EDCO 4200-02 Exit Presentation by Parminder (Pam) Grewal by

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

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:06:27 UTC

Students today have very unique and diverse needs due to the changing familial structures, high levels of stimulation from the use of highly addictive technology, video games, bright screens, and detachment from nature. In order for learning to take place, students need their basic needs to be met first. The adage 'hungry kids can't learn' rings true in a lot of classrooms today as families face food insecurity as the rising cost of groceries and staple goods are affected by inflation. For a lot of students, school is a safe haven where, in addition to the learning that takes place, they can be a kid away from familial pressures or dysfunction, explore their identity and express themselves freely, socialize with peers while learning healthy and unhealthy ways to express themselves, learn about establishing boundaries, and differentiate between making healthy and unhealthy life choices. My faculty mentor phrased it as 'you teach children, not the curriculum'. This really helped clarify the purpose of teaching. Educators teach the whole person, not simply subjects. This means being attuned to the underlying needs of the child --- be they social emotional, hunger, connection, or finding their voice.

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

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:19:45 UTC

Being a good role model for the profession means behaving professionally when in school and outside of it, for example, being mindful of social media postings as a private citizen as well. It is because of the nature of the education profession in which we are influencing young minds that teachers are held to a higher standard than other professions. Parents place a lot of trust in us to guide their children along their educational journeys. For six hours a day, five days a week for the equivalent of nine months, their children are left in our care. As a result, it is important for us to be upstanding citizens to ensure parents haven't mistakenly placed their trust in an adult who is responsible for their child's safety and well-being. In society, people come from all walks of life, some are more liberal whilst others, not so much, some are open to experimenting with new teaching methods whilst others prefer a stricter, more traditional approach to learning. As a teacher, it is important to recognize this diversity and walk the fine line of not offending any one party. Earning the parents' trust early on goes a long way to them giving you the benefit of the doubt when you may have pushed the boundary past a particular comfort zone of theirs. It is a fine balance but the sooner teachers finds it, the smoother the year will go for them.

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

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:20:50 UTC

Culture affects learning and assessment in several ways. Some students get anxious when their learning is to be assessed. This may be due to the negative connotation that a student has regarding summative assessments, such as, term-end tests, unit tests, or exams. Others might excel in high-pressure situations and want to be challenged in that way. With the diversity we see in classrooms today, it is important to get the balance right. Offering students choice and giving them voice over how their learning will be assessed creates a more universal design for learning and creates an environment where the student is in the driver's seat of their learning and its assessment. This might take the form of a presentation, a video demonstration, a slideshow voiceover, an essay, or a conversation. Ultimately, the aim of an assessment is to gauge the depth of learning that the student has undertaken. There are many creative ways for this learning to be demonstrated and made visible. Helping your students find their strengths and weaknesses will help them better identify the type assessment that best compliments their learning style. It is not a one size fits all solution but one that the teacher and student go on a journey to find out. There will be corrections made, step-backs, redos, but ultimately, the meandering path will reveal the student's learning curve.

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

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:21:10 UTC

I intend to be inclusive of families and communities in my classroom by keeping an open mind and having an open-door policy. I will clearly communicate my vision for their child's learning at the outset emphasizing the importance of respect and understanding in establishing safe learning spaces.

Building on that, I will invite parents to share something about themselves (a skill, their career journey) and engage students in a Q&A session through video conference sessions for Career Ed. This will allow for parents to contribute to the class' learning in an area of their expertise and comfort.

Other ways to involve parents would be through field trips or PAC events. Special cultural days, e.g. Lunar New Year, Diwali, Black History Month, Winter Solstice celebrations in First Nations' cultures, would also be a celebratory occasion for parents to be involved.

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

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:21:40 UTC

I have shown that I can use various teaching and assessment methods to effectively reach all learners by triangulating assessments to include the conversational, observational, and product elements. In students whose strengths lie in oratory outputs, I will focus more on the conversational elements of the assessment whereby I seek them out during class to have guided conversations about their learning. I have incorporated small and large group learning as well as peer-learning and teaching to decentralise the classroom and play the role of guide on the side as the learning continues to take place. At this time, I have focussed more on the observational elements of assessing student learning by listening in on conversations about how they make meaning and learn from one another. I have also offered students voice and choice in how they want to demonstrate their learning (video, presentation, poster board, etc...). I have used a variety of teaching and assessment practices in order to reach all learners.

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

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:22:32 UTC

For the September practicum, I designed a Getting to Know You Unit. In this unit, I incorporated many instructional styles (vertical learning, outdoor learning, drama, small group, peer learning, play-based learning) to keep the students engaged and engrossed in their learning. I incorporated UDL strategies, offered student voice and choice in assignments and assessments. I assessed students' learning through peer- and self-assessments. I incorporated FNMI teaching pedagogies and content in my teaching.

Standard 7 - Educators engage in professional learning.

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:22:48 UTC

An area of interest in teaching and learning I would like to explore more deeply is online learning. During Covid, I was at home helping my mother, an elementary school teacher, with the technological aspect of online and hybrid teaching. I found it fascinating how classroom teaching doesn't translate quite the same way online. The student engagement aspect in particular is one that stood out very starkly.

Since then, I have been reading as much as I can about the challenges and successes of online teaching and learning.

I am planning on doing my Masters in Educational Technology (MET) from UBC. The program endeavours to "create rich learning environments where students are introduced to new ideas, develop new skills, and expand their perspectives" (). In this age of life-long learning, students will undoubtedly engage in online learning to further their careers and interests at some point past K-12. In this global village, geographical boundaries are increasingly blurring and education is no different. The universality of education means that students have more variety and choice to pick a program that aligns best with their interests. To be able to do it in the comfort and safety of their own home is invaluable and immensely accessible. We are so reliant on technology across so many facets of our lives that the field of education needs to better adapt to this new tech frontier.

One school rolling with the times is the Alpha school which claims that its two-hour learning model "harnesses the power of AI technology to provide each student with 1:1 learning, accelerating mastery and giving them the gift of time" ( ).

Standard 8 - Educators contribute to the profession.

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:23:09 UTC

A culture of collegiality means to be a supportive colleague to coworkers. This can take many forms. It could mean lending a shoulder to a colleague when they feel overwhelm, congratulating them on a successful lesson/unit, including them in the lunch room, suggesting professional development opportunities that suits their interests, team teaching with them, organizing field trips with the classes, running a club together, partnering with them on an interclass project, going for morning runs together with the classes, and building collective teacher efficacy in a myriad of other ways.

Standard 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.

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:23:33 UTC

I intend to meet the expectation that “Educators integrate First Nations, Inuit, and Métis worldviews and perspectives into learning environments” by first raising awareness of the whole story of Canada's formation as a country and that this land was home to the FNMI long before the existence of Canada. It means talking about the unsavoury parts that a lot of textbooks omit. It means talking to the students in age-appropriate ways about the residential school system, the missing and murdered Indigenous women and children, the Calls to Action laid out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the disproportionate representation of the FNMI in Canada's foster care and prison reform systems. The scourge of drug- and alcohol-use and additions in the shattered and dispersed communities of the FNMI. It means understanding 'the why' of so many social issues plaguing FNMI communities. It means appreciating the long history, wisdom, Ways of Knowing and Being of the FNMI Peoples. It means learning from the land and the Elders. It means seeing things holistically in an interconnected way and not only the individual parts. It means guiding learning rooted in the FPPL. It means using the 7 Grandfather teachings where culturally appropriate. It means using the Medicine Wheel where culturally appropriate. It means situating ourselves through land acknowledgements and learning the history of the local FNMI whose land we learn and live on. It means learning the local FNMI language and support efforts to preserve their language. It means not engaging in cultural appropriation and teaching students the difference between being respectful and disrespectful ways to honour FNMI culture. It means respecting the richness of FNMI ways, learning the pain that was inflicted on entire communities and giving them the space and the resources to heal.

References

mspgrewal2 — 2025-01-19 00:40:08 UTC