My Values as an Educator:
I decided to become an educator because I wanted to combine my passions and pass them on to others. These passions have become my values as an educator, and I strive to imbed them into all of my lesson an unit plans:
INCLUSION:
Inclusion is something very close to my heart. As an educator, I understand that my students will come from a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures, religions, worldviews, family values, and perspectives. I ensure all of my students feel welcome and included in my classroom. A safe space is important for everyone and all students benefits from it! I make sure my lessons are inclusive and include a variety of worldviews. I also make an effort to bring this value into other aspects of my career; in my 491 practicum I joined my school’s SOGI club. This allowed me to spread more inclusivity and learn and teach with other students in the school. On pink shirt day, I took the morning to discuss with students the importance of including everyone, and never excluding others for being different. I celebrate the diversity of my students and the diversity of myself. In all of my practicums, I allowed students to bring in parts of their own culture and share it with the class whenever the wanted to. This made the classrooms a lot more inclusive through education!
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE:
As an immigrant and avid traveler, a global perspective has always been important to me. I like to include a variety of perspectives and opinions in my classroom and help my students understand the scale of the world. I feel a lot of current world issues stem from a lack of education, so I make an effort to fix that. By including teachings of different religions, cultures, and worldviews, students learn how to respect views that may be different from their own. These conversations and teachings are always done in a very considerate and appropriate way.
My Goals:
As a new educator, I understand there is much more to learn. I am only starting this journey, so my main goal is to keep an open mind, continue to learn, and seek out opportunities to learn. During my 491 practicum I learned from as many educators as possible by shadowing in other classrooms during my PREP time. THis allowed to see a lot of different techniques to try out. I also sought out additional professional development opportunities, just so I could stay ahead in the world of education. I attended:
1). Land as Our Teacher: Changing Engagement for Indigenous Learners (Middle Year Gr. 4-9) Storytelling, Land and Identity
2). Using Assessment to Move Learning Forward in Intermediate Math Classrooms with Nikki Lineham