Educators engage in professional learning.

Educators engage in professional learning and reflective practice to support their professional growth. Educators recognize and meet their individual professional needs through various learning opportunities. Educators develop and refine personal philosophies of education, teaching and learning that are informed by research, practice and the Professional Standards for BC Educators.

What did I learn?

This whole practicum was ongoing professional learning. I am fortunate to be in a position where this standard is simple to uphold because of my role as a Teacher Candidate. There are many situations where I was doing learning outside of my specific practicum work including staff meetings, department meetings, observing additional classes to the ones I had pre-arranged for my practicum and being able to talk to teachers in the school (other than my amazing CTs) who had so much wisdom, information, and resources to offer. I was also able to see how these experienced teachers keep up with their own professional learning which was encouraging to see.

One unique and fun example of learning that I did was learning how to work with the finicky printer in the upstairs copy room. On one of my first days of practicum, I had a teacher show me how to fix a printer jam and I was extremely grateful for his help in that moment. I also had three different teachers working together to help me figure out how to print from a USB stick which was a fun adventure and helped me get to know and appreciate some more of the staff. Finally, I spent a large portion of the art classes I assisted in, learning how to use some of the unique printer functions and then putting these new skills into practice,

Why does it matter?

As a teacher, we should always be learning to improve our practice and be better for our students. It is a complex and ever-changing job that requires professional development to continue growing and improving. Once we become teachers I can see this standard becoming much more difficult, but it remains as important as it is for me now as a TC. If I want to be the best teacher I can be for my students, I need to put in the time and effort to improve myself and continue learning.

What’s Next?

In the future, I want to try to utilize the resources that were made known to me during my practicum and ensure that I am always making the most of the professional development days that are provided to me as a teacher. I am glad that the education program has placed an emphasis on encouraging us to participate in ProD days even as students which will make it easier for me to participate when I am working as a teacher.

Standard Three Artifact:

During my practicum, I had the opportunity to connect with a fantastic teacher who shared a lot of wisdom with me and compiled a list of resources she uses for her own professional development. Two of these resources are books that I was able to borrow from the school Principal who was happy for me to keep and read through them at my own pace, and then return once I had a chance to properly look at them. I have been slowly working through them in the last few weeks following my practicum.

The following is the email I received from this wonderful teacher:

Hello Janae!

It was such a pleasure to chat with you today. I am excited for you about the start of your career in Education.

Here are the online resources that I was telling you about:

Cult of Pedagogy:

(this link takes you to a specific post that I have used time and again for planning dynamic class discussions: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/

The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies | Cult of PedagogyHere they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.www.cultofpedagogy.com

Edutopia:

Here is a link about CRA math teaching. I had a colleague in the Nisga’a district who used CRA teaching strategies very effectively in her secondary math courses:

Using the CRA Framework in Elementary MathMath tool kits and other teaching strategies allow seamless implementation of the Concrete Representational Abstract framework.www.edutopia.org

Here is another link from Edutopia that I find a very intriguing practice that I would try if I were teaching a subject where test-taking was applicable:

A Testing Strategy That Promotes Good Note-TakingBy testing students twice, first without their notes and then with them, a high school teacher fosters strong note-taking skills.www.edutopia.org

Feel free to email me anytime if you have anything you’d like to discuss about education. Best of luck with the rest of your practicum.