Posts By jessicarmcdougall
Midterm Music Blog #1
When I first decided to take on the skill of learning the ukulele, I knew that it would be a challenge. I knew that it would include several hours of practice and dedication in addition to our other assignments in this class. However, I was determined and eager to learn how to play. I pictured myself in my future classroom with my future students and thought how interesting and fun that it would be to be able to play in front of them, teach them songs and integrate music into my classroom. I believe that music is an important and beneficial concept that should be included in all schools. Music promotes engagement, motivation and enjoyment into classrooms. Also, I believe that certain modes of instruction can be facilitated through the use of music. For example, singing a relaxing song to inform students of quiet time, or even singing a song to settle kids at the carpet or prior to walking down the hallway. Overall, there are several vital benefits to implementing music into the classroom, which is why I decided to learn the ukulele.
By January 29th, it was my first goal to feel comfortable with how to physically hold my ukulele, how to strum it, and how to tune it. When I first picked up my ukulele, I asked the lady I got it from to assist me with tuning it so that I knew its tune was correct. To double check the tuning, I also used an app to ensure that the sounds were correct prior to learning the chords. In addition, I also researched various videos on YouTube that taught me how to physically hold the ukulele. While doing this, I learned to keep the ukulele close to my chest, which was news to me because I initially thought to hold it similar to a guitar. However, holding the body of the ukulele near my chest felt more comfortable with the long neck part and the strings horizontal to the ground. I practiced holding the ukulele comfortability in my hand, with the strings in my left hand and the body of the ukulele in my right, while bending my right elbow to have a grip on the strings in my right hand to strum. Furthermore, I researched how to properly strum the ukulele. At first, I was unaware that in addition to strumming downwards, it is equally important to learn how to strum upwards. It took some practice to find the perfect strengthen in my fingers to not hit the strings too hard or too soft. It was also an adjustment to hit the cords smoothly while keep consistency with the strumming. After a few hours of practice after the tuning, I was able to feel comfortable with my physical grip on the ukulele as well as perform consistent strum patterns.
Free Inquiry – Exploring Nature #6
For this weeks inquiry post, I wanted to research deeper about the physical and mental health benefits from the outdoors. As I have aforementioned in previous inquiry posts, I strongly believe that exploring nature and the outdoors can significantly improve an individual’s physical and mental health. Personally, as I have also previously mentioned, I have my own collection of my favourite outdoor activities to participate in outside. For example, kayaking, hiking, wake surfing, snowboarding and exploring new trails are my favourite activities that always boost my mindset and improve my physical health. I believe that every individual should develop a passion for the outdoors to provide them with exposure and engagement with the nature. Below I have posted a few resources that I came across while researching about the physical and mental health benefits of the outdoors. I came to realize that not only does it improve physical health such as strengthen muscles and cardio, but it also can boost an immune system and an individuals inner health. Despite the outdoors increasing physical muscle health, it can improve blood flow, fight diseases, aid pain and healing as well as boost vitamin D levels. In addition to physical health benefits, mental health is also extremely boosted from the outdoors. In one of the below YouTube videos, it states that the green from the trees and heat from the sun can boost psychological benefits by getting outdoors. I also included an interesting Ted Talk video that I came across in my research, that points out the importance of the outdoors with children, which is extremely beneficial to learn about being in this program. Overall, I will continue to research the diverse benefits from exploring the outdoors and continue to provide my findings.
Reflection Post #7
This week in our technology and innovation class we learnt about the importance of educational videos. Personally, I think that educational videos are great. I believe that they provide a diverse method of instruction to students by promoting listening, engaging and reflection. Since students are in the classroom for around 25-30 hours per week, teacher instruction can become rather repetitive to students. Although teaching verbal lessons to students is of course the most effective method, teaching through educational videos also holds its benefits. By listening to educational videos, educators can teach their students in videos instructed by others or through the use of visuals. Incorporating videos into daily lessons can enable students to hear instruction from guest speakers (those speaking in the videos) or through the use of diagrams, visuals or storylines. Also, by providing videos in the classroom, teachers are able to pause the videos to provide their input, ask the students questions during the videos and facilitate post-video discussion in the classroom. Teachers are able to use videos to teach various subjects and promote interaction in the classroom and diversify their lessons.
When we had our Wednesday visits into elementary classrooms last semester, I recall my mentor teacher using educational videos for particular lessons. Our teacher would use calm and relaxing videos during quiet time, where students could listen to ocean waves and the video would run through a sequence of relaxing videos to prepare students for a down time. In addition to quiet time videos, I believe that their is a plethora of ways that educational videos can be integrated into the classroom. For example, educational videos can be an author reading aloud a story book for students to follow, a math instructional video that diversifies how to count or add, or even introducing students to the number line or reading. Educational videos can also be as simple as playing the students a short cartoon clip at snack time to get them familiar with sounds and reading. While the students are watching they will be enjoying the video and its visuals, while also learning from it simultaneously.
Two weeks ago I created an iMovie for my weekly reflection post. Even as the author of the video, I found it enjoyable to make and it provided a diverse way of explaining my inquiry topic. This enhanced my understanding of the importance of educational videos and made me realize that instruction and explanations can be portrayed and taught through the use of videos.
Free Inquiry – Exploring Nature #5
After my last week’s post focussing primarily on kayaking, I decided to do some research about an outdoor activity that I have not experienced as often. Kayaking is by far my favourite outdoor activity in addition to snowboarding, camping, hiking and basic trail exploring for various reasons. I believe that kayaking targets muscle strengthen in addition to enabling a calm mindset in the relaxing environment of the ocean. Snowboarding enables individuals to practice physical activity in the winter, as well as boosting mental health by exploring the mountain in a different setting such as snow. Camping and hiking enable individuals to explore the outdoors in forests and explore nature’s beautiful scenery. Hiking provides individuals with a challenging task to complete to reach the top which can distract a mindset away from day to day tasks. Furthermore, in addition to these activities, there many more outdoor activities that can benefit an individuals physical and mental health. For example, this past summer I learnt how to wake surf up at Shawinigan Lake. I have not participated in many water sport activities before other than tubing, but I wanted to try a physical water sport. Snowboarding and hiking provides diversity to the outdoors in certain seasons, and the summer is a great time to try water sports. Since the weather is so hot and humid in summers, it can be tiring and too hot to hike in the direct sunlight. Therefore, water sports promote diversity to outdoor activities by engaging with the ocean or lake. I think that wake surfing is one of the easier water sports to learn. Wake boarding or wake skiing can be especially difficult because your feet have to be strapped into a board or ski, which can also be dangerous for first time learners or those uneasy and nervous towards trying. With wake surfing, you rest your feet on the board while holding the rope and let the pull of the rope from the boat raise you up and gradually lift your feet onto the board. Wake surf immensely targets arm muscles from the pull of the rope, leg muscles from pushing yourself up onto the board, as well as core muscles once you are riding to stay balanced. It also provides a challenge to the mind and once you can successfully get up and start wake surfing, it is an amazing experience that can boost your mood. Riding the waves and feeling the spray of the ocean water is an amazing feeling in the heat of summer. It is a great way to involve yourself in a summer activity while simultaneously boosting your mood and alleviate any stressful thoughts. I hope that this summer I am able to practice my wake surfing skills again to continue to improve and push myself.
Additional Resources: The below resources are links that I came across while researching the benefits of outdoor activities boosting mental health and improving physical health for individuals.
Most Common Benefits of Water Sports on Mental and Physical Health
Reflection Post #6
This week we had a special guest speaker Jeff Hopkins lead our class zoom lecture. Jeff Hopkins is the founder and principal of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) in downtown Victoria. This school is much different than the other schools around Victoria, or even in the Lower Mainland. This school is built around the idea of an inquiry based framework, where the learner’s interests are put first. In other words, the school emphasizes curriculum around what the learners are most interested in and at each students specific skill level. Prior to this lecture, I was unaware that this school existed. Last semester in our history class, we learnt about different types of schools such as Montessori and Summerhill Schools. I was rather intrigued at the idea of Montessori schools which also follow a similar framework of teaching according to the students interests. The PSII reminds me of Montessori schools, and is a concept that I would like to learn more about. I believe that as educators, putting the needs and interests of the schools first is most important. Each student learns in an unique way and it is important to target and adapt to these needs to ensure that all students are striving to reach their full potential. I found the Youtube Video by Jeff Hopkins on his Introduction to PSII very interesting and eye opening as to what occurs in these schools. Although I hope to one day teach at a public school, I hope to implement a few of these ideas into my classroom to ensure that my students are reaching their full potential and that I am teaching them what they are most interested in. I would like to save this link to watch these videos and further research these schools in the future. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci336/2021/02/22/jeff-hopkins-the-pacific-school-of-innovation-and-inquiry-psii/.
Free Inquiry Post – Exploring Nature #4
For this week’s inquiry, I decided to integrate our weekly lecture learnings to create a video based on my free inquiry. I created an iMovie not only to practice what we have been taught this week, but to show a few of my favourite places that I have been kayaking. Kayaking is my favourite outdoor activity because it significantly targets an improvement on an individuals physical and mental health. For physical health, it strengthens your core, arms, shoulders, and back while also improving flexibility and balance. In addition to physical health, I strongly believe it can boost an individuals mood drastically. The surrounding environment while kayaking is nothing short of relaxing and peaceful (if you pick a calm area of course, this can depend). From the above video, I included a few clips of my favourite places to kayak. In particular, I enjoy kayaking around the Gulf Islands in ocean water. These views make for a beautifully peaceful visual setting while also including calming sounds and the salty smell of the ocean. Furthermore, this week I decided to focus on kayaking alone since it is my favourite outdoor activity, primarily because I believe that it enables you to engage with nature. It also clears your mindset and refocus your attention towards the beauty of nature and distracts me away from any stressful thoughts. While researching the benefits of kayaking, I came across this link that states 15 surprising benefits that many are unaware when it comes to kayaking https://abovehouse.com/benefits-of-kayaking/. Moreover, next week I am going to research more diverse outdoor activities that I would like to try and include their impacts on physical and mental health.
Reflection Post #5
This week we learned about screen casting and how to create videos on a Mac using iMovie. I found this topic particularly interesting because prior to last semester, I had not used iMovie on my mac before. I had seen friends of mine use iMovie to create very creative and interesting movies through the many options provided on the mac to construct movies. I always thought that it was a complicated app that required a surplus of time to understand and actually engage with. However, after last class, I became more interested in challenging myself to understand. Last semester, I used iMovie once to edit a video for a gym project, but it was a rather short video that did not require detailed graphics or design. After viewing this resource (https://docs.google.com/document/d/174-wSYFC93g03L3NciyZ_8uAs2cm0EW2Szk45gB194M/edit) posted on our class website, I took a look deeper into iMovie itself. I was able to take my time and follow YouTube guided instruction on certain directions and options associated with it. I took the time to create a small video of my summer from last year with simple photographs and small video clips, as it was just for fun to help deepen and grow my understanding on how to utilize it. In relation to my free inquiry topic, I am hoping to integrate a video made on iMovie into this topic. I am going to continue exploring iMovie and its various options in hopes to become an expert on it!
Free Inquiry Post – Exploring Nature #3
Below I have attached a link to a PowerPoint Presentation that I made to discuss my Free Inquiry Reflection for this week. In the PowerPoint, I discuss a few of my personal favourite outdoor activities and their relation to improving an individual’s physical and mental health. Take an adventure and check it out!
Reflection Post #4
After this week’s class lectured by Jesse Miller, a Technology and Innovation guest speaker, my perception and understanding of social media and its relation to the internet expanded. Personally, I enjoy social media because it enables me to connect with my friends and family from around the world who I am unable to see very often. To me, it has always appeared, or seemed to appear, as a safe space to post updates about my life and activities that I have done and am willing to share. However, Jesse’s talk this week sparked me to start being more weary of what I post online. Since I am attending UVIC and am now enrolled in a professional program, I, of course, only post appropriate content and am sure to have my privacy settings in check. Although I feel comfortable with my privacy settings and am sure to only post minimal content, there is still a nerve inside of me that somehow feels that it is not private enough. Social media and the internet can be a difficult and scary place. Although social media has a plethora of beneficial aspects, it is important to be cautious with the content posted and ensure that you are not over sharing your personal life.
Jesse’s ted talk video (https://youtu.be/FiGclrVXAws) from his personal website (https://www.mediatedreality.com/) really got me thinking about social media as a whole. I used to work as a server at a few restaurants downtown, and while serving I would notice that certain families would bring their iPads to their table for their children to use. When the kids would get restless at the table or begin to misbehave, the parents would offer them an iPad, I suppose to distract them and refocus their attention to the screen. As Jesse mentions in his ted talk video, “[these children] are not behaved, [that] child is pacified”. This quote from Jesse’s ted talk explicitly relates to the experiences that I had while serving these “well-behaved” children. The parent’s goal here is to divert their children’s attention away from misbehaving by giving them something to refocus their attention on. However, the parents are only enabling their kids to stare in front of a screen for longer and possibly teach them that if they misbehave, their reward is playing on the iPad. Despite there being several benefits to technology and social media platforms, it is important to set boundaries with these devices. Although they provide significant means of communication and a space for resources, it is important to use them with discretion and be aware of what is at risk from using them.
Free Inquiry Post – Exploring Nature #2
As previously posted, I have chosen to research the benefits of exploring nature for my free inquiry topic. I have always had a passion for getting outside, exploring nature and adventuring, which why I chose this topic in particular. I strongly believe that exploring the outdoors is a blessing and that its effects on a human’s mental and physical health can be positively impacted when involved with what nature has to offer. Prior to living in Victoria, I lived in the small town of Ladner, B.C. on the mainland. While living in Ladner, the mountains in North Vancouver were only an hour drive away and are filled with a plethora of hikes, trails and good views. At least once a week I would head up to a new hike or re-visit one of my favourite spots to indulge in nature and get exercise. Since I only had time to hike and explore on the weekends, I would go to the gym near my house during the week. Also, in the winters, some trails would be closed and certain hikes would be rather dangerous to explore, not to mention the drive to those mountains would be unsafe. This is when I realized the impact that the outdoors had on me. By being forced to only attend the gym for a mode of exercise started to feel repetitive and I would crave the dirt under my boots and the smell of fresh air. I realized that I enjoyed being outside to get my exercise much more than inside a humid gym among many other people. Personally, I get rather restless when I am confined to a certain space to get my exercise in instead of releasing my energy while doing an activity (like hiking). I believe that participating in hikes and walking trails allows a more diverse method of exercise outside the realm of only a gym. While hiking, you are able to constantly breathe in fresh air, have more of a visually appealing surrounding, and enjoy a calm and relatively quiet environment while anxiously awaiting to reach the top. In relation to my inquiry, these are all benefits on why I believe that the outdoors boosts an individuals mental and physical health. For physical health, individuals are able to exercise while walking on uneven terrain and steep slopes while also increasing your endurance abilities. In regard to mental health, individuals are able to inhale fresh air and clear their head while hearing the sounds of nature and resetting their mindset. I believe that nature provides a reset to any mood or feeling one may have and improve self-regulation. In short, I believe that nature is a significant topic to be researched and I will continue to pursue my research regarding its benefits.
Below are a few of my favourite photographs from exploring. Nature provides beautiful sunsets, sunrises, diverse weather patterns and different of activities to explore. I enjoy sunrises because they remind me that everyday is a new day and that no matter what happens, the sun will always rise to begin a new day. Similarly, sunsets remind me that even after a difficult day, the sun will always disappear while leaving behind a beautiful and relaxing image.
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Galiano Island, British Columbia. Ogden Point Breakwater, Victoria, British Columbia.