Developing Brain Cells in Students

One slide from this week’s lecture that really stood out to me was the idea on brain cells in students and how they develop differently. It outlines the two sides of the brain and suggests that the school system will often focus primarily on the “left brain” skills such as math, science, and logic rather than the “right side” which holds the students' creative and expressive side. 

This topic really resonated with me as I never excelled in math or science but always had a strong pull and passion towards the arts. In art class, I felt the most comfortable, engaged and proud of my work. As I reflect and connect back to this now in the role of an educator, I find it so important to recognize the ways in which each student learns and provide options for students to excel in their learning. 

During my placement last spring, I used a technology tool called iNaturalist. In the Visual Arts class, I provided students with this tool so that they could research a species in their community by looking at photos, habitats, patterns, maps, and observations to then go and create their own detailed sketches and drawings. Learning about the brain today, this tool allows students to use both sides by combining both technology and science to research and also using an artistic lens to observe images. This was interesting to see students learning with their left side by researching the world around them, and then being able to express what they found through visual art. 

As a future educator in Visual Arts, I hope to provide students with opportunities to use their individual strengths towards their learning, and as professor mentioned I think it is so important to include student interests into their learning rather than being separate.  

JessicaH@NUO 

Rethinking AI in the Classroom

An assignment that changed how I think about AI in education was from a religion course I took in Fall 2024, called Holy Heroes: The Lives and Legacies of Christian Martyrs. The assignment was called Voice of a Relic. We researched a Christian martyr and their relic, then presented that research using an AI podcast tool. I chose St. Agnes, and built mine as an interview, using my own real voice to ask the questions, and the software to give voice to her skull.

This was at a time when AI use in coursework was considered an academic integrity issue across all my other courses, so I thought it was a little strange to be asked to use AI for an assignment. But once I started working with the AI, I got fully invested in the creative aspect of the assignment. I ended up really loving the final product. I liked getting to play around with the software and trying everything it could do, and I liked seeing how differently everyone approached the same assignment with the same tool.  The AI tool was engaging and gave us another way to present what we learned.

This made me think about how education could do more to build on right-brain skills, like creativity, intuition, and art, alongside the left-brain skills school tends to emphasize. As a teacher, I should be offering students ways to explore ideas and express what they’ve learned in more creative, less traditional ways, and digital and AI tools allow this easily. It also made me think about varied assessments. AI tools give students freedom in demonstrating their learning while making it more engaging. 

Overall, that assignment made me reflect on AI in the classroom not being about academic integrity or fear, but about teachers willingness to learn, fail, and try something new and to let their students do the same.

BriannaS@NUO 

Using Google Earth Tours!

One teaching tool that I have enjoyed using a lot this past year has been Google Earth. I specifically enjoy using the Google Earth tours to create interactive lessons. I first became aware of this tool when I saw that a residential school lesson existed where students would be able to see all of the different locations of residential schools throughout Canada and learn more about each one. From there I decided to use the tool for other topics in order to create fun and interactive lessons.

The first time I used this feature was during my placement. One of the classes I had was the Travel and Tourism course. I created a tour for a lesson on adventure tourism where students were able to virtually "travel" to different locations around the world. At each location, I included information about the activity as well as some pictures and videos of the activity. Students were able to learn about the different types of adventure tourism while also seeing where these activities take place. 

I think this tool is particularly useful as the map itself is able to be integrated into the lesson. Instead of only showing students a picture of an activity and telling them where it occurs, they could actually see its location and understand its relationship to other places. In the adventure tourism lesson, this was also helpful as students were able to see the physical geography of each location and how it connected to the activity. For example, when learning about volcano boarding, students could see the volcano on the map and then compare it to pictures and videos of the activity. Similarly, when learning about the Hia Giang Loop, students could see the geography of the area and explore some of the significant locations of the route. This made the different stops more real and gave students another way to understand why specific activities take place in particular areas.

This tool can also extend beyond just geography lessons. As seen with the residential school lesson, Google Earth tours could help a lot in a history classroom. For instance, students could look at how the Great Depression was experienced in different regions of Canada or explore the locations of significant events. Students could also use the tool themselves to demonstrate what they learned about a topic.

Overall, I have found Google earth tours a very simple but effective way to make lessons more interactive and connect learning to real places. Below is a screenshot of a different Google Earth tour I created for my Geography teachable class last year as well as a link to the residential school tour!

 

https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/mapping-canadas-history-of-residential-schools-with-google-earth/

 

Melanie S. @NUO 498

Technology is never neutral

We are often told that technology is agnostic: merely a tool that can be used for beneficial or harmful purposes. This view, however, treats technologies as empty containers whose effects depend entirely on the intentions of their users. The Canadian theorist Marshall McLuhan challenged this assumption with his famous statement that “the medium is the message.” He did not mean that content is irrelevant. His point was that every medium changes the scale and rhythm of human experience, regardless of the particular messages it carries.

Consider television. It brings distant events into our homes, making remote places feel immediate. At the same time, it can draw our attention away from what is happening in our own neighbourhoods. Television can make the far seem near and the near seem far.

Social media intensifies this effect. Its platforms address us through personalized feeds and encourage us to experience the world as individual consumers. Even when influencers express thoughtful or socially valuable ideas, those ideas circulate within an architecture designed to capture attention and organize users into marketable profiles. Content matters, but it does not escape the conditions created by the medium through which it is communicated.

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger warned that we become most vulnerable to technology when we regard it as neutral. Technology is not simply an instrument placed between us and the world. It shapes what becomes visible and what we consider valuable. It also influences how we relate to other people. The essential question, therefore, is not only what we use technology for, but what kind of world its use helps to create.

By: Massimo@NUO

EduTopia: Articles Worth Reading

 

<<<<<Click the titles below to take you there >>>>>

Integrating Coding and Robotics Into ELA Classrooms Coding can help middle school students gain a deeper understanding of ELA concepts and build problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

 

 

A Project to Build a Sense of Safety and Connection  The nest project starts with teachers figuring out what they need to feel secure and bonded with their school community.

 

Building a Culture that Respects Teachers and Reduces Stress When teachers are given time to work closely with other teachers, and have achievable goals—school culture thrives.

 

4 Time-Saving AI Tools for Teachers New edtech tools are making it easier for teachers to complete tasks like generating lessons and providing differentiated texts, freeing up time for them to work with students.

 

 

Question: How Do You Make the Most of Teacher Prep Time? Share and learn from your colleagues!

 

 

Using Science News Events to Create Engaging Lessons Developing a bit of a mystery for students to explore when teaching new developments in science can really build engagement in learning.

Courtesy of Giuseppe@NUO (2024)

Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

The four-corners activity prompt, "critical thinking is applicable for ANY subject, including Math, Phys. Ed, etc," from the facilitating complex thinking seminar inspired a great classroom discussion. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills teachers teach their students. While students may not remember how to calculate the area of a circle or what the plot of a book was, they will have hopefully extended their critical thinking skills in doing so.  

I think critical thinking is applicable to any subject. Good critical thinking shouldn't require obvious thinking time, meaning you shouldn't be thinking to yourself, "I'm thinking critically right now." Once the skills are developed, you think critically without even realizing it. For example, when playing a strategic board game, you may want to think a few steps ahead of your opponent. You may have to strategize when the best time to make a good move is, and when you can catch your opponent off guard to do so. This is a great example of critical thinking, and most likely, the players are having fun while playing. I think this can similarly be applied to subjects that don't seem like critical thinking is applied, such as physical education. There are layers to the strategies applied in sports or other games played in gym class. These skills not only require critical thinking, but also pair it with collaboration, determination, and resilience. This is what helps student become well-rounded in their thinking abilities.

(Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management, 2021)

Critical thinking is arguably one of the most important skills developed in school. It improves decision-making, problem-solving skills, research abilities, creativity, and can stimulate curiosity. Each of these has significant applications outside of school. For example, in the digital age, having critical thinking skills are important to decipher whether something is true or not. Critical thinking skills can also help you determine why something like an ad is being shown to you. These applications can help people consider the information they have been given effectively and make the best decision with it.

In a subject like math or science, critical thinking skills can easily be found when applying yourself to challenging questions. However, critical thinking skills are not always built into the subjects automatically. In a subject like gym, activities that require less thinking such as rallying could be played, which do not challenge the students as much as other ways of practicing, like scrimmage games. When creating lessons or questions, considering how to challenge students to use their critical thinking skills is important. Practicing critical thinking helps them develop stronger, resulting in students being better prepared for their futures.

Reference - Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management. (2021, April 1). The benefits of Critical Thinking for Students. Critical Thinking Skills. Tscfm.org. https://tscfm.org/blogs/the-benefits-of-critical-thinking-for-students/

                                                                 NatalieM@OTU

Getting Students Motivated

One of the things I think will be a big challenge in my teaching is getting students motivated to learn and complete tasks and assignments of their own free will (not feeling "forced"). Being able to motivate students is something I would like to master, since I'm under the impression that students will learn better and retain information longer when they are motivated and excited to learn. Students have so many different interests so they wont always be interested in presented topics, while being very interested in others. The goal is to get students motivated to learn about and complete tasks even in subjects they don't love. One of the motivation types discussed in the seminar was situational motivation, which means motivation is activity/moment based, is in response to something "flashy" happening or coming from the teachers teaching style. 

To me this means that, to achieve my goal of being able to motivate students, I should be designing engaging and exciting activities, have appealing visuals and an engaging teaching style. I definitely think I have personally felt these work on me as a student too; if the teacher is lecturing at a slow pace with monotone voice and wordy simple slides, I end up dissociating and not feeling motivated to listen and learn, telling myself I'll just teach myself later. But If a teacher is very engaging and using more class discussion and thinking questions, telling us cool or interesting facts, showing videos and have good visual presentations, I'm much more motivated to listen and take notes and even show up to class in general. As a student with ADHD, I also find that motivation to do a task is imperative for me to get any work done. If I am disinterested in the task, I will not do it until the very last moment when the stress and panic of deadlines approaches and finally "motivates" me (not a great kind of motivation though). And then doing the task feels way more difficult than it actually is, almost torturous, and then I resent the teacher and subject for not being interesting. If I can feel this way as a student, then my students can surely feel this way too. As an aspiring science teacher who loves science and thinks its so fascinating and cool, I want to bring students who don't like science and think its hard and boring, up to my level, or at least somewhere close. Based on information given in the seminar, some ideas I have to achieve this include sharing cool facts, showing exciting videos, connecting content to student personal life, and having students be engaged with the lesson. Also doing as many labs and hands on work as possible, since that was always the most fun for me. 

When giving tasks and assignments, leaving space for students to add their own personal opinions and experiences may make them more motivated, since students aren't just repeating facts or information but are sharing their own thoughts and ideas (also less likely to use AI). Also allowing them to choose how they want to present the assignment, like through classic writing, visual posters, videos, songs/poems, drawings… allows them to mix something they are already motivated to do with the content I presented, which will also hopefully increase their motivation, participation and positive experience. Another term that was talked about many times in class was "flow", which is a state students can enter when the given task closely matches their abilities. Not meaning that the task is easy, it's challenging but accomplishable with effort. The idea here is that students will be able to become so engrossed in their task that they wont be thinking of the outcome, they are actually enjoying the process. I feel like this state is a good display of successfully motivating students, and I really hope to get my students to this state.

                                                                  RebeccaD@OTU

EduTopia Articles (Rewind)

 

Using Storyboards in the Classroom

Here’s how to turn these visual representations of film sequences into a valuable teaching tool across content and grades.

 

8 Ways to Infuse Movement into Math Class   These research-backed, teacher-approved activities can help early math learners engage physically with abstract concepts.

 

What Conflict Leadership Style Do You Use? Whether a leader is avoidant or aggressive or addresses conflict constructively can have a major impact on a school’s ability to navigate tough challenges.

 

A Protocol for Collaborative Problem-Solving Some issues that educators face can be solved in a short time if school leaders use a collaborative protocol to improve staff dynamics.

Shane@NUO

Memorization vs Thinking in Classrooms

As teachers who were also once students, it's very easy to focus on memorization and their ability to give us information to get a good grade. When we spoke about this in the key learning workshop on choice, it really resonated with me. We always talk about how for students the marks don't matter and the students should focus more on the learning and critical thinking skills instead of a grade. But how can we say that when we once as students also cared about how to get the grades? When I was a student throughout high school and university I also did just memorize for the sake of the "A" more times than I can count, but in reality, any of that information I would just immediately forget and I gained nothing from that topic. 

The only reason I tried to break out of that and focus on developing skills was because of my dad talking about people going into his job with degrees not being able to think their way out of a box. This was something that I really wanted to make sure I didn't fall into that category, and this is something that is super important to instill in our students. Trying to teach them that they can care about the grade but they don't really benefit from memorization but instead gaining critical thinking skills and rationalizion skills. A good start to encouraging this type of thinking is to give assessments, projects, and ask questions that are abstract to inspire actual learning and understanding of the content to take place. This responsibility falls on us as teachers, to instead of encouraging the box, allow them to develop the skills to move around the box and problem solve, because no matter the subject or where they go in life, students will always need the ability to critically think and problem solve.

ErikaW@OTU

The Contagious Energy of Learning

One of the most powerful things I've learned in this program is that learning isn't just something that happens to us, it spreads through us. I resonated with Learning Key 7; Love of Learning is Contagious that describes how learning, much like a "benign plague," spreads from person to person when curiosity and enthusiasm are visible. The idea that a teacher's genuine excitement can "infect" students reinforces how I want my own presence in the classroom to be.

I've already seen this idea play out in subtle ways during my observation week. When my AT's tone carried genuine curiosity, asking things like, "I wonder what would happen if…" instead of giving an answer, students started mirroring that same curiosity. Even small moments, like him pausing to celebrate a student's creative approach to a problem, seemed to ripple across the room. That spark of interest became a social currency; it makes learning feel relevant and worth sharing. Seifert and Sutton (2017) explain that students' ways of thinking, whether critical, creative or problem-solving, depend heavily on the environment teachers create. A classroom where questions are encouraged and mistakes are treated as opportunities invites students to take intellectual risks. In other words, curiosity doesn't just exist in students, it's modeled by teachers.

The contagion of learning also connects deeply to motivation. When learners see others engaged, they feel a sense of social and emotional energy that pulls them in (Seifert & Sutton, 2017). It's not unlike Learning Key 4's reminder that "failure is feedback." A teacher's openness about their own learning and willingness to fail makes students feel safe to do the same. This emotional transparency helps establish what I think of as classroom "psychological immunity", an environment where curiosity, effort and resilience can spread instead of fear or disengagement.

As a future teacher, I want my classroom to be one where enthusiasm and discovery pass from one learner to another until everyone feels part of something bigger than themselves. If the love of learning is truly contagious, then every moment of joy and wonder we share can multiply far beyond the walls of a single classroom.

ColeK@OTU

EduTopia: What Works in Education (Article & Links)

 

A Desk Layout Alternative to Rows and Circles

Arranging desks in L-shaped groups has advantages for both the students and the teacher.

 

How Living History Projects Build Wisdom, Understanding, and Listening Skills StoryCorps interviews with grandparents and community elders can bridge divides and build the kinds of listening and communication skills our students need to thrive.

 

Building Relationships With Students on Positive Words and High Expectations By affirming students and maintaining high expectations, teachers can solidify good relationships.

 

Social and Emotional Learning on the Walls The messages found on school and classroom walls should reflect the values that staff and administrators hold dear.

 

Preparing Students With Disabilities for the Transition to College There are important differences between disability accommodations in the K–12 and postsecondary settings, and teachers can help students understand them.

 

Using Slack to Improve Your Internal Communications In-the-moment communication across teaching teams can make for a stronger school culture.

 

Brought to you by Noah@NUO-2023

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Reimagining Study Hall to Promote Student Goal-Setting Teaching executive functioning strategies and offering students choices helps foster their sense of ownership of their learning.

Team Quizzes: A Low-Risk, High-Yield Strategy Quizzes in small groups can be a low-risk, high-yield learning strategy that also fosters collaboration skills in high school students.

A Middle School’s Yearlong Focus on Empathy Leaders at a Maryland school have made showing empathy for students, parents, and colleagues their focus this year.

Poetry as a Tool for Students’ Personal Growth A short writing activity can help elementary students reflect on their personal hopes and allow teachers to assess literacy skills.

Supporting Student Development With Role-Playing Games Playing imaginative games like D&D can help learners acquire skills that are essential in the classroom and beyond.

Essential Components of Adolescent Literacy The heart of language instruction involves students engaging in a synthesis of reading, writing, and sharing ideas. Shared by Tomas@OISE