Monthly Archives: February 2012

Math Curricula?

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I was reading this online study this morning published on CBC news’ website in September.  According to the study, “traditional math education methods are superior to the highly ineffective, discovery-based instructional techniques that are in vogue now in educational curricula”.  The article goes on to say that in Saskatchewan we make a point of not following these traditional methods.  Executive director of the Ministry of Education, Simone Gareau, said that “Within our curriculum, direct instruction has its place and so does discovery and problem solving”.  Over the last few years, Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Education has been changing the math curriculum drastically, adding more problem solving methods to the text with a high emphasis on creative learning.

As a fine arts student, I do believe that creative learning is of great benefit to students, giving them a sort of freedom to do things themselves and structure and plan without the guidance or assistance of others.  However, based on my experience with the new math textbooks through my pre-internship and talking to my younger siblings who are currently using the new math textbooks for grades 7 and 11, my understanding is that the system hasn’t exactly been fine-tuned yet.  Looking at some of the units, they seem very unorganized and out of control.  Questions on one page may not make sense if you haven’t read the instructions on a separate page, which can be confusing for a grade 5 or 6 student who is used to having all the instruction they need built up above the set of questions they are given.

From my point of view, I would have to say that the Ministry of Education is correct in saying that we cannot teach our students in simply one way.  There are many different types of learners and they all deserve a chance to learn every subject in a way that makes sense to them.  I must say, though, that the Ministry should take a second look at the new math curriculum and come up with a way to make it concise and understandable for Saskatchewan students.  Simone Gareau said about multiplication that “students can learn to do that by rote, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they understand”.  What their system needs to find a way to do is to help students “understand” their methods and easily transition over from the old math system that they were used to.  There needs to be a healthy balance between the two.  Otherwise all is, and all are, lost.

My Major Project

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I have decided that for my Final Project in ECMP355 that I will learn how to put together a short film in connection with my project for my EAES201 class, where I am learning a short, one-man play.  For my final project, I would like to film myself acting out the play and putting it together as a short film.  To me, this seems like a great option because I’ve never really made a movie before and thought that it would give me some good insight into using iMovie as a media outlet for teaching.  Films are a great source of visuals for learners, and I think this could be a good skill to learn for teaching in the classroom, and also goes well with my degree as I am majoring in drama! If you’ve read this, let me know what you think!

Filmmaking and Your Favourite Movie!

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So tomorrow I have a midterm exam for my Film 100 class and have been studying all day, looking at lighting, design, cameras, and all other aspects of filmmaking that go into creating a feature-film.  I’d have to say one of my favourite scene’s in a movie is in Saving Private Ryan (1998) when the character of George C. Marshall reads Abraham Lincoln’s letter addressed to one Mrs. Bixby to some of his staff. The letter, which had been sent to Mrs. Bixby many years previously, was telling her that all five of her sons were killed on the field of battle in the war.  Halfway through reading the letter, he places the letter on his desk and looks directly at his staff, continuing to read the letter and proving its importance to him and their situation.Just for fun, I want to know what your favourite film is and why?  Do you love it for it’s story, its cinematography and how the film looks on screen, its special effects, or its emotional value?  Maybe there is a specific scene that you just appreciate.  It does not matter. GO!

Tech Task #6 – Digital Stories

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A couple of short stories told through digital media.  Sources used in each small story were Five Card Flickr and Google Search Stories.

flickr photo credits: (1) Serenae (2) krutscjo (3) jentropy (4) Mitt Nathwani (5) katerha

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Small Family, Big Vacation

created by Ben on Feb 07 2012, 06:38:13 pm

On the west coast of England in the middle of the afternoon, a Lego spaceship was built by a young, single father named John and his one-year-old son, Tyler. The duo were on vacation for the first time. It was lucky that John had been saving up for this trip five years ago, or he would never have experienced this wonderful day with his son.

Social Networking: An Addiction?

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Today I was watching some videos from a Youube news channel that I found and subscribed to yesterday called SourceFed which is also run by Philip DeFranco (aka sxephil), one of Youtube’s most subscribed to individuals.  I came across a video that talked about Facebook and Twitter and how studies show that they are more addictive than alcohol and cigarettes.  I would have to agree because there are clearly a lot more people that use social networking sites than drugs, but perhaps in this case the word “addiction” could be replaced with a less extreme word, because an addiction is usually thought of as harmful, and though technology can do harm, it does not always.  Should we worry that people are becoming less connected in real life, or does social networking allow for a greater level of connection?

Superbowl Commercials and Canadian Television

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Ok, so today this evening I was watching the Superbowl on my TV just like a million other Canadians.  Although I am a big football fan, I also enjoy watching the cool commercials that air during the Superbowl because they actually give you something to look forward to during breaks from the game. Luckily, with the prompt nature of online sharing, all commercials were easily viewable on Youtube or a specific Superbowl commercial site.  However, it would have been nice to watch the commercials on my television during commercial break instead of having to go look for them online and wait for my laptop to load them once I found what I was looking for.

An article published on the New York Post’s website states that “According to a new Nielsen survey, more people tune in on Super Sunday to watch the ads than to see the game itself. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they enjoyed the ads more than the action on the field, while 49 percent preferred the game.”  Now I’n no analyst, but if half of the people that are going to tune in to a television program are tuning in to watch the new commercials, I’m guessing you are going to want to include those commercials!  Granted, there were a few that were granted to CTV from NBC including the Budweiser “hockey game surprise” which can be seen below, but I don’t see why the marketing for some products, especially car companies, was edited out of CTV’s broadcast.  I would have loved to have watched the Honda CR-V commercial that parodied Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with Matthew Broderick or Chevrolet’s Glee music video, and was disappointed by their absence.

So what do you think?  Was this a missed opportunity by CTV to air local commercials instead of the big Superbowl specialty commercials which companies paid 3.5 million dollars to have played for 30 seconds during the game, or do you think that the Superbowl should be less about advertising and more about the game of football (congratulations to Eli Manning and the Giants).  Comment below to let me know, and I’ll see you next time 🙂