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During my final practicum, I was placed in two Science 9 classrooms and one Drama 9/10 for my ten weeks. Throughout this time, I grew larger and faster as an educator than any other time during my training. In this practicum, I was able to gain exposure to aspects of teaching that had been inaccessible during previous practicums and coursework, and this really helped me grow as an educator. For example, I had previously had little to no interactions with students’ parents, and during this practicum, I got to experience ongoing correspondence with certain parents, provided mark updates through email to parents, held parent teacher conferences (coordinating both online and in-person preferences), and tactfully diffused aggressive parent emails. I also had never reported student assessments before; during this practicum, I sent out both interims and report cards while learning to use the programs Easy Grade Pro and MyEdBC for the first time simultaneously.

I also gained the experience of what could be done when the lesson plan prepared for the day could no longer be implemented. During my practicum, there was a day in early November where it got very wet during the day and froze overnight. The following morning, the roads and highways were so slippery that half the commuters in Prince George were held up by vehicle accidents, to the extent that UNBC actually cancelled morning classes. Luckly, I made it safely from the Hart to school in College Heights where I found my attendance averaged approximately 6 students per class (all day). Needless to say, there was no strong argument for going ahead with my original day plan when so many were absent. To fill the time in my science classes, I happened to have had a bunch of riddles, logic problems, and cool (well I think they’re cool) science/math videos on standby. We spent the class solving riddles, playing logic games for candy, and watching videos that led to interesting discussions. In my drama class, I really got to know the few students that were there on deeper level. We sat in a circle and had all sorts of discussions around life, drama/acting, and more—for the entire block.

At the other side of practicum, I am still a novice educator; however, I have a stronger footing that stabilizes me enough to feel confident to take on any challenge coming my way. I have learned that I have become an educator that thrives when a professional/educational relationship is formed between the students and myself—this is when I am most effective in my teaching and when students are most receptive to my teaching. I have also learned that I am most effective when I create my own lessons, resources, and activities, and that I enjoy doing it. Unfortunately, the time and energy requirement for inventing everything each day is far to large to be sustainable and it is therefore imperative that I develop efficiency in adapting tools and materials that are already made and work towards a modicum of work-life balance.

From here, I hope to be entering the teaching profession in SD57 or in a different district in Northern BC. I am interested in eventually developing place-based and project-based curricula for which core subjects like science and math can be applied to. In the meantime, I would like to sub (face it, it’s time to make some $$$) until I find a suitable contract to apply for, as having my own class would allow me to construct effective relationships with students to optimize my teaching practice. Having taught Science, Math, and Drama at this point, I am fairly confident that, of the three, I am best suited to be a science teacher; there is an authenticity that comes with teaching a subject that captures ones’ mind. I owe a debt of gratitude to my CT(s) from this past practicum for her support, mentorship, and trust—I wouldn’t have grown the amount I did without her. I am also grateful to the students that allowed me to be part of their lives for 10-weeks—it was a ride.

During the Indigenous Day of Learning, I was able to watch the opening remarks, the keynote speaker Ashley Callingbull, and elected to watch Keynote session A on living sustainably during a time of climate change with Nikki Sanchez. All speakers were excellent, but I will choose here to focus on Keynote speaker Ashley Callingbull. Ashley’s talk was about her story from being a young child to the present and the trials and obstacles she had to overcome in her life to not just succeed but survive. One of the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning (FPPLs) is that learning is embedded in memory, history, and story. I think that Ashley’s story was a strong representation of this FPPL because it provided a connection to her message on a far more personal level—one that appears to naturally induce an empathetic response to the listeners. Often, we as a society are told or shown facts, statistics, and provocative headlines in attempts to bring attention to a cause, but this often results in an ideological division amongst people because the context is unspecific, and we often have preconceived biases. Ashley’s story told a message that we the audience could connect to and therefore the impact was meaningful because it was relatable on a human, rather than an ideological, level. I think the more we treat and view one another as human beings who each have stories and experiences, rather than as ideas, the father we will move forward together.

I have completed a list of personal goals based on the nine BCTC education standards for the upcoming final practicum; however, it wasn’t until I reread my list of goals that I recognized how not a single one was discrete—they are interconnected. Reading my goals clarified an idea that educational systems function in an organismic fashion. Currently, I am considered a student teacher (or teacher candidate) and as such, there is an implication that I am there to both learn and demonstrate competence under professional guidance and assessment. But there’s more—the students I am to teach are not “practice students,” they are really people who deserve a real education, and thus, my actions exceed myself. And how about what I know, what I understand, and what I can do? My experiences, personality and knowledge are somewhat unique by the path through life I have taken up to this point. So, I also bring something new—and hopefully valuable—to ALL who I interact with, regardless of how big or small the impact. The interactions I experience lead must lead to some degree of influence and that influence may spread implicitly or explicating, transforming through communities as it goes with a memetic characteristic. What pressure! But also comfort because it is not about me, nor anyone else—it must be about us all: students, parents, family, teachers, school community staff, local community, land, country, world, people, and the past, present, and future.

Moving forward in my trajectory towards becoming a professional educator, I have chosen to explore the Dive into Inquiry approach to educational inquiry created by BC educator, Treavor Mackenzie. This approach facilitates a broad range of conditions that could be used by myself or students. Furthermore, I am expecting practicum placements within science and mathematics departments and the Dive into Inquiry approach aligns cleaning with the scientific method through process. I believe this inquiry approach empowers and nurtures student voices, strengths, curiosities, and interests, and therefore compliments holistic assessments that account for social-emotional, physical, and cognitive developments. The Dive into Inquiry approach has different types of inquiry—including free inquiry, guided inquiry, controlled inquiry, and structured inquiry—that can be used to scaffold student inquiry while taking into consideration the intent/focus of the inquiry, the age and skill set of the students, the maturity level of the class, and what resources are available. Personally, this approach to learning and teaching makes the most sense to me and will allow me to engage with my own passions, ideas, and curiosities when creating lessons and materials.

In block 1 of the B.Ed. program at UNBC, I proposed a guiding inquiry question that stated, “[l]ike all BC educators, we are responsible to the curriculum; but, within this curricular space, there is opportunity for innovation, ingenuity, and change. How will bringing new ideas to an old system affect educators and learners and how does one know when something works?” This guiding question accounts for any number of “new ideas;” however, it was written with intention around applying new models of holistic assessment, translation efficacy between proficiency scales and letter/percentage-based grading systems and reporting, cross-curricular instruction embedded in project-based learning within academic departments, co-creation of learning goals (like student labs), and technological integration. Throughout block 2, I gained insight and experience on some of my inquiries and have learned that the work required to effectively introduce new ideas to an old system must be carefully considered because, while there is not necessarily push back from staff and administration, there is not a great deal of support. For example, when the new BC curriculum became implemented at College Heights Secondary School, I learned that six teachers developed a proficiency rubric of assessment over three days on a grant, and that was the entirety of professional development resources allocated for its implementation. Although the teachers who developed the rubrics worked efficiently and created an effective product, the majority of the teaching staff at CHSS did not integrate or consider it in their practices. This indicates to me that new curricular change is not being effectively initiated at a systemic and administrative level, and teachers who are restructuring their methods are conducting change primarily on their own accord. As a teacher candidate entering the profession, I have an opportunity to pioneer change from the start; however, considerations of time management and burn out must be carefully factored against the weighted process of trying new ideas.

During my 391 practicum, I created and adapted a student lab on surface tension that aligned with the Dive into Inquiry process. This lab was conducted the Friday before the students’ summative unit test and was initially going to be a day of review, but I wanted them to do something hands-on and I had already planned to do a lab on surface tension at some point. The experiment was simple: the effective of surface tension for different liquids could be quantified relatively by counting how many drops of the substance could fit onto the surface of a penny without spilling over. I then inquired how I could take this simple experiment and make it into a robust review lesson based on the material covered. I started by doing the experiment myself, trying different liquids, droppers, pennies, etc., and from this process, I formulated my essential question: can we predict which chemical would produce more surface tension based on the polarity of the molecules in the substances?  The students had already learned the relevant content to perform these predictions—like performing electronegativity calculations and determining bond types—and therefore making such predictions would require students to review and apply the vast majority of concepts they would have been reviewing anyway.

I then proposed a plan by creating the lab activity that focused on the Questioning and Predicting curricular competency. This plan included assessment rubrics and criteria in addition to procedural instructions, data tables, and locations for making predictions and writing conclusions. This lab could have focused on any number of competencies (I.e., I originally wanted to co-create this lab with students—it then would have focused on the Planning and Conducting curricular competency). I then explored this plan through having students conduct the experiment from which I obtained many exemplars. These exemplars were then used in EDUC 372 to display to the instructor and my teacher candidate colleagues, the process and success of this “review” lab from inquiry.

As I transition into Block 3 of the program, I have developed three inquiry-based goals.  First is to inquire into furthering technological integration in the classroom. Although all students in this district are given Microsoft email accounts that provides access to related educational software, very few classes which I have observed or taught in have effectively applied these tools. I value the efficiency and possibilities that are made feasible by integrating programs like Microsoft OneNote and Teams and will use this inquiry approach to implement them. I will further use this inquiry approach to explore my goals to use starter or warm-up activities at the beginning of each class in practicum, and to apply forms of holistic assessment where students are continuously informed during the learning process.

Behold, the Final IGNITE presentation showing a reflexive summary of Block 1 in the B.Ed program. It’s not really an IGNITE because I bent some rules, but then again, rules are made for bending and I think I covered the criteria. Click below and download because I don’t know how to embed the video onto this page. Merry Christmas!

EDUC 394_Final IGNITE Presentation_HarrisS_UNBC

To more easily access image sources and references, see below:

Slide 3: https://www.helpsystems.com/resources/guides/automated-operations-5-benefits-your-organization

Slide 4: https://medium.com/wayfair-design/is-product-design-an-art-or-a-science-d62f103d18a5

Slide 5: https://theforgecommunications.com/1253/the-interconnected-world-and-how-we-can-make-it-work-for-us

Slide 7: http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/student-silhouette-clipart-1-58460510

Slide 9: https://www.inaturalist.org/

https://icon-library.com/icon/365-icon-19.html

Slide 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=TED

Slide 11: https://srhsprincipalsblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/moving-away-from-timed-tests.html

Slide 13: https://japaneseclass.jp/trends/about/Philosophy

Slide 14: http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP-POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11×17.pdf

Slide 16:

VFS Logo: https://twitter.com/vfs

UNBC Logo: https://co-op.bc.ca/unbc-logo/

Leaning Tower of Pisa: https://www.viator.com/tours/Pisa/Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa-Tickets/d520-2428LEANINGTOWER

Slide 17: https://www.agriinvestor.com/ag-starting-see-real-convergence/

Slide 19: https://parablevisions.com/the-neverending-dreamer/

Items of learning:

1. COVID-19 and Learning Cohorts according to Bonnie Henry and Teri Mooring
2. Koh-learning in our Watersheds
3. Using the iNaturalist app in and out of the classroom.

COVID-19 and Learning Cohorts according to Bonnie Henry and Teri Mooring

This past Friday, I was fortunate to participate in the Classroom to Communities (C2C) annual conference during the provincial PSA Pro-D Day. To start off the morning, my personal assumptions around the BC school cohort learning group model being ineffective as a preventative measure for COVID-19 transmission was confirmed by BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) president, Teri Mooring, following her conversation with BC Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. This conversation was influenced by the recent COVID-19 outbreak in a Kelowna high school which caused infection and hundreds and staff to self-isolate. Although acknowledgement of the learning group model’s lack in efficacy came as no surprise, I learned—and found useful—how the terms exposure, outbreak and cluster are defined in relation to contact tracing. A school exposure requires that someone, positive for the viral agent, from outside of the school comes into to the school. An exposure is what occurred in SD57 following a reported exposure at Prince George Secondary School (PGSS) in Prince George. Fortunately, the PGSS exposure did not lead to an outbreak (exemplified by the Kelowna high school), which requires that multiple people be exposed and positively diagnosed for the viral agent. An outbreak is closely related in definition to an epidemic; however, it differs in that it is used more often to emphasize geographic location. Finally, a cluster is essentially a small outbreak, where one or two people are exposed and positively diagnosed. I am pleased to have learned also that the BCTF is pushing so that teachers have increased access to information around contact tracing and become part of the information sharing process.

Koh-learning in our Watersheds

Prior to attending my scheduled workshops, we—as participants of the C2C conference—were introduced to the Koh-learning in our Watersheds program developed through a UNBC-SD91 partnership and collaboration with “students, teachers, administrators, the Aboriginal Education Council of SD91, community partners and interdisciplinary researchers.” This program is a place-based program that is curricular based on local watersheds near communities in the SD91 jurisdiction. Panelists Dr. Berry Booth, Professional Biologist and UNBC research manager, and Jacelyn Boyes, high school science teacher in Fort St. James, are both involved in developing and implementing the Koh-Learning program in SD91. Although not indigenous himself, Booth was explicitly humble while presenting his work and discussing how to view conservation through community in collaboration with the fourteen First Nation territories and 4 secondary schools within SD91 and the Nechako Watershed.

Watersheds (lakes, streams, creeks, wetlands) are central to all of our lives and all watersheds present different functions, including movement of nutrients and minerals, spawning grounds for fish, ecological habitats, or any a multitude of other factors. The Koh-Learning in our Watersheds program (where Koh is the Dakelh word for waterway) is a program directive for both indigenous and non-indigenous students to become stewards of change and connection to their local environments and communities so that the future is empowered, informed, and aware. Booth is particularly attentive to the protection of the endangered salmon habitats and began developing the Stream Keepers program as component of the Koh-Learning in our Watersheds program. Stream Keepers was designed to train teachers in how to use specific streams in education and to get students out and into the streams collecting data, learning, and contributing to restoration. Booth highlighted that a personal challenge, when developing the program, was centered around getting away from linear thinking, using the “square peg, round hole” analogy. Specifically, he was referring to how the model changed as it was developed. In the original model, they were going to use four small streams in four different communities; this was perfect for the school in Vanderhoof because a model stream ran a moments’ walk from class, but less perfect in Fort St. James where the stream was much larger and posed safety challenges. Furthermore, feedback from the collaborators in Fraser Lake questioned why they would bother finding a little stream when there was a giant lake in the backyard. With these considerations, it was clear that instead, teachers needed to figure out what would work best in their particular communities (wetlands, creek, lake, etc.) that would allow for inter-school overlap. The takeaway lesson from this process was that we, as place-based educators and community members, need to be able to adapt our systems to let them work and evolve on their own rather than try and take a square peg and pound it into a round hole. Boyes, who collaborated closely in the process with Booth, praised his work and effort both explicitly and through the success she demonstrated while implementing the program with her own students in a Grade 11/12 Geo-Environmental course she teaches. According to Boyes, students would be involved in a multitude of place-base practices including setting up and monitoring trail cams on streams and in the nearby John Prince Research Forest to monitor hummingbirds. She further spoke to expanding and integrating the program to the junior grades and said that one could teach the entire Grade 9 Science curriculum through Bees alone. If nothing else, you could tell she was engaged with fish ecology by the collage of student-painted fish backdropped in the camera frame of the Zoom.

Two students involved in the program personally spoke to their experience. The first student gave positive feedback noting the practical skills he gained, such as learning to set fish traps and chemically testing the water, and how the self-assessment and place-based work resonated with him. He elaborated to explain how real-world application and experience allowed him to explore why something does or does not work. I felt his comments were profoundly useful because they support my personal philosophy of learning which requires a spark of curiosity in concert with meaning in the process of exploration where things continually work or fail. A second student spoke praised the program for providing her an avenue to utilize her strengths and passion for art—she made the program logo! Furthermore, she highlighted her personal progress in developing social and leadership abilities and in the building of unlikely relationships and friendships that emerged as a product of this collaborative place-based learning system.

I find promise in the place-base model for curriculum. A sense of place are the emotions someone attaches to an area based on their experiences, according to Valemount Secondary School Counselor and Researcher, Dr. Shirley Giroux.  Just as Dr. Booth explained how the processes of developing the Koh-Learning program required a step away from linear thinking and towards adapting our systems to let them work and evolve, learning involves allowing individuals the time and space for their curiosity and motivations to evolve and grow. Personally, I see the classroom as a functional and useful space for learning; however, it is missing part of the story—the practical space in which theoretical topics and ideas can be explored or perhaps the laboratory of life. A place-based model is a framework for students to take the principles, theories, and ideas developed in most classrooms and see how they manifest in real life—like in a stream. This provides more than a robust understanding, but that emotional connection called sense of place that is often absent from classrooms and textbooks. Perhaps the largest benefit of a place-based classroom is the gained opportunity for of differentiated learning. Students have all sorts of strengths and interests that makes life and humanity so robust; nevertheless, the teacher-to-student ratio is largely skewed so there is an obvious need for generalized learning curriculums and because of this, many traditional classrooms tend to privilege the students often labeled ‘book smart’ and deem the more restless, kinesthetic types as behaviours. The place-based classroom provides outlets for all types of learners because the parameters of opportunity are not constrained. Take ornithologists as an example: when studying birds, they contribute a large portion of their lives to academic study and learning, but when they are out in the field, they need to be able to visually (behaviour and identification), auditorily (bird songs), kinesthetically (handling), and creatively (drawing accurate representations) apply their knowledge which is only possible through practice. Students do not need to hone the abilities and knowledge of a trained scientist, but one can easily see the diverse attributes of students collectively applied to a curriculum to form learning that is robust, inclusive, and respectful.

Using the iNaturalist app in and out of the classroom

Before I finish, I would like to mention my favourite workshop of the day and how it gave me a brilliant tool for place-based learning. In the Exploring Nature with iNaturalist workshop, presenter Neil McCallum introduced the participants to the iNaturalist app which was developed by a Masters student from UC Berkley and uses image recognition software (like the automated categorization of your Google or Apple images for example) to identify taxonomy in nature. This free app allows the user to observe and identify organisms in nature to a degree of precision that reflects the quality of the image or audio input. The uploaded file is then cross referenced to a databased, geotagged, and stored on a public database. Geotagged identification is mapped for public access where any user can add additional input, corrections, confirmations, collaborations, and more. The data is also publicly available with defined quality parameters so it may be collected and utilized by researchers. For the classroom, a teacher can create a class account and have students perform and participate in projects while keeping their online anonymity; moreover, the geotag option allows the precise location to become generalized to prevent tags from marking student’s homes. There are many teaching resources available as well, including the City Nature Challenge and the BC Nature Challenge & BC Parks iNaturalist Project. For teachers looking to utilize iNaturalist with younger students (Grade 3 and under), there is another free app by iNaturalist called Seek, although I have not given this one a try. I have been enjoying playing with app and uploading my own images. I was also impressed to have received multiple responses from hobbyists and professionals in the community regarding my uploads. Furthermore, I was blown away by the apparent number of users found all over the globe while I used the interactive map portion called ‘Explore’. The place-based learning potential is explicit in the definition! Please check it out, even if you don’t plan to use it in a classroom!

Since the dawn of the technological revolution, the online space—where we network and democratize information—has grown and morphed from something that seemed like an independent entity, separated from real life, to something congruent and, in some cases, necessitated to real life. Traditionally, literacy had been pigeonholed to the standardized ability of obtaining and understanding information through reading, writing, and numeracy (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). In today’s digitally integrated climate, digital literacy has become a requisite for safely and effectively navigating such environments. Historian and educator Paul Gilster (1997) is attributed to coining the term Digital Literacy and defined it as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it is presented via computers.” Gilster’s definition of digital literacy was intended to go beyond mere technical ability of using computers, the internet, and associated tools, to critical evaluation and implications of information in a real-world context (Brown, 2020). But defining Digital Literacy must be contextualized to the present, and therefore, four key concepts of digital literacies have been proposed. Information literacy, media literacy, computer/ICT literacy, and digital literacy are non-competing categories primarily focused on the quality of accessing and assessing information, the evaluation and production of online communication styles and formats, the technological ability to use, adapt, and learn digital tools, and the ability to digitally innovate, learn, and collaborate respectively (Brown et al., 2016). Learning proficiency in digital literacy has never been more important. Used correctly, digital literacy has clear implications in the critical use and accessibility of information, creative production and innovation, learning and professional development, and forming identity; furthermore, digital literacy has become a tool of distant interactions providing a method for students, professionals, and personal relations to communicate and collaborate wherever an internet connection exists. In the classroom, I hope to harness digital literacy as a skill in critical thinking. The exponential growth in technical sophistication combined with the shear mass of information mixed with misinformation (not obviously) can be overwhelming and such falsifications, opinions, and lies have the potential for real harm to a society, but also an exceptional learning opportunity! Recently I have come across a website dedicated to helping save the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus from extinction. I encourage you to check the website out for yourself; it includes classifications, facts, media, ways to get involved, activities around the creature, and even global sightings. A website such as this makes for a fantastic tool for developing digital literacy and critical thinking skills because the presentation, facts, and evidence, are relatively convincing…until you remember octopuses do not and cannot live in trees. Digital literacy is important for everyone. Technical and informational skills aside, we are human beings with sight that picks up on subtle body language, ears that recognize tone and volume, smell that recognizes pheromones, touch that coveys attention, and taste that can stimulate memories and aversions—if we are to live in an integrated world, it is out duty to recognize the potential consequences of diminishing our most valuable evolutionary characteristics for surviving in a group.

Work Cited

Brown, C. (2020). Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Literacy. In M. Schwartz (Ed.), Digital Citizenship Toolkit. Ryerson University.

Brown, C., Czerniewicz, L., Huang, C.-W., & Mayisela, T. (2016). Curriculum for Digital Education Leadership : Curriculum for Digital Education Leadership : A Concept Paper. Commonwealth of Learning, 1–53.

Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. Wiley Computer Pub.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2006). Digital Literacy and Digital Literacies: Policy, Pedagogy and Research Considerations for Education. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 1.

Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors
I imagine something like a droplet of the Self hitting the surface of body of a water-like fluid and causing a ripple effect. The body of water has its own movement–it is not still–because this fluid body is a manifestation of Becoming and Being. The existing waves, currents, under-toes, reflections, eddies, white caps, swells, ripples, composition, and so on, all influence how the ripples of the Self move outward. The ripples are emanations of learning from the self that are strongly influenced by the family, community, land, spirits, and ancestors, which are represented by all factors of the fluid. At the center of the emanating ripples is the Self at some point in time, which is subject to continuous change throughout learning and development. Learning is the connecting factor between all factors of the fluid and, thus, all factors are dynamic. One factor cannot exist without the others for none are mutually exclusive. A tiny ripple on a still surface is prominent, yet a tiny ripple on a rough sea is invisible; however, a ripple is a small wave and waves can amplify and propagate when they constructively aligned with other waves and ripples, thereby becoming part of something new. Conversely, waves may deconstructively align with other waves causing a decrease in amplitude (force of influence) or novel emergent patterns (creativity). The fluid is made up of matter that constitutes the spirit and is heterogenous and dynamic. The kinetics of the fluid is a function of how forces influence the matter that makes up the fluid; therefore, changes in properties such as salinity, viscosity, temperature, purity, and density will affect how the fluid will be influenced (learn) by force (fluid factors). The body of fluid is a distribution of dynamic microcosms in time that are in continuous contact with the land, shared and shaped by the ancestral fluid. The Self is continuously influenced by learning from all factors–consciously or unconsciously–and likewise, continuously influences all factors that learn. By this model, each Self acquires a unique distribution of learned phenomena in some context at some time and thereby must require a degree of individualized education to function optimally in the fluid body as a whole. To me, this FPPL tells me that we are connected to everyone and everything through an ever changing landscape of learning, and that the dynamic component of life requires a dynamic component of learning.

This image is free for use under creative commons and is credited to Jiří Rotrekl by Pixabay.

My  most influential teacher—we’ll call him H— helped guide my imagination rather than told it what to do. He spoke with his entire body as though the air itself was the telling it how to fit in. By being himself, he inspired in me a yearning for earned respect that only the experience of a full life lived could give. I once learned he had attended theatre school with the great actor of our time, Daniel Day Lewis. When confronted about it, he confirmed with such an absence of vanity, I was left with a lesson in the power modesty I will never forget. As a film director, he was clear, confident, and seeing around the people he directed. You can only be successful in something like directing if you have the skills of seeing the individual and their potential—an idea that exemplifies the importance of personalized learning. H was a teacher of mine while attending the Vancouver Film School for Acting in Film and Television. He did not teach me to read nor write nor count, he taught that some doors can only be opened when the mind, body, and environment flow together—or at very least notice one another. That lesson has guided me through all my scientific training and improved my access to becoming an effective learner more than anything else. As almost everyone, my path to the present was anything but linear in nature. Linearity implies that side tracking from “the path” is, in essence, inefficient and—more precisely—a breaking of the dimensional rules. Luckily for us, life is for living, learning, looking, listening and extending in a much higher ordered space, where divergences make discoveries and growth towards individual excellence. H’s way of living and teaching reminds me of something I had read some years ago from the introduction of Behave—The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by author and neuroendocrinologist Robert M. Sapolsky. In essence, he takes a captivating observed behaviour by someone and gives explanations for the behavior from apparent perspectives of multiple specialists (ie. a neurologist, psychologist, endocrinologist or evolutionary biologist). Each specialist’s explanation is related to their training so who is correct? Well solely none, but totally all. The lessons I’m relating come out something like: truth can be demonstrated when parts contribute to the whole.

The Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes) is a tiny (~3cm) shrimp feeder that flows with the waters of the central pacific where it searches for food. The bioluminescent Aliivibrio fischeri is a symbiotic bacterial species that lives and proliferates in a special niche cavity within in the squid. The bioluminescence eliminates the squid’s shadows on the ocean floor through illumination, acting as a cloaking device—symbiotically acting as one to improve the whole. Hawaiian bobtail squid 2.png. (2020, May 9). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hawaiian_bobtail_squid_2.png&oldid=418084159