I believe that teachers mainly build their own professional knowledge through their own experiences by working with different students and learning from other faculty members throughout their school. Educators can only learn so much through reading and studying, while working through these experiences can provide them with an even better understanding of certain issues and situations. Teachers create a lot of their own lesson plans and activities; however, they also do rely on other supports throughout their career. Teachers base their plans within the curriculum guide while using various teaching resources, they also rely a lot on their fellow educators, school friends, current coworkers, past coworkers, they all work together, sharing ideas and their knowledge on specific topics to ensure each student receives the most beneficial classroom experiences.
Teachers promote knowledge within the classroom by allowing students to pick certain topics and educate all their classmates about that selected topic. In the classroom I have been visiting the students have a time set aside for a “genius hour”. During this time each week, a student, either by themselves or with a partner, has the opportunity to educate their classmates on a topic that interests them. They are able to present using either power points, oral presentations, or visual displays, they are also encouraged to bring examples or snacks that may represent that topic. Students are also encouraged to build onto or elaborate from their own or from fellow classmates’ ideas and answers. Teachers understand and work around each student and their learning abilities as well as how each student learns best. They work on their memory in regards to reading by recalling certain parts of each story that they read, which is valuable in a few different ways, one example is learning to understand while reading rather than just reading words that they will not remember. Students are able to receive knowledge within each subject, then create their own example of that topic, an example of this would be learning about the flags for each province and their meaning, then allowing them to create their own flag based on their own identity, allowing creativity and imagination. Problem solving stories or even breaking down other stories gives the students the opportunity to understand the reasons behind certain outcomes taking place.