Interconnectedness of Knowledge, Schooling, & Society

Each week during my field placement I was asked to focus on a certain topic or question.  For me each topic was interconnected, and built on each other, as I observed and assisted the teachers and educational assistants each week.

The school, community, and learning environment all come together as one to create a safe place for children to learn and grow.  It is important for children to feel safe, so they are able to be confident as they take risks and make mistakes to expand their knowledge.  The classroom environment, when set up appropriately for its learners needs, serves as an extra teacher. Being in the classroom environment helped me to get a feel for how I would like my classroom to be set up.  I found some of the classrooms to be a bit overstimulating in regards to the decor and posters around the rooms. Colours were very bright, walls were cluttered and overwhelming, there was just too much “stuff” that didn’t need to be there and created unnecessary distractions for the children.  A class assignment where we were required to find a “sit spot”, somewhere we found comfortable and calming, a place to reflect; I noticed that my sit spot along with the other students was somewhere visually calming and a lot of them were also outdoors. This confirms my belief in the “natural classroom” I want to create for students.  Our classroom will include calming colours, comfortable spaces, and natural elements, such as plants and animals that the students will help care for.

I discovered new ways in which the learning environment isn’t just contained in the classroom, or in books, but in the hallways, outside, in nature, and within ourselves and the students.  Teaching needs to be lived in, in the moment, and sometimes it takes you down a new path you didn’t even see coming. This is what makes it so amazing of an experience for both yourself and the children.

A big thing that I took away from my field experience was how involved all of the teachers were.  In a blog post I mentioned “During class none of the educators spend a lot of time at their desks, they are constantly helping children with their learning tasks and interacting with them.”  In class we talked about teaching to the children’s needs, in order to do this you need to interact with the children and find out what those needs are. The teachers also knew more than just the children’s learning needs, but about their lives, who they were, and connected with them, creating bonds of trust and respect.  They created a safe space for children to go for help and advice about anything and everything. I learned and experienced so many ways to help create a positive environment for mental health and to help children care for and about themselves.

This field experience and this class has had such an impact on my learning as a teacher.  I have gained so much important knowledge about teaching children to be open and accepting and giving them the tools to create a beautiful world in which we all deserve to live in.  A place where differences are valued and are looked at as positive learning experiences rather than something that needs to be fixed or changed into “mainstream” society.

I have gained so many valuable resources for teaching in different ways incorporating other cultures and beliefs, and how I can learn along with the children in class.  Showing children that they have something to give and that I can learn from them as well is so important. I will help them to realize their value and how they can contribute to making a positive, accepting, safe, and healthy society.

This class and experience has shown me how there is so much more I still need to learn, first as a student, and then as a teacher.  I have started making connections in the teaching community that will be forever valuable for my career. I am so excited to keep learning, and expanding my experiences.