“[Mrs. Chan] demonstrated a reflective and most thought-filled approach to her strengths and challenges both as a teacher and as a student.” – taken from the joint faculty and school advisors’ final report

As an educator, acting ethically and honestly is the way for me to build a mutual relationship of trust and respect with my students. From my advisors, I have adopted a variety of strategies to set a high standard in the classroom by establishing rules, positively guiding students and following through with behaviours.

During my extended practicum, the school was undergoing a lot of construction and physical changes. My school advisor and I were seeing that the students were experiencing varying types of stresses (eg. indoor noises, limited work space, segregated portables) in our portable classroom. Therefore, we worked together with the students to establish a list of rights and responsibilities for the class. In our morning meetings, we discussed about the concept of social responsibility and made connections to apply in the classroom and school community.

We took social responsibility into our own hands.

In my lesson, I used both literature and real-life examples to stimulate discussions about getting along and helping each other as a big family in the classroom. For example, when some students came in with an empty stomach in the early morning, I used it as a ‘teaching moment’ to touch upon healthy eating and regular exercises in our Health and Career curriculum. Working through Canada’s Healthy Eating Guide for students, it was fruitful to see students having an open mind and respect for each other in our class discussion. We began to learn about our own habits of eating, exercising, as well as watching television and playing internet games. We came up with practical tips to help ourselves and our families to raise an awareness against media violence. As for our Daily Physical Activity (DPA), we made use of our transition time between portable classrooms and the school building to do yoga for calming, focusing and energizing our whole self.

We exercised our body, mind and spirit in three simple poses.

It may be challenging for us to deal with an environment that were not at our best interest in that moment, but we were able to face them with honesty and work through some practical solutions together. By being socially responsible, we helped each other to care for one another, our families and our environment. As ethical citizens of the school community, we strove to be role models to show that we were strong when we came together, stood for each other and cared for where we live.