Becoming a Teacher
The two points that resonated with me would be “To support each student in reaching their highest levels of individual growth across intellectual, social-emotional, spiritual, and physical domains” (STF Code of Professional Ethics) and “To develop teaching practices that recognize and accommodate diversity within the classroom, the school and the community” (STF Standards of Practice). After reading the document, both quotes help answer the question of what does it mean to be a professional. In my opinion being a professional mean to act in a manner that best suits your students, colleagues, and community. In the teaching profession we are not only expected to implement the curriculum but to adapt to the needs of our students to help them understand. A classroom, let alone a school is a very diverse space that teachers as professionals need to work together to accommodate the needs of all the students. As for the question am I a teacher 24 hours a day, yes there is some truth behind this. From the very first few days of school children are taught that teachers are someone they need to listen to but also someone they can trust to talk to. Someone is always watching and looking up to you, just because you are not physically teaching it is still expected of you to watch the way you speech, dress, and what you post on social media. At the end of the day you are expected to act as a professional.
I believe that being a student in the Faculty of Education means we need to think of the actions we are preforming on a daily basis and should behave in ways that set good examples. We need to take more consideration of the things we say and do because we are now future educators and should begin holding ourselves to the same standards as teachers. This can be as simple as watching what we post on social media or the way we dress on campus. We are the future of education and should present ourselves in ways that people know they can trust/someone a parent could trust their children with.
Play Now and Then
Diane Levin’s article, “Changing times, changing play” identifies how as time continues the dynamics of play are changing, and I when began speaking to older and younger generations about play it was evident that Levin’s article was true. When I spoke to my parents, I asked them if they believed play was different from when they were younger. They state that today a lot of play takes place indoors, with technology or expensive toys, and has constant parent supervision. When they were younger, majority of their time was spent playing outside with any other kids they could find. It did not matter who or how old you were if you wanted to play with each other that was fine. Neither of my parents can remember telling their parents where they were always, as long as they were home by before the streetlamps turned on. With the younger generations, however, things are a bit different, and I learnt this from speaking to my eleven- and three-year-old brothers. As Levin states there is a loss of outdoor play, increasing dependence on screens, an over-abundance of toys, and increasing roles of adults in play (Levin, 2012. P. 4), which I would agree with. Although they still like to play outside, their play does involve being inside or on technology a lot of the time. For my eleven-year-old brother, his play involves playing online with his friends, with monitoring from my parents to ensure there is nothing intrusive involved. When he is outside playing it involves playing with his friends or siblings, it does not involve kids you do not know, and he needs to tell my parents where he is avoiding certain areas within town to ensure they are away from busy areas. Play dates were often set up when he was younger to provide a safe place for the kids to play, with constant supervision. Play for my youngest brother consists of playing with his favorite paw patrol toys, blocks, and imaginary games; but there is still technology he plays with, as he has an iPad for traveling, and will request to have the tv playing in the background while playing his games. However, in contrast to what Levin’s said I do believe that children are still participating in imaginative play and still have a fair number of relationships with other kids. Often, I see my brothers playing in their own little worlds making up games and talking to themselves. Even though I believe there is an increase of toys that children want, pushed on them from advertisements, there are still times my brothers’ favorite toys are random objects around the house that they imagine to be whatever they want; like sticks being used as swords, which my parents did as well. I believe play is even different from when I was younger. The play I participated in reminds me of the play my parents participated in, but I can also see where things began to shift. I was always outdoors making up games of my own, not coming home until the curfew I was given, but more technology was coming out and I can remember my friends getting gaming systems. Play dates were something my friends’ parents believed in, but my parents believed that we could call our friends or walking over to their house to see if they could play, as they did not believe we needed constant supervision. I never had to tell my parents where I was going specifically, but I needed to let them know if I was not coming home after school and who I was with. It also did not matter if I wanted to make friends with kids I did not know, whereas now that is a little more questionable because they are “strangers”. In the end I believe play now has changed similarly to Schwarmueller in that, “cultural factors… and undervaluing of play by parents…” (Schwarmueller, 2013. P.38). Parents focus on academics rather than on allowing children to learn in the many ways they play. Parents also tend to wrap their children in bubble wrap instead of experiencing new things that can help their development. Culture today plays a big impact on children’s play, as everything in today’s revolves around technology. In the end I believe play is an essential part of a child’s development, and. that it is the influence of parents and culture that is the cause of the decline in play in a child’s life.
References:
Levin, D. (2012). Changing times, Changing play: Why does it matter? Exchange, 207, 58-62.
Gretchen Schwarzmueller & Vincent Rinaldo (2013) The importance of self- directed play, Kappa Delta Pi Record, 49(1), 37-41, DOI: 10.1080/00228958.2013.759848
Learning Theories
Throughout my education I can remember being taught with many of these learning theories discussed, such as behaviorism, cognitivism, and social constructivism. Within elementary school the theory I remember being used the most was behaviorism. In younger grades there was a stop light chart used and if you acted out you got moved from green to yellow, and if continued all the way to red; and if we were still in the green at the end of, they stay we added a sticker to our sticker chart, that once filled up we got to pick a prize. In the older grades we used a classroom dojo, where points could be added and taken away for specific good and bad things either as individuals or as a class. At the end of every month if your progress report was at a certain level, we were able to pick a prize from the prize box. These methods working in some ways, but not in others. For myself, I was motivated to stay on task and on my best behavior as I wanted to be able to reach the prize level. However, I did notice for some of my peers this system was not rewarding, because some of them had troubles staying focused or would not understand something, and would often have points taken away because they did not appear to be doing their work. Some would even turn it into a game of how many points can I get taken away and would end up getting the whole class in trouble which was very frustrating. Once in middle years teachers began to switch their teachers more into cognitivism and social constructivism learning, where our independents and group collaboration was encouraged. Projects switched over to more inquiry-oriented projects, and experimental actives for classes other than math which often just remained lecturing and testing. My peers and myself found this type of learning very helpful as teachers often took more time to explain how to do a task using scaffolding.
I think the theory that resonates most with me and I hope to use within my own classroom is the multiple intelligence theory. I like this method best because it opens the classroom to be student-centered; allows students to try several methods of learning, I can change the ways I will teach to best fit what I am trying to teach and my student’s needs, and helps the students develop their strengths and helps work on their weaknesses. This is the way I enjoy learning as it allows us to find ways that we will succeed in, instead of sitting and writing notes all the time, or doing projects in one specific way. This method also allows for me to give lots of instruction on how to do tasks using scaffolding to ensure students understand the task, and find ways that appeal to them. This method would appeal to those students who like to do more hands-on work and trying out different ways for themselves to best understand and perform a task; however, this approach may be a struggle for students who prefer a more structured learning space and learn best from listening and repeating knowledge. But it is my goal to incorporate the many ways my student best learns into my teaching in some way or another. Whether that be teaching different lessons in different ways or providing option for student’s project that they can pick from to share their knowledge in a way that works for them; I also want to encourage my students to get out of their comfort zone and try new things.
This website was very eye opening for me, on some of the struggles black people go through living on the prairies and in Canada. While I have always been aware of the discrimination against black, indigenous, and many other people, I never knew the extent to some of these taking place in our ow back yard. Throughout my education I can only remember a few lessons about the specific scenarios impacting the black population such as the underground railroad leading slaves to Canada, riots taking place in the USA in the past, and Rosa Park’s or Viola Desmond’s stories, but it has always been portrayed that Canada has a better history than the USA. In reality, discrimination is just as bad here in Canada. One of the stories I looked at first was Race to Touchdown an article about former Saskatchewan Rough Rider player George Reed. When choosing to come to Saskatchewan it was because he heard that Canada and the CFL was a more inclusive place to be, but his mind was quickly changed. It’s shocking to hear how his first two seasons playing he lived out of a hotel because no one would rent him an apartment because of the color of his skin; it took leading the Rider to a Grey Cup and “proving himself” for people to finally accept him. I did not know before that the CFL used to have a quota for how many black players could play on a team, which was 4-5 players. This was an extremely unfair situation as it did not matter if you were more talented than someone else it matters the color pf your skin; this forced many players such as Reed to continue to play even when injured in fear of being replaced and losing their job. It was also saddening to see that when he had the opportunity to take to the public about discriminator issues, it costed him a demotion and privileges from his off-season employer. However, after 50 years things have not changed much as when players spoke up about racism in Canada after the killing of George Floyd, they faced backlash from fans.
We are taught about Canada’s history with Indigenous people (not as much as we should), but never barely anything about our history regarding black people. While reading the article “I grew up a black girl in Alberta without ever hearing of Amber Valley. How does history go missing?” it states, “Much like the 1911 Federal Order-in-Council prohibiting ‘any immigrants belonging to the Negro race, which is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada,’ the sanitized version of Prairie history we receive is designed to keep the Prairies as a non-Black space”. I was never taught that Canada had banned black people black people from immigrating to Canada for a year.
These articles were some of the many that I read that opened my eyes to the racism that is occurring in our own province. As a future educator these articles have influenced my pedagogy because I want to help make a change and allow many students to feel that their histories are represented. These stories from the Black on the Prairies are a great resource to share with students to do just that. I want to able to show my students that things are not always what they seem and shed some light on the truth of what is happening in Canada, as well as their own province.
Gender Studies within the Classroom
It was not until attending university that I can remember having any form of discussion regarding gender and sexual orientation. Which is unfortunate as I do feel it is something that should be discussed more often than it is, especially within our education level. Growing up within a same town where majority of the population is very “traditional”, everyone had a very strong opinion about what was “normal” and those who did not fit those standards was judged and talked about behind their backs frequently. When discussion was brought up about gender and sexual orientation it was often by individuals that did identified as part of the 2SLGBTQIAP+ communities, who had finally had enough listening to the comments made about them or their peers. It was also obvious that everyone including our teachers often did not know how to respond because it is something that was never discussed; and then after the fact you would hear groups laughing about it or making fun of the situation. In addition, microaggressions where constantly being used in day-to-day language, and often no one said a thing to prevent this language from continuing. Elementary school seemed to be the only time teachers who step in, but even then, there was no further discussion it was just simple “don’t say those kinds of things”. As we got older there was simply no effort from teachers to even acknowledge the microaggressions taking place even right in front of them.
In my opinion, the first step is addressing these issues within the classroom. By discussing topics such as this we are educating our students and creating an environment that allows all our students to feel welcomed and recognized within. By putting books on our shelves and outing posters promoting 2SLGBTQIAP+ communities it allows students to recognize that this is a brave space and that they can feel as though they have a teammate they can look to in times when needed. As teachers we also need to ensure that we are also properly educated ourselves; it’s alright to not know the answer to everything but we should find the time to find out answers to the questions our students may have. We should be mindful that individuals might be going through difficult times and figuring out their identities, and we need to be accepting of this.