Standard 8 – Educators contribute to the profession
As a pre-service teacher, I have had the opportunity to be involved in a number of activities and I look forward to more involvement for many years to come.
Very shortly after the program began, I along with another student teacher was elected to be the student representatives for our cohort and it was been an amazing experience. We have been tasked with supporting the other teacher candidates in our cohort with concerns regarding assignments or simply being a supportive and listening ear. It has been something that I thoroughly enjoy, so when the election for the executive of the newly minted Education Club was being held, joining the club and then running for the position of Secretary seemed like a logical thing to do. It really has been so much fun, but there has also been a lot of hard work, but the joy of that is that the Education Club has become as extended family and support system for all of the Education students in the program. The work is so worth it, to be able to be a part of and witness the strength of the community that it has formed.
Recently, I took part in part one of the SOGI learning series, discussing leadership and ways to support all our learners at the District Learning Commons; it was incredibly powerful to have conversations with so many different educators who are passionate about breaking down barriers and supporting all learners. Regardless of the position, grade or experience that each person brought into the room, the fact that there was such unity in reaching and supporting some of the most at risk learners within the district makes me proud to be learning and working here.
After the holiday season, part two of the series will be looking Inclusive Environments, a topic that is very important to me so I look forward to coming together with other educators to share ideas and have important discussions about the environments that are being created for our learners and how we can make sure all our learners are represented and feel welcome in schools, classrooms and the district as a whole.
As part of our Education 360 course, I created and presented an Ignite presentation on the importance of Place Based Education; I grounded the presentation in the places where I have been part of place based learning. I shared the story of the various sites and classrooms that I had been part of while working in Edmonton and explained the significance and learning that each held for myself and also the learners that I worked with.
This was a wonderful experience as it allowed me to share my passion for Place Based learning, but also to show up the pictures of some of my favourite places to be. It was also the first time that the Education Program had had an Ignite sharing event to demonstrate the learning that had taken place in the program to date.