Professional Responsibilities

Grade 4 Students painting rocks to represent the Seven Sacred Teachings

Year 4

Practicum II - Winter 2023

Competency Development: Honours cultural diversity and promotes intercultural understanding (TQS 1f, 5c)

Goal: While in my role as a Teacher Candidate from January to April, one of my goals is to include other cultures and ways of understanding into my teaching. I would like to have my students investigate and take interest in other cultures to learn from them in a diverse way. My goal is to incorporate at least two lessons into each of my units that includes a different culture or ways of knowing. This will help me expand my knowledge and grow more as an educator. It will also help my students accept other cultures and learn different ideas.

Growth: Throughout my practicum I was able to conduct several lessons that were based around other cultures, more specifically, Indigenous ways of knowing. In the image shown, this was a project that students participated in based around the seven sacred teachings. After learning about the 7 teachings, students were asked to choose the teaching that spoke most to them and the ywere to reflect on it using various questions and paint their rock with a symbol or representation of that teaching.

Year 3

Practicum I - Fall 2021:

Competency Development: identifies and implements specific changes to practice based on reflection and feedback from Mentor Teacher and Faculty Supervisor (MRU B.Ed Program Outcomes PR6, TQS 2a, 2b).

Goal Before Practicum: In my role as a teacher candidate this year, it will be vital that I adapt and reflect on my teaching and accept feedback from my mentor teacher and faculty supervisor. Therefore, during my weekly lessons in November, my goal is to focus on three positive things that I did well and two things that I wish to improve and focus on the following week. I know I will have achieved this goal through self-reflection and conversing with my mentor teacher about these improvements.

Growth: In my practicum, I engaged in daily reflections with my mentor teacher. After each lesson, my mentor teacher and I would sit down and go over each lesson. The discussions that we partook in included: inclusive environment, improving my practice, respect of learners, facilitating learning, and more. I felt as though through these reflections, I become a better teacher and more confident knowing what I was doing well and things that I could improve on.

One of my math lessons that took place ended up being very confusing, and it was evident that the students were not comprehending or able to apply the content learned. My mentor teacher and I took a lot of time after school reflecting on what went wrong, what needed to be improved and re-explained, and how we could facilitate the lesson from a different approach the following day. This reflection improved my teaching the next day and improved my confidence.

Year 2

Winter:

Visual Journal:

Growth: This semester, I had the opportunity to show my learning in my Effective Assessment class in the form of a visual journal. Doing this helped me to review my previous learning in the class and use the creative side of my brain to show my learning to my peers and professor. This activity helped me to "guide actions with a personal overall vision of the purpose of education. Communicate [my] vision, including how it has changed as a result of new knowledge, understanding, and experience" (PR 5). I was able to show new knowledge that I had gained and how it connected to certain workshops and activities throughout the course.

Goal: This semester I did not attend many workshops with the education students. Next year, I want to complete a couple of workshops to build community and show that I am a lifelong learner and interested in professional development.

Fall:

Professional Conversations Assignment

Growth: This semester I had the opportunity to work alongside a peer while having virtual conversations with a mentor teacher. These conversations that were centered around literacy showed me all of the professional responsibilities that you have as a teacher and while teaching literacy. A topic that was emphasized during our conversations and classes was integrating different cultures of students and different views into the classroom. Making the class a safe space for students to make mistakes, learn, and grow is a huge part of being a teacher. Meeting with my mentor teacher and a peer on a weekly basis gave me the opportunity to hear from another MRU student and expand my thinking based on the questions they would ask our MT or the conversations that would be brought up. These conversations also helped me “engage in professional learning with colleagues” (PR8)

Goal: My goal is to interact with more of my peers and get their insight on their classes and schools. I want to learn different ideas from colleagues and peers.

Year 1

Winter:

School Tours Assignment

Growth: This semester, looking back, I have learned so much about what being a teacher means and what our different responsabilities are as a teacher. It is not only our professional responsbilities inside of the classroom, but also in our everyday personal lives. As teachers, we abide by the guidelines that Alberta Teacher's Association puts in place for teachers to follow to be as proffessional as possible. This includes dress codes, things we say, how we act at school to students, other teachers and faculty, and parents. We have also learned how to deal with certain incidents that we may face as teachers in our professional life. This semester I got to witness what my mentor teacher does to professionally deal with other parents and faculty.

I have attatched my school tours assignment to show the different ways that schools do their professional responsabilities in multiple different ways.

Goals: This year I spent a lot of time observing how teachers handle tough situations being a teacher, I am looking forward to handling my own tough situations when I become a teacher, and learning even more strategies to handle those situations most effectively.

Fall:

In my first semester of the B.E.d. program, I already felt like I have learned a lot from my mentor teacher and what kinds of roles that teachers take on in the classroom. The biggest thing I have learned is to maintain a classroom environment where students feel safe, included, and know that it's okay to make mistakes. Taking the time to develop a relationship with each individual makes an optimal classroom environment for students. Teachers also have the responsibility to maintain an active role in the community.

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