I have always loved teaching. I love seeing the light in the eyes of my learners when they finally understand a difficult subject. Bringing joy to a young person’s life makes me feel purposeful and gives me a deep sense of meaning. Helping others inherently makes me feel useful, and it is a triumphant accomplishment for me to teach children.
EDUC394 provoked my thinking in many ways. Having never taken an Indigenous course, I admit I was quite ignorant in terms of Indigenous ways of teaching and knowing prior to this program. I have learned so much about respect, diversity, and the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL) during this Block. I have also learned about navigating the BC Curriculum. Getting to the “meat” of the subject of teaching is exciting, and I was anxious to dive into the BC Curriculum throughout this Block. However, learning takes patience and time. We were not ready to dive into the BC Curriculum until we learned about FPPL, Professional Standards for BC Educators, and the BCTF Code of Ethics. That had really challenged my thinking, as I had initially thought that we would be just thrown into the deep end of the BC Curriculum at the beginning.
The incorporation of self-reflection in all our courses has been very thought-provoking. I never realized how important it was to have my own understanding of my pedagogy, my identity as an educator. The blogs and class discussions have really opened my eyes to the type of educator I want to become. The personal pedagogy statement required for EDUC393 was especially enlightening to compose, as I had never really thought about my own personal philosophies before. I was exposed to a variety of useful and thought-provoking literature on education philosophy, which really helped me shape my own pedagogical statement. EDUC390 was truly eye-opening. I had the privilege of learning from other educators in SD57 throughout Block 1. These educators were all so unique, yet all shared the same passions and values that I do: inclusivity, respect, dignity, and openness. My own reflective pieces for EDUC390 were a chance to truly respond to what I had observed in the classrooms. Seeing what we had been discussing in EDUC346 in person during EDUC390 was truly inspirational. Having never taken an Aboriginal studies class until this year, I was eager to learn more about how we can incorporate First Peoples’ ways of learning and knowing into the classroom. The overarching courses (EDUC446 and 405) were very interesting to me, and challenged my thinking. Doing blog reflections on important topics, such as digital literacy and citizenship, assessments, BC curriculum, and this final project forced me to really delve deep into my own sense of self and relate that to my learning. So much of what we learned this Block has been self-reflective, which is important for our future success as educators. We are truly learning how to teach by first learning about ourselves.
I now know that I want to build upon my strengths as an educator. I have a high attention to detail, I am kind, compassionate, and passionate about teaching and learning. I also understand the struggles and challenges that young learners face. After years as a Behaviour Interventionist, and an After School Care Leader, and now a Teacher Candidate, I truly know how to connect with students. I can observe a student’s behaviour and tell what techniques will help to engage them in the subject being taught.
Keeping students engaged and enthusiastic about learning is one of the keys to success when working with children, along with respect for the diversity of needs and teaching techniques. My biggest question is “How can I effectively teach EVERY student?”, and I hope to learn to answer this question over the coming years as an educator. I also have further questions to consider:
- How do we make learning fun and engaging?
- How do we make the learning dynamic and alive for learners?
- What areas do I need to develop to become a better teacher?
In order to answer the above guiding questions, I have created a catchphrase to keep in mind: Learning to Teach by Learning to Learn. In order to become an effective teacher, I must also work to become an effective learner myself.
I have also developed a simple graphic to help me shape my own learning. It is both holistic and subjective in nature. So, how did I develop my visual model of my learning? Well, first it was simply a word dump. Then I traced the outline, forming what I thought was a strawberry. Once I added a leaf on top, I realized I had made one of the most iconic items linked to teachers: the apple.
Yes, I had drawn an apple with words in it. Fantastic… but, wait, there is more!
The core of the apple is made up of the Core Competencies of BC Curriculum, which are layered, as one could envision when looking at the different Profiles of the Core Competencies. Deeper in the apple, the Curricular Competencies and the Content make up the seeds. The (delicious) skin of the apple is the Big Ideas, which are overarching concepts. Finally, the leaf of the apple, which was attached to the stem, extends the knowledge to other parts of the tree of knowledge (the Education Program and beyond).
