There are so many items on the performance checklist that UBC teacher candidates have to meet upon the completion of the extended practicum. There are multiple points underneath each section of:

• Professional Qualities,

• Inquiry & Reflective Practice,

• Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment,

• Diversity and Social Justice,

• Language, Literacies & Culture,

• and Classroom Climate.

Most are appropriate and good measures of evaluating a teacher candidate/beginning teacher. Some of these points are given, some are redundant, and some are borderline. I was going to use items from the checklist to write about something all-encompassing as my teaching philosophy, but after the free write activity with my fellow teacher candidates about “What is teaching?”, I decided to approach it differently. I had a strong feeling that most of us would be writing very similar teaching philosophies!

I’m sure we have all had a lesson where we spent way more time planning it than the entirety of the lesson itself. The effort to do this is a sign of hard work and dedication. Why do we even put in so much of our time in making up a lesson? Teachers can easily just make their class read a textbook and answer some questions.

Educators put in time because they are interested in the topic themselves. When we are interested in something, students can see that we are excited about teaching them. And it makes a difference. We also put in so much time preparing lessons because we want them to become meaningful, relevant, and engaging. There is one word that I believe can sum it all up: FUN! If a lesson is fun, you will have no problems managing the students or assessing them.

Yes, I do know that there are aspects of education such as differentiation or inclusion that are important in teaching. Academically, they are strategies every classroom should use to reach as many learners as possible. Multimodal teaching is an example of reaching out to learners. But in reality, every classroom is different. The theory of multiple intelligences exemplifies how students learn differently. If we are to talk about something every classroom has, I would like to mention the mental health of the students.

We want happy learners who are positive and friendly with one another. We want children who are not socially and emotionally deprived during their time at school. We want teachers who are human beings that can provide physical, mental, and emotional satisfaction to their students. Quench their thirst for knowledge, but don’t forget to have a fun water fight sometimes.