Community engagement and inter-professional collaboration

To me, this competency means understanding that teaching is not something you do well in isolation. It is about learning through other people, whether that is peers, mentors, students, or the wider community, and being willing to use feedback to improve what you do. I also think it means paying attention to the energy of the group and recognizing that learning is shaped by relationships, trust, and shared purpose, not just by lesson content. In that sense, community engagement is not separate from teaching. It is part of how better teaching happens, especially when you are trying to create a class environment where students feel connected and involved. 

Artifacts below are from teaching at Arbutus Middle School.  The first set is my lesson feedback from our teacher supervisor, and the next set is their corresponding lesson plans.

Self Reflection

My Lesson 1 plan and reflection, Lesson 4 plan and reflection, and my Lesson 2 and Lesson 4 feedback notes support my self-reflection in Community Engagement and Inter-professional Collaboration because together they show that Olivia and I were improving through feedback, shared planning, and reflection, but were still developing in how consistently we did that. For forming professional learning communities, I put myself in developing, and I think that fits because the earlier artifacts show me starting to engage more seriously with feedback and with how the class was functioning as a group. My Lesson 2 notes show me noticing things like team organization, attention strategies, tactical focus points, and whether everyone was actually staying involved, while the Lesson 1 reflection showed that our lesson still needed clearer routines, stronger questioning, and a more purposeful structure. That tells me I was participating in the learning community and reflecting on it, but still learning how to turn those observations into more consistent practice.

For promoting informed dialogues on complex ideas, I also put myself in developing, and I think that fits because the later artifacts show real growth, but not full consistency yet. In the Lesson 4 notes and Lesson 4 plan/reflection, there is much clearer evidence that Olivia and I responded to feedback by improving how we used demonstrations, questioning, tactical cues, and lesson flow. We made the tactical problem more visible, used questions like why to serve deep, checked for cues more often, and adjusted the structure through things like 2v2 play, tighter boundaries, and stronger routines. That connects well to game-based teaching, where learning becomes more meaningful when students are solving tactical problems and connecting technical actions back to the game (Bunker & Thorpe, 1986; Hopper, 2025; Mitchell et al., 2020). Even with that progress, I still think developing is the fairest placement because the growth is clear, but I am still building consistency in how confidently and regularly I do this.

For collaborating around common group purpose, I again put myself in developing, and I think all four artifacts show why. The earlier notes and reflection show that we were still figuring out how to keep the group moving together, reduce confusion, and create more shared purpose in the lesson. The later notes and reflection show that we improved in those areas by using teams and points more intentionally, creating better flow, and building a clearer shared understanding of the task. That matters because it shows we were not just each teaching our own part, but adjusting as a teaching group based on what we were seeing and hearing. I think this also connects well to Kamúcwkalha, because across the four artifacts you can see me becoming more aware of the shared rhythm and energy of the class, and how lesson structure affects whether students feel connected, engaged, and able to learn together.

References 

Bunker, D., & Thorpe, R. (1986). The curriculum model. In R. Thorpe, D. Bunker, & L. Almond (Eds.), Rethinking games teaching (pp. 7–10). University of Technology, Loughborough.

Hopper, T. (2025). Game-based approaches in physical education (Chapter 13, Tennis: Complexity thinking and emergent learning). [Course text excerpt].

Mitchell, S. A., Olsen, J. L., & Griffin, L. L. (2020). Teaching sport concepts and skills: A tactical games approach. Human Kinetics.

My goal is to become more intentional about using feedback, collaboration, and shared reflection to improve my teaching instead of only thinking about my own performance. In my next teaching placement or practicum, I want to collect feedback from at least one peer, mentor, or teacher after each major lesson sequence and use that feedback to make at least one visible adjustment to the next lesson. I also want to keep paying attention to Kamúcwkalha, especially how the group is feeling, moving, and learning together, so I can make better decisions that support the class as a learning community.