"All this time...the river flowed"

These short lyrics from the artist Sting represent well what has been going on with me over the past two years.  Despite the fact that I have not made any posts, I have been slowly working away at my teaching practice requirements: observing other teachers, planning my own practice teaching, writing my core plan, etc.  Go to the 'Teaching Practice' tab to see all the details.

Educational Sciences updates

Here is our video project: The Top Three Traits of an Excellent Teacher

VOC I and II sections complete!

I have been busy at work completing both the VOC I and II section of this blog.  I now have a verbal confirmation from the course instructor, Juha, that my VOC II section is complete, and hope to have the same confirmation from regarding VOC I tomorrow.  The VOC I section only needed a few reflections, and they are quite interesting, if I do say so myself! (see Session IV).  And despite the challenges of VOC II (completing our own learning environment, as well as all four of the other learning environments), I enjoyed the course and appreciate learning more about teaching in vocational education.

Assessment reflections

Tonight I added reflections on the 'Evaluation and assessment of learning' session under the VOC I tab.  See this under the 'Session 3' portion of the VOC I tab.

Big additions to the VOC I tab!

Based on Juha's recommendations for our class, I have added a lot of content to the VOC I tab.  This mainly includes now my reflections on other team's teaching and what I learned from them, the topics overall, etc.  The VOC I page is divided up by each of the four sessions, and I have fully reflected now on the first two sessions (with the last two coming soon...).

Progress, progress...

My Special Education module video is posted at the bottom of the Voc II tab.  Enjoy : )

VOC II documents submitted...

I have uploaded all of my required VOC II summary documents into Optima (reviews of our own learning environment, as well as all those from the other four groups).  I will include much of this information soon under the VOC II tab in this blog.


Whew!

Two very full days in Oulu!

On Thursday and Friday, March 13-14, our IVET group gathered for two contact days at OAMK in Oulu.  The days went something like this:

Thursday AM: EduSci Debates (Blair)
Thursday PM: 'Wheel of Assessment' Activities (Blair)
Friday: Voc I and Voc II Wrap-up (Juha)

Both days were effective, but in different ways. 

We had been preparing for the EduSci debates for some time, as they were the culmination of Part II (of III) in our Basics of Educational Sciences course.  My group (Team Pink) had earlier been assigned to research, present, defend and now debate AGAINST the following statement:
"All learning at the vocational education level can and should have a measurable outcome."
In essence, we took the approach that we would try to prove that not all such learning has a measureable outcome.  We also pushed the idea that not all such learning is measurable.

The debate went quite well, although finding actual sources to defend our position took a great deal of time when we were originally doing the research earlier this year.  My Team Pink colleagues were Virpi, Minna and Aleksandra, and it was a nice team to work with.  We spent many hours together online preparing (Adobe Connect, Skype), which was not easy, but it ended up being worthwhile.

The 'Wheel of Assessment' that Blair prepared was excellent.  I will comment on this more in the EduSci section of this blog.

Finally, Juha led our class time together on Friday.  Most of the day was used as a way to review and wrap-up the VOC I portion of the course. Even though this officially ended back in December, when we had a peer-review of each other's blogs (the main assessment tool for the course), Juha had told us (in general) that some of us needed to add more detail to our blogs in order to get a 'pass'.  In recent weeks, he added more detail about what was missing, and we reviewed those things together in class. Then we had another peer assessment (and presentation) of our blogs, when Juha did some on-the-spot assessing as to whether or not they were complete.  In the end, I have a few additions to make (commenting on other group presentations and overall learning), and then I should be done!

All-in-all, it was a very worthwhile time in Oulu, and it was nice to spend time together with classmates that I have mostly gotten to know 'virtually'!

Special Needs Education

I have now completed most of the assignment for the Special Needs Education module - see the last section of the VOC II page.  I was fairly familiar with this topic, but did learn a few new things. 

I now need to complete the video task!

Entrepreneurship Module Complete...

I enjoyed taking part in the Entrepreneurship tasks, including creating my own business plan!  See this and more in the Voc II tab (see 'Entrpreneurship Module').

Global and Multicultural Activities Module complete

I have finished another module.  This one was no small task - it required many hours. I learned several helpful things, but I am thankful that not all student-produced modules are this lengthy.  I think it could have been shortened and been just as effective. 

You can find all of the completed assignments and links on the Voc II tab.

GLOBAL AND MULTICULTURAL ACTIVITIES MODULE

Check out the Voc II tab for more additions there from the Global and Multicultural learning environment I am completing.  It is quite a time-consuming one, but I have learning a fair amount from it. It has helped me to realize how much cultural sensitivity I learned during my university years when I took a psychology course that taught from a minority's perspective. It was eye-opening, and I learned that everyone has some kind of racial and cultural bias, whether known or unknown.  The challenge is to come to grips with it, and to 'tame the beast within' (deal pro-actively with the issue, not simply admit defeat).

Vocational Education, Part II page updates

I will try to update this welcome page with a blog post whenever I add content to the other pages within this blog.  I realize now that posts I have made in the past have not appeared as 'blog posts', including the date/time when they were added. For example, the 'July 15' post below was actually a series of posts, beginning July 15, and continuing through December! For some technical reason, this even happened again a few days ago with the below post.  Technical errors on my part, I suppose, but now I think the problem will be solved.

So with that, be sure to check out the VOC II page for recent updates!

Moving on with Educational Sciences and Voc II...

Things have been busy! Since December, we have progressed rapidly with both the Educational Sciences and Voc II modules. Balancing the demands of these courses, along with full-time work and family life, have been challenging. The work is constantly continuing in the background, but it is challenging to find additional time to transfer all of these happenings to this blog! 

See the specific tabs (Edu. Sciences and Voc II) for posts, updates and more...

Welcome to the Digital Portfolio (DP, PLE) for my 2013-14 Vocational Teacher Training at Oamk!

This summer I have begun a program with the Oulu University of Applied Sciences' School of Vocational Teacher Education.  The program is called iVET: Innovative Vocational Education and Training. The program will be completed primarily via distance learning and technology, although we also have several contact days in Oulu throughout the coming year.

While I have taught in several different capacities and settings throughout my career, these courses will give me a lot more pedagogical training than I have ever had before.  I look forward to this!

My formal studies & learning history (classroom and virtual)

My formal studies took place most significantly in the US, where I am from originally.  I received my bachelor's degree in Psychology from Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina in the early 90's. Upon graduation, I worked as an outdoor/experiential educator with young people for 6 1/2 years. During this time I completed a few undergraduate classes in experiential education at Appalachian State University, along with one graduate class in Educational Leadership.  Soon, however, I was overwhelmed with my full-time responsibilities and did not have time to continue my studies.  

Time marched on quickly!  I married and relocated to another part of North Carolina.  From 2000-2008 I worked as the director of children and youth programs/ministries in a large Lutheran church in North Carolina.  I began a new, part-time study program (part of the candidacy process) during this time and was rostered within the Lutheran Church as an Associate in Ministry in 2005.  These courses were completed as distance education in a small group setting, but do not qualify for academic credit in outside educational institutions.  Finally, when my family and I moved to Finland at the end of 2008, I completed a year of full-time study of the Finnish language.  This was primarily carried out in a traditional classroom setting, although I had several weeks of language practice in different workplaces (työharjoittelua).  

My most memorable learning experiences

Each of these learning experiences has been effective in its own way, through a variety of teaching methods.  However, my most memorable learning experience was as Outward Bound course in which I participated just before college.  It was only a nine-day experience, but it drastically changed the way I looked at education.  Being set in a rugged, mountainous, wilderness environment, this course was an intense opportunity to learn a great deal about myself, group interaction, leadership and the environment.  It was a very convincing lesson in the effectiveness of experiential education!

My personal teaching history
My first teaching experience occured in the outdoors as a summer camp counselor.  This was a full-immersion way to learn to teach, as I had very little practical training, but was expected to effectively teach children and teens a whole host of things: theology, environmental stewardship, outdoor cooking, relational skills, music/guitar, personal responsibility...you name it! It was a humbling experience, but one that taught be a great amount.  I also enjoyed it enough to become the director of that camp just a year or two later.  My teaching responsibilities then shifted to more of a training role for the college-aged staff I needed to train and support every year in the same above-mentioned areas...in addition to a lot of risk-management training.  This, too, was challenging but enjoyable, and my first real experience teaching adults.

From 2000-2008, when I directed children and youth programs in a large church, my teaching role continued as an adult trainer/educator.  I trained over 100 adult volunteers every year who worked directly with the children and youth as youth group leaders and child educators.  In addition, I began to teach children and youth in a more formal way in our confirmation program.  As this program expanded, I began teaching adult volunteers how to teach confirmation.  These years of teaching and training gave me a lot of experience...and a lot of respect for those who do it!  It was challenging, but very rewarding.

When my family and I moved to Finland, my first teaching experience came when I was hired at Espoo International School (a public yläaste/middle school).  The first year, I worked directly with students that needed extra support.  Most of this involved one-on-one or small group tutoring.  In addition to teaching academic subjects, I also worked with students in areas such as time management, study skills, and even some crisis management! I also began to do a fair amount of substitute teaching at the middle school level in a variety of subjects.  During the evenings and weekends, I was also busy as an assistant basketball coach for teens and children.

My second year on staff at Espoo International School presented an expanded role: due to a staff vacancy, I became the Student Guidance Counselor/Opo and religion/ethics teacher.  In addition to this, I also became a 9th grade homeroom teacher and the coordinator of the 9th grade mentors (tukioppilaat).  This ended up being one of the busiest years of my life!  Between learning the role of the Opo, how the ideosyncratic upper secondary education 'yhteishaku' works, and teaching subjects without proper textbooks in English, I put in a lot of hours during the nights, weekends and holidays.  However, with almost 20 hours a week in the classroom, it was by far the greatest amount of formal teaching I had done in my career so far.  One skill I immediately needed to hone: managing difficult classroom behavior in a subject most students did not want to take! (religion)  In addition, I needed to learn the entire International Baccalaureate Middle Year's Program for humanities subjects, since our school is an MYP school.  This was also time-consuming, but I learned a great deal about educational theory and practices through the required teaching and assessment methods in the IB.

During my third year, 2012-13, I continued as the Student Guidance Counselor but no longer needed to teach religion/ethics (the teacher returned from sabbatical). I picked up responsibility for the Student Council and co-taught drama for half of the year, as well as adding a number of office hours.  This was a much easier year, and I learned a lot from teaching drama (in particular, how to pull together Charles Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' with apathetic 8th graders in four months...without rehearsal space!).

This year, I have the additional opportunity to teach music: one band class and two introductory guitar classes.  So far, these courses have been quite natural for me, since I have previously taught guitar lessons and coordinate youth bands.  Elective courses such as these are much more practical-oriented than theoretical-oriented, so there is much hands-on involvement for both me and the students.

How do people learn the best in vocational settings?

I believe that a blend between theory and hands-on learning is essential.  A recent report by the OECD supports this view. It suggests that vocational trainers should be able to:
1: Pass on practical skills
2: Transmit theoretical knowledge
3: Help apprentices and trainees get used to eth social codes of the workplace
Source: www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/47955326.pdf

I also believe that learners learn best when they not only learn, but do...and eventually even teach others. Here is a graphic that reinforces this theory:

(Source: http://www.iceinstitute.org/uploads/1/0/9/8/10981999/9004064_orig.jpg)

Effective teachers should be able to connect with students and be able to  incorporate a variety of teaching methods that connect with different learning styles.  For example, I believe McCarthy's modification of Kolb's learning theory, called 4MAT, is very effective.  Here are two graphic summaries of this learning system:

4MAT is a method for helping all types of learners to succeed.  It offers educators ways to effectively teach all the different types of learners. It provides learners with more awareness of their personal approaches to learning. 

Sources:

- www.aboutlearning.com

- Wankat and Oreovics, Teaching Engineering (engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/AboutUs/Publications/TeachingEng/index.html)

The traits of effective teacher I believe these traits tie in directly to the way students learn best in vocational education (see my responses above).  Teachers should be well-trained/educated, interactive, engaging, risk-takers (try new things), and interested in their students holistically (concerned for the student in and outside of the classroom).  This is especially important when teaching younger students, but it certainly applies to adults education, as well. Effective teachers should incorporate participatory teaching methods such as group discussion, practice, and teaching others.

My preferred learning styles
Based on Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, here is a link to the results of my learning style preferences.  According to this inventory, my main learning style preferences are musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal.  This seems appropriate, since I do enjoy playing and creating music, learning new music, as well as teaching it!  I most always have a song going through my head.  I also have a strong desire to work with others (interpersonal), and learn a tremendous amount through social situations.  Lastly, I am interpersonal: "You are connected to who you are and how you feel, and you know your own limits and abilities. You often set goals for yourself, self-manage, and reflect on results." (edutopia.org)
On the other hand, my top three intelligences, according to another survey, are: musical, kinesthetic (body movement) and intrapersonal (sense of self). (literacyworks.org)

Sources:
- Christodoulou, David, Gardner, Seider: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- www.edutopia.org/your-learning-styles
- www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/index.html

How does the curriculum direct the development of studies?
As we are learning during this course, an important component of teacher training is learning how to use curriculum effectively.  Curriculum is the core of the educational engine, the compass or road map which helps direct the teacher from the beginning of a course to its completion.  I also believe this quote helps explain the role of curriculum quite well: 
"The curriculum has an integral role in generating the intended outcomes, contents and pedagogic frameworks in teaching"
(Vitikka, Salminen and T. Annevirta, 2012 Opetussuunnitelma opettajankoulutuksen)

That being said, the curriculum should be a guide for the teacher, not a dictator.  Finland seems to have found a good balance in this respect: the curriculum provides the framework for the teacher, but the teacher is given the autonomy to decide exactly how to teach within that framework.  This is a true compliment to teachers, as it shows respect and trust towards educational professionals.

What methods of assessment can I use and in which contexts?
In my current setting (lower secondary school), I have used a variety of assessments.  These vary according to the subject (I have taught religion, ethics, drama, music and several student guidance counseling courses).  For academic subjects, assessments have been more structured: formative (during the course), summative (at the end of the course) and continuous (throughout the course).  For non-academic or elective courses, I have used other types: analytical (as a form of teaching), self assessment and peer assessment. (P. Jarvis, 2004)  In a vocational educational setting, I might choose to use a combination of these and competency assessment.  One such example is the National Vocational Qualifications - Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and Higher - to reflect varying levels of competence
(Summarized from Oakeshott, 1991:52).

Source:
Jarvis, Peter: Adult Education & Lifelong Learning, RoutledgeFalmer 2004)

How do I use technology in my field of pedagogy?
My use of technology depends on the subject.  My main subject, student guidance counseling, uses a variety of technologies.  First of all, I use standard technologies such as the Smart Board/projector, Espoo's student/teacher/parent communication tool, Wilma, and Fronter (for course/school community online documents, etc.).  Also, since most of my classes are in the computer lab, we frequently use the desktop computers in a variety of ways: using online tools for to do research, assessment, typing tools, etc.  Students also use the computers to create presentations that they then display for the class using the Smartboard (either with PowerPoint or Prezi).  Additionally, I use collaborative documents (Google Drive, etc.) with students and parents (for projects such as the school yearbook, for booking meeting times, and more). 

One area that is increasing is the use of student-owned personal handheld devices - phones and tablets.  At times this is a lifesaver, as we do not have enough computers for all students in all classes.  However, it is challenging to find constructive ways to use them (to channel the student's desire to use them frequently) without students becoming distracted by them (social media, messaging, etc.).  Harnessing these tools pedagogically is a 'growing edge' for all teachers in the coming years!

Analysis of my competences in teaching.
(see the next tab - PSP: Personal Study Path)