This is how I roll

As a non car owner, well an occasional car sharer is probably a better descriptor, active transportation is a daily must for me. I take full advantage of close proximity of my work and enjoy the 40 minutes of fresh air and reflective time it affords me, rain or shine. This year I have really enjoyed spending more time being active outside and choosing to let exercise opportunities find me, such as walking home from SFU Surrey after school sometimes (a good 2 hour walk by the way) instead of transiting home and rushing to the gym.

This past summer I fell in love with bicycle riding in South East Asia, most specifically the ancient temple landscape of Bagan in Myanmar (Burma). Ever since my trip, I have lamented how bicycle riding doesn't seem to fit with my life in the hilly suburb of New Westminster. I own a bike, two actually. One, an uninspiring mountain bike style given to me on my 13th birthday, and the other, a 70's Nordco road bike with gears that makes me flinch at the thought of using and toe baskets that have given me some impressive road rash. Suffice to say neither inspire me to ride my hilly city, or get excited about hopping on. But with summer looming just around the corner, and no big travel plans for me due to my Masters program, a new way to enjoy summer sunshine became increasingly desirable.

With my tax return finally in hand (thank you tuition fees, you're finally good for something!) I was on the hunt for the perfect bicycle that would get me up and down hills safely, but with enough style and enjoyment that not a sunny day would go by without me wishing I was on two wheels. After much research and a few test rides I fell in love with a bike company that designs bike based on Dutch city bikes. We've discussed this a few times in our masters cohort and I really do believe that one of the biggest barriers to cycling, especially in the suburbs, is that generally the only cyclist you see are serious road bikers dressed head to toe in spandex. I need a bike that doesn't make me feel like a downhill mountain biker wannabe, or a road racing impostor. I wanted a bicycle that I could just hop onto in any outfit, at anytime, with a basket for my bag and groceries, I found it! Voici mon Electra Ticino 8d in wintermint with hammered chrome fenders and cream leather seat and handlebars.

Since getting my bike on Friday, I've put about 8 hours of riding on it and loved every minute! I've been rocking bike to work week, and intend on continuing long after the week is over. My new bicycle has even inspired me to change up the workout rut I've found myself to be in. From now until the end of bike season I'm swapping my 5-6 day a week workouts with a new three day a week split (push, pull, legs) and on my off days you will find my out and about walking, running, hiking, and of course riding my new favourite possession. Change is great!

Localicious – Delving Into Local Deliciousness and Food Policy

I attended the fourth and final Re:generation event on Thursday May 24^th which focused building a culture of local food. I had hoped for an interesting and tasty evening of food and food discourse, I was not disappointed. The evening started off with amazing local food prepared by local chef Hunter J. Moyes. Afterwards, the storytelling began with 4 speakers sharing their experiences with local food in a myriad of contexts relating to growing, farming, food security, and food policy. After an introduction into the current goals of the Vancouver Food Policy, participants broke into small group to discuss ideas and thoughts about the food policy, creating a dialogue for change.

One of the most exciting features of the evening was the intergenerational aspect of the speakers and audience, as well the diverse opinions and backgrounds represented in the forum. From farmers, business owners, educators, to policy makers, it was truly inspiring to be surrounded by people who care about their food, and food for others. I was also extremely impressed by the Vancouver Food Policy and the 5 tenants they have outlined in their current charter. As creating and sustaining just, sustainable, and accessible food systems becomes increasingly challenging, is heartening to know that discourse and action continue to happen and our voices are being heard. I am also excited to bring back to New Westminster and our Food Action Committee what is happening around the lower mainland to support our citizens and community.

The most poignant piece of the evening, for me, was how often I heard non educators mention the importance of food education in schools and schools acting as change agents in creating a just and equitable food system. While it’s sometimes tempting to shrug that off and think “and with what time, budget, or support for teachers and students?”, (especially with BC teachers in job action this year) I have instead being trying to think realistically of ways schools could actually do this in real and meaningful ways with the resources we have available. This idea continues to be in the forefront of my mind during the design consultations with the builders and designers of what will be my new school. It keeps bringing me back to the same question. Realistically, how can a school be designed in ways to promote social equity and environmental sustainability with limited budgets and curricular, student composition and learning constraints? Much, much, food for thought.

Flex Your Foodie Muscles

There's a couple of great local food events happening in the next couple of weeks that I will be attending, and I thought I'd share.

The first is re:generation: localicious - an international dialogue

Tickets are extremely affordable (sliding scale) and great stories and food are promised. Come be a part of the local food movement!

The second is The Royal City Farmers Market Fundraiser on May 31st at the new and fantastic Wild Rice restaurant at the fabulous New Westminster River Market. This event promises an amazing and diverse local menu, silent auction, and other festivities to support our local Farmers Market and all the work they do in New Westminster.

Bon and sustainable appétit!

Student Perspectives on Learning Spaces: What Are We Missing?

First class of the new semester today!  This course jumps into the realm of imaginative education in regards to curriculum and instruction through our lens of Health Education and Active reading. This is a reaction paper in response to an assigned course reading. The content is exceptionally relevant to my current work situation and offered me an interesting little experiment with my class. I've included a few sample of their work, enjoy!

Angelica: "We are playing on the carpet. Sabrina is planting. The carpet looks nice. I'm waiting for Sabrina to come play. I'm planting too."

       

 Anthony:  "When the bell rings they will go inside. The gym is downstairs. There is an upstairs"

Ben: "This is a fun school, there is a roller coaster. There's a guitar and drums - a rock school. There is a smart board, learning board, and television. There is a trampoline. There is a lock so bad guys can't get in. It's a carnival and a rock school".

Daniel: "I want a rainbow roof. I want to play new toys and a new floor. I want to bring toys to school".

 Sammi: "I want calendar and the carpet. Read a book. Writing something"

Bland, D. Drawing on imagination: Primary students' ideal learning environments. Queensland University of Technology

            After reading the abstract for this article I knew instantly that it would be the article I would chose to write my reaction paper on. With my school district’s announcement that the decrepit 80-year-old school I teach at is to be torn down and relocated to a new site, and that teacher input would be essential in the design of the new structure, I gladly jumped into the article hoping to glean ideas for the upcoming consultation meeting, I was most definitely not disappointed.

            The first thing that struck me when reading this article is how true it is that the opinions and ideas of children are not valued is so many areas of education despite the current popularity student centred learning. My school district has hired numerous consultants, and solicits advice from teachers and parents, but nowhere in the plan is student feedback. However, I cannot only place blame of ignoring student perspectives at the senior administrative level, this article also made me question the redesigning of my classroom learning environment I took on this January.

            Earlier this year I took advantage of my release from full-time teaching duties during my student teachers long practicum to redesign my classroom to better meet the needs of my class[1].  I was extremely happy with my experiments in educational design, however, after digesting the Bland article I couldn’t help but be haunted by the fact that I never considered asking my students about our space, or what they would like changed in their learning environment. Pacifying myself a little with the knowledge that my re-design used well-researched early learning practices and strategies to meet the needs of young learners, I began to think of feasible ways to illicit feedback from my students,as working with kindergarten aged students often presents parameters far different than those for older children

            The article focuses on the ideas and perspectives of grade 5/6 students.  This age range was chosen based on Piaget’s concrete operational stage, the developmental ability to think logically and use epithetical awareness. The article does touch a little on research with 7-9 year olds, and even suggestion that a 1^st grader may be able to offer an perspective, but I teach kindergarten, henceforth, I decided to see what they could offer.

            Before giving my students the piece of paper for their drawing, I told them about the new school and that we needed their help. I told them that they could imagine and draw anything they wanted about a new school (I tried to use the word learning space in place of school but the concept was unclear to them). I specifically did not use examples or give ideas as often they will copy ideas or examples given to them, and I wanted this to be their perspective. I scribed their ideas for them immediately after drawing as to not lose any meaning behind their work.

            Afterwards, many constraints of this age group on somewhat abstract concepts were evident. Most students drew pictures that were almost exact replicas of our current school[2]. The lack of inclusion of ideas, items, or design elements that were not in the current school seems to come from the limited experience kindergarteners have with learning environments. For some, my classroom and their school is the only formal learning institution they have been in, which makes it hard for them imagine something vastly different than their own experience,  - running quite parallel to the findings in the article where no students questioned the existence of schools, or wanted to abolish them. Only a couple to students included new ideas, such as rollercoasters[3], fantasy, and technology, which were similar to the article. The inclusion of nature was also vividly represented[4]

            I found this little experiment with my students to be extremely interesting and illuminating during my school rebuilding process. This article made me realize how much value there is in honoring the perspectives of students in relation to their learning spaces. How best to do this at a kindergarten appropriate level, however, is still something I am trying to work out. Working with young learners is challenging, but their opinions are extremely valuable. The challenge moving forward will be to figure out how best to allow their ideas to flourish and expand without forcing current practices or stifling their imaginations.

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[1] Blog Post: “The RE design of my everyday things” February 12^th 2012

http://fuelyourlife.blogspot.ca/2012_02_01_archive.html

[2] Drawings by Daniel, Sammi, and Anthony

[3] Drawing by Ben

[4] Drawing by Angelica

Getting Down and Dirty

With a little sunshine finally come our way I have resumed my local, sustainable, and delicious food production and cultivation, aka my backyard garden. There is something viscerally satisfying about seeing the beautiful green shoots of plants sprouting forth from the soil from the seeds sown only a few weeks ago. Despite the cold and dreary weather, my arugula, peas, and pumpkins are already foretelling the warmer weather ahead and the amazing food they will become. I have always found vegetables grown by my own hands to be so much more delicious, and I think that involvement and interest in food from its literal roots would make vegetables more appealing to my students as well.

As plant life cycles are entrenched in kindergarten curriculum, I have always grown beans with my students on my classroom windowsills. As exciting as it is for students to see their plants grow, we were never able to produce food from these little plants,  a concrete connection between plants and food that is missing in such a small scale planting. This year, I wanted to make plants, food growing, and eating fresh vegetables as exciting and hands on as possible - the addition of a community garden onto the parkland adjacent to our school grounds has given me just that opportunity.

I feel extremely humbled and blessed by the kindness and interest the members of my community garden have in including students in their beautiful and fruitful space. You can imagine that 17 excited and often spatially unaware kindergarteners can be quite a challenge to share space with, but our fellow gardeners are always helpful and kind, often showing my students interesting plants, taking the time to explain what they are doing, and helping us accessing the tools we need. The sense of community in our garden is truly amazing.

My students, in turn, recognize how beautiful and harmonious this space is, and want nothing more than to participate and take care of all the living things they find. The glee they express when turning over the dirt with their hands and finding worms is palatable. The care they use when sowing our seeds and patting down the earth demonstrates how even a few visits to the garden have made them feel a part of the space and helped them to assume their role as gardener, care taker, and food grower.

We are growing radishes, lettuce, and cucumbers. The first two because they grow quite quickly and should be ready to harvest in June, and the third because it's our classes favourite vegetable. Everyday they ask to go to the garden and are learning the plant life cycle and new vocabulary words faster than any of my previous classes. Even my pickiest eaters are excited to try the foods that we are growing.

Even though I am far, far from an expert gardener, I am greatly enjoying passing along what knowledge I do have and teaching my students not only skills to grow food, but also to love and appreciate simple and unadulterated foods, starting with enjoying the vegetables they grew themselves.

GreenTech Exchange - Seminar Series

photo from: http://www.greentechexchange.ca/

I found out through a friend, oddly enough not via the vast amounts of SFU email I receive, that SFU has a partnership with a company called GreenTech Exchange and offers free seminars on a wide variety of issues connected to environment, energy, food systems, and others extremely important areas of concern for our economy, environment, and planet.

GreenTech Exchange is


"Greentech Exchange (GTE) is a monthly networking and learning event featuring presentations from leaders in the green technology field, pitches from Greentech entrepreneurs and networking with entrepreneurs, professionals, investors, government representatives and more.

The GTE is open to anyone interested in greentech and cleantech. Specifically, Greentech SMEs, entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, industry leaders, government partners and supporting service providers will benefit from attending."

I attended a seminar last Wednesday on Solutions in the Food System: Addressing Food Security and Impacts on Agriculture which included four panelists from a variety of backgrounds and interests in food, one of which happened to be my uncle oddly enough. It was an extremely interesting discussion about past, present, and future concerns surrounding local food security, food production, and protection and promotion of local and sustainable foods. It was exciting to see how seriously the city of Vancouver is taking its "greening" initiatives and learn of many exciting and upcoming local food projects such as large scale vertical growing of herbs and greens which will be happening right in the downtown core, on a roof top green house. 

It was a great forum for discussion, sharing, and learning about pressing issues in food security and agriculture that cannot wait. Greentech exchange has a listing of upcoming events being held at SFU Harbour Centre and other locations on health and environmental issues. I would definitely encourage anyone interested to check out the upcoming series.