Tutor and Teacher Educational Resources

Open education resources (OERs) have become a hot topic since the advent of the World Wide Web. The mass dissemination of information has become the norm with search engines like Google. Not to mention, the extremely cheap and easy ability to publish almost anything online. As we’ve seen, there has since been no shortage of information being passed around the web. Many traditional print publications are also now available in digital format.

We may argue that teachers can now benefit from open education resources because of the Internet.

Of course this has no doubt raised the question of legitimacy. How do we know if what we are reading, watching or listening to on the Internet has any credibility? It’s a valid question, but it has not become a stumbling block for those who have sought to use the tool of the Internet to distribute education for as close-to-free as possible.

Instead we have official universities and educational organizations gaining popularity for offering free learning material online. These are being coined as open educational resources, although the term is becoming intermixed with other similar words and references, sometimes incorrectly.

We now see the promotion of using these free education materials – even modifying and reinventing them – for ‘real’ classrooms.

For example MIT puts much of its course material online for free. Yes, free! And, in Canada, BC Campus is actively encouraging educators to use freely distributed material for its classes.

Clearly, a positive-minded trend towards free course material has taken hold.

The benefits of open education resources (OERs) for teachers

But why go through this all trouble to make learning material free? Hasn’t the ‘textbook system’ in universities been working fine all these years?

Well, not all educators believe that the textbooks and traditional limitations of course materials are working well enough for today’s information age.

One article puts it succinctly by saying:

Education is essential to advancing society. It’s how we pass down the wealth of human knowledge and equip the next generation of leaders, innovators and productive members of society.

…Expanding educational opportunities is more possible now than it has ever been before.

…However, our systems for sharing information in education have not caught up with the potential of 21st century technology.

The article states that copyright restrictions make it hard to access traditional course materials. Other sources with it explain that open educational resources help reduce the cost of textbooks for students. This may be a barrier to entry for accessing full educational experiences at school.

Open educational resources reduce the cost of keeping up with education standards

The other argument put forward online is that OERs help teachers too, not just students or those wanting to learn. When teachers have material available to them that they otherwise couldn’t get a hold of, they can then enhance the product of their own courses.

And, in some cases, the costs of access to research journals are exorbitant, to the point of becoming “irrational.” As this video says, “professors can only teach what they have access to.” And that can be a problem for budget-limited universities, especially in developing countries. (The above-mentioned video also explains that ‘free’ is not meant to ignore the cost equation of producing credible publications, for which other solutions may exist).

The same problem occurs at lower levels of education, such as grade schools that can’t afford to buy new textbooks, and thus continue using outdated material.

Open educational resources encourage collaboration and mutual sharing among teachers

As we saw in our article about iTunes U, platforms for providing free courses online also help teachers collaborate, add-to and improve upon the work of other educators.

One professor mentioned in this article insists on publishing his work under a Creative Commons (CC) license (of which there are different types). He does this because he’s an advocate for what he calls the “open content movement.” He says, “I have greatly benefited from other teachers who have freely shared their materials, and I want to share mine, too.”

As one model of independent open education publishing, the above-mentioned professor’s own free quality course materials on internet programming can be found here. Yes, it’s free material that other professors can use to develop their own courses.

How can teachers use OERs?

Now that we know the benefits of using OERs, it’s natural to ask the next question: how can we use them as educators? We plan to delve into that next week! So stay tuned and bookmark our blog for regular, weekly researched articles in the realm of education and child development.

When you think of diversity, multiculturalism may be the first thing that comes to mind. After all, Canada is known for being a multicultural nation. But when we talk about diversity in the classroom we need to go beyond cultural differences. Diversity in the classroom may include:

• Students coming from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) students
• Students with learning and physical disabilities
• Students with different learning styles
• Gifted students

And although there are schools that are able to provide adequate extra support in the classrooms for some of these types of students, there are many teachers handling such diverse classrooms on their own.

So here we’ll give you 3 ways to manage diversity in the classroom:

1. Highlight the diversity of your classroom to the students

Teach your classroom what diversity means and how it is manifested in their own classroom. A great lesson could include choosing a few different students who represent such diversity (if they’re open to it – don’t put them on the spot!). Then highlight how each of those students adds something valuable and unique to the classroom. For example, we’ve written about religious tolerance in the classroom:

• Ideas on teaching religious tolerance to kids

You could then pair up students (as the teacher you may need to use your discretion here to pair up students you know will have notable diversity differences, for the purposes of this activity). Give them a simple questionnaire so they get to know each other. They could then do a mini presentation about the uniqueness of their partner. The key here is for students to value their diverse classroom and therefore, their peers. This may create inclusiveness within the classroom.

And, this can especially be effective depending on the location and demographics of the school, as education in the suburbs and the city can be different. We’ve written about this topic here:

• Where is it better to educate children, the city or the suburbs?

2. Get to know your students and build relationships with them

In order for teachers to be inclusive with their lesson plans, they need to get to know their students. Depending on the kids’ age, teachers could ask them to keep a weekly journal at school. If the kids are younger, a thematic journal of drawings may also give teachers insight into students’ lives. It could be assigned with themes, depending on the need seen in the classroom.

Not only would it be free writing practice, but it may give teachers insight into the student’s life outside school. A strong bond of trust may be formed if students realize their journal is something shared between them and their teacher. Through this, they can manage diversity in the classroom based on issues at hand.

3. Provide an array of different learning tools

Nowadays, technology plays a key role in students’ learning. Edutopia.org has a great article on 100+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media. Essentially, these tools help teachers manage diverse learning styles based on students’ profiles: their interests, abilities, learning levels, and struggles. Thus, incorporating such tools in a diverse classroom may give teachers a great way to meet the learning needs of all their students.

For more on social media tools check out our blogs on these topics:

• 5 pros and cons of social media in the classroom
• Benefits of teaching students using iTunes U

For more on teaching based on learning styles, check out these posts on our blog:

• Temple Grandin: an example of how to teach kids based on their way of thinking
• How Parents and Tutors Can Help Children Recognize Their Learning Styles
• Spending one-on-one time with your child to figure out how they learn
• Learning how your child learns: making the assessment
• Math Tutoring Tips for Children with Different Learning Styles
• Adaptive learning: is this the future of education?
• A Winning Tutoring Team: Parent, Student and Tutor Collaboration

To conclude, diversity in the classroom needs to be fully understood and embraced by both teacher and students. A positive and open-minded classroom atmosphere is key for a teacher to implement inclusive lesson plans. If such a mindset is created from the start, then managing a diverse classroom will be successful.

Canada is known worldwide for being a multicultural society. For the most part, Canadians grow up embracing, respecting, or at least tolerating the diversity of their nation. Multiculturalism is a key aspect of what makes Canada such a warm and welcoming place. And the Canadian government encourages learning about the diversity of the country. Recognizing the value in teaching our kids about multiculturalism may be important in raising citizens who treat everyone equally. So here are 5 great activities you can use to teach kids about multiculturalism:

1. How do you say “hello”?

A simple activity to start with. Get your students to share with the class how the say “hello” in their respective languages, or their parents’ languages (if English is their first language). Then you can make small posters with each greeting and practice a different greeting every week! You could even expand this activity by teaching kids simple but meaningful words like “friend” and “thanks” in other languages that kids (or their families) speak in the class.

2. ‘Learn about a country’ day

This activity would be based on the countries represented in your classroom. You could choose a country once a month and dedicate a portion of the school day (or the whole day) learning about it. You can ask the student(s) from that country (or background) to help you prepare the day. The ideas are limitless: music, food samples, traditional dress, popular games around the world, songs, guest speakers, holiday decorations and crafts, etc.

For example, see these articles on our blog that incorporate cultural learning into lessons or activities:

• Focused art lesson: making lanterns as an educational craft
• Focused learning: the history of tea and the science behind it
• Focused history lesson: teaching kids about Stonehenge

We also wrote about how you can find educational activities on Pinterest. See this link for more:

• How to find educational crafts and activities on Pinterest

3. Explore skin color diversity

Racheous.com has a number of great activities to explore this topic. You can use paint sample cards, cut a circle in the middle and get kids to match their skin tones. You can make puppets using the leftover circles from the paint cards. Ourtimetolearn.com explains that color exploration with paint cards teaches kids that “everyone’s skin is a different shade of the same color.”

In this activity it’s important to emphasize that you’re not trying to get kids to pay attention to differences, but to the fact that differences in skin colour don’t matter. Inclusivity is key here. Use the ‘skin colour’ talk to start conversations with the class about what their colour means to them, and the friendships they create in their lives.

4. Around the world through books

Kcedventures.com has a selection of 30 books that explore cities and countries around the world. Jaquie Fisher, explains that she chose these books because they were written in modern times and a number of them were written from the perspective of children. You could choose books based on the cultural diversity of your classroom. You could read the book to your students in class. Or you can assign kids a reading at home, then create activities based on the themes presented in the chosen book(s).

5. Create continent boxes

This Montessori-inspired multicultural activity gets kids to collect things like pictures or photographs, maps, cultural objects, animals, flags, stamps and anything else that is typical of a particular continent. The boxes (plastic containers would do but you can get fancy!), can be made at the end of the study of a particular continent. It could almost be viewed as a souvenir the kids get to keep after learning about the continent.

These are just a few activities you could do to teach kids about multiculturalism. Here are a few more links for you to explore:

• Lesson plans on multiculturalism and diversity by Scholastic
• Multicultural Education games, lesson plans, and presentations
• 14 fun multicultural educational activities

Multiculturalism can be fun, interesting, and a very valuable subject to teach kids of all ages!

Plus, see these posts on related teaching resources and topics:

• Ideas on teaching religious tolerance to kids
• Teaching young children about maps to help their learning development
• Teaching students how to navigate without a GPS
• Why should kids learn geography, and how can you help them do so?

If there is one sport most kids around the world know about, it’s soccer. Kids like kicking balls around, don’t they? Kids may grow up playing soccer or other sports as a pastime, an after school activity, or even in advanced soccer leagues. But that doesn’t exclude the thought of being an Olympian one day. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Regardless of whether your kid will be into sports or not, world sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics are something kids will know about at some point in their lives.

And beyond sports events being entertaining, they can be a way to show kids how these world events affect everyone involved – not just the athletes. Major sporting events can be a way to teach kids about inequality.

Here are some ideas you can use to teach kids about inequality using the World Cup, the Olympics or other major sporting events.

Use real-world math to teach wage inequality around sports events

The World Cup and the Olympics are huge events that take place every 2-4 years. As such, they employ an enormous amount of people from all walks of life and from various countries, to do a myriad of tasks. By the time we watch these events on TV or in a stadium, countless hours of labour have gone into the preparation work. And as we see in the news, wage equality is not always practiced in the run up to major sporting events.

Based on this, you may want to show children that the fantasy of athletic pride comes with a cost for other human beings, with feelings just like them. To help make an impact on kids regarding this world inequality issue, you could research a few significant jobs within the World Cup or the Olympics, and their weekly wages as the main reference.

A website called Teaching Ideas suggests the lesson can start by having the kids brainstorm possible jobs they think can be found at the World Cup or Olympics sporting event. Pick out a few of their choices and ask them who do they think earns the most money and who earns the least. You can then give them your list of jobs and wages. Make sure kids understand what each job entails. You can then ask them to organize the wages from lowest to highest and discuss whether they think those wages are fair or not.

You can also make this a group activity by making the jobs and wages into a matching card game. The lesson on the Teaching Ideas website is based on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but you can modify that to current times, such as the upcoming Olympics, which are also in Brazil. Using math in this way can really highlight the issue of inequality.

And this shockingly sad news video by VICE News will display the struggles of overseas low-wage workers supplying labour in Japan in the lead-up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. When you hear what a foreign worker is willing to work for, you can’t help but feel guilty about our ‘cushy’ lives in North America. A word of caution: please discuss with your school principal and parents before showing this video to younger audiences.

Teach a human geography lesson out of inequality surrounding sports events

Moreover, teaching kids about wage inequality issue can also highlight ongoing injustices in a country where the poor have little say. Governments have been known to evict residents to be able to build stadiums, and to overspend on sports events instead of on social welfare. This is a growing problem in Brazil, and was also one during the Russian Olympics in Sochi.

Oxfam has even created an in-depth lesson plan surrounding these inequality issues during Brazil’s World Cup. The lesson is still relevant to the upcoming Olympics, as it highlights the historical nature of Brazil’s inequality issues, which are an ongoing problem in media reports related to the sports event. See this article quoting a source saying that the Rio Olympics are now affecting children’s lives too.

In fact, Oxfam has several resources to teach inequality issues of the World Cup. These are covered in many aspects, and are brought about with an educational viewpoint. Check them out here:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/the-world-cup-a-fair-game

And, don’t forget to highlight the issue of human migration when teaching about sports and equality. Exploring the hashtag #TeamRefugees online can be a fun way for students to see how the world is feeling about the first team without a country to compete in the Olympics. Hint: it’s mostly about inspiration, and meeting the individual team members (already a great project idea in itself!). This issue could also go together with the next lesson about equal opportunity.

Use real-world fractions to examine equal opportunity for sports teams

Oxfam Education has another great resource using math and the World Cup to teach about equal opportunity when it comes to sports teams’ chances of winning. This will not only be a great exercise showing kids that fractions can be used in real life. It will show them that there is more than just math and previous wins to consider when it comes to determining a sports team’s success.

Questions to ask students on this topic: What are the resources given to sports teams in different countries? What about the placement opportunities to compete in the World Cup for some countries versus others? How does income affect a person’s potential to be a professional sports player? What about place of birth? Does this mean the ‘best’ athletes are actually ‘the best,’ or could there be others out there who just haven’t been given the opportunity to be their best? Is this fair?

And here is another major issue surrounding the upcoming Olympics and equal opportunity: drugs in sports. Is it fair to ban athletes from competing if they have used drugs to enhance their athletic ability, or otherwise? According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, the answer is “yes.” They called to ban Russia’s track and field team from competing in Rio for drug use.

Teach kids about gender inequality in sports

In light of the recent complaint against the U.S. Soccer Federation by female soccer players, another thing to mention to your students will be the inequality of pay for women athletes versus male athletes. These same women are now threatening to boycott the upcoming Olympics in Rio.

This topic can spark an interesting class discussion (and let’s hope a mature one!) on why the students believe females get paid less than males in sports. Is it tradition? Is it economics? The facts and figures may tell a different story, which may surprise the students.

To conclude, let’s make kids more aware of what happens behind the scenes of their favourite sports events

Before we sign off, for even more learning ideas, The Guardian has an article listing a number of other great resources for teaching kids about FIFA and the World Cup. It includes some resources we’ve mentioned here, plus more. It surrounds various topics that can be turned into teachable lessons for students.

Sporting events can often bring out issues with unfairness and inequality. Their main goal is to entertain the millions of sports fans around the world, at any cost, for financial gain. And they seem to always successfully achieve their goal. If we decide to let our kids partake in such entertainment (after all, it’s hard to stop anyone from doing so), we could at least teach them do it in a more globally conscious way.

It may be good for kids to understand that not everyone involved with sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup are being treated fairly and equally. And supporting these events has ripple-effect consequences for others in our world.

It is really easy to take public art for granted. And that’s a shame as public art is not just to beautify a certain space in a city. It is worth teaching kids about public art so they know what was chosen to represent what a city stands for, its surroundings, history, and community.

Vancouver is a great place to start teaching kids about the value of public art. Vancouver has an immense collection of public art. There are 5 great public art displays in Vancouver with links to resources for more lesson planning (and don’t forget a field trip for each if you can!)

1. Digital Orca

This large public sculpture located next to the Vancouver Convention Centre, was built by Douglas Coupland in 2009. It signifies the prevalent connection Vancouver has between technology and nature. The orca looks as if it’s built with lego blocks because it’s supposed to be pixelated. Coupland explains that, when you look at the actual materials the orca was made with, you can get a sense of the variety of workers found laboring at the harbor.

Related lesson:

If you’d like to extend this public art lesson further, here is a great video lesson about orcas. You can also look into the history of the Vancouver harbor.

2. A-maze-ing Laughter

This art display is hard to miss! It was built by Beijing-based artist Yue Minjun for the Vancouver Biennale in 2009. (You can also teach kids about the Vancouver Biennale, the organization that exhibits great public displays in the city).

For artist Minjun, this art display should encourage those who see it, to appreciate laughter and laugh with it. Take kids to look at these various statues and encourage them to mimic them. They may have a good laugh!

The inscription behind this public display says “May this sculpture inspire laughter playfulness and joy in all who experience it.” Here is a guided tour video about this iconic Vancouver art display.

Related lesson:

You could also take the background of this piece further and teach kids about the history of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver.

3. The Inukshuk

This public art display is an iconic Canadian image that was even used as the main symbol of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. In Vancouver, you can find this public monument a 5 min walking distance from the A-maze-ing Laughter sculpture, near the sea wall.

These stone monuments were used by the Inuit to communicate and survive. So for instance, they would be used as “a navigation tool, to mark a place where fish could be found, or as a memorial for a loved one.” So the Inuit meaning is “Someone was here” or “You are on the right path.”

This piece of public art is now used as a welcome sign to all the tourists that come to Vancouver annually. The University of Washington has a lesson plan on the Inuit Inukshuk and the 2010 Olympics for your further reference when lesson planning on this piece of public art.

4. The Birds

At the heart of the Olympic Village in False Creek, you won’t miss two giant sculptures of sparrows. Myfanwy Macleod’s thought behind this public art display in Vancouver, was to highlight the threat of non-native species to the local ecosystem. It was built in False Creek in particular because, prior to the Olympics, the area was an industrial wasteland. Through the Millennium Water project, the Olympic Village became the greenest neighbourhood in the world.

Related lesson:

For a hands-on lesson on invasive species in BC, check out this comprehensive resource.

Plus check out our article:

Focused Lesson — teaching kids about invasive species

5. Human Structures

Not too far from The Birds public art display, you will see a colourful public monument of steel figures holding hands and standing on each other. About the art display, Jonathan Borofsky said “we are all constantly in a process of connecting together to build our world…Humans use structures to build our world, not only architectural, but psychological and philosophical structures.”

Related lesson:

Here is a good lesson to teach kids the benefits of working together.

Vancouver and the Lower Mainland have so many more public art displays to offer. The above 5 are just a way for you to inspire kids to look at public art as a tool to learn about their community and even its connections to the world.