E-Portfolio
Alberta Education Teacher Quality Standard (TQS) Competencies
REFLECT
1. Fostering Effective Relationships
Photo Essay: Life in Schools
In one of the first assignments I completed in my time in the Bachelor of Education program at the Werklund School of Education, I explore my own reasons for entering the teaching profession by highlighting some thought-provoking passages on key themes in teaching and learning. In particular, I emphasize the critical importance of positive and productive relationships between students, teachers, and other key stakeholders. Specify, I have identified passages that capture my perspectives on the importance of empathy and a genuine caring for others to facilitate student readiness to learn, honouring cultural diversity to create a healthy and supportive classroom environment, and the role of the teacher in building knowledge together with their students as partners in education.
2. Engaging in Career Long Learning
Visual Essay: Evolving Conceptual Understanding of Social Studies
In this visual essay I explore several key themes reflecting my evolving understanding of Social Studies which have been developed and refined in extensive discussion with professors, partner teachers and other pre-service teachers with a view to building personal and collective professional capacities and expertise. Specifically, I explore some barriers to effective Social Studies education to include questions of interest and relevance, the challenges of developing critical thinking skills, and incorporating multiple perspectives into my practice whereby I am, seeking, and critically reviewing educational research to improve my practice. Overall, this evolving understanding reflects evidence of my efforts to seek out and apply the feedback provided in my teacher education and pre-service teaching experiences so far to enhance my teaching practice.
3. Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge
Unit Plan: Exploring Identity and Quality of Life in The Social Media Age
In this unit plan developed for Social Studies 10-1, “Perspectives on Globalization”, I work with students explore the question, “How are human identities shaped today in a globalizing, digital world?”, and develop evolving understandings of the extent to which human perceptions are manipulated by media, particularly social media, and the global implications of western-centric worldviews. The unit plan reflects competency in medium and long-range planning that is aligned with outcomes outlined in programs of study. Further, it demonstrates a willingness to experiment with and employ a broad range of instructional strategies, as well as variety of methods of collecting evidence of learning reflecting a balance of formative and summative assessment experiences. Additionally, the topic is timely, engaging and relevant to students. Lastly, many of the learning activities and the summative project employ digital resources to foster critical-thinking, accessing, interpreting and evaluating information from diverse sources, as well as digital technologies for communicating and collaborating with others.
4. Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments
Social Justice Lesson Plan: Considering Privilege
Working with a colleague, I prepared a Grade 9 Social Studies lesson designed around a modified version of the “Privilege Walk” pioneered at Penn State University. Specifically, this activity encouraged students to take a broad view of equity and equality in the context of both the experiences of some hypothetical characters, and their own personal experiences. Our modified activity differs from the Penn State Privilege Walk in that ours does not require or expect students to openly quantify or compare their own personal privilege in a group setting. Instead, they consider hypothetical circumstances in a group setting and their own circumstances independently. In this way, school community equality and respect for students of all backgrounds is fostered in a manner supportive of students’ emotional and mental health needs in this emotionally charged context. Meanwhile, by encouraging an understanding of and empathy for a range of perspectives and experiences, the activity promotes positive, engaging learning environments.
5. Applying Foundational
Knowledge about First
Nations, Métis and Inuit
Considering Residential Schools: Muffins For Granny
In collaboration with a team, I researched and explored the applications of a documentary entitled Muffins For Granny, a striking first-hand account of the First Nations experience of residential schools. We conducted a critical analysis of the text to ensure its suitability in accurately reflecting and demonstrating the strength and diversity of First Nations people, and explored the curricular applications of the work in English Language Arts, Social Studies and Art at a variety of grade levels in a manner supported by the program of studies. Additionally, the research associated with selecting and evaluating this work helped to enhance our understanding of the historical, social, economic and political implications of the residential school experience to include its impact on indigenous communities and inter-generational trauma.
6. Adhering to Legal
Frameworks and Policies
Legal Analysis: The Remembrance Day Question
Working as part of a team, I conducted a legal analysis of a fictionalized scenario of a sixth-grade teacher taking certain actions that led some of his students to engage in peaceful protest of a Remembrance Day ceremony. In so doing, we explored some of the tensions associated with maintaining an awareness of, and responding in accordance with, requirements authorized under the School Act and other relevant legislation and protecting freedom of expression rights as articulated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By considering the specific acts of this teacher, assessed the extent to which this teacher acted in accordance with the standards of conduct expected of a caring, knowledgeable and reasonable adult entrusted with the custody, care or education of students in a challenging ethical situation.
Area For Growth - Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge
The Transmission Trap
This lesson on advertising techniques comes from a Grade 9 Social Studies Consumerism Unit I delivered early in my first teaching practicum. Broadly speaking, the lesson failed to activate prior student knowledge and the approach was far too transmissional for a topic that students have considerable experience and perspective to offer. Beyond that, it exceeded their capacity for direct instruction, and was consequently a challenge to deliver. Fundamentally, the experience of teaching this lesson taught me some humility about the role of the teacher as the keeper of knowledge in the classroom environment, and I am glad to had learned that lesson early. Subsequent lessons in the unit made better use of student voice on this subject.
Connect
In reflecting on the Teacher Quality Standards, I noted several areas of my practice where I could improve.
Perhaps my area in greatest need of development effort is that of establishing inclusive learning environments. In my practicum experiences so far I have focused on establishing positive and productive relationships, and encouraging a classroom environment supportive of a broad range of perspectives and backgrounds. However, I have spent relatively little time providing truly and deeply differentiated instruction. I have employed a variety of learning supports, but apart from specific Individual Learning Plan (ILP) mandated accommodations, these supports have been relatively generic. In this area, I think that my greatest resource will be formal or informal Professionial Learning Communities (PLCs) in the schools where I will learn strategies to support the learning of specific groups of students, or even individual students with whom they have worked in the past.
One other related area of growth that I must develop is my handling of student mental health issues. It was clear to me that a variety of mental health challenges and concerns impacted my students, and I was not fully equipped to respond to them. I have been exposed to trauma informed practices which have been addressed in some detail in several education faculty courses and Professional Learning (PL) opportunities I have participated in, and considerable information has been shared with regards to student mental health generally. However, I found myself challenged to come up with strategies to help students overcome the classroom manifestations of mental health issues, or even the stressors of daily life in schools. Ultimately, I view this challenge as an extension of my effort at classroom inclusion, and I must continue to pursue professional learning, leveraging the significant online resources available, and make best use of other practitioners such as guidance counsellors and community health care professionals to learn strategies, understand deeper dynamics, and build a repertoire of resources to draw upon.
Lastly, in the content-heavy curriculum of high school social studies, I have noticed that I have a tendency to revert to more transmissional methods that allow for quantifiable knowledge sets to be imparted in a set period of time rather than more open ended transformational methods. While I appear to be far from the only teacher to fall into this trap, my challenge here is partially a function my background as an instructor in the military, where instruction is designed almost exclusively along transmissional lines. In my practicum experiences so far, I have learned the necessity and desirability of employing a broader range of strategies. I have made some progress in this area, and have employed a variety of strategies in my practicum experiences so far, but I recognize that I must make a conscious effort to experiment with and reflect upon as many methods as possible to evolve and improve my practice.