my educational journey

A large part of why I chose the TELL-3C cohort (Teaching English Language Learners through a Cross-Curricular Case-based Inquiry Approach) is because I am very invested in inclusivity and equity as part of my teaching pedagogy. In this cohort, we have learned to specialize in accommodating all sorts of learners within the classroom, as well as how to approach and celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity in a sensitive manner. Ultimately, I want to be a teacher who is committed to acknowledging and celebrating the diversity all students can potentially bring to the classroom. It is our priority and our ethical obligation as teachers to do our best to meet all our students’ diverse needs. In my own teaching, I have found that this is one of the most important, and yet most difficult goals a teacher can strive for.

The most significant first step a teacher can take to meet all of his/her students’ needs is by simply getting to know the students, and knowing them well. Knowing a student extremely well allows me to understand where my student comes from, their capabilities, their cultural resources, and their identity. Then, I am able to consider how various aspects of their identity influences how and what they are able to learn. Knowing the student and their abilities allows me to create an inquiry-based learning experience for them that has the potential to be incredibly personalized and rewarding. For example, I had a student in my grade 3 practicum class who was on the grade 2 math curriculum and was thought to be below grade level across most subject areas; and yet, because I knew about my student’s strong interest in art, I was able to teach them thoroughly about fractions through a fraction pizza project, which functioned as a formative assessment for the unit. I think differentiation is so integral to a good teacher’s pedagogy, and becoming better at it is an ongoing goal I strive for. It is my belief that all students are capable of learning, and learning that truly impacts our students is often achieved through active, hands-on, inquiry-based practices. It is also important to accept our students’ feedback and critiques in order to change our teaching to create a more effective and inspiring learning process that students are invested in.

Additionally, I tried to create a more welcoming classroom environment, and offered all my students low-risk opportunities to participate through activities such as think-pair-shares and curiosity slips. This particularly benefited my ELL students, who were often shy about speaking up in class. Moreover, I tried to help all my students build empathy and stronger relationships with each other by creating buddy groups where students were able to build on each others’ strengths and help with each others’ areas of growth, as well as self and peer assess. All these strategies were only a few ways that I worked to create a stronger, more accepting, and more supportive classroom community for my students. It was also really important to me to model working well with my community for my students as well. I did this through maintaining positive, communicative relationships with parents and families, as well as always asking for feedback and constructive criticism from my colleagues.

Regarding overall assessment, I found that a variety of methods of assessment were the most effective in accurately assessing my students. I liked using projects like the fractions pizza project to assess my students’ learning in a formative manner.  I also created several differentiated “quizzes” that students had unlimited time to complete as medium-stakes summative assessments in math. Just using one form of assessment never made me feel like I was getting the full scope of my students’ capabilities, and therefore I found ways to use many different kinds of assessment to learn about them.

Additionally, getting to know my students and their capabilities also helped me make an unforgettable connection with all of them. I created a traditional stories unit that related to many important points in the redesigned grade 3 curriculum, that related to Indigenous perspectives and principles as well as my students’ own backgrounds. I made sure to have at least one story from every student’s background, and my students absolutely adored me for that unit–it was strongly entrenched in inquiry and they embraced the learning process because it fostered curiosity. The students were excited to hear stories that connected to their own backgrounds and first languages, as well as to learn more about each others’ cultures. I will never forget about a student thanking me profusely every time I read a story from the Philippines, and on my last day at school, he was my only student that told me he cried the night before because he didn’t want me to leave.

My practicum experiences only served to strengthen my educational priorities of equity and social justice. However, I believe that my educational philosophy is something that is constantly being reworked and redefined, and so by no means is this my set educational philosophy–it will always be growing and changing. I am excited about my educational journey!