One Month Check In

Entering the UNBC education program I was expecting to immediately begin learning about how to deliver material to students and to build effective lesson plans. While I am still expecting to learn these techniques going forward the most important ideas I have learned about so far have been that teaching is about the identity of the teacher and the students, and the relationship that you build between the two. I appreciate the efforts of the education program to encourage us as future teachers to explore and expand our identity as learners and educators so that we can teach with passion and focus. It is important for us to enter our practice with a solid sense of self, and to also foster a sense of self in our students as well. This student identity is crucial to the learning process as it brings passion and motivation in students and helps teachers build a relationship with students. A strong relationship with their students will also help the teacher construct their material in a way fits the students’ own passions and motivations and in a way that allows the teachers’ passion to show.

A subject that I was expecting to delve into was how to bring the ideas of truth and reconciliation into the classroom. We have started to methods to achieve this through many of our classes and the Lhulh’uts’ut’en workshop that we attended in September. The first keynote speaker of this workshop was Dr. Louie who proposed that as teachers we need to decolonize our education system and work towards removing the western viewpoint from the position as the default lens through which we view knowledge, and instead use it as one of the many cultural views that we approach education through. With this shift in perspective in mind we can introduce traditional and current First Peoples ways of knowing and being into our education system and work to create respect and equality for the First Peoples of Canada.

This week we had the opportunity to begin our observational practicums where I was able to visit Shas Ti Kelly Road Secondary to sit in on classes for a day. This experience was excellent for reframing and contextualizing what we have been learning in our classes. Before this week I had the fear that I would take some time to become comfortable in a high school classroom environment that I have not experienced since 2009. After the first practicum day I learned that I was not only quite comfortable in the classroom but found it fascinating and exciting to observe the dynamics between the students and teachers. It was a joy to see how the teachers managed their students emotions and learning and to see the enthusiasm of the students for learning.