Product - work produced throughout the course

I have spent the semester producing many different pieces of work. Though the work was mentally challenging at times, I researched and learned about information essential to creating better classroom environments for my future students.

Assignment 1: Students with Special Needs

    For this assignment, I chose to research students who are deaf and hard of hearing. My research focused on how teachers can improve these students' experiences in the classroom and inform teachers on their specific needs. After summarizing my research, I wrote a letter to myself stating three things I will do and three things I will not do when working with students who are deaf and hard of hearing. I then wrote a poem from the perspective of these students that reflected their needs when learning in the classroom.

    The research was, of course, an essential component to this assignment as I would have been unable to complete the letter and the poem without the research. I decided to include the letter to represent the assignment as it summarizes the most essential components of my research. 

    This is an excerpt from the portion of the letter where I tell myself three things I will do when working for these students. I made sure to include one way to make the students feel more comfortable physically and create an accessible and inclusive classroom. I also included ways that I will help the student develop their language skills and help provide challenge and growth in evidence-based practices. Finally, I stated that I would provide students and caregivers with as much supports as possible so that the student can feel good about themselves and continue their learning outside of the classroom. Something that proved very effective for students in building their self-esteem was to have them meet others with similar experiences so that they know that they are not alone, and these individuals can also aid them in times of need.

    This is the part of my letter where I discuss three things I will not do when I am working with these students in my classroom. In this portion of the letter, I again included things I will not do that may cause the student physical discomfort. For example, having too many oral and listening activities with little to no breaks can be very exhausting for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. I also included that I will not make the student feel excluded, and I will not make decisions for the student and assume there are things they cannot do. I also stated that I will not be controlling over the student, encourage independence, and allow a safe environment for the student to make mistakes and learn from their experiences on their own.

    Though I had slight difficulties finding articles relevant for teachers and classroom use while also providing evidence-based research, I enjoyed this assignment. I learned a lot about how to create a better classroom environment for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. 

    I believe that I did well on this assignment. I am proud of this piece of work as I worked very hard to imagine myself as a teacher creating this classroom environment. I made sure to include methods that would help the student feel more physically comfortable and how I can rearrange the physical classroom space and the shape of the day to help with this. I also included ways to improve emotional wellbeing and self-esteem by encouraging independence and promoting language development. I also ensured that everything I included in my letter and in the assignment was from scholarly work that was peer-reviewed and realistic for myself and teachers to implement in their classroom without changing their ways of teaching too drastically. 

Assignment 2: Grading and Motivation

    I analyzed Carolyn Mamchur's (2002) article Magic in this assignment. 

   We analyzed the student, Eileen's learning, and the teacher, Carolyn Mamchur's learning. I have included above what I observed that Eileen brought to the learning. Ultimately, the experience I felt from the article was that Mamchur came to Eileen's school looking for a position because she needed a job. I do not think she expected that she would learn as much from Eileen as she taught her, if not more. I think I did well at observing what Eileen brought to the learning. She came into the teaching with such a kind heart and an openness and willingness to learn and help others learn, and I think I was able to express what Mamchur wanted the audience to know about Eileen and see Eileen the way that she did. 

    For the second part of this assignment, I observed what Mamchur brought to the learning, the learning environment, and also the outcomes of what she learned from Eileen. From the way I read and understood the article, Mamchur learned very much from Eileen. Eileen played a massive role in Mamchur's life and teaching career. I discussed how Mamchur learned from Eileen's encouragement, understanding, and modelling. I did well in this assignment by observing what Eileen brought to the table, describing the learning environment, and the outcomes that Mamchur gained from the learning. Since the article was from Mamchur's perspective, I could tell that she had a lot of love, respect, admiration and appreciation for Eileen, so I described what she learned from Eileen in detail. 

    On the other hand, I struggled more with writing about Eileen's outcomes from the learning. Mamchur's article was from her own perspective, and she talked much about Eileen. Since it was in Mamchur's perspective, I could get into a lot more detail and understand Mamchur's thought processes and insights. When it came to Eileen's outcomes, I am sure that she learned a lot from Mamchur, but there was not too much in the article explicitly stating what Eileen felt that she learned from this experience. I tried my best to dig deep into what Eileen may have learned from Mamchur and the other girls in her class, but I would have loved to dig even deeper into Eileen's perspective.

Assignment 3: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Classroom

I had so much fun completing this assignment. As a woman and a person of colour, I really enjoy digging into topics of equity and diversity. I also love to study and learn about how I can make my classrooms more inclusive and better reflect on my own unconscious biases. I chose to include this assignment because I am proud of my work as well. I worked hard at observing potential unconscious biases in the dynamics of my business class. I stated all of the observations that I made over the course of multiple classes, and meaningfully connected these observations to my group members' observations and my own personal experiences with gender bias growing up.

Here is an except my assignment where I discuss my observations of my business class here at Simon Fraser University:

    For this assignment, I focused on about 4-5 questions to measure the equitability of student and teacher interactions in my classroom. I carefully observed my class for 2-3 weeks and found that the results were consistent throughout each lecture. I felt like I had so much that I wanted to say, but I did my best to condense it into the most important observations. 

    

Listed above are some observations about the dynamic that students worked in during small groups. I also discussed what I learned from my group discussion. 

    I thought that the group discussions were so valuable. My fellow group members provided me with many insights that I did not think about before. They also shared their own personal experiences where they felt discriminated, or even felt as though they were treated unfairly because of their gender. I was able to apply my group members' insights to my own research and observations in order to create a more meaningful assignment that weaved research with personal experiences and similar observations over the course of different-aged classrooms.

I included this assignment in the "Product" portion of my portfolio because I wanted to mention that I learned so much from this assignment. It is a goal of mine to work with students with special needs, and I really appreciated how beautifully Mamchur discussed her experiences. I also work with children that have special needs and I could relate very much to Mamchur. This assignment helped me with reflecting each day on what I learned from the kids that I work with. I soon realized that they teach me so much and we work together to provide positive learning experiences!

Assignment 3 Discussion

    Before completing Assignment 3, we were required to submit our research to our discussion groups and provide feedback and insights on each others' work. Here is a part of a comment I left on my group members' research. I included this because I really wanted to give some thoughts that I had when reading through her observations and provide some similarities to my own research. I hope she was able to learn from me and incorporate some learning into her assignment the way I learned from my group members!