ubc iop conference may 15, 2010
DESCRIPTION
May 13th - Almost Final DraftTRANSCRIPT
Setting the stage: a vision Naomi Ross, and Linda Farr Darling co-create the 2009-10 Growth Plan for UBC’s West Kootenay Teacher Education program. The Growth Plan:
Sets “place-based” education firmly at the heart of rural teacher education
Seeks to use the resources found in the West Kootenays to create powerful curricular experiences for teacher candidates
Demonstrates a commitment to collaborative practice
The project: Beginning to Tell the Story of the Nikkei
Tell the story of the Nikkei:
1942-1945: 22,000 Japanese Canadians interned; camps throughout BC’s West Kootenays
Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre – a National Historic site and museum located in New Denver, BC
Integrate place-based education in WKTEP, and with the help of student teachers and faculty, into classrooms across the Kootenays
The convergence of place…
Linda • UBC • Rural Ed • Place-based
education
• New Denver
Naomi • WKTEP • Faculty
Collaboration
• Nikkei Centre, New Denver
Terry • WKTEP
Sessional • Lucerne School
film project
• New Denver
The compelling richness of place
As you see the following images of New Denver and listen to how this place inspired our educational focus, consider the riches of your place
What stories are there to tell in your school and community? What community is there to support your place-based education vision?
After the slideshow, we will pause and with a learning partner, reflect on these questions
The Place: New Denver
New Denver, BC - on pristine Slocan Lake in the West Kootenays
Images of New Denver
The power of collaboration
“Teaching is a complex endeavour…We believe that together we are better, that working as a member of a team and within a school helps us grow as professionals and supports us in being the best we can be in the classroom, and in having the greatest impact on student learning.
When teachers work together as interdisciplinary teams … they develop approaches that help students connect to, process, transform, and personalize important concepts and thinking skills. Their schools become learning communities, the most important unit of change.”
Faye Brownlie and Leyton Snellert, “It’s All About Thinking” Portage and Main Press, 2009
Start with a vision; add partners; watch it grow
• Foster place – based education • Cultivate collaboration
• Inspire student teachers • Bring history education alive
• Weave in film and media education • Create authentic learning experiences
Kyowakai: Peacefully working together…
WKTEP
Vision and support
26 Student Teachers + 2 Faculty
35 students
+ 3 teachers
6 elders
+ 2 filmmakers
WKTEP Faculty Collaboration
Cross curricular connections in Social Studies and English methods courses (LLED314 and SSED 314)
A Gallery walk of diverse text on the Japanese internment: films, photographs, redress speech, charts and tables, maps, Path of Leaves
A field trip to the Nikkei Centre with Nobby Hayashi
Collaborative unit plan assignment on the internment
26 student teachers co-plan Each student teacher team developed a unit plan on the
Japanese internment with the aim of teaching it in their 13 week practicum
Student teachers “loved the collaboration”. They were “able to talk lesson ideas out with colleagues”.
In their feedback on the course, student teachers identified that “the field trip to the Nikkei Centre and the classes in New Denver allowed them to integrate different types of learning to this area.” They enjoyed “learning how to do field trips” and the “hands-on learning of the Gallery walk on the Japanese Canadian internment”.
WKTEP student teachers share ideas…
35 students + 3 teachers Two teachers and one WKTEP student
teacher collaborate, co-plan and team teach
Grade 10/11/12s in Social Studies 11, History 12 and English 10-12 work together in multi-grade groups creating 60 – 90 second documentaries
Synchronicity: an Artists in Residence project with filmmakers Mo Simpson and Catrina Longmuir, “Telling the story of the Nikkei”
Lucerne student filmmakers
Artist Statements – a synthesis of student learning
A sneak preview… Five student films:
Japanese-Canadian Internment
Never Lose Hope
Propaganda
So Fast
Winter of 1942 Your feedback? Thinking?
5 Student Films
6 elders + 2 filmmakers + community
Interviews with 6 remaining elders in New Denver filmed by the students and by Mo Simpson and Catrina Longmuir
The New Denver Kyowakai Society partners with the school, the Village, the Valhalla Fine Arts Society to document the stories
Public screening of student films along with Animation/Digital Storytelling for adults
Synergy: the inexplicable magic
National Historic Site recognition for the Nikkei Centre in 2010
Kyowakai Society yearns to film elders before it’s too late
Collaboration between National Japanese History Museum in Burnaby, Nikkei Centre and the school
www.citizenshift.ca - a voice for youth and shift in perspective towards greater educator involvement
www.thenhier.ca - a place for innovation in history education
Your connections?
Talk with a partner
Explore your ideas around place-based education, collaboration, synergistic connection
What can you take away from “Tellling the Story of the Nikkei”?
Pulling it all together V
isio
n
• Place-based Learning
Col
labo
rati
on
• Team • Partners
Syne
rgy
• Connection beyond the plan
Next steps Future WKTEP collaborations – SSED 314 and LLED
314 team teaching
Possible UBC teacher education collaborations: UBC - WKTEP and UBC – Vancouver (eg: National Museum of Japanese History in Burnaby; Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre – New Denver)
Teacher Candidate – School Advisor collaborations
Teacher collaborations online – Online Information Circles using Moodle
Collaborations online throughout Canada (www.THENhier.ca and www.citizenshift.ca)