Spencer West Talk

One man can move a mountain. I believe this after hearing Spencer West speak. It is extremely inspiring how one man can accomplish so much, and do so much to help people that truly need it. I am grateful for the unbelievable opportunity to meet Spencer West. He made me realize that I can do anything I want no matter what others say. He is a clear example that the only thing that can stop someone is themselves, not even a disability.

In the last few days, we have all been stressing out about university applications, trying to get into the best one and to eventually get a good paying job. Listening to Spencer saying that he had everything, a nice house, money and basically the "American dream" but he was still not happy made me rethink everything that I had been considering these past few days. A good paying job, having money, a nice car and house is not everything I want for the future, I want to get involved and help people that really need it, nothing is more satisfying than giving someone a reason to smile when their lives are not easy. For years I have always wanted to go on a volunteer trip, but I have never had the courage to go. Or I never got around to raising the money to be able to go because, I ended up spending it on less meaningful things. Listening to Spencer made me realize that volunteering would be an amazing opportunity and that it would be truly life changing.

Spencer West's journey is very inspiring, I consider myself very lucky to have have the chance to meet him and listen to his inspiring story. Through his presentation I was brought to tears when I listen to his stories about his trips and I truly hope that I get the chance to volunteer on this kind of project.

 

Multiple Intelligence Assignment

Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University, has identified seven distinct intelligence's. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive research. According to this theory, "we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where ndividuals differ is in the strength of these intelligence's-the so-called profile of intelligence's and in the ways in which such intelligence's are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains. Dr. Gardner proposed eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential, these intelligences are:

1. Linguistic Intelligence: Deals with an individual's ability to understand both spoken and written language, as well as their ability to speak and write themselves.
2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: Deals with an individual's skills at deductive reasoning, detecting patterns, and logical thinking.
3. Spatial Intelligence: Deals with spatial judgment and the ability to visualize with the mind's eye.
4. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: Deals with an individual's ability to manipulate objects and fine-tune physical skills.
5. Musical Intelligence: It involves how skillful an individual is performing, composing, and appreciating music and musical patterns.
6. Interpersonal Intelligence: Deals with the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication.
7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: Deal with the ability to understand themselves, appreciate their own feelings, fears and motivations.
8. Naturalist Intelligence: Enjoys and is curious about living things and the planet.

In my opinion, when a teacher has trouble reaching out to some students, it is often because they have the tendency to teach the most traditional ways (linguistic and logical). The theory of multiple intelligence suggests that teachers should try to teach in different ways so everyone gets the same level of understanding, that being said, there is sometimes not enough time in class for teachers to do so. Teachers can vary their teaching from day to day. Using visuals and allowing students to do activities and work in groups will benefit all learners!  In my placement I have noticed why the resource room is so important for those students that are not very strong at the two most traditional intelligences. The Resource teacher will try to bridge the gap or try a different way of teaching the assignment. I believe it's truly sad that experiential learning is not happening more in Canadian schools, as most students would profit of a greater learning experience, but also understand that this kind of teaching takes more time and effort than the traditional way, time that some teachers and students don't have or don't want to put into it.  In the past, I have never really thought about what type of intelligence I use the most, so I took two different tests and these were the results:   
    

The results of this test are somewhat accurate, I think I'm pretty good with words as well as with people, but I don't think I'm very good with numbers and with nature. In total, I think this describes me to a point, the musical aspect if definitely accurate! The second test I took, I think is very good, it completely fits me

Teaching the Whole Student

I have made several observations throughout my time in the classroom during my mentorship program.  I believe that it is extremely important that educators remember to teach and help develop not just the academic or intellectual piece of student's but also the social and creative part of students. The term holistic education means cultivating the whole person and helping individuals live more consciously within their communities and natural ecosystems. More recently, educational psychologists have proposed that holistic education is aimed at helping students be the most that they can be, or referred to as “self-actualization.”  The idea of education with a holistic perspective is concerned with the development of every person’s intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and creative potentials.

Mrs. de Souza believes that academics are important however, if the student is not with you emotionally then they are not ready to learn. Students arrive in your class physically but, you don't know what happened to them before they got to your class. Did they eat, did they sleep how is their home-life? These questions are part of a teacher's role. In a Catholic school we also look at their spirituality. 
Being in resource Ms. de Souza and I focus on executive functioning skills such as, organization  time management, work habits, and ability to interpret and understand instruction are all skills which will aid one in being a successful member in our society.  These are functions and skills which I believe should be focused on more heavily within the classroom while students are also being presented the academic information. Checklists and simple instructions written or visual help all students not just resource kids. I believe it is really important that the curriculum includes this way of teaching, although the academic part of school is extremely important, social skills are indispensable to be successful in and outside school, and for that reason I believe every teacher should look into this and find a way to include it in their classrooms from grade 9 to 12. 

Halloween

For My Mentorship Class I am usually in the resource room and with Ms. De Souza (My Mentorship Teacher), we often go to a grade 10 applied class, lately that class has had some behaviour issues so Ms. Valois (The History Teacher) has decided that they do not deserve a reward for Halloween but she kindly invited me to tag along her first period ESL History class.
Ms. Valois had the amazing idea to carve pumpkins with her students, many of them have been in Canada for a short period of time and have never carved a pumpkin before. To be honest, I have only carved a pumpkin once, so it was nice to do it once again. Surprisedly some of the students were very talented, they carved very nice pumpkins which in my experience is very hard to do. After they took out all the guts from the pumpkin, we separated the seeds from them and we roasted them, some of the students were very skeptical to eat them, but after tasting them most of them were very surprised of how good they were.

 

Create a Space

After 

In the bulletin board I was given, I chose the create a space where everyone, that came into the resource room, can take a little advice on how to be more positive. In my mentorship class I often see that students come in discourage about their classes when they don't understand or don't want to do their assigned work, I believe that attitude is a big part of the amount of work someone can get done and by being positive a lot more can be accomplished. Throughout the year I want to change my advise from what the students think to what they should be thinking. I also came up with the idea of putting a nice quote everyday beside the classroom door, to lift up those you are having a not so good day!

Every Kid Needs A Champion

This is Essential

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is the process of learning through experience, and is more specifically defined as "learning through reflection on doing". It is distinct from rote or didactic learning, in which the learner plays a comparatively passive role. I believe everyone learns differently, some people like sitting in classroom listening to a teacher, but other like to be more hands-on and that what experiential learning is all about. At Pius X we have different ways to get this kind of learning to students, one is our Co-Op program where students have the opportunity to go every afternoon or morning to the workplace and experience what the job is really like, We also have a program called Destination Employability (DEP) Miss De Souza is the coordinator for our school this year. The idea of the program is to give students concrete examples of possible careers. They will have an opportunity to watch what the career entails, think about how they could possible do the career, possibly get to try/practice the job and then eventually set up a plan to get on that pathway.

I believe this kind of learning is very effective, it really gives the students a chance of knowing if they really like a specific job by trying it, and if they don't they have the chance to look into other career paths before it's too late. I had the chance of doing Co-Op last year and it helped me realize what I wanted to study and be in the future. I recommend trying some sort of experiential learning to everyone, it really helps you with your career choices, I think as grade 12s it's very important to have a clear understanding of any career path we might want to take and programs like co-op and DEP are perfect opportunities to do this.