Educators value and care for all students and act in their best interests.

I would like to take a moment and reflect on my examples below.  These examples are evidence of standard 1 for multiple reasons. For example, Harwin Elementary sharing circle highlights the willingness to learn about each student before I start teaching them. I spent time knowing my students and ways they can improve from the past lesson onwards. I would say the moment I realized that I was working towards standard 1 on a regular basis was through dealing with a student crying during my Coaching Teacher’s lesson. I took the student out of the class and listened to the student’s personal life. I spent time knowing my student’s background and building upon it by implementing lessons like poetry as a therapeutic session for all my students.

 

  • On the first day of Harwin Elementary, I facilitated a sharing circle with my small group of grades 3 students. By doing this, I really took interest when they talked about some things they liked to do outside of school and implemented them into my lesson plans.
  • I spent my reading week trying to know my students. I did not have to go in reading break week but I wanted to go. I took that initiative to see my students in my grade 5/6 class. 
  • A student started crying while my practicum teacher was teaching and I asked if he wanted to go outside of the room. We walked around and sat somewhere where he felt safe and we talked about what was going on at home. I just listened while he cried to me and then we did something to get his mind off things and I also related my experiences to his.  
  • When I was teaching my sign language lesson to a small group, a student wanted to do extra coloring sign language sheets and I worked on it one-on-one with him. We spent time getting to know each other while he did his work. I also colored with him on another sheet.
  • I had a student get highly emotional about the difficulty of spelling a word. I then showed her on a separate paper how to spell it and I guided her through her spelling. I said to her I knew you could do! -Multiple times she had said you could not do it. I was happy about her success.
  • When I was teaching yoga, I had a student who was not listening. I gave him a warning and then had him sit at the table while I taught. After I went over, he started to cry. I gave him a hug and explained to him what my expectations were of the right behavior and why he was there. But I also said that he is a good person, its just I need to see the correct behavior from him-which he understood. -It’s the behavior not the child.
  • I played dodgeball with some of my students and through dodgeball I formed a very good connection with some of them. They were coming at me with dodgeballs and I would freeze and they would unfreeze me and then come get me again-super fun.
  • A child was crying because she did not want to go to her after school program, I talked to her for a while and gave her suggestions and then gave her a moment to herself which really helped her recollect her thoughts. 
  • I worked one-on-one with students during math assessment to really see where they are at academically in their counting and to further develop my lessons according to their needs.
  • My students were feeling really tired after lunch, I created a lesson on the spot which incorporated them relaxing their bodies and taking a rest while they were learning the importance of imagination.