It’s term 2 of my Master’s coursework and it’s time for a quick check in. Honestly, not much has changed professionally since term 1. I’m still teaching computer science full time at my school and my Montessori course is still on-going (stay tuned for more updates on how that goes). In my personal life, I’ve gotten really into 1970’s Japanese feminine literature. I’m discovering some really interesting titles for the first time that inspired some of my favourite authors of the modern era. I’ve mainly focused in on the Year24 group and their discussions on complex and often controversial (for the time) topics through the lens of unique protagonists with even more complex and controversial relationships to others. It’s a shame that a lot of the books published in English have long gone out of print and have become extremely expensive on the secondhand market, so there are long gaps in what I can reasonably purchase and read. I don’t want to put too much on my plate at the moment, but I have a shred of an idea to start a podcast with a friend called “Year24 and more” where we have a book club style discussion on titles, explore the themes, and figure out where our talks fit into the larger dialogue. For now, this idea will stay on the backburner until my degree is finished and my collection of titles is large enough to sustain the podcast for a few episodes. That and learning how to mix audio properly.

As of today, I have started my course on Learning Design and I’m eager to start diving into the content. As the tech teacher in my school, I am constantly looking for ways to innovate and integrate new technologies into my curriculum. If technology continually advances, so should my teaching methods, topics, and learning activities. Every year I have new students that come with new considerations (language, IEPs, low output etc.), devices that are constantly changing, phasing in and out of support for applications, and it’s my job to provide the highest quality of education that can successfully reach all of my students.

I’ve had a ton of experience designing learning experiences in formal education setting through the Professional Development Program (PDP) teacher program at Simon Fraser University (SFU). I was always expected to connect the learning to the Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLOs) of the old BC Curriculum, and provide accommodations/extensions for students who needed more attention. I no longer write out large formal plans for learning designs in the way that I used to. Being a subject specific teacher, I can keep the new BC curricular competencies and big ideas for ADST in mind when I create my learning plans, decide what the essential skills and learning I want out of certain topics, and work backwards from there.

This is my general process for planning my learning experiences:

  • I ask myself and list off – “what computer skills and levels of digital literacy would a middle school teacher expect their new grade 6 students to have?” – the middle schools in our district are all “bring your own device” and require students to complete many of their assignments digitally
  • For each skill or essential knowledge I list off, I make sub-steps on how might one acquire these skills and group them by what grade these sub-steps would be appropriate to teach to specific grade groupings
  • Once all of the grade appropriate skills and understandings are looped together, I further group the skills into units where they would best work together (i.e. all the computational thinking skills would create a coding unit)
  • if a skill needs to be reinforced every single year, I will develop lessons that are grade appropriate with sliding scales of difficulty
  • each learning objective becomes it’s own concise lesson that’s where I look to create engaging, low floor – high ceiling activities (often with some sort of tactile component) that allow students to impart their own perspective and creative decisions into their assignments in both the physical and digital worlds.
  • if a new method or media that can provide a more impactful learning experience comes along, I will make edits to the lesson or unit to accommodate new change. I will adjust as necessary.

I value creativity, self-expression, and surrounding students in a lot of supports so they develop independence and confidence when using technology. I want to give them as much creative control to master skills I teach them, so when I provide a summative assessment and ask for work to be done a certain way, they can rise to the occasion with little to no intervention on my end. Teaching elementary students to be computer whizzes is no easy feat and can easily end up with frustration, confusion, and tears if they aren’t wrapped in all the supports needed. Aside from the knowledge, I want to develop positive self-efficacy in my students that computational thinking, digital literacy, and computer use can be fun if used responsibly. The world is constantly becoming more digital in nature, so our students need positive spaces to develop their skills earlier and earlier.