First Post, First Chapter...

             New school year, new courses, and one step further on my journey to becoming a teacher and graduate of Brock University’s Concurrent Education Program. This is my new blog where I will be discussing and reflecting on the readings from one of my education classes (EDUC 4P19), called Foundations of Curriculum and Assessment. The assigned text my blog posts are based on is Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment – Engaging the 21^st-Century Learner (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014).

            After reading the first chapter (Toward a new story of curriculum, instruction and assessment) I realized that this blog assignment is a great example on how teachers working today need to take full advantage of the technological world and how it can benefit them and their students, with learnings for both parties. I am only one week into this course and I already appreciate how this blog will allow us Concurrent Education students to have a first hand experience of how using technology within our given assignments can help improve our, and the students’, learning, progress, and outlook on education. The incorporation of the vast industry of technology is precisely how the current global Education system should evolve, adapt with the changes, and thus benefit the students and learners of the 21^st Century. Young children today can easily grasp the workings and functions of their parents’ smartphones. As future teachers, we need to be aware of the current culture around us, and learn how it can be incorporated into the ever progressing education system. A well balanced education system is when the best of the elder education traditions and methods are used, and adapted to help benefit the present learner, by incorporating the present day culture and innovations, and methods to assess and instruct. Therefore, the use of an online blog to reflect upon assigned readings is a perfect example of how student learning is being displayed, all while using a constructivist and project-based approach of assessment within the given curriculum of the subject matter.

            The subjects I have chosen to study and so are considered my ‘teachables’ are Physical Education and General Science, at the Intermediate/Senior level of Education. Many aspects and topics of Chapter 1 were a review to me thanks to some of the Physical Education based courses I have already taken. Health and Physical Education may seem like an empty subject for some, but it traditionally never was. Students should be taught and have knowledge of both physical literacy and health literacy. The Health and Physical Education curriculum already aims for students to develop some of the skills the twenty-first century learner is trying to develop now (i.e. problem solving, creativity, comprehension, and critical thinking). Brock University’s PEKN 3P32 (Movement Activities for Physical Education in the School), gave myself and fellow classmates, the chance to learn about the Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum (which is still outdated and the only subject yet to revised in the 21^st Century…but that is a debate that I will not touch upon now), and to learn about classroom assessments and evaluations methods, including the 3 approaches of assessment with a targeted purpose (Assessment OF, FOR and AS Learning). As we further developed our knowledge on such topics, we were given the chance to teach Physical Education classes of various grades, and first handedly assess how the curriculum can be used in various instruction strategies and assessment approaches to see if student learning was promoted, plus how positive the students’ learning experiences were. I am looking forward to further increase my knowledge on curriculum, instruction and assessment, and how the future teacher I will be and change agent I should strive to be (p.26) can become a part of this twenty-first century change; where education progresses towards “The New Story”, and the learning for both students and teachers will advance together.