Standard One

Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.

Educators have a privileged position of power and trust. Educators are responsible for the physical and emotional safety of students. Educators respect and value the diversity in their classrooms, schools and communities, inclusive of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and other worldviews and perspectives. Educators foster students’ positive personal identity, mental and physical well-being, social and personal responsibility, and intellectual development. Educators engage students in meaningful participation in their own learning. Educators treat students equitably with acceptance, dignity and respect. Educators understand the importance of confidentiality, and protect student privacy, unless disclosure is required by law. Educators do not abuse or exploit students or minors for personal, sexual, ideological, material or other advantage.

What did I learn?

Throughout my first practicum, I learned that student success and safety start with relationship building. Building a positive student-teacher relationship allows me to learn about the different learners in my class so that I can adapt my lessons and provide differentiation that will lead EVERYONE to success. It also helps develop an emotionally safe environment for learning to occur.

I first learned this by watching the phenomenal example that my CT set. I had the privilege of seeing him open class with a connection question, take the time to learn about his students and set aside the math to build relationships with them. Part of his class was very intentionally directed towards relationship building and other times the relationship development occurred through small moments and outside of class time. On the last day that I visited the school before my practicum started, my CT sat with me during his prep and walked through the class list of students that I would be teaching. He provided their names, where they sat, what he liked about each student, how they contributed to the positive class culture, their interests, strengths, concerns and overall relationship with math. I was inspired by how well he already knew his students only a few weeks into the semester.

When I began my practicum I made it my goal to know each student’s name by the second day. I started the class with a “Get to Know Me” slide show and then an opening question so that I could begin to learn about the students myself.

After that first day, I made an effort to circulate throught the room and greet each student individually at the start of class, ask them a question and try to connect in some way before I began the lesson. During my time in that class I was able to hear from students about their lives; their interests, jobs, future plans, dreams, successes and struggles. After 3 weeks I was sad to leave because I had just started to feel like I was really getting to know the students and it was hard to walk away from their learning.

Standard One Artifact:

At the end of my practicum, I sent out student feedback forms. The goal with these forms is to gain feedback from students that will inform the way I conduct the class and allow them to provide input for how they are learning. As standard one states, I want to engage students in meaningful participation in their learning. I try to get pieces of feedback informally through conversation, but these forms are a great way to get written and anonymous feedback. I would love to give out another set in my next practicum, but do so earlier so that I can actually apply their feedback and include them in their learning as a result.