I have only been a teacher for a relatively short period of time (into my second year at the time of writing this), but even in that short while, my understanding of teaching, learning, education, and teacher identity has changed numerous times. I decided to not create a brand new portfolio for the SFU diploma program, but rather base it off a previously created foundation, that is, the UBC blog that I created to fulfill my Inquiry course requirements during my B.Ed. The reason for this is because this blog already contains my past work, thoughts, and reflections on experiences. All of the content was to fulfill requirements for courses, but I did appreciate having the opportunity to showcase my thoughts as a teacher through a blog—one that I can come back to work on as I am doing now.
Before I formally began creating the Personal Narrative part of my baseline portfolio, I took the time to indulge in a ‘throwback’ (as kids call it), that is, to remind myself back to a time in the past, often through pictures (#ThrowbackThursday). This time, however, it was through pieces of writing that I had done in the past, namely my Teaching Philosophies. As an aside, these can be read through my blog under “Teaching Philosophy”, and to have a better understanding of what my foundational ideologies were, I hope you take the time to peruse them. I may also be referring to sections of these previous work at times throughout my portfolio. I have two of these works so far, as they were assignments though Education courses while completing my B.Ed at UBC. Two, because they were written one year apart from each other—I had the privilege to do so while piloting the Dual Degree program, meaning I was taking education courses in my 3rd, 4th, and final year of my undergraduate studies. For me, this unique program was a great advantage because I was exposed to the world of education from a teacher’s perspective at a relatively young age. While on this topic, I want to mention that I am a new, beginning, and young teacher. Some may think this is a disadvantage because I don’t have a lot of experience, but I see it as more of a unique advantage that allows me to have different perspectives on teaching. Overall, I believe this Dual Degree helped mold my perceptions on teaching and learning, allowing me more time to mature into this profession. This certainly allowed me to take away more from the B.Ed. program as I entered into my final year, because I already had some foundational ways of knowing and understanding as I had learned throughout the program. My development and change is evidenced through the change from one year to the next based on those Teaching Philosophies.
To answer the question of who I am and why I became a teacher, I believe it’s important to first address my past to see where I came from and how much I have changed and grown as a person and teacher. After reading through my previous Teaching Philosophies, I recognized some similarities and differences as to who I was then and who I am now.
- I valued critical thinking very much in the past. Not to say I no longer do, but this was a priority for me as I started out thinking about teaching philosophies, and what I value most out of learning. Back then I probably thought this because I assumed it was the greatest exemplar of higher learning. Since then it has become a part of the curriculum through the core competencies—I guess I was always in the right headspace.
- I also had the idea of teaching the ‘hand, head, and heart’, inspired by one of my assigned readings. In the past I was focused primarily on improving technique and increasing knowledge, but lately I’ve become more inclined to teach from the heart and to the heart. This means that I want students to engage with food and home economics classes on a more personal way than being stressed out about a percentage grade. The experience that students walk out with is more important than having perfected knife skills, or being able to bake the best cookies, or sew the perfect apron.
- I became less keen about social/digital media and global food advocacy. While these are great topics that I would eventually like to tackle as a teacher inquiry project, I decided now was not the time for it. The former, because I realized that I could still create a fun and engaging class without incorporating digital media into all aspects of my lessons. The latter, because I have not quite found ways to have students understand and be passionate about social issues around food. I hope to get there some day.
- Project based learning, critical media literacy, and food literacy are areas of research that I am still passionate about and introduce more regularly in my class.
- I no longer refer to the 2007 curriculum. Now my thoughts are shifted towards the new curriculum.
The overarching ideas that can be extracted from above have to do with being more present in the classroom and connecting with the students, and less about the pressures to teach and deliver content. I recognize that this aligns with the new BC curriculum, and while that may the driving factor in my shift in teaching beliefs, I believe the change was actually more organic, changing gradually the more I taught.
“How do you learn? How do you view the process of learning? What are your philosophies around learning and of education in general?” To me, these questions feel foreign. I feel as if I have never answered or thought of these questions before, although I likely have but not so explicitly. I have recognized the importance of acknowledging different ways of knowing and understanding because of the diversity of our students, but thinking about learning and education in general is new.
For me, the greater picture is about developing all of the core competencies, and helping students recognize how they learn best. With these tools, I believe we are providing students with all the skills necessary to achieve their goals. Home economics is a subject area through which students are able to, for example, practice oral and written communication, express personal cultural identity, and demonstrate creative and critical thinking. From personal experience, I found that when I understood my learning style, I felt more comfortable with a course or subject because I knew how to approach learning it. Unfortunately for me, I did not realize this until well into my university career. If I could foster this self-awareness in students early on, I strongly believe the payoff would be many times over.
“What personal and professional experiences have influenced your philosophy and practice of teaching and learning?” Being a beginning teacher, my influences stem from my own memories of being a student, as well as being a student teacher, a TTOC and then a full time teacher for a little over a year now. I try to derive ways of being a better teacher, that is, understand how I teach best, with every moment and interaction I have. Therefore, previous teaching experience and interactions with colleagues are obvious influences for me. However, even if a learning moment has nothing to do with my subject area, such as having personal group lessons for badminton, I observe how coaches teach in that atmosphere, and see what I can take away from it. Also, whenever I attend a class that I particularly enjoyed, I always like to reflect on why that may have been. Was it the content, activity, or simply the community I surrounded myself with? In any case, my enjoyment of that moment is what I like to carry forward into my classes in hopes that through my actions, my students would feel the same.
As with any person’s narrative, one can only include a fraction of who they are. I hope that through this portfolio, I will be able (and also motivated) to document my passions as a teacher. Perhaps in a few years time, or many more down the road, I will look back at this blog and portfolio and be proud of who I have become.
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