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Beginning in the first summer we were asked to constantly reflect on our teaching practice. Over the course of 11 courses and two years that reflection was directed at researching how we could improve what we do. Beginning with our first course we were tasked with reflecting our our own place in the world. Who were we as educators, how we got to this point and what privileges, barriers and events guided us along the way. During this course I recall Professor Dan Robinson talking about a study he had recently conducted. That brought our an interest in me regarding Gender Bias of Educators and how it can affect decisions about students. Our first research course, with Professor Stephen Berg showed us the ins and outs of research methods and in that time I was focused on sharing student learning. Reflecting back on these first courses I find that my mind and focus was all over the place. Then fall brought on Social Justice in PE and took me back to my days in the MPE program at MUN where my research focus was on Adapted Physical Education and doing action research focused on the autistic students and their PE experiences. Winter 2017's course found me again thinking about and finally researching Gender Bias in PE. This has always been interesting to me and for a long time was in the back of my mind for the capping experience or for a thesis. But it was not to be, taking EDUC 507 Qualitative Research in the summer of 2017 I worked to develop a qualitative research proposal. Starting with gender bias I searched and searched but wasn't really able to find what I was looking for. No researchers or work was grabbing my attention. Then I came across the work of Catherine Ennis which looks at Value Orientation of teachers and how that affects their curricular decision. I dove into this research and found it fascinating. The ideas that Ennis and her colleagues, specifically Ang Chen, wrote about really hit home for me. The Value Orientations of a Physical Educator can really dictate what happens in a gymnasium. The freedom and even isolation of teaching alone, coupled with the vagueness of curriculum outcomes can really open the door for a wide variety of activities, class environments, assessment styles and many other curricular decisions that are made by the teacher. The potential for differences is far and away more varied than may be found from classroom to classroom. Funny enough, in the summer of 2017 when I was deep into this research, but had yet to experience the Ennis Value Orientation Instrument (VOI), I reflected on what my value orientation profile might look like.
What I find interesting though, is that this spring, when I took the VOI on two separate occasions (April 27th and June 6th) and scored both only after the second date, my profile was significantly different. Why was that? I have some ideas, but really, I think the reflection in 2017 may have boiled down to my ideal, what I was aspiring to at the time. Versus the results in 2018 that represented my actions of the past year and my interpretations of the values-based choices presented in the VOI. At this point in time I went to Belize with Dan Robinson and 10 other MEd students. There I had what amounted to a life altering experience. I had travelled extensively before, I had taken part in recreational programs like this before but to combine the two and offer this to a group of sweet, kind, naive and thankful children was special. Beyond the experiences with the kids, the experiences with the other people who went down was amazing. The bonds and friendships that so easily developed along with the trust, understanding and support offered without hesitation made the experience so much richer. It also affected my practice and thoughts about teaching. I was able to watch 10 other outstanding educators strut their stuff for two weeks. At no other time in my teaching career have I been able to simply observe high quality educators at work. This aspect of the program alone would push me to encourage anyone in the next cohort to be sure to take advantage of this class. This past year has challenged me to be even better. Seeing the quality of educators I have been studying with in action pushed me to excel as well. Within the realm of our MEd program that put my focus on the Mentoring course and working with Ericka as my mentee and Jason as my mentor. Truthfully, the mentoring aspect with Ericka was an excellent experience. We shared out learning and it focused on students with physical disabilities (as we both taught a primary student with CP who was confined to a wheelchair). But the relationship evolved over time and the friendship and collegial relationship we had developed in Belize blossomed some more. I wish I could say the same thing happened with Jason, but I did not put the effort into engaging in that relationship due to the artificial nature of the assignment (nothing against Jason who is awesome and tried to foster a mentoring relationship with me) and my not looking for the support, guidance or advice you might seek from a mentor. While all of this was going on I was weighing my options - write a thesis based on the summer proposal and working on it with Dan, or take 508 and do the capping experience. What it came down to was two things: (1) family has to be a priority and writing a thesis is time consuming and demanding, and (2) based on the wonderful relationships that I had developed I wanted to finish with the people I started this journey with. So I went the capping experience route, and of course my focus changed yet again. While doing our Canadian Researcher biography I came across Tim Fletcher, a Professor I had at MUN, and was interested to see what he was doing now as a Professor at Brock. This led me to his current research project called LAMPE - Learning About Meaningful Physical Education and I was sold. The work he and his colleagues are doing was exactly what I thought and valued in a well-run PE program. This research was validating years of what I told myself was important and was giving language to my beliefs that I had previously been unable to truly articulate well. This discovery led to my capping experience research on whether my program was meeting the meaningfulness needs of my students and brings me to where I am now. Moving into the next year or years of my teaching life, focusing on making experiences meaningful for the students will allow me to continue to develop and grow as an educator. It now gives me a new focus for my professional growth, a new direction to take my PEPLC group and a new reason to love what I do every day in the gym. A quick journey through 2 years of research interests... Summer 2016 - My focus was on Sharing what happens in the gym with the student and family - digital portfolios
Fall 2016 to Spring 2017 - My focus was on Gender Bias of Educators towards their students.
Summer and Fall 2017 - My focus moves to Value Orientation and the Educator's Congruence with the Curriculum
Winter and Spring 2018 - Meaningful Physical Education
Summer 2018 - Play as a Means of Making Physical Education Experiences Meaningful
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