Professionally Centered
Professionally Centered
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This category focuses on my own manner of teaching and my ability to teach in a professional manner. I must demonstrate and model exemplary behavior that we ask of our students and our colleagues. This includes punctual attendance, behavior, and appearance.
Demonstrating professionalism in the profession
Professionalism is an important part of maintaining trust within the school. All aspects of a teacher's performance and attire are judged and reviewed throughout a school day. Students view teachers as role models and thus should be exemplars of behaviour and visual attire.
It is important for me as a teacher to continuously dress in appropriate and professional attire. This includes a business-like casual dress code as well as appropriate outfits for certain school-related activities. As a teacher, I must model acceptable outdoor wear during hot and cold days as well as appropriate gear safety for certain subjects (ex: running shoes for physical education or safety goggles for science class).
Organization is also a must in demonstrating professionalism. Long-range plans as well as discussions on unit subjects to teach within practicums were always well-discussed before the start of the teaching block and drafts of each lesson were always given a few days prior to teaching to make sure that the Associate Teacher approved of the lesson and that it did not interfere with student's routines and learning habits that they are used to. These drafts are not only important to the Associate Teacher but also important to me as I can use them for reflection notes and ensure a well-organized lesson if any unsee issue arises.
Accepting responsibility for own behaviour
Often when we talk about accepting responsibility for our own behaviour within the profession it is usually towards mistakes made that affect our colleagues. However, I have found that we teachers must accept responsibility for all actions that we take including those that affect students. Students in general see teachers as someone who do not make mistakes as they are role models. By acknowledging strengths and weaknesses, students, colleagues, and parents can build a trusting collaborative working environment where everyone feels like they are working together towards the same goal. In my experience, I have felt that accepting mistakes in front of students allows them to understand and have more empathy toward me as a teacher and toward their peers.
Engaging in ongoing reflection to improve practice
Reflections are essential to all aspects of lesson planning and education. As I have spoken in pedagogy-centered learning, ongoing reflection allows me to prepare for future classes and any issues that may come up throughout the lesson. Within rotary classrooms, it is important to reflect on lesson plans after each class as it may help develop a more effective lesson for the next class. Within my experience, reflection can be as simple as making observations and seeing what did or did not resonate with the class or asking for formal feedback from your students, ATs, or colleagues.
Artifact: Adding Fraction with an Array Model Lesson Plan
Within this artifact, you can find part one of a full lesson plan that I have fully thought out and have put the effort into creating. This lesson has gone through many stages of reflection and alterations in order to become as effective as it can be. As a result of this, the lesson consists of areas where they can follow along with the lesson and where they can visualize the important aspects that are being taught to them throughout the lesson through the use of colours. Furthermore, after each time I have utilized this lesson, I have created a reflection for myself to look back to and analyze what must be done to create an even more effective lesson. During this lesson, it seemed from my own reflection that the class mostly responded positively to the lesson, however, the students may have benefited more from real-life examples (as a result of this reflection, I have begun to refer to this model as the "chocolate bar" model instead). All of this is important as it has demonstrated initiative, enthusiasm, and effort as well as an ability to present copies of the draft for each lesson plan to the Associate Teacher at least 24 hours before the lesson is taught.
This artifact directly correlates with one of my continued learning goals of sharing and finding more educational resources. I have most recently shared this lesson as well as others following it (including subtracting arrays and fractions on a number line) with other math teachers. I have witnessed this lesson being used and altered to fit the needs of their own classroom. It is important to note that all resources that we do share with other teachers and educators will and must be adjusted to meet the needs of your (and my) own students and classrooms. It is impossible to find lesson materials that will fit the needs of everyone, teachers and educators must use the knowledge that they have gained through their knowledge and relationship with their students to create the lesson and learning environment that works best for them.
Upholding the principles of the ethical standards of care, integrity, trust, and respect
The Ontario College of Teachers states that the purposes of the ethical standards for the teaching profession are as follows:
to inspire members to reflect and uphold the honour and dignity of the teaching profession
to identify the ethical responsibilities and commitments in the teaching profession
to guide ethical decisions and actions in the teaching profession
to promote public trust and confidence in the teaching profession.
Care
Showing care means that we are committed to the well-being of our students. This includes taking an interest in our students' lives and practicing empathy at all times. As I have talked about throughout all of the categories of observation, the ethical standard of care has been shown by getting to know my own student's interests, backgrounds, and cultures. This standard of care in return correlates with the three other ethical standards as it maintains a positive learning environment.
Integrity
Integrity within the profession means that I follow morals and will always do the right thing even if no one is watching. This character itself goes beyond the workplace and into all aspects of my personal life. It is important to have a set of positive values and rules that I wish for all others to follow including students, families, and colleagues which I must follow as an example. By showing integrity, I treat others the way that I want to be treated, actively listen for feedback, and cooperate with others to achieve a certain goal.
Trust
Building and maintaining trust within a classroom may be one of the hardest tasks that I have faced. Some students are reluctant to give out trust as they may have had bad experiences with family or teachers in the past. Going past this barrier means that I must also trust my own students by giving out responsibilities and creating an open environment where students feel free to explore and be tolerant of mistakes. All of these attributes mean that as a Teacher Candidate, I must be constantly finding ways in which I can make my students feel safe.
Respect
Respect involves many of the social-emotional learning skills that we see within the ministry curriculum, however, similar to that of trust, respect must be built from the ground up slowly. This will overall become a long-range goal and cannot be done within a single day. Along with all the other attributes, respect can be built by creating a positive learning environment. This includes open discussions about diversity, providing positive feedback when possible, and showing honesty.
Overall, by using and demonstrating certain classroom management strategies and personal connections that I have talked about throughout the 5 categories of observations found within my previous practicums, I have found that respect comes naturally. Students must feel like they are working with you as a teacher instead of for/against you, by doing this, students are more inclined to engage in the lessons that you have prepared.
Maintaining confidentiality and respecting the privacy of students and colleagues
Maintaining confidentiality and respecting privacy is the fundamental core of the standards of ethics that we discuss above. By disregarding this issue, we disregard every single standard and will eventually create a hostile and unsafe environment for the students and our colleagues. As a teacher, I believe that student privacy is the most important aspect of this profession, even more so than teaching itself, this is because privacy/confidentially directly relates to student safety. As a result of this, discussions about teaching in the classroom stay in school and never into my personal life (friends and family). Furthermore, all sensitive materials are either kept in the school with my Associate Teacher or in a secure folder with me at all times. Finally, when I do talk about issues regarding the school, it is always in a secure physical location (such as a closed classroom or office) with trusted and essential personnel who are required to have knowledge about this issue.
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