A teacher builds positive and productive relationships with students, parents/ guardians, peers and others in the school and local community to support student learning.
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Care
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Empathy
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Culture and Meaning
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Diversity and Intercultural
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demonstrating empathy and a genuine caring for others
However, I have also been learning more about students that do not face daily traumas and have relatively happy home lives, yet still experience intergenerational trauma as a result of the legacy of residential schools. I found it so simple and yet so sobering that as part of a threefold recommendation for improving education on-reserve, compassion was one of the most important. While we so often hear that relationships are the most important thing in teaching they are easily overlooked. Furthermore, the research shows that students not only need to be cared about but they actually need to feel and receive that care in order to make an impact. In my first week in PSII I had students tell me about themselves, what their biggest dreams and goals are, and what makes them unique. I wrote them back handing out encouraging quotes that best fitted each individual and could instantly connect with students over lunch or between classes about their goals and home lives. I know that I will always care for and about my students with empathy and compassion, but if our students do not see it we are missing a piece of the puzzle.
DEMONSTRATING EMPATHY AND A GENUINE CARING FOR OTHERS
I believe that the reason behind the first teaching quality standard being to foster effective relationships is because it is the most important; without relationships, trust, and authenticity, students are unable to feel safe, and without meeting this basic need, they are unable to learn. Every time that I enter a classroom, my first priority is to build authentic relationships with each of my students, to get to know them and what is important to them, and also to share about myself to build on authenticity.
"Abi arrived at our school enthusiastic and ready to immerse herself into daily classroom life. She was quick to learn the names of the staff and the students and immediately started to foster relationships. She exhibited a kind and gentle manner with the students. Abi spent a great deal of time observing, asking questions and talking to each student which helped her gain an understanding about the unique and special individuals that we had in our class. One of Abi’s greatest strengths was her ability to relate to people. She showed compassion and understanding to everyone she met. This gave her an opportunity to create a special bond and connection."
-Gerrianne Karmin, PSIII Teacher Mentor |
As a reflective practitioner of education, I also believe in my responsibility to not only have and show genuine caring and empathy but to model and promote it. For my Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood class, I researched and created a handout on the socio-emotional opportunities of a daily morning meeting using self-regulatory intentions under sociocultural theory.
In my PSIII, I incorporated elements of the Morning Meeting design into the established Calendar routine, health lessons, stories and discussions, and as part of the school development plan. During Professional Learning Community (PLC) time, our team worked on a baseline questionnaire for perseverance, follow-up assessments, lessons, and activities to incorporate sociocultural theory into the classroom. These activities, such as making an effort to greet everyone in the classroom, teaching social emotional skills, having time for students to share, and build community in the classroom. |
Providing Culturally appropriate and meaningful opportunities
While in my PSI, I was placed in an ELL Classroom for grades 1-6 in Brooks Alberta. Many of the students in the ESL classroom are newcomers to Canada; some arrived a few weeks ago, some a few months, and some a few years. All of these students bring their own experiences, knowledge, and cultures to the classroom to share as well as learning more and more every day to understand the classroom, community, and country that they now live in.
I wanted to approach the idea of teaching my students about Canada from a view of sharing how we can all be a part of Canada. Even as an immigrant myself, whose parents were fortunate enough to choose to move here voluntarily, I know that sometimes there are parts of Canada that I don't fully understand, but I have also come to learn that there is a growing acceptance in Canada that we can all be a part of. |
'ABC of Canada' allowed the class to discuss many different aspects of Canada from coast-to-coast. We talked about where the Arctic is compared to our city on our class map, we discussed animals and food, we reviewed Canadian sports and symbols as well. The class brainstormed using the previous week's vocabulary and the current book what Canada is like using the five senses and recorded our ideas in graphic organizers. Beginners focused on a few key national symbols and sound connections, while the developing group could choose which five ideas to write into full sentences.
The next two days were spent working on our class Canadian mosaic. We talked about what the word culture means by relating culture to student’s own origin countries, and how Canada is made up of many different aspects. Each student chose a piece of our Canadian puzzle to draw their ideas on, and then added to it with writing, differentiating between a few sentences with meaning as opposed to using vocabulary words and proper sentence structure. We talked about the original people of Canada and how we are all somewhat new here compared to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people. Then we put together our mosaic and reinforced the idea that we can be a part of Canada by comparing Canada to our classroom: lots of different people from different places, different sports that we like and foods that we eat, different beliefs and abilities, and yet we all work together. This lesson was important for me to allow newcomers to Canada to connect with an aspect of Canada, rather than teaching a foreign concept different to themselves. I came away feeling that my students worked hard to understand the concepts, took pride in their artwork, as well as verbally and in their paragraphs. Students were able to describe the idea of a cultural mosaic and that no one thing that defines Canada is what defines Canada itself, all represented by our cultural mosaic in the shape of a maple leaf. |
Honouring Cultural Diversity and Promoting Intercultural Understanding
As my PSI practicum came to a close, the winter holidays were approaching and Christmas decorations, parades, and concert were in full swing. Some of the ELL students had never heard of or experienced Christmas before, some were familiar but didn’t celebrate it themselves, and others celebrated the holiday.
After discussing with my TA what the usual routine is for ELL at this time of year, we decided that we would discuss Christmas in relation to holidays that the students celebrated and would learn about what is happening in Canada at this time of year. We used this information in an applicable way by looking at the story ‘Winnie the Pooh’s Christmas’ and understanding the elements of story and interpreting the emotions and motivations of characters.
After discussing with my TA what the usual routine is for ELL at this time of year, we decided that we would discuss Christmas in relation to holidays that the students celebrated and would learn about what is happening in Canada at this time of year. We used this information in an applicable way by looking at the story ‘Winnie the Pooh’s Christmas’ and understanding the elements of story and interpreting the emotions and motivations of characters.
Students were able to share their own celebrations at this time of year as well as celebrations that are important to them. We discussed Halloween, Eid, Ramadan, Hanukah, Kwanza, and even birthdays as celebrations leading us to wonder about the difference between a holiday and a celebration. Students were able to understand over the week the moral of the story revolving around a time of year which promotes giving and thinking of others. Students talked about ways they could do something for someone else as well as empathize with characters in the story that forgot presents or didn’t receive one. |
Finally, students were able to write down their thoughts and get to decorating a stocking to put on the class ‘fireplace’. Students felt pride in their artwork and significant writing. The decorating of stockings allowed us to talk about what a stocking as well as vocabulary for art supplies, patterns, and colours for beginner students.
Overall, students’ individual identities were honoured and appreciated through discussion and intercultural interaction and learning. By relating a new holiday to ones that students understood, appreciation for their classmates’ differences was apparent as well as an excitement in relating the story to the upcoming Winter Concert.
Overall, students’ individual identities were honoured and appreciated through discussion and intercultural interaction and learning. By relating a new holiday to ones that students understood, appreciation for their classmates’ differences was apparent as well as an excitement in relating the story to the upcoming Winter Concert.