Providing excellent education at affordable costs and a high standard of living, Canada is a sought-after study destination for students worldwide. One of the features of higher education in Canada is the equal popularity of colleges along with universities. 

The provincial government in Canada dedicatedly takes care of the educational sector, thus ensuring the quality of education between colleges or universities in Canada is maintained. To know the right institution best suited for your career goals, you need to be aware of the specifications between both. The eligibility criteria and admission requirements are also to be considered here.

This blog will discuss the various differences between Canadian Colleges and Canadian Universities to help determine which is best suited for you.

Benefits of a College & University Education in Canada

Canada is home to some of the best universities in the world, including University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia, etc. But this is not it. Canada is equally known for its colleges like George Brown College, Seneca College, Centennial College, and so on. With so many institutions providing high-quality education in Canada, it gets difficult to pick the perfect option. There are certain merits to university and college education, so your choice depends on your needs and preferences.

Before we move further into the differences between a Canadian college and a Canadian university, let us take a deeper look at the benefits you will reap if you study in one of them:

Benefits of a College Education in Canada

• Students get the training and knowledge required to advance their careers.
• With small class sizes, it becomes easier for teachers to pay attention to each student.
• The course duration is shorter than the duration of acquiring a degree from a university.
• It is cheaper as compared to the fees of a university.
• Short-duration courses help students join the workforce almost immediately.

Benefits of a University Education in Canada

• The degree provided by a Canadian university is recognized worldwide.
• They provide all kinds of research facilities students may require during their studies.
• The multitude of degrees offered by universities is vast.
• Universities help students reach academic excellence.
• The areas of studies provided is vast; education related to all types of topics/fields is provided to students.
• There is a plethora of scholarship opportunities for students.

After examining the benefits of attending colleges and universities, let’s look at the differences that cause the educational standards to vary:

College VS University: Which to Pick?

A student’s education at a college greatly differs from that of a university in Canada. Both of them aim at different aspects of academic qualifications. Fundamentally, colleges focus more on the career aspect of education; they are more concerned about making you job ready and providing you with training. Let us have a comparative discussion about colleges vs universities in Canada below:

After illustrating the different factors that influence the choice of education offered in Canadian colleges and universities, it’s up to you to choose the best course of action in accordance with your educational or professional needs. Get in touch with one of the best overseas educational consultants for a smooth admission and study abroad journey.

With everything evolving in the education landscape, we can adapt to newer pedagogical strategies like project-based learning (PBL) in our curriculum planning!

Tons of surveys and research are pointing to the gaps that exist in our education system and the lack of job-readiness and employability skills. As educators, how then do we make way for our learners to become problem-solvers, innovators, and critical-thinkers?

We take the PBL route!

This blog focuses on Designing Instruction and how educators can embed projects in their curriculum, and not just at the end of it.

Make PBL your main course, not just a dessert

Tracing back to when we were students, project work formed a part of holiday homework, CCE evaluation, or an end-of-the-chapter real-life application! But things are changing and we are adding newer ways to achieve learning outcomes effectively.

PBL is the answer to all our checklist bullets of a high-quality lesson plan—21st century skills, student choice and voice, and ownership of learning.

This gold standard PBL graphic shows the key focus areas of inculcating the pedagogy in our learning experiences. The first step is to keep the learning goals at the center of every project: understand the academic outcomes we want from the lesson, conceptual understanding of learners, and skills that we can develop using the project.

Use a challenge to nudge learners towards deeper questions and more inquiry. One good way to begin, while making your next unit plan, is to revisit your curriculum and think how you can execute it through projects. If you can make it interdisciplinary across subjects, even better!

Take Note: Project or PBL? Ask yourself if you are doing proactive research to make learners understand concepts through a project, or just tagging one at the end? Did your students have a say in the project, or in what they wanted to know more about?

Where to start?

Take a unit that you have already taught, maybe in the previous academic year, or something you are familiar with, and remodel it into a project. Another way is to introduce the unit with a quick shoutout of big ideas of what students think, know and want to learn more of. Educators can use tools like Toddle and Flipgrid to make students’ learning visible in remote scenarios.

Put on your research hat and find out what’s happening in the world that interests your students; teach from the headlines! PBL is when students understand the WHY of a project, feel passionate about finding it out, speak to the experts in the field, and make proposal pitches to them. What a beautiful example of student ownership!

These projects make an important part of formative assessments. Look beyond grades and tune in to how students are learning as the project unfolds. Educators must also encourage group projects and peer feedback mechanisms to make our learners ready for working in teams and taking constructive criticism well.

Harness the natural creativity of the little ones!

Have you ever observed a young one when they are just figuring things out on their own or the kind of curious questions they ask?

A NASA study finds that 98% of 4-5 year olds scored at a ‘creative genius’ level. Five years later, only 30% of the same group scored that title. For adults, it was a mere 2%. As we grow older, the systemic spirit of our education curbs our divergent thinking and WHY questions.

PBL is the best way to stop turning our learners all mechanical!

Begin with co-constructing ‘What good looks like?’ with your teacher colleagues. Use the four Cs framework of Create, Collaborate, Communicate, Critical Thinking to design your project plan. Inculcate visible thinking strategies for engagement and CFUs, like KWL charts. These strategies also inform your project’s driving questions well.

Before moving ahead, here’s the trick! Don’t converge your learners’ thinking to make your lesson successful. Divide them in groups with common ideas, differentiate, and let your students have their own explorative journey! Inching closer to a real research-based project, curate a resource bank of relevant reads and encourage students to add to and leverage it. To extend peer learning, students can also upload their videos or presentations on a platform like the Student app of Toddle and receive feedback in comments.

After every lesson, assess them through reflection exercises and exit tickets. Click HERE to explore more techniques of online assessments. Thinking about assessments, you may be wondering how PBL can replace our pen-and-paper tests? With huge amounts of syllabus, how to include PBL and cover it all?

Reminder: PBL is not just one project, it becomes your curriculum. When you are unit planning, map HOW projects will help build WHAT knowledge, skills and mindsets. And also remember, PBL makes learning stick! Because learners, from start to end, are asking their own questions and finding answers themselves too!

Expand your collaborative horizons with Toddle

Toddle offer educators ready-made lesson plans and questions to discuss, and lots of resources to learn from and step up their game. It provides teachers from a school the space and opportunity to interact and collaborate in planning and assessment. Visualize a smooth interface that allows learners to own their projects and get peer and educator feedback. educators can invite parents to share students’ work and be proud of them. Through this platform, educators can see what the students are doing, co-assess their work and give feedback. From writing and comprehension skills to digital citizenship, our learners are taking it all in through PBL!

Make learning through projects the main course and enjoy the dessert of your effort on effective learning outcomes…

It is very common to experience stress as a teacher. There will be days when you will not be able to keep up with the momentum and demands of the students, either in a physical classroom or an online teaching platform. Stress is indeed one of the major cause of concern among the teaching professionals. However, it all depends on how you respond to the situation. Here are nine awesome strategies that shall help you manage stress effectively. 

Embrace Stress

It is up to the teachers to embrace stress either in a positive manner, or in a negative light. According to health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, when an individual views stress in constructive ways, it results in their body responding in a different way. It will also help avoid long term physical damages. 

Meditate Well

It is advisable to meditate well on a regular basis to avoid stress. Teachers can simply incorporate the 4 x 4 breathing technique to lower your stress level. Whenever you experience high levels of stress, breathe in deeply for four seconds, then exhale for another four seconds. Continue this process for 2-3 minutes for maximum impact. 

Be Perfectly Imperfect

It has been observed that overly stressed people tend to possess the same trait – they try to compare themselves with others and hope to improve upon themselves. Hence, most working adults are found to be overweight. However, it’s time you realise that you are perfect with your imperfections. Hence, ignore your flaws which might hinder your professional growth. 

Always Be Grateful

It is advisable to figure out the right opportunities that life offers every moment. Be grateful for your life, your profession and the work that you do. You should understand the importance and impact of your profession on the lives of students and conduct yourself accordingly. 

Exercise Emotional First Aid 

Do you hurt yourself after experiencing failure in life? Experts suggest that this act is as comparable as finding ways to make your wound worse. Indeed, we don’t do that when encountered with physical pain, then why do it when the pain is emotional? A two-minute distraction from monotonous tasks is all that you need to avoid digging into an emotional rut. 

Accept Challenges 

Not every day might be perfect for you. There might be days when the challenges might soar up extesively. Accept such challenges. On a tough day, you might not get to hear what soothes the ears. But the idea is to accept the challenges that come your way and figure out solutions with a positive mindset. 

Work Smarter 

After a tiring and hectic day, you might confuse up feelings of exhaustion and burn out with hard work. However, you should understand that working hard and performing good at work should not leave you feeling depleted. You should figure out ways to delegate or ease up some of your tasks. 

Seek Help

Yes, you should never shy away from seeking help from your colleagues or even from your family members. At times, you might run out of ideas due to a mental block. During such moments, fresh ideas from people around you could do the work for you.

As a teacher, it’s important to find ways to relieve stress. One way to do this is to attend teacher professional development conferences. At these conferences, you can network with other teachers and learn new teaching methods. You can also learn about new education technology and resources. In addition, attending these conferences can help you stay up-to-date on education standards. As a result, attending teacher professional development conferences is a great way to relieve stress and improve your teaching practice.

Connect with People  

Several pieces of research suggest that when you connect with people, your body tends to produce oxytocin. To elaborate further, oxytocin is a chemical that helps repair the heart. Small acts can help in the release of oxytocin, such as by seeking help simply, as seen above. Additionally, you should cultivate relationships with your colleagues and students.

Hence, these were nine best practices that a teacher can incorporate into their daily lives in order to avoid stress and burn out. These tips shall go a long way in helping reduce teacher stress effectively. 

Who is a Textile Designer?

The designs, textures, illustrations and patterns for knitted, woven, dyed, embroidery or printed fabric are created by a Textile Designer. These are then used in clothing, furnishings, towels, floor & wall coverings, carpets etc.

The textile designers must be up-to-date with the trends& people’s preferences because then only they’ll be able to manufacture appropriate products in relevant patterns that will not only attract people but will also sell in the market.

Duties:

• Liaising with clients, partners, teams
• Keeping abreast with trends, consumer taste and innovations. Analyzing the existing as well as newly launched materials basis the cultural and functional aspects.
• Evaluating commercial, cultural and functional requirements.
• Creating sketches and designs as per the client’s brief using specialized CAD software
• Getting the samples made and having the same approved by the client.
• Supervising the production process.

Skills required:

• Understanding of fabric, patterns, colours, textures and materials
• Good communication skills not only to work in a team but also to handle clients
• Networking skills
• Creative bent of mind to analyze the requirements and basis the same make tangible designs.
• Ability to work under pressure adhering to deadlines.
• Attention to detail and an understanding of the trends
• Business skills

Career opportunities:

• The 6^th largest exporter of textiles and apparel in the world is India.
• India’s exports of textiles and apparel are growing at a CAGR of 11% and are expected to reach $65 bn by 2025-26
• In 2020-21, the Textiles and garments industry was at $103.4 bn and it is expected to reach $190 bn by 2025-26.

Textile Industry is a flourishing industry with significant exports. Hence it online shopping presents huge opportunities. Few job profiles can be:

• Fabric Analyzer/Fabric Resource Manager: Works with a variety of materials, including man-made, natural, leather, fur, metal etc. His job profile is to test, select and source the ideal material for the product. He ensures quality and production efficiency along with product development.
• Colour Technologist: Works with the science and technology of colour application on a range of products. He ensures not only quality and durability but also its reproduction accuracy.
• Textile Designer: Will make creative designs and patterns involving yarns, fabrics, prints, trims, etc.
• Interior Designer: Designing and renovating internal spaces. Will entail structural alterations, new lighting, furnishings, new colour schemes, fixtures & fittings, wallpapers etc.
• Fashion Designer: Work with fabrics, colours and patterns to design and style new clothing.

Where do I study Textile Design?

There are lots of colleges providing Textile Designing courses, however, while choosing the right course to study diploma in textile design, one needs to make the following deliberations:

• College must offer certification that is accredited at both national as well as international levels.
• The course should offer market-oriented understanding and updated technical knowledge about Textile Design.
• The course must offer master classes by Industry Experts, so that the students may get first-hand expertise.
• Industry experience through live projects and internships.
• Colleges must provide competencies in updated software like CAD etc.
• College must offer the holistic perspective of Textile Designing and Styling
• College must help students in developing a strong portfolio that can be showcased to prospective employers.
• Supplementary career support curriculum to enhance the student’s competencies like PhD or short duration courses in graphics or design etc.
• The college should enter students participation in International events and competitions
• College must ensurea comprehensive placement program

Thus, choosing to study diploma in textile design is a wise choice once you study from a reputable institute with industry standing.