Emma Wilde

experiences and reflections through teacher ed and beyond

Course end reflections

4 December 2021 / / 0 Comments

I feel very reflective this weekend, thinking back over the whole course and my first term in the program overall. I’ve learned so much new information, but more than that my philosophies of teaching and learning have changed and expanded.

In our final EdTech class, we had a discussion about our visions for the future of education, inspired by speculations about our current moment in education from the past. I was struck by how much emphasis they each had on efficiency, theorizing that each iteration of educational technology would ‘revolutionize’ teaching and learning by making it faster, easier, cheaper, and more automated. But I think each of these theories fundamentally underestimates what I believe underpins all meaningful learning: time. The core competencies of communication, thinking, and personal and social responsibility cannot be sped up or made more efficient, and I think and believe that our future will be focused more and more on those cores.

I’m excited for the break, but I am inspired and energized to come back and carry on next semester!

Free Inquiry Wrap-Up: Crispy(?) spring rolls

1 December 2021 / / 0 Comments

As one final experiment in my vegan inquiry project, I decided to try making some crispy veggie spring rolls.

I bought rice paper and softened it very briefly in some water, chopped up carrots, cabbage, and shallots and started rolling. Right from the start, things started to go sideways. The rice paper is pretty tricky to deal with and I had a very hard time getting anything to roll tightly.

but i did eventually get a number of them rolled and ready to go in the frying pan

this was the next hiccup. I don’t have a deep fryer so I ended up shallow frying them in a cast iron pan, but there was still a LOT of hot oil spitting off my stove.

I was concerned about burning them or myself so I ended up undercooking the spring rolls and they didn’t crisp up as much as I would have liked. They also ended up being pretty oily and quite messy to eat, falling apart as soon as I bit in.

BUT they were pretty yummy with some soy and garlic dipping sauce. I would call this one of my less successful attempts during the project but still an overall worthwhile experience and one I would definitely try again.

One thing that I’ll definitely take away from this project is that it is easier than I imagined to incorporate more plant-based food into your life if you think more about adding than taking away. I find it pretty intimidating and honestly, not all that inspiring to try making a lot of 1-1 meat substitutes, but I definitely think adding more plant-based meals during a week is doable with just a little tweaking to meals I already enjoy.

TeacherTok Favourites

27 November 2021 / / 0 Comments

Since joining TikTok about a year ago, engaging with the robust teacher community has been one of the highlights for me. I thought it would be fun to round up some of my favourite teacher accounts, who make content from comedy to teaching tips to encouragement and motivation.

@classroomchronicles

Sometimes I get off topic… #teacher #teachersoftiktok #ontarioteacher #teacherlife

♬ original sound – Yūng Mīro🍬
@misstierraney

warm demander – zaretta hammond – Google it

♬ original sound – CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
@thedancingteacherr

Tip for teachers! #tiktokteacher #teachersoftiktok #teacher #blindinglights #techtip

♬ Blinding Lights – Loi
@literallyleonard

But seriously the best and biggest bowl saved our house from the Norovirus 🙃#MomHack #stomachbugs

♬ original sound – Jordan Leonard
@mmeamandagreen

What do you mean I can just light things on fire every day?! Marking?! What?! #teachersoftiktok

♬ original sound – Jane Sawyer
@when_nerds_teach

Inspired by @nonbinarycowboy #firstyearteacher #classroommanagement #satire

♬ original sound – When Nerds Teach
@ms_ryan

Welcome to my classroom! #teacher #fyp #VansCheckerboardDay #teachersoftiktok #historyteacher #middleschoolteacher

♬ original sound – Ms Ryan
@thechromaticmusicteacher

Feeling ✨festive✨ today #sleighride #singing #music

♬ original sound – Ms. Jenkins
@mrmonroeandnala

School should be one of the most welcoming places #Destinationdepop #ZitHappens #teachersoftiktok #foryou #foryoupage #WorthTheWait

♬ original sound – Josh Monroe

Vegan Creators Roundup

23 November 2021 / / 0 Comments

Throughout my free inquiry project, I’ve really enjoyed watching the content of vegan and plant-based TikTokers, and I’ve rounded up some of my favourite accounts to go back to, and for anyone else who wants to learn more about vegan food.

@plantyou makes great videos about “Scrappy Cooking” which are all about using food scraps in innovative and often edible ways! For example frying banana peel or pickling strawberry tops, or making tea out of pineapple skins:

@plantyou

Pineapple skin tea #scrappycooking #recipe #zerowaste #plantbased

♬ Believe Me – Navos

@rootedinspice makes amazing (mostly vegetarian) Indian food

@plantyou

Pineapple skin tea #scrappycooking #recipe #zerowaste #plantbased

♬ Believe Me – Navos

@rootedinspice makes amazing vegan Indian food

@rootedinspice

but why are they called peas when they’re really beans 😔 #cheapmeals #veganrecipes #indianrecipes

♬ manifest – Rook1e

@thevietvegan makes vegan Vietnamese and other Asian food!

@thevietvegan

Yesterday’s tofu katsu but with Japanese curry 🍛 recipe for the katsu is on the blog, just following box instructions for the curry +🥕🧅🥔 #vegan

♬ original sound – lisa the viet vegan

@cheaplazyvegan has definitely been inspiring for easy and affordable ways to incorporate more plants into my diet.

@cheaplazyvegan

Perfect easy recipe for fall 😊🍁 #vegan #fyp #foryoupage #veganrecipe #plantbased #meal #healthy #gnocchi #pasta #5minuterecipe

♬ Autumn – July

all of @onegreatvegan’s recipes are beautiful. They are always full of colour and she presents them so well.

@onegreatvegan

full recipe dropping soon! #vegan #plantbased #pasta #veganfood #recipe #spaghetti

♬ original sound – onegreatvegan

And of course, Tabitha Brown. Like most of the internet, I fell in love with @iamtabithabrown’s personality and content a couple of years ago, and she was a big part of the reason I got more interested in vegan food and how interesting and delicious it could be.

@iamtabithabrown

Pulled bbq pork alternative ❤️ #vegan #tabithabrown #fyp

♬ original sound – Tabitha Brown

Vegan Apple Bread

22 November 2021 / / 0 Comments

I had a bag of apples left on the counter that were starting to get soft, so I decided to make a week’s worth of apple bread and muffins for breakfasts and snacks this week.
They were so good! I used more spices than were called for, adding nutmeg, cardamom, a little ginger and lots of cinnamon and I loved the extra flavour. The vegan recipe called for olive oil instead of butter and that also added a little more depth of flavour. I grated the apples coarsely so it turned out very moist with lots of apple flavour in every bite.

And I couldn’t resist this photo! Marlo happened to wander in while I was shooting and I loved his hopeful little eyes peaking over the plate.


Plant-Based “Compost” Soup

20 November 2021 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever had a compost soup? Also called garbage soup, kitchen sink soup, and other equally unappetizing names. Sounds gross, but it’s a great way to reduce food waste and get your veggies in. I make it once in awhile when I have some veggies in the fridge that are getting wilty. Super easy–roast some veggies for extra flavour, caramelize some onions and garlic, throw it all together with some veggie broth and blend with an immersion blender. The end result is flavourful, packed with veggies, and usually super cheap.

I tossed leftover veggies from the fridge in olive oil, salt and pepper. This time I used carrots, brussel sprouts (pictured but not used in the soup), broccoli (not pictured) and cauliflower. I also cooked some onion and garlic in a pot and then added the veggies once they were browned and covered it all with water and some plant-based bouillon.

Right before I was ready to blend I added a whole head of wilted spinach after removing the stems (spinach? really? yes. you will not notice the taste, and it adds a very vibrant green and adds a bunch of great nutrients)

Mix, blend with an immersion blender, and enjoy! This will keep in the fridge for about a week, or in the freezer indefinitely. I love it with some toasted crusty sourdough or an everything bagel.

Free Inquiry: Plant-Based “Milk”

8 November 2021 / / 0 Comments

It is impossible to stress how culturally symbolic various plant-based milks – but especially oat milk – have become to me since I joined TikTok. I cannot explain why ordering an oat milk latte has become to me a symbol of queerness, nor why IBS and needing to avoid dairy is supposedly a staple of being gay, but this is the power of TikTok’s mysteriously-personal-yet-somehow-universal FYP.

Regardless, plant-based milk is growing in popularity, but which plant you milk seems to be a trend that cycles over time. Oat milk was once a bit of an underdog, but has now easily surpassed its once-reigning predecessor, almond milk. And soy milk seems to be a niche product for a niche group of people, never truly stepping into the spotlight. People choose plant-based milk for a variety of reasons, not all of them environmental, but the dairy and beef industries use massive amounts of water and there is definitely a push to use less dairy to reduce one’s environmental impact. If you’re going to make the switch to plant-based milk, what should you choose and why?

This doesn’t necessarily give the whole picture: although Soy milk ranks fairly well according to these statistics, it’s a major contributor to deforestation in the Amazon. Almond trees absorb lots of CO2, but almond milk uses far more water to make than oat or soy.

Currently, oat milk seems to come out on top overall: nearly as good as soy in terms of emissions, water, and land use, but oats grow in more temperate climates and are less associated with wildfires and deforestation.

There are, of course, even more factors to consider when ranking environmental impact: what is the milk packaged in? Does it need to be refrigerated? Is it being shipped all over the world before arriving at the consumer? Plant-based milk is much less nutritionally dense; does that balance out the environmental factors at all? This study warns against using plant-based milk as a nutritional alternative to bovine milk, especially for children.

Have you tried plant-based milk? Would you consider making the switch?

Week 9 Reflections: Trevor MacKenzie and Inquiry

8 November 2021 / / 0 Comments

This week has been a great one for me personally of exploring new inquiry strategies, with Trevor MacKenzie’s visit to our class as well as my Cross-Curricular Inquiry Strategies course.

In Cross-Curricular Inquiry Strategies we’ve talked a fair bit about Trevor MacKenzie’s work and his books, so it was great to “meet” him over Zoom and have a chance to hear about his work and perspectives directly. Trevor was such an engaging speaker and I felt like his teaching ethos really comes through in his presenting. In one 60 minute presentation he showed so much kindness, empathy, and care for each of our personal experiences and responses to the material he was sharing so I can imagine that being in his class as a high-school student would be such a warm and nurturing experience. He clearly practices what he preaches in terms of inquiry-based and student-centred learning so it was great to have a sense of what that looks like.

We’ve had some fascinating examples of schools who are taking Inquiry-based learning to fantastic depths in the PSII and High-Tech High, but what I love about Trevor’s work is that he shows how inquiry strategies can be used in the classrooms of the public school system. This is something that has puzzled me about inquiry from the beginning — the PSII or High-tech High look amazing, but how can we really use inquiry when we get a job in a traditional public school? I think Trevor has so much to offer in this area.

The other discovery this week for me that was hugely influential in my quest for practical inquiry strategies is Harvard’s Project Zero, particularly their list of “thinking routines”: http://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines

The goal of these thinking routines is to help make students’ thinking visible, and most of them incorporate some level of inquiry to greater or lesser degrees. The thinking routines are ways to get students thinking out loud, on paper, and creatively, making thinking visible to aid in formative assessment and reflexive teaching. I’ve really enjoyed looking through the Project Zero Thinking Routines and I foresee them being an extremely useful set of resources for lesson planning, formative assessment, and weaving inquiry into the curriculum.

Week 7 Reflection: We go to EdCamp!

23 October 2021 / / 0 Comments

What is an EdCamp?
An EdCamp is a collaborative learning event that allows participants to democratically brainstorm, select, discuss, and learn topics of interest together.
https://digitalpromise.org/edcamp/According to their website, the tenets of EdCamps are:

  • Free and open to all.
  • Participant driven: participants have an active, vital role in shaping what the experience will be.
  • About experience, not experts: Everyone present is invited to bring their experience to the table and learn from one another.
  • Rule of Two Feet/Clicks: Participants are free to move between discussions at any time.
Image: Michael Paskevicius

We had an EdCamp of our own in class on Friday. We brainstormed a list of topics, voted on the ones we most wanted to discuss, and then hosted three round-table talks in three spaces which classmates moved between freely:

  1. importance of nature-based learning
  2. importance of social-emotional learning
  3. should students be able to opt out of “core” classes?

I ended up sticking in nature-based learning the whole time, but I heard from my classmates a bit about the discussions in the other rooms. I loved having a chance to talk about something that many of us are passionate about but wouldn’t necessarily find the time to discuss and it was especially engaging to have a variety of subject areas sharing ideas. I hadn’t heard of an EdCamp before this one (although I’ve been to a number of snooze-worthy conferences with pre-determined keynotes and breakout sessions) and I can absolutely see myself using this in the classroom. I think it could be an excellent supplement to a play or novel study (topics could include different characters or themes to discuss) but it would also scale beautifully to a general whole-class or even whole-school format. I would also love the opportunity to participate again with other teachers so I am definitely going to keep an eye out for more EdCamps.

« Older posts

Archives

Attributions

Image Attributions

© 2025 Emma Wilde

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑