1)Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.

I have demonstrated this standard in my last practicum by creating a project geared towards the students’ interests and therefore setting them up for success. I checked in regularly with each student during this time to make sure that each group project was on track. When one student could not access filming equipment, I went to the library and signed out in their name an old camera. Because I cared about the success of all my students, I did not let this quiet student who did not ask for help fail this assignment. In addition, when it seemed as though this student would not be able to figure out the video editing software on his own, I spent my lunch hour watching a youtube how-to video with him to help him figure out how to use the software. This student, who had submitted very little work for this class with the previous teacher, did not fail to hand in any of my assignments because I followed up on them and often took them from him rather than relying on him to put them in the basket. I wanted to ensure his success, and he was known for forgetting to hand things in, so I made sure to follow up with this student regularly.

2)Educators act ethically and maintain the integrity, credibility, and reputation of the profession.

I have demonstrated this standard by being careful of how I present myself to the public. I have behaved professionally inside and outside of class. I have been careful to maintain the privacy of my students personal information.

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

I recognized during my practicum the importance of social connections. I asked a daily question that inquired into the students’ interests and allowed them to get to know each other better in class. I built many table talk discussions into the class to allow the students to reflect and grow together through discourse. I used formative feedback reports twice to help the students to grow their writing. I created a positive, safe, and inclusive learning environment for the students by greeting every student at the door and creating many different kinds of learning environments for the students.

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

During my practicum, we sent home three interim reports to make sure that the parents were aware of the students who were failing due to not handing things in. When my coaching teacher phoned some of these guardians, we discovered that students were not taking the interim home and getting it signed. One student I phoned home for was due to poor absence. In my message I asked for any information they could give me to help this student to succeed in my class. Through follow up with the student’s Vice Principal, we discovered that there were some mental health issues that were impacting this student’s attendance. As such, I accepted work from this student past my deadline for the general class.

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

My lesson plans were solid and diverse during my second practicum. I instructed confidently, and all feedback given to me by my coaching teacher with regard to tightening up the class behaviour and the expectations and deadlines was immediately implemented in the classroom by myself. I followed my coaching teacher’s writing rubric, as it was already familiar to the students, and I created a rubric to make the assessment of the youtube project fair and considerate of planning and other work that occurs outside of the product itself. This project assessment also honoured the student’s self-assessment and enabled me to better understand and consider information that did not make it into their project reports or the project itself and had a large impact on their final grades.

6)Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.

My unit during the second practicum focused on news, journalism, and media creation. I taught grammar, how to ideate, how to plan projects, how to analyze story-based media, how censorship works, and reporting practices. Students had to report orally and through written work in my class.

During my first practicum, I used my experience from conducting classes and my broad musical background to meet the needs of my Band 6/7 classes.

7)Educators engage in professional learning.

On the PD day that fell within the second Practicum, my coaching teacher had resources to hunt down, so I decided to read “Embedded Formative Assessment” by Dylan Wiliam for my professional development. I got halfway through the book and learned many things. What I found the most shocking, and therefore was the largest take away from this day, was that most of the new systems and money-driven improvements to the education systems that have been studied do not actually show an improvement in student learning. Many private schools do better because they are choosier in who they let into the private school and not necessarily because of the quality of the education itself. In addition, the only variable that seemed to have a long term impact on student learning appeared to be quality of the teacher. Very good teachers improved students’ grades by a marked percentage up to three years past their class. I thought this statistical analysis to be eye opening and interesting to read. I intend to finish the book soon.

8)Educators contribute to the profession.

I have acted as a moral support for many of my colleagues during this past practicum, and I will continue to do so. I believe that mental health and emotional support is an integral part of ensuring our future sanity and happiness as educators in a profession that can be mentally and emotionally taxing.

9)Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation, and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of ways of knowing and being, histories, and cultures of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. 

During my practicum, I invited into my classroom a local with ties to the Lheidli T’enneh and who is hired by SD57 to bring Indigenous content and ways of knowing into the classroom. This speaker addressed the poor reporting around the renamed Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park and its sordid history. Many of my students reflected with shock that they did not know how close the dead bodies were to the surface in the park. Many did not know beforehand that the dead were not kept only to the cemetery itself and that there were mass graves after Influenza decimated the local population due to the fact that it was a main travel hub and stopping point on the river. In addition to this guest speaker, I shared with the class Wab Kinew’s work and interviews on CBC. I used this content doubly for the arrangement of its content (for the youtube project) as well as the impact that Wab Kinew has had on truth and reconciliation in Canada.