Rohler Writes

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Grief in the classroom: So much in the first few months of school

September 30, 2019

My son's formal education journey started this month, although an exciting time it is also an interesting time to reflect on practice and experiences that I have had. I am always impressed at the work of a kindergarten teacher and the daily battle to complete the most basic of tasks always overwhelmed me! I have to commend our kindergarten teacher in the amazing work she does with our son and the other students, and the approach she has taken has been impressive, even when we brought up a touchy grief subject she worked to create a positive change in her classroom. We are very lucky to have her and her experience. Terry Fox Airlifted from Thunder Bay, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/terry-fox As the year started I realized some of the impressive challenges of teaching that I had never thought of before. In the first two and half months of school, there are some pretty heavy and challenging social topics/issues: Terry Fox, Orange shirt day, Halloween,

Design Based assessment final blog (4)

July 21, 2019

An Open Letter to Albertans on Grade 3 Provincial Achievement Tests To: Premier Jason Kenney, Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, UCP members of the legislature, and all Albertans, In recent weeks news outlets have published stories about a letter sent to Alberta superintendents that stated provincial standardized testing is coming back for Grade 3 students in the coming years (French, 2019; Wong, 2019; Konguavi, 2019). This concerns me as an educator, parent, and a second-year Masters of education student at the Werklund School of Education. Data is incredibly important in decision making, and that knowing where a student “is” in their learning journey is valuable to parents, educators and government, yet the standardized testing model does not meet the needs of our learners, parents, and future workforce. In order to “keep up” to the current ever-changing world of technology, and the expectations of a future workforce, the traditional education model h

Advanced Study of the Learning Sciences Blog 3

July 18, 2019

Where to go from here? Figure 1. Screenshot from a video of 300 students welcoming Mr. Riley's daughter to the world. Personal Photograph Ohler R. (April 4, 2019) Who am I? Who are you? For you have now impacted on me and therefore I am no longer me, but me impacted by your impact on me. Riley Ohler Writing this short poem for our design based assessment class has really stuck with me. We as humans are always changing, every moment we are impacted and changed by the environment we are in. I am different from when I started writing this blog: I have had snacks and water, I have had multiple attempts at writing this, conversations with my wife, kids and friends, I have moved and interacted with the space around me…the list is endless. As I dissect the readings most innovative theories are centred around the idea of the individual and where that individual is situated in the culture (Sawyer, 2014). Sawyer (2014) calls it situativity, Illeris (

Design Based Assessments Blog 3

July 17, 2019

Why is art so hard? Figure 1. Grade 6/7 Bansky reproduction set pieces for Day-In The Life design collaboration with grade 6/7 students and Carl White (2016) Art and creative work is an incredibly contentious and hard thing for people who consider themselves non-artists to assess, teach and engage with. Whenever art is brought up most often educators are quick to point out “oh I am not an artist, I can’t do that.” Although I heard this in class on Wednesday, I often hear these statements from educators and it always makes me ponder. These statements seem to come from a place of fear or inadequacy, where teachers are actually afraid of engaging with art. There is this strange mythos around art and creativity in that some people have it or they don’t. Most people see art and creativity as a “magical gift bestowed only by the gods” (Bayles & Orland, 2014, p. 3). What is interesting is that art has to be made by ordinary people, because if it wasn’t it wouldn’

Advanced Study of the Learning Sciences Blog post 2

July 16, 2019

The old Grain truck continues on… The Old Grain Truck My reflection on Mindstorms (Papert, 1980) Open the squeaky door until it clicks *click* Get in sit down, watch for the wire in the seat don’t want to scratch yourself *squeak* Feel the steering wheel smooth with age and wear bumpy on the back from generations of drivers. Touch the key wait and prepare pump the gas 5 times (4 not enough, 6 will flood) talk to it nicely “c’mon old girl” turn the key pump the gas slowly almost lovingly as you wake it up This truck is more human than most robots who work a nine to five. Moaning awake she comes alive. As she has done for 50 years. Time to move to the field down the road. Shifting is a science thanks to Eaton and his axle: Start 2, 2 high 3 low 3 high, 4 low 5 low 4 high 5 high. The old truck shakes down the road. The first time you take it out

Design Based Assessments Blog 2

July 14, 2019

Design-Based Assessments in our Culture In 1967 McCluhan, Fiore and Agel (1996) wrote: “Our ‘Age of Anxiety’ is, in great part the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools-with yesterday’s concepts” (p. 8-9). McCluhan and Fiore continue to speak of the educational process as being associated with the glum, and serious student, and that “our time presents a unique opportunity for learning by means of humor - a perceptive or incisive joke can be more meaningful than platitudes lying between two covers” (p. 10). It seems like much would have changed since the first publication of this book yet, our educational system still values many of the traditional ways of teaching, learning, and assessing our students. Figure 1. Cover page for the 1996 edition of: The Medium is the Massage , (Fiore, McLuhan, & Agel, 1996) Thomas and Seely Brown (2011) speak of the modern learning culture stating that when a classroom moves from a teaching-based approach to a lea

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