Category: EDCI 336 (Page 2 of 2)

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Inquiry #5: Taking it Beyond

23/03/2025 / tessmacdonald

For this inquiry post, I wanted to focus on the “how” of getting a piece of writing into the world. As someone who has been doing creative writing as a hobby, I’ve recently been practicing sharing my writing—both for myself, the practice, and also to keep myself accountable for stretching the writing muscles. For this part of the inquiry, I plan to both summarize the ones that I’ve already been a part of, while also exploring how books get to the publishers. (To continue beyond the list of publishers discussed last post).

1. Personal Sites!

A graphic I made on Canva for the blog my friends and I share.

This post you’re reading is actually one of those ways! Starting a blog or personal websites an accessible and easy way to share writing. Whether for documentation, portfolios, or just for fun, these online tools allow work to reach a wider audience. In addition, design tools (like WordPress, WIX, or Substack) make designing these sites and communication to readers easy!

In undergrad, my roommates and I started a shared personal blog on Substack (called “The Big Comfy Couch“) where we all post our thoughts, media reviews, life updates, or any writing we feel like creating. This has been a great way for us to keep in touch after moving away from each other following graduation. In addition, having the blog has encouraged me to keep up writing for fun; sharing writing simultaneously acts as an accountability measure.

2. Literary Journals or Magazines!

Literary journals and magazines usually offer publishing for first-time authors; less length than full novels (usually), they are places where short stories, poems, art, and reviews all come together. Journals and magazines can be online (many are these days) or physically published. My first exposure to literary magazines was writing for, and eventually editing, for my undergraduate program’s creative writing magazine, The Melange. I loved how these magazines were a list of styles. Differing from working on a personal blog, these also exposed me to working with an editor and refining my work with support.

My friends from undergrad, Amarah and Dani, had some of their work published recently by a both online and in-print literary magazine called Junq. I actually have a physical copy of the journal with Amarah’s screenplay in it! Reading a physical print of a friend’s amazing work was an amazing feeling. In addition, these joint publications open up readers to unique and cool art. Especially for independent publications based in your city or in your school, seeing what is around is both entertaining and inspiring.

3. Traditional Publishing!

Traditional publishing is the one part I had the least experience with. From my explorations, theres two main ways to submit to a traditional publisher: with or without an agent. Smaller or independent publishers will usually accept un-agent submissions, while larger publishers usually require the support from an agent. As I do not have experience in this area, I used this inquiry to search out resources from those either who have been published, or those who are in the publishing/agent industry.

In the above video, Alyssa summarizes the steps in getting published by a larger publishing company. This usually involves sending query emails to agents and working with them before they send your work to a publisher.

For un-agented submissions, I’ve learned you do the work of the agent as well as providing the manuscript. Usually, this involves sending a cover letter describing your piece and work along with a manuscript. In the following website post, author Emma summarizes how she goes around submitting a manuscript to publishers.

https://emmaquay.com/blog/2018/7/3/how-i-present-a-picture-book-manuscript-to-publishers

Conclusion…

For this post, I had fun exploring both my relationship to sharing my writing as well as exploring new ways to take writing from the author to the world. I find it interesting the different ways that a book can be published, even within the world of traditional publishing (publisher type, additional support team, and the necessary parts needed to submit). It gives me even more respect for authors and all the work it took to get their pieces onto my shelf!

Inquiry #4: Who’s Publishing?

19/03/2025 / tessmacdonald

For this inquiry post, I wanted to explore the world of traditional publishers—how do books get from authors to the shelves in books? Before this inquiry exploration, I had not taken much time to consider the publishing companies. Of course, after looking at the spines on my bookshelf enough, I had become familiar with some names: Penguin, DAW, Vintage Canada, Harper Perennial to name a few.

As I became more interested in books during my undergrad, I noticed certain publishers’ names coming time and time again. From this, I learned that certain publishers focus on certain genres, book lengths, ages, or just general ~vibes~. For example, DAW focuses on fantasy and sci-fi and Greystone focuses on environmental and nature texts (with a separate section, Greystone Kids, for children’s books). Invisible Publishing is a company I actually found through their booth at a book fair—and indie, not-for-profit Canadian publishing company. This was the publisher that made me note who was publishing books, as their name came up time and time again from hearing about interesting new Canadian reads. In particular, they are the publisher for one of my new favourite authors, Sydney Hegele.

For this post, I wanted to explore how to find Canadian publishers, and how to find if they are accepting un-agented submissions (submissions from authors who do not have a literary agent). This question led me to the Canadian Authors Association website, which has a list of Canadian publishing companies.

Publishers

The CAA website’s “Publishers” page.

While this provides a list of Canadian publishers, I wanted to specifically explore those aimed at Children’s Literature—who are publishers that we will see in our school’s libraries and our classroom shelves? Below are some Canadian publishers that are currently accepting submissions.

House of Anansi: houseofanansi.com/

Groundwood Books is the branch of House of Anansi focused on children’s literature.
Canada’s leading independent publisher.
Founded in 1967.

Arsenal Pulp Press: arsenalpulp.com/

5-time finalist for the Canadian Booksellers Association’s “Small Press Publisher of the Year” (2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014).
2-time winner of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia’s “Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award” (2007, 2020).
Based in Vancouver.

Second Story Press: secondstorypress.ca/

Focuses on feminist, inclusive, and empowering texts and stories.
Includes fiction and nonfiction for all ages.
Founded in 1988.

Annick Press: www.annickpress.com/

Recognized as an innovative publisher for both children and adults.
Based in Toronto.
Founded in 1975.

To end this post, I wanted to share how to use a publishing company’s website to discover whether or not they are accepting submissions. To do this, I wanted to use the Zoom screen share and recording format. Enjoy!

Inquiry #3: Rewarding (and Awarding) Reads

09/03/2025 / tessmacdonald

In my dive into the publishing industry, I wanted to take a quick sidestep to focus on children’s literature awards—namely, what are some of the recognitions out there for children’s literature? What are some awards or book lists that involve the reading demographic, children, in their voting?

My older nephew participates in a school club called the “Battle of the Books.” Through this, he is part of a team on his school that competes against other schools in his district in a Jeopardy-style book competition. The students all read a list of books, then compete in teams to answer trivia and analysis questions. The year I went to see him compete, they had all read the nominees for that year’s Red Cedar Book award. A link to the school district’s page talking about the competition is below:

https://www.sd44.ca/pages/newsitem.aspx?ItemID=1231&ListID=d00680b1-9ba1-4668-9328-d82dd27dacd4&TemplateID=Announcement_Item#/=

The Red Cedar Book Award (The Award), brought to you by British Columbia’s Young Readers’ Choice Awards Society (YRCABC), aims to encourage students in grades 4-7 to read more, to create an awareness of Canadian books and authors, and to develop a reader’s ability to judge published works. The Award adheres to two core principles – being child-centered and promoting Canadian books written for kids. The Award also values and supports Intellectual Freedom, Literacy, Diversity, Inclusiveness, Integrity, Community, and Sustainability.
From: www.redcedaraward.ca

At the end of the competition, the participants in the Battle of the Books voted on which book the district would cast a vote for in the award. I thought this was such a unique and fun way to get students engaged in reading, exploring new Canadian literature, and practicing their analysis and comprehension abilities. Seeing this made me wonder what other community-centred book lists were out there. A similar program is the Forest of Reading, as introduced in the video below:

Over the past few years, I have developed a love for Canadian literature as a genre. I think it is so interesting seeing the explorations of contemporary Canadian identity through writing—maybe part to one of my favourite undergrad courses, “Contemporary Canadian Fiction.”

I find these community-centred book lists and awards, like those in the Forest of Reading and the Red Cedar Award, to be really fun ways to get students engaged in their own backyard and see what’s being written in the spaces around them. In addition, many of these texts explore the history of the land we now know as Canada and its history—exploring themes of Indigeneity, belonging, and the historic (and current) injustices faced by many peoples. Making the reading even more meaningful by connecting to the land and communities we see every day. Promoting literature that explores these topics in engaging and meaningful ways is such an important endeavour. Book lists and awards like these provide educators, such as myself in the future, with a snapshot of what is being written in the here and now. Perhaps even giving inspiration into (possibly cross-curricular) novel study topics.

While not directly about publishing, I wanted to spend this inquiry post exploring a little bit about the “why” of publishing and the “after” process of a book’s reception. To continue on the theme of Canadian literature, my next inquiry posts will dive specifically into the Canadian publishers: what are the resources in our backyard?

Until next time, I’ll be meandering through the forest that is the Forest of Reading lists to get inspiration for my own future classroom library!

Reflection #4 — Videos and the Like

07/03/2025 / tessmacdonald

For this reflection post, I wanted to think back on the guest lecture about iMovie. My experience in iMovie started very young with my middle-school-self’s discovery of the Movie Trailer feature on my older sister’s Macbook Air. Since then, I have loved toying around with iMovie to make compilations of little videos, memories, and school projects (whenever they were offered). However, despite my self-taught experience, I enjoyed the time in class to test out different features; in particular, I had never tried the green/blue screen effect before! I had fun putting the clips and audios together as per the instructions, then playing around to see what I could create.

The result of my fiddling in class: a Jaws-esque underwater chicken adventure!

Video-Making in Classrooms

Part of my last year of high school and first first year of university took place during quarantine in 2020. This meant that I saw first-hand the recent rise of online teaching. One thing I appreciated was how one of my first-year professors would post online recording lectures for us to watch, then we would use the synchronous online lecture time to discuss questions and work through problems following the introduction videos. I remember that this felt more manageable, as I could engage with the video content on my own time, then spend time in lecture asking questions rather than solely learning new content. As someone in an education role now, I can see how having a backlog of recorded video lectures on frequently taught topics could leave me more space to explore and deepen curriculum. In addition, if a student misses content, having recorded lectures allows them to catch-up when they are able.

Another format of video-making in classrooms is the student-made piece. I remember, especially in high school, having assignments focused on video creation or those with the option to make a video. I always had a fun time working on these and chose them if the option was presented. I feel that, as a student, video projects made me think of not only what the content was, but what was the best way possible to share or present it. One of my favourite projects was in Social Studies 9, where we were asked to create a YouTube-styled video about the Industrial Revolution. This made the content engaging, as my group partner and I came up with fun ways to keep the content engaging. The result was a skit, historical show, “Crash Course” combination that we had the best time filming. Since this video is quite long and contains more than just me, I won’t attach it to this post. Instead, I’ll attach a video from my Biology 10 class where we were instructed to make a “Portrait of a Protist.” For my project, I opted to create a stop-motion video, as I love stop motion and wanted to take my turn trying it out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lkK90sc7JKhzS29isEFcI30B3nVlt5a/view?usp=sharing

I’m excited to explore more ways to incorporate video making into the classroom! Both from the teacher-centred lesson creation and the student-led project type.

Reflection #3: Working on Worksheets

04/02/2025 / tessmacdonald

Unfortunately, this week I was sick and missed class. It turns out I’m not yet immune to seasonal illness! I’ve marked it as an area that I’ll need to improve in before becoming a classroom teacher (we’ll see how successful that is).

Looking over the slides, I was excited to see the reflection topic encouraged playing around with graphic design. Since I was in school myself, I have spent time playing around with various digital design softwares (e.g., iMovie for videos, Procreate for drawing, Google Slides for presentation, and Canva for graphics).

From “Powerpoint Nights” (presenting niche topics and interests with friends) to creating event posters, I’ve loved playing around with these design tools. This reflection introduced a new way to play around with these resources: worksheets! Therefore, for this reflection, I’ve included two example worksheets that I made. Both are made using Google Slides. The second one involves elements from Canva’s graphics library.

1. The Wild Robot

While sick, I spent a lot of my free time reading. For my L2P, I had weekly visits in a grade 3/4 classroom. As my Wednesdays are available this semester, I spent one visiting the class again. There, I had found that the students were reading The Wild Robot. Coincidentally, I had recently received that book for Christmas! Therefore, for my first worksheet, I thought I would create something to tie in with a novel study of Peter Brown’s book.

Attributions: Book cover taken from the novel’s Wikipedia page.

2. The Middle Ages

Outside of class, I also work as a tutor. Part of my job is tutoring eighth-grade Social Studies. According to the BC curriculum, one of the first units for Social Studies 8 is “Feudalism in Europe.” For my second worksheet, I wanted to create a tool to illustrate the social and power structure of feudalism present in Europe’s Middle Ages. Often, this is demonstrated using a pyramid showing the flow of power, as well as each role’s responsibilities and interactions. I thought for a review worksheet, students could “fill-in-the-blank” a pyramid.

Attributions: All graphics used from Canva.

What did I learn?

From making these worksheets, I considered when each would be introduced in a unit. I also had fun exploring what else could tie into these exercises.

For the novel study worksheet, I imagined this to be a reflection after reading the chapters mentioned. I thought this could also tie to elements of science with camouflage. Therefore, I wanted to focus on what camouflage is—both in the story and beyond. The exercise of finding the definition in a dictionary would encourage students to use the resources available to them. Also, it would act as a touchstone for new vocabulary. In camouflaging Roz themselves, students would reflect on how she camouflaged in the novel and imagine new ways she could interact with different landscapes.

For the feudalism worksheet, I imagine this could be a study aid alongside learning about the social structures in Europe’s Middle Ages. That is why I provided a word bank. In my own school experience, I remember “fill-in-the-blank” follow-along notes were how I learned best. It allowed me to both note important information and follow along with what my teacher was saying. If I were to adapt this exersize for review, practice, or a test, I may omit parts of the word bank (either roles or responsibilities) or omit the word bank altogether.

All in all, I had fun trying out new techniques in Google Slides (for example, using the “shapes” function to build a Roz lookalike). This exercise made me excited to build activities for students! Worksheets, activities, and note documents all provide ways for students to recall, learn, and explore new information. In addition, they help students learn how note-taking can work best for them!

I’m looking forward to playing around with graphic design tools and seeing what is possible! (Special thanks to Google Slides for this reflection post).

Inquiry #2: Where to Begin!

03/02/2025 / tessmacdonald

To begin the delve into the depths of publishing, I wanted to start by exploring one of the major divisions in publishing: self- versus traditional publishing.

In my dive, I found posts from Writer’s Digest and Paper True. For this inquiry post, I thought I would summarize the content in a graphic created in Canva (to stretch my Canva muscle).

In addition, here are the links to the posts! Paper True and Writer’s Digest.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is EDCI-336-Inquiry-2-8.51.23-PM-792x1024.png

Here is a link to a PDF copy for better resolution.

Until next time!

Reflection #2: Online Privacy

01/02/2025 / tessmacdonald

For my second reflection, I thought I would spend time reflecting on the conversations prompted by the guest speaker, Jesse.

Attribution: Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

My Digital Footprint

I found Jesse’s discussion of “digital footprint” and online privacy to be extremely important. As someone who grew up with the internet (I remember making my Instagram account soon after I turned 13), I have spent time considering what my presence online is. On cautioning from my parents and older siblings, my teen self made sure that all possible social media accounts were kept as “Private.” As I’ve grown up and learned more about the internet, I acknowledge that “privacy” on the internet is not as cut-and-dry as we would think.

Having social media, I feel, is something that continues to keep me connected to friends, family, long-lost summer camp cabin-mates, and many people who have, at some point, crossed life paths with me. Often, my mom asks me how someone from elementary or high school is doing, and I’ll respond, “I saw they [insert activity here], but I haven’t spoken to them in a while.” It’s interesting to see where grown-apart friends end up, how convergent stories become divergent, or just in general see the possibilities of the future. However, I am cautious to call this a connection in the same way I would usually use the word.

Returning to online privacy, I have always been wary of a digital footprint. Growing up alongside the rise of mass social media had a way of engraining that in me—endless warnings about catfishes, stolen data, and information being shared. Especially since turning towards education, I often think: is what I am putting out on the internet something I would be comfortable with my students/admin/parents of students/etc. finding? Real life experience does demonstrate how much information is readily available online.

For the past two summers, I have worked at a summer camp where I work and live alongside 10–11th grade students on a university campus for a month. Part of our role is being mentors, encouragement, or general support for the learners. Both summers I have worked there, as counsellors, we initially save from revealing certain personal information—age being a main one. Both times, I have noticed how fast the campers (when determined) can piece together information about us. A high school graduation year from LinkedIn, a university program graduation post where we’re mentioned (linked below), or some other online crumb contributes to a feast of information. While a lighthearted example, it, both times, has reminded me how much information exists online.

https://artsci.mcmaster.ca/congratulations-class-of-2024/

I don’t think that this should mean that we should be scared of our online presences, instead just be wary. This shift into a professional program (the PDP) has been interesting in that I now see the beginnings of my professional presence or identity. How am I representing myself online? Is it how I want to be perceived? Is it true to myself? These questions represent one layer of online privacy. There are more, I’m aware (such as data brokers and the selling of information, scams, and hacking).

This website, I feel, can represent one stage of my new “professional” online identity. While I do use these posts for reflection (some personal, some academic), their content ties to my future professional role: an educator. Being aware of what is happening around me, and in the world my students live in, will only aid in better preparing them to live safely. Both off- and online.

Community and Creation

The final lesson I’ve learned and reflected on from this guest speaker is the power of the internet and social media to share and create. Above, I’ve attached a QR code that leads to the Instagram account of an online creative writing magazine called The Melange. This magazine was the first proper time that I shared my creative work beyond my friends (excluding the long unlisted and deleted tween YouTube channel I shared with a friend).

Writing for, and later editing for, The Melange gave me the push to create for fun, and the confidence to share it. While this was a magazine made, and mainly read, by my small undergraduate program, it was publicly available. The social media account is public, meaning anyone interested in this magazine or the program can find it. In addition, the official McMaster Arts & Science Instagram account would often cross-post our publishing announcements, spreading the work beyond those who sign up to receive it. Working on this magazine showed me the immense power that online publications and creative spaces have. People sharing their art led to connections, people reading and relating, and a snowball effect of more art being created.

Shared experience; shared art; sharing community.

I hope, as an educator, that I will continue to learn more about my place in the online sphere. Both to protect and prepare myself and my students, but to also encourage creation and the growth of spaces that foster (safe) community.

Inquiry Post #1: What am I Inq-curious About?

29/01/2025 / tessmacdonald

Attribution: Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash

When presented with this inquiry project—the choice to explore any area of interest—I began brainstorming immediately. What was something that I have wanted to investigate, practice, or learn?

To help in narrowing the infinite, I began thinking of things I loved. Perhaps an inquiry could grow from deepening an aspect of an existing interest. As the first image in this post suggests, I landed on books.

I grew up loving books. From my Mom reading me the entire Harry Potter series out loud to the Scholastic Book Fairs in school to my ever-growing childhood bookshelf, I was surrounded by their pages and wrapped in their stories. Around high school, this love left temporarily. It wasn’t that I stopped liking reading, but instead it was as if that the habit of “reading for fun” paused. Cut to moving away from Vancouver to Hamilton for undergrad: a book list recommendation from a friend and a conveniently (and financially dangerously) placed indie bookstore near my new student home rekindled that—temporarily dimmed—love.

From then on, the fire has only grown. My bookshelves are always at (or, to be honest, over) capacity; my library card is on my house keys. Reading offers a moment of “me time” in the ever-busying space of which adulthood sometimes feels. However, let’s transition back to books—the topic of this inquiry.

To avoid some form of cross-blog-self-plagarism, I’ll instead share my previously written thoughts on books as a medium from a shared personal blog:

I love my books as books. I love them as memories. I love them as gifts from loved ones. I love them as little snapshots of what I wanted, what I had, what I could have had in different times of my life. I love them and the people they often represent.
I Shipped My Books to BC by the big comfy couch
A TOTALLY ORIGINAL IDEA… just don’t look at Amarah’s recent post…
Read on Substack

Surrounding myself with books, I surround myself with stories, possibilities, memories, history, and so much more. Looking at this inquiry, I want to explore the medium of books—how do these stories physically manifest themselves in bookstores, libraries, and, maybe eventually, our own shelves?

At this point, this inquiry could take shape in multiple avenues. Right now, I am interested in learning about the publishing process. How do books move from the individual (writer) sphere to the collective? Some future sub-inquiries in this larger question may include:

Types of publishing (self, publisher) and writing agents.
What is needed when submitting for publishing?
Beyond physical publishing: websites, online literary journals, etc.
Libraries and curation.
Book awards and accolades.
What types of children’s literature is available?
More to come!

I look forward to this inquiry not only deepening a personal interest, but also exploring an educational one. I look forward to building my own classroom library—one day perhaps even being a teacher librarian! Knowing the processes of how books are published, what or who is prioritized in those systems, and familiarizing myself with publishers will only aid in growing a meaningfully curated classroom library.

I’m ready to hit the books (two puns in one post) and inquire further about the paper that fills the shelves!

Reflection #1: Open Resources

22/01/2025 / tessmacdonald

In this week’s class, we explored open resources—both those specifically for education, and those generally applicable to teachers. Prior to this class, I had never really explored the idea of copyright in the context of my role as an educator. Therefore, I was intrigued to learn more in this class.

When initially thinking of my future classrooms and lesson plans, I admit I sometimes was overwhelmed with the scope of both 1) what I can do, and 2) how much there is to do. As I have been going through this program, the resources, suggestions, and more shared by my classmates and professors have been a big help in curbing some of those anxieties.

For this reflection, I thought I would explore one resource that I explored. I wanted to see an example of an Open Education Resource, so I chose CK12 (linked below).

https://www.ck12.org/teacher/

When exploring CK12, I appreciated how the textbooks, when selecting a subject, gave a quick and detailed summary of a unit. I expect this will help as an educator, giving me a touch-up on units that I may not be as familiar with. I also appreciated how section often provided additional resources to supplement students’ learning (e.g., definitions, key questions, and study sheets).

One final aspect of CK12’s format that I appreciated was the prevalence of additional videos—such as the “Crash Course” videos. I remember using these resources myself in middle and high school; they provide detailed and engaging summaries of concepts, time periods, and so much more! Already, through my tutoring, I’ve found myself using these videos. In particular, the “Medieval Europe” video provides a concise and meaningful exploration of key events in Europe’s Middle Ages (a large part of the eighth grade BC Social Studies curriculum).

John Green presenting “Medieval Europe: Crash Course European History #1” from the Crash Course YouTube channel.

To end this reflection, I wanted to mention the additional website from class that I found interesting, and oddly beautiful. This was the “Listen to Wikipedia” project: http://listen.hatnote.com/.

Attribution: By Software:Hatnote and contributorsScreenshot:VulcanSphere – Self-taken; derivative work, BSD, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156403624

This site, as discussed in class, is a visual and auditory representation of the real-time additions/edits made to Wikipedia articles. From this class, I learned to deepen my appreciation of Wikipedia; I learned it is not only a free online encyclopedia, but also that all material on it is under Creative Commons. This provides an initial place to learn information that is readily available to all.

I look forward to exploring more Open Resources and deepening my future educator “tool belt.”