Role as a Teacher: I believe that my role as a teacher is to be a facilitator of learning as it is not reasonable to think that you, as an educator, know everything. You are not the keeper of knowledge; I believe that you are there to help students discover and learn things while facilitating the process.
While teaching students, it is your job to create a safe and positive learning environment by maintaining and advocating for openness, empathy, and care within your space. A safe and positive learning environment is absolutely essential for student learning to occur. Teachers become role models to students, not only in your own classroom but in the broader school community as well. You cannot expect students to come into your classroom prepared to tackle every challenge that is thrown their direction, but you must be prepared and ready to model positive behaviours and practices that will assist students in developing regulation skills.
I also believe that teachers should allow themselves to exhibit humour and be "fun" when appropriate to build stronger relationships with students; yes, you are their educator, but students tend to develop stronger relationships with relatable teachers. After all, relationships and connections are the most important things, so we must do everything in our power to connect on some level with each of our students. Teachers hold a lot of power. I know that I can make or break a student's educational experience, so I must do my very best to connect with each of my students and make them feel cared for and important.
Development of the Individual: I believe that a classroom is a central place for students to develop as an individual; students will develop socially, mentally, morally, and physically during the time that they spend with you. As I mentioned above, you must create a safe learning environment for your students, which includes creating a space where they feel emotionally safe and supported. If students feel like they are emotionally secure, they will be more apt to express and explore their spirituality and beliefs while developing a sense of moral and ethical standards. As a teacher, I need to make sure that my students can express and explore these things while ensuring that they respect the dignity and individuality of their peers.
I am a firm believer that learning is a social process; my students need to understand that we do not learn in isolation, but that every individual contributes to the learning process. I would like to encourage a classroom community in which all learners can collaboratively engage with one another. Within a classroom community, students will develop the confidence to help one another and support each other through any struggles they may face. Students will be able to develop as an individual in ways that promote empathy, care, understanding, and trust within a safe classroom space. I would also like to encourage a space where students can feel safe enough to make mistakes and know that those mistakes do not reflect on their character or their self-worth. I believe in creating a space for my students where they can become the best versions of themselves.
Cultural Sensitivity and Respect It is my goal to create a classroom space in which we cherish and respect various cultures and provide the space for students to express their cultural identity. I believe that each student, regardless of their culture, should get to come to school and find something that they can connect with. I plan on including many cultural holidays on my classroom calendar and having celebrations for the things that my students celebrate at home with their families; this is an opportunity for students to open up and express their identity in a new way. I want to see respectful and meaningful cultural integration within my classroom. Students in my class will understand the relativity of values and know that just because you may not believe something, it is still equally important and deserves just as much respect as your own personal beliefs. This is a massive part of creating a safe learning environment, and I am a believer that when students can respect and see the beauty in other cultures, their own understanding of the world and the people around them can deepen and become substantially more meaningful.
It is also my job as an educator to place an importance on civic education and citizenship; no matter the age of your students, it is your job to teach them what it means to be a part of society and what the implications of their actions are within the bigger picture. One part of this is teaching students to care about and care for others in their community through service-learning; this not only applies to civic education but it also actively engages students within their community.
Experiential Learning I am a firm believer in experiential learning and the benefits that this can have for the success of my students. Students can learn way more and make more meaningful connections if they learn through the process of doing something, rather than sitting in a classroom and being talked at for hours about something that they could physically do. Experiential learning is driven by student curiosity, and we know that when we as teachers implement student interest in our instruction, they become intrinsically motivated to participate in classroom activities.
I believe in the importance of the process. It does not matter so much what the product is or the value of the said product. For me, I think the value is captured within the actual process. By partaking in process focused work, students can develop open discussion and dialogue skills in which they can express their process of questioning and exploration. This opens up meaningful lines of communication between students. In addition to that, open discussion and dialogue also encourage students to question what they are learning to provide practical challenges and develop critical thinking skills. I also believe that this type of learning allows for students to develop problem-solving skills and rational thinking that will help their development as students throughout their school career.
A big part of experiential learning for me is the integration of inter-disciplinary and cumulative knowledge; it is not realistic to learn things in isolation, and if we teach our students math or language arts in isolation from other subject areas we put our students at injustice because they will compartmentalize the information that is learned. When in reality, everything we do as functioning members of society involves knowledge in many subject areas all at the same time.
Instruction, Differentiation, and Assessment I believe that instruction, differentiation and assessment are the backbones of classroom learning, all three of which require careful consideration. As far as learning goes, I believe in the importance of scaffolding lessons in a way that moves from concrete or simple to abstract and complex applications of information. Scaffolding allows students to set the basic building blocks of understanding before they are expected to apply and show mastery of a skill. This is important to encourage the development of student confidence and create an environment in which students know it is ok to start with beginner steps and slowly work their way up- we do not need to begin something and master it instantly, it is the process of working towards that end goal that is important. Associated with scaffolding is the idea that the constant repetition involved in this process contributes to student success; I intend to incorporate a meaningful amount of repetition to ensure my students fully understand the basic concepts that we are learning.
I also believe that self-reflection, both for students and teachers, is incredibly beneficial to your own growth and development. I plan on using reflection in my classroom daily, encouraging students to identify at least two things they did really well, and one thing they can work on every day; as a teacher, I will do the same. This encourages students to be accountable to themselves as well, which promotes positive growth. I plan on incorporating reflection into my instruction.
In terms of instruction, I also believe that it is my job as a teacher to encourage and foster the development and mastery of the six language arts (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and representing). These are skills that students will use in every classroom, no matter what subject they are in. Without a solid foundation in the language arts, students may struggle in other aspects of their schooling- even math or science. Everything in life is based around communication, and students will be better equipped to communicate in a variety of fashions if they are competent in the language arts.
As far as differentiation goes, I believe that I must use student individuality to enhance my classroom environment. As a teacher, I need to be open to change based on my students’ interests and allow room for self-expression and autonomy. This relates to individualized instruction, which I interpret as the practice of allowing students to have some degree of choice and freedom within their work. As I mentioned in the last section about experiential learning, as a teacher, I need to integrate my students' interests into my instruction and allow for differentiation based on those needs.
Regarding the assessment, I believe that it is most important to assess competencies instead of information that can be easily repeated from memory. We need to encourage our students to become skilled in the application of knowledge and skills instead of just memorizing facts. I believe that it is also essential to promote self-assessment so students can become more cognizant of and take charge of their own success.
As a teacher, I believe that you must respect, use, and consider the various different learning styles when you think about any of the above aspects of teaching. I will be open to changing my methods of instruction, be cognizant of differentiation for various learning styles, and allow for differing modalities within assessment to ensure all of my students (regardless of learning style) have an equitable and fair chance to be successful.
FNMI Integration I am fully committed to the integration of FNMI ways of knowing and pedagogical practices within my classroom. I think we have a lot to learn from Indigenous practices that can be implemented to enhance the student experience and work towards open lines of communication and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Indigenous pedagogy focuses on natural and holistic approaches, which connect students with the land and their inner spirituality. This allows for the understanding of relationality; we are all interrelated to each other, the earth, the animals, etc. I think this approach is vital for me to use in my classroom because it helps to develop a new dynamic of respect and cooperation that students may not otherwise understand or internalize. As I mentioned, Indigenous pedagogy has a significant focus on nature and the natural development of things, as in Indigenous schooling is based on ability, not age- their education is broken down by skill level instead of a grade. I believe that this is an important lesson, as we tend to segregate children based on age and primarily tend to ignore the actual skill level because they are "expected" to have hit a particular developmental stage. As a teacher, I think I can try and adopt this idea of focusing more on the skill level my students are at and helping them to grow to their full potential. It is common teaching throughout many Indigenous cultures to focus personal growth around the 7 Sacred Teachings, or the Grandfather stories (the name of these teachings are dependent on which Indigenous group you are relating to, but they all bare similar lessons). These teachings include wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth. I really appreciate what these teachings are used for within the Indigenous community, and I have seen what amazing things can come from a focus on developing those interpersonal skills; students begin to develop empathy and stable connection with themselves and one another, focusing in on the community aspect of the classroom. This is something that I would like to implement within my classroom to help my students grow, while also integrating FNMI pedagogy and ways of knowing