I believe that there are three essential elements to the role of a teacher. Firstly, teachers must acknowledge and value children as the most important and understand their duty of care. Secondly, teachers must stay up to date on quality teaching (management, instruction, and assessment). Thirdly, teachers must be continually building relationships not only with their students but parents, colleagues and the community.
In my teaching practice, I believe that there are five elements that are conducive to a high-quality learning environment:
- Learning opportunities should be experiential
- Learning opportunities should be problem-based
- Learning opportunities must be universally designed to support all learners
- Students should be given choice
- The learning environment must be safe and consistent for students to develop their skills
Sophie Church working on the Traditional Ecological Knowledge 8/9 course’s traditional canoe
Reflection on the Teaching Standards
- Educators value and care for all students and act in their best interests.
I feel this is so important for developing the foundational knowledge about your students that you need to be able to tailor your lessons to your students or to provide them choice. Valuing them as individuals and making choices that care for them as individuals is so important. - Educators are role models who act ethically and honestly.
Teachers spend a remarkable about of time with their students. Eight hours per day is much more than many parents spend with their students. For this reason, being a strong role model is so important. It is in a child nature to copy the behaviours of the adults in their lives so we need to ensure we are always acting ethically- even in the halls etc. as students are always watching. - Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
Student engagement with learning opportunities are so related to what is developmentally appropriate for them. Too easy and they will not engage due to boredom, too challenging and they will become unengaged due to frustration. As a teacher, I always want to continue to develop their abilities such that we can continue to try more complex assignments as they become more ready. - Educators value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families and communities in schools.
Students have so many spheres of influence in their lives. Coming from a community work background, I strongly believe every player in our students lives have an important piece of the puzzle to understanding that student and how they flourish. - Educators implement effective practices in areas of planning, instruction, assessment, evaluation and reporting.
We have learned in this program that not all types are instruction are equally as effective for all students. There is more and more research coming out that suggests new ways of engaging and developing students to think more deeply. Teachers need to know this and keep up with the research as it comes out so they can be the most effective they can be. - Educators have a broad knowledge base and understand the subject areas they teach.
It is expected that teachers understand what they are teaching. It is also becoming more expected than ever that teachers can implement cross-curricular connections which requires a broad knowledge base. I believe teachers should love learning- and such should be interested in lifelong learning and building their personal knowledge base. - Educators engage in career-long learning.
This standard is related to many of the other standards, especially 5 and 6. As mentioned previously, more research is always coming out suggesting better ways to develop and teach students. Teachers should be up to date on this in order to be the most effective possible. - Educators contribute to the profession.
Every teacher has benefitted from this standard in that all teacher had to have a sponsor/mentor teacher during their practica. As a key part of the teacher education process we all benefitted from, we need to do our part to support that system. Contributing to the profession can also take the form of sharing knowledge and being a support for other teachers. Teaching is a demanding job- and we are all more effective if we work together.