Category: Block 2

As far as I see this statement there is little that can be misunderstood about this. It is best for a teacher to also assist others as they are able. When people are able to help as they are at their best it is wonderful for those who are in less fortunate circumstances. There are also always new teachers who need to be helped to get experience and grow so practicums are the perfect example of standard 8.

I would say however that fortunately there is far more to being able to help the profession that does not need to be a zero sum game where help drains the potential for a teacher. Before I had even begun my first practicum at Lac Des Bois I had a circumstance that built and reinforced this understanding. On the Tuesdays that I was able to visit my CT’s class had a woodworking block that was benefited by having another adult to help make sure that students were working safely.

A Little Rusty, but I still remember the safety

I was helpful enough that the teacher-librarian who was running the class specifically asked if I could help with the next class that was the same project but from a different class. Whether or not this was because I was particularly good or having another warm body to ensure that students are less likely to goof off or hurt themselves I do not care either way since I experienced the virtuous cycle of helping and being helped at the same time.

I was, and still am, awkward. (or at least I think so, and thats all that matters)

Because of this it is somewhat more difficult to insert myself into student’s behaviors or correct/question what they’re doing. This changes when the students are sawing wood while holding it stable with their hand far too close to, or even underneath, a sawblade. It is far easier to insert myself into their behavior and stop them, then asking them what would happen if their saw were to slip or break (Because it is possible to break a saw with enough sideways motion). Once they understand that there is an actual chance they get hurt (I have an anecdote from my time in high school where a classmate injured his eye while hammering at homw without protective glasses) they engage in more safe behaviour.

This is probably not a profound change in their mindset but so long as the class is a safer environment while I’m there I am assisting the teacher. Conversely I was able to force myself out of whatever introverted mindset and act more which is an improvement for myself. Everybody benefitted and I am certainly more likely to be accepting the idea of helping out in adjacent classrooms leading up to my later practicums.

Even if it might be a bit more work to do so there are benefits that I, the students, and the other teachers can have that do not run only one way.

Standard 3 Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.

Why not begin with the standard which was less referred to in classes.

This arises from an experience prior to the program and potentially unrelated to it, though I think it has potential to express an understanding of Standard 3.

Following the political chaos within Eastern Europe in the year 2022 my family sponsored a family’s arrival to the province. It followed that we invited them to Christmas Dinner. After the dinner I brought out a chess board to challenge my brother, mostly as a joke since his planning and competitiveness did not mix well last time we’d competed against each other.

One of the children from the sponsored family saw the board and was immediately interested. So we set it up and had a match. I defeated a primary aged child.

Barely

In that part of the world Chess is a commonly played game to the point that I saw the child almost expecting a chess clock to be beside the board.

To a degree I expected this child to be more experienced with chess but I was entirely surprised by the skills that were present. Other things that could have influenced my perceptions would be that since the child had little English competency they were more withdrawn.

What I take from this is that students will need to have greater things to work towards because if they become interested in what you are teaching they will tear through it like it is nothing and will leave the unprepared teacher in need of more.

It is critically important not to overestimate the skills of students generally, they can only know what they were taught through teachers, peers, and necessity. Expecting students to “know” about any given topic could lead to greater consequences. I recall in my elementary years being informed by a substitute teacher that we “had it easy” since we knew how to use a mouse easily. 2 years before we had to be taught that a computer monitor is not the same as the computer itself, which was something that the teacher at the time expected us to know.

If during my game of chess I had talked about the type of opening I had made I would expect a completely blank stare, not least because it takes time to learn English and above and beyond that is the Chess theory and discussions on that topic which even less people are interested in than the game itself.

The idea of professional development is something that reminds me of a statement in Lewis Carrols sequel to the classic Alice in Wonderland.

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
The Red Queen

All the regular work that is done to work on lessons and develop oneself can be insufficient because what works in one class might not in another therefore your work is only to maintain your position.

Then we get the Professional development. It is working on purpose in areas that are not necessarily going to help you in the immediate future, but will build your skills and understanding so you can “get somewhere else”. If you are always focused on the immediate future then the larger things that can cause greater issues, such as report cards, will become a near insurmountable obstacle. Pro-D gives you a slightly different day that can prepare you to get ahead of things, and you also learn things that you can use too. These things are also more applicable than could be at first as well.

Earlier in Block 2 when I had my Pro-D day I went to the Early Learning Conference. Whilst there I learned a few things about the development of writing and reading that were interesting and tailored to at most a grade 3 class. I ended up thinking once I was placed in a grade 6/7 class that what I had learned in the Pro-D event would not be applicable.

A fortuitous encounter in the Pro-D meant that I had taken a class with a teacher from the same school I had been to the same pro-D event and shared the efficacy of the books they had their students make. With some time left I figured I would use this with a small writing project I had my students do with them creating a book to be their ‘good copy’. Due to general unexpectedness the project had to be finished on the final day and I think that this was effective in investing students interest since many of them asked that I bring the books back to their class after I had marked them, so I stayed longer after school to make sure they would get back to their makers. That which is applicable to younger grades can be adapted for older ones and I would not have properly understood that without my experience at the Pro-D event to start my journey.

Through the Looking-Glass. (2024, April 1). https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12/pg12-images.html

Educators value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families, and communities in schools.

I heard an anecdote from somewhere that if a butterfly is surgically removed from its cocoon then it is completely unable to fly. It is necessary that it struggle against its fetters and in the effort to escape the cocoon it grows the strength it needs to soar. The one big fear I have when considering interacting with parents about their children is that I might have to inform them that they did something along those lines to their child, removing the struggle so they did not learn.

During the Math Night my lesson plan made for a very particular subgroup of grade 7 students was not present to enjoy the experience, as I probably should have expected.

All the same some people ended up at my table, through osmosis as much as anything else.

Though an interesting thing happened when the younger students attempted my atrocity of a game. They seemed to do well enough for themselves but when they had difficulties they didn’t tend to get frustrated since they had their parents nearby who were looking at things on a higher level, able to dispense advice when needed and help with the more difficult calculations.

The students ended up having a fun time and taking away one of my extra copies of the game system I had around and I would attribute their good experience with the fact that their parents were able to assist them when they needed to. Since they were obviously below the expected age and knowledge level that I had designed the game for this seemed like the best.

Of course there can be issues with parent over involvement in student work since the work will not have evidence of their students abilities. Worse than that, those students who are likely to have parents invested in their life to ‘assist with’ homework would also be more likely to have their children be well behaved students. From this assistance the teacher receives distorted feedback that children are quite able to do what they are actually incapable of doing, leading to misplaced expectations that negatively impact those students who do not get the help and are therefore negatively impacted from all sides.

To ensure there is no distortion of the evidence a teacher will need to ensure that parents have something that they are able to do that is voluntary and doesn’t artificially inflate student achievement.

Of course parents care about their kids and want them to be successful so the only thing we need to do for parents is give them an opportunity to help their children in a way that will help them.

Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.

The fact of time

The main issue we deal with is the fact that time is always a limited resource. To use some simple multiplication every day has about 5 hours of ‘teaching’ time. with 5 days a week and 4 weeks a month we get from September to June we get

10 months x 4 weeks per month x 5 days per week x 5 hours per day= 1000 hours for a school year

We also have out Winter Break and Spring Break, both of which add up to 2 weeks so the time we have is:

1000 hours – (1 months x 4 weeks x 5 days per week x 5 hours per day) =900 hours for a school year

Then we take away 3 weeks for all the different holidays and Pro-D days:

900 hours- (3 weeks x 5 days per week x 5 hours per day)= 825 hours in a school year.

I have also heard from teachers that the month of September can have barely any effective teaching in it since it takes a while to get the class settled into their routines.

825 hours- (4 weeks x 5 days per week x 5 hours per day)= 725 hours in a school year.

Now on the BC curriculum website we have 9 different subjects that have to be taught, ADST, Careers, Languages, Physical Health, Social Studies, Arts, English, Math, and Science.

725 hours ÷ 9=80.5 hours per class.

Lets say for the sake of being reasonable that ADST, Careers, Languages, and Art can be their own category so we only have 5 ‘classes’ we need to teach.

725 hours ÷ 5=145 hours per class per year.

If we follow the 10,000 hours rule, it takes 10,000 hours of practice for someone to gain mastery in a subject

10,000 ÷ 145=68.9 years.

Assuming a student starts Kindergarten at the age of 5 they will be masters by the age of 74. We need to get them to learn more effectively than that.

So what should we do?

1. Cultivate an honest relationship with your students

Doing something that shows that you care has immense impacts. If someone learns and understands that there are people who care and are willing to help that can change their life trajectory compared to those who do not care and do not believe anyone will help them.

If your students are able to trust you they will learn more easier since it will take less time to get their investment. Do not destroy that trust if at all possible.

2. Do what works (what is shown to work)

We should learn what methods of teaching and learning work and learn to effectively apply them. We cannot revolutionize everything at once but we can do it in the same manner that one must eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

What it means is that we need to value students in what we do. Our actions need to be effective in all areas because if they are not effective then they don’t work and there is no reason to have students, or anyone, do something that does not work.

P.S. this has been something rattling around in my mind for the last few months and I’ve had to put it into writing. I didn’t feel like anything else could fit here any better.

Educators act ethically and maintain integrity, credibility and reputation of the profession/

To be a teacher is to inherently be put into a more public situation compared to other jobs, and our position is critically important since those who people care about most, children, are in our care for a significant part of their formative years.

During Block 1 I recall a warning that there was a previous teacher candidate who through their inadvisable decisions of what they shared in a public venue ended up being unable to become a teacher. I am aware that this was a reminder that even though we are in a circumstance where we ‘got in’ that we still had to display the professionalism that allowed us to enter the program. So standard 2 and the requirement to keep students anonymous if I would use them was embedded in my mind.

For myself there was only one event where I thought that I had caused an issue which was entirely my mind creating the issue out of nowhere. On the first Thursday of my first practicum my car had an issue starting when I had to go home so I put my stuff down outside my car, jumped my car, then got my stuff and left for home. It was a while after I got home, about 9:00 that I realized that I did not have my file case, shown here:

I thought nothing of it since I could use something else to easily bring whatever I needed and since it was not with me it would obviously be in the classroom where the things I didn’t take home were left.

Then I thought too much about it and by the time I was not quite asleep I led myself to believe that I had forgotten it outside when I had driven away. I did not get as much sleep as I would have liked, though I think I eventually fell asleep.

My conclusion from that is that I ought not to focus on more than simply ‘not messing up’ since although that is the minimum putting that as a focus can lead to more stress and general negative outcomes. I of course will still try not to mess up but my myopic focus is better spent on making things that my students will enjoy, which would much better contribute to standard 2.