, there are many videos you could play for your class to follow. Additionally, teacher’s can show kids videos about the benefits of yoga. Also, teacher’s can use videos to learn for themselves to be able to pass that knowledge along!

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!“

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.

Bernie backpacking Europe with me!

Yoga pose — Photo by Avrielle Suleiman on Unsplash

Technology and yoga?

January 24, 2021 / kathrynebert / 0 Comments

What comes to mind when you think of yoga? Probably peace, quiet, relaxation and meditation. Technology is not typically associated with yoga, but it can play an integral role in enhancing your practice.

Research

I have been using forums such as Google to research questions I have related to yoga. Reading about other people’s yoga journeys and looking at studies regarding the benefits of yoga are a big part of my yoga practice.

On the Goodreads app, I have been able to search for books on yoga. The app shows ratings and reviews from other people so that I can find a book that is best suited for me.

Practice

Over the past week, I have been practicing yoga alongside YouTube yoga videos. Some of my favourites so far include Yoga With Adriene, Yoga With Kassandra, Jessica Richburg, Blessed Yoga and Yoga With Bird.

Practicing yoga in front of a screen isn’t ideal, but we are fortunate to have the technology to be able to practice yoga at home, since the pandemic has resulted in most yoga studios currently being closed.

Practicing yoga at home is also a very cost effective way to stay healthy. Additionally, there are more options depending on if you want an easy or hard practice, a long or short practice, or a routine that targets a specific area of your body.

I am also happy to say that I have become more comfortable with my practice, and was able to lead my own practice on Friday morning. Leading myself allowed me to stretch the areas that I felt needed attention, spending as much or as little time on them as I pleased. I integrated technology into my own practice by listening to calm yoga music on YouTube.

Recording

Recording my yoga journey so that I am able to see my progression is important to myself so that I can reflect, and so that I can properly document for this free inquiry project. I have been using my Apple Watch Workout and Activity apps, my Renpho Scale, and journal.

Apple Watch

Each time I practice yoga, I start a workout on my watch. The workout then gets recorded and stored in the Activity app. This keeps track of workout time, calories and heart rate. I have noticed the difference in calories being burnt between different yoga sessions.

Renpho Scale

This smart scale has allowed me to keep track of my weight, BMI, body fat, body water, muscle mass and more. I use the scale every morning before my workout, and intend to continue to use it so that I can see my progress over this semester.

How I’m Feeling…

The good… It has been a long and busy first two weeks of this semester, but practicing yoga for 10 minutes per day has been great for me. In fact, I have been getting out of bed easier knowing that I can spend 10 relaxing minutes stretching by myself while watching the sunrise. Although there are some days I have trouble getting up, having a goal of 10 minutes has made practicing feel achievable. I have found that my energy levels are higher for the day, and I am overall feeling good.

The bad… I am really struggling with practicing for one hour. This past week, I was only able to focus for 30 minutes until I gave up. I have decided that I am not going to dwell on not being able to practice for an hour, but I am going to be working on my stamina so that I can focus for a full one-hour session.

I am excited for another week filled with morning yoga.

Photo by Avrielle Suleiman on Unsplash

Category: EDCI 336 (Page 2 of 3)

Educational Yoga Videos

“Yoga is the artwork of awareness on the canvas of body, mind, and soul.”

Classroom Recordings of Yoga