Month: February 2026

February 16, 2026 EDCI 336, Weekly Reflections

Topic 6 – Weekly Reflection Blog Post

Today’s blog post concerns the NFB presentation that I attended during the Pro D workshop day on Friday last week.

What is the NFB?

The NFB, otherwise known as the National Film Board, is a Canadian government organization dedicated to preserving Canadian culture and history through film, providing educational tools, and promoting indigenous and BIPOC voices.

Their presentation was on the use of digital tools that they have created in the classroom, they provide high quality pre-made educational plans for lessons on all kinds of topics.

Pros

There are many positive things to say about the NFB resources: They are high quality, they align with the curriculum, they are easily accessible and free, and they are a different kind of multimodal resource. All of these things are true, and I think that the NFB does a fantastic job at creating resources. I believe that using the NFB resources in the classroom would be a massive benefit for most teachers, as their lesson plans are easy to follow, and come with really easy to use guides for teachers.

Additionally, they have resources for students of all ages, there are blogs that are dedicated to walking teachers through what resources to use and when, to teach a subject that may be difficult. For example, this blog has a selection of resources to teach students about citizenship through animated films.

Cons

Unfortunately, there are some cons still. The first, and most prescient, is that if overused films can become the same as lecturing, students will only listen for short periods of time before zoning out and missing the point completely. Another risk is that the films may be seen as completely objective, regardless of who actually made them. If we are not careful in teaching media literacy, students may be at risk of blindly believing whatever is put in front of them.

Additionally, the use of technology is a problem, with students who have limited access to technology, assigning the NFB resources as homework may create equity problems. This may also be an issue for school districts in rural areas where there is limited funds available for technology.

February 9, 2026 EDCI 336, Free Inquiry

Free Inquiry Project Feb 1-7 Update

This week marked the third week since the beginning of the semester that I have been following my training plan as laid out last week. This week’s training was useful as a data point on how my body is responding to the combination of climbing and strength training, as it showed little numbers wise, but I could feel changes.

Climbing Progress

I completed my two sessions this week focusing mostly on bouldering, but I did climb a top rope 5.10a on Thursday. During both sessions I was able to complete multiple V4 boulders, aligning with my baseline, and confirming that even with the strength training I am able to maintain my climbing level. Notably, I was able to make significant progress on a V5 boulder problem, but was limited by my finger strength, something that I will get to later in the weights section.

During my top rope climbing session I found that arms were getting much more sore than when I bouldered, it is a much higher volume of climbing. I was not able to flash the route unfortunately, as I had to take a couple breaks in between attempts. However, this is good progress towards my goal.

I believe that to be able to climb a higher grade, my strength is improving at a decent enough pace, however I will need to work more on my technique.

Strength Training

I completed my strength training this week focusing on volume rather than going for heavier weights, as I have been advised.

My program looks like:

  • Squat: 10×3 – 155lbs
  • Bench Press: 10×3 – 115lbs
  • Deadlift: 5×6 – 245lbs

The weights this week were conservative, but the higher volume still made the session challenging. As my fingers were sore from my V5 attempt the previous day, I found myself slipping during my deadlifts, and my fingers were really the limiting factor rather than back or legs.
From a performance perspective, all of the lifts were fine, and I didn’t experience any signs of injury, just the soreness of the climbing meant that I could not do more. Next week I will have to focus on rest and recovery, or focus on creating a healthy training program for my fingers.

This is a video of me doing a set of squats.

Reflection

The key takeaway this week was fatigue and performance. I have not seen any large gains, but I did not regress, which is a fantastic outcome during the early stages of this program. The combination of both climbing and strength training is quite demanding, and my body certainly felt it. However, after the first week where I was doing this, where i set my baseline, I was barely able to walk and last week I was mostly able to function as normal. The only exception to this has been my fingers, which have been struggling to recover between a climb than a lift. Perhaps using wraps or chalk will help me for this problem, I will do a test this week.

February 9, 2026 EDCI 336, Weekly Reflections

Topic 5 – Weekly Reflection Blog Post

This week there was no prompt given for reflection, so I will be talking about my experience at the Pacific School Of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII).

Inquiry Based Learning

PSII’s style of learning is based around the student with inquiry being at the core of their process. Students engage with questions about something that is close to them, that brings out their own curiosity, and then they are directed to research that topic. More about the process can be found here or in this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlwkerwaV2E

Pros

I think that the inquiry based model of learning is a fantastic model for some students, as it provides a frankly dramatically different model than conventional schooling. In my opinion, the students that benefit from this model the most can be broken down into two types of student: the overachievers, and the disinterested.

Personally, I know several students that went to PSII who have advanced degrees, largely spurred by the inquiry that they did at PSII. Before PSII they were also always overachievers, scholarship students and straight A students, but at PSII they were able to flourish and create fantastic inquiry projects, such as a full novel. The inquiry process allows them to not be hindered by traditional classrooms and keeps pushing the students further and further.

On the other hand, the classically disinterested students also found a place at PSII. Friends of mine that went to PSII that were generally considered “problem children” or “too energetic” and “hard to contain” were able to find their niche at school, and apply their energy to something that actually grabbed their attention.

Cons

Nothing is perfect however, PSII’s model does not fit for everyone. Unfortunately, a big problem for PSII’s model is that it requires a lot more individual support and attention, which means that the classic ratios of students to teachers needs to be a lot higher. I believe that the current numbers roughly work out to a ratio of 1:12 teachers to students, which is a significantly lower number than the usual public numbers. Another problem is drive and motivation. If students are not interested in schooling in general it can be hard, even with an inquiry based model, to fully engage those students in education, and having a school where there is the ability to do functionally nothing all day means that you will get some students who take that opportunity. The traditional schooling model provides checks and if you are not doing work all day, by virtue of being in classes it is easier for teachers to check in and catch those students.

February 2, 2026 EDCI 336, Free Inquiry

Free Inquiry Introduction

For my free inquiry this semester I have planned to track my climbing performance and my workout performance and describe my journey through both.

Introduction

I chose this topic as I have been climbing for a long time, but have plateaued at a certain difficulty of climb, specifically V4 for bouldering (my main kind of climbing). I wanted to improve my climbing, and so I reached out to a friend who is a PHD candidate in Strength and Conditioning, and a professional strength coach for Canadian national teams. He advised me on several types of workouts that I could do to improve my climbing performance. So, my main goals for this semester are to “send” a V6 & a 5.10C climb, lift 750lbs between squat, bench press, and deadlift, and to lose 10 pounds. This is an ambitious goal, but I believe that I will be able to achieve it if I keep to my schedule.

My Starting Stats

Climbing: I have been climbing much more frequently than working out, so I am able to flash V4 boulders and 5.10a top rope climbs.

Gym Stats: I have been advised to not try and hit my maximum right at the beginning, as that could lead to injury and so I have recorded my baseline.

  • Squat: 5x185lbs
  • Bench Press: 5x135lbs
  • Deadlift: 5x275lbs

Total: 600lbs

The Routine

For the routine I have decided on going climbing twice a week and strength training twice a week. This lets me balance my school work, social life, as well as providing workable amounts of time for achieving my goals.

Climbing: I plan on climbing twice a week minimum, with Tuesday and Thursday being my dedicated climbing days. There is also the option of adding Saturday as a climbing day, depending on school workload and soreness. I plan on climbing for 1.5 hours each session, with Tuesday dedicated to bouldering and Thursday doing a mix of bouldering and top rope climbing. Saturdays would be a more social climb, and so would be 2-2.5 hours depending.

Gym: For the gym, I will go on Wednesdays and Fridays, as I have no class Wednesday and Friday I have no class in the afternoon. Both sessions will take roughly 1.5 hours as well, Wednesday I will do a mix of exercises, but will start with Squats, Bench Press, and Deadlifts which are the trackers I am using. Friday I will do a mix of lower weight exercises, including biking for my cardio and weight loss, and core exercises.

Ed Tech Elements

As a part of this assignment, I will also start to film myself in attempts on harder boulder problems as well as a weekly video of one type of lift. These videos serve two purposes: First, to observe myself and to help me adjust form, and technique & Second, to keep myself accountable to posting once a week.

Additionally, I will be taking my friend’s professional advice for what lifts and exercises to do, and post any new exercises to the blog, detailing why I have added them to my routine. Below are a few videos, one detailing the basics of bouldering, and one detailing the basic form for the lifts I will be doing to begin. Personally, I did not follow the lifting videos, I had my friend coach me but they provide a good visual guide for those that do not know what the lifts consist of.

Casually Explained is a very popular youtuber, with over 4 million subscribers. He also happens to climb at our local gym, CragX downtown. This is not a perfect introduction, but I thought it was fun.

February 2, 2026 Uncategorized

Topic 4 – Weekly Reflection Blog Post

This week on our blog we have been asked to reflect on AI, it’s pros and cons, and uses in the classroom. Generative AI (GenAI) is mainly comprised of Large Language Models, which take mass amounts of text as it’s training data and produces what is effectively extremely advanced “auto complete.” Some GenAI tools have gone further and are able to produce image or video, however in this post I will be focusing on Today I will be addressing the prompts: What are some of the major limitations of GenAI? and Talk about how you’ve found GenAI useful or not for educational purposes.

What are some of the major limitations of GenAI?

GenAI is one of the major revolutions of our time, along with the communications revolution of the 2010s, it may be the most disruptive outcome of technology to everyday life. Since the beginning of its widespread use in 2021, the use of AI in everything from education to art has been utterly transformative for society writ large, specifically widely publicly available models such as ChatGPT or Gemini. The limitations of GenAI are clear, tools that seem intelligent offer students another way to find information, but the information that they receive can sometimes be wrong. Hallucinations, oversimplification, and questions of accuracy are all huge limitations to GenAI. There is major risk for students of becoming overly reliant on AI and then having it give you information that is simply false. Additionally, students may outsource much more of their thinking to GenAI. With something so easy and quick, it is more of a draw than ever to simply get AI to do your assignment for you, or tell you how to do it instead of doing it yourself. As a result, student’s abilities to evaluate information, construct effective arguments, or even fundamentally reason can be shaken or destroyed before they get a chance to grow. Lastly, the ethical implications are a huge limitation on GenAI. Environmental costs are real, and the ownership of ideas legally can become a huge problem for people who are using AI creatively. Additionally, this does not address where the training data for the AI came from, and whether or not it was available to the public.

The following are videos that I believe are relevant to this topic but are quite long.

My Experience Using GenAI for Educational Purposes

Here, I have to flip the script. As much as I harp on GenAI, and have legitimate grievances with it, I have also used it in my education so far, and plan to use it again while teaching. I have used GenAI to help me correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, as I am often not the best when it comes to this kind of type editing. GenAI in my education has been much like a fancy word processor, while I use it to quickly help me format or edit my work, I refuse to turn to GenAI instead of thinking of my own ideas. For this assignment even, I have used it to help me format, giving it my ideas and getting it to suggest where in the blog post I should put things. But, I also only use its suggestions a fraction of the time as having it around helps me to be more confident in my own work, in comparison.

In the classroom I believe that I can take this a step further, AI is a fantastic tool and I believe that using AI to make some of the menial tasks of teaching is not just a benefit, but necessary to keep up with increased workloads. Teaching has long since been a job where you are expected to work hours well above the 40 per week that is allotted to you for pay. I am firmly against AI teaching students, but if there is any moral use for it, I think that using it to enhance student learning by allowing teachers to create quick, individualized, and effective assessments is as close as we can get.