ARCH 3060 / ARCH 4110

This is a photo of me (in the blue t-shirt and hat) with four classmates as we excavate a small section of land. It was very hot this day and the shade was provided by a pop-up canopy tent.

In the summer of 2019, I was able to take part in an archaeology field school run through Thompson Rivers University. Our class of thirteen students studied on campus and was invited to survey and excavate a specific location within Tk’emlúps. We spent many hours in the field for weeks on end using archaeology tools to unearth bits of Secwepemc history. The field school was a unique experience where we got to explore the local landscape and learn more about local and neighbouring Indigenous communities. Throughout this experience I learned more about Secwepemc culture and I was able to experience the benefits from hands-on learning. In my future classroom, I plan to provide as much hands-on learning as I can.

This was one of the spots we were able to travel to in BC. The circular indents in the landscape are from Indigenous pit houses long ago.

EDSO 3200-02

This semester was our first introduction to teaching social studies in the classroom. I found this class highly valuable because we learned how to include gamification into a unit plan. Gamification allows students to have agency in their choice of work. It also interacts with the content and curricular competencies in a game style atmosphere. With gamification, students are encouraged by goals or a points system to complete various assignments. The assignments could be things that the teacher was going to get the students to do anyways, but by adding gamification, the students feel like they have more control of their learning. In my future classroom I want to have at least one unit that can be gamified. I feel like the easiest subjects to gamify would be ELA and social studies because there are endless assignments that could be written/created that align with a piece of literature or a piece of history.

EDPE 3100-01

In the fall of 2021, we had our first class focused on physical and health education. Most of the class was focused on physical education and took place between the gym, field, and classroom. In this class I learned that there’s a lot more to PHE than I remember from my school experience. Although sports excites some students for PHE, it also scares other students away. I learned that PHE includes a wide variety of sports, games, relays, gymnastics, dance, and general exercise. It’s good to have a mixture of everything so that each student has a chance to connect with an activity. The main focus of PHE is to keep kids active and healthy in class and throughout their lives. In my future classroom I plan to incorporate all of the activities listed above and more if possible. I also plan to have days where the students get to choose the activity for PHE. Giving the students choice allows students to become more engaged in their learning. Below is a video of my reflection piece that I did at the end of EDPE 3100.

This is a video of me performing the rap I wrote titled “Much More Than Sports” on the last day of EDPE 3100. The video was taken by Emily M. and sent to me afterwards. At the time, I was unaware that I was being filmed. This was a fun day.