I have had the opportunity to facilitate in a variety of educational settings, including my practicum experience at Sir Matthew Begbie Elementary, my experience as a Rec’N’Read leader at Comshare Summer Daycamp at Lochdale Elementary, literacy and recreational programs, and tutoring, that inform my abilities to adapt to new situations and adapt to various learning styles in multimodal ways. Through my experiences, what stands out most to me is the importance of applying various outlets for learning. My experiences have driven my keen interest in the effectiveness of teaching and learning through literary material, visual representations, group discussions, hands-on application, multimodal outlets, and the effectiveness of teaching a classmate. I truly believe that education should be a right, not a privilege. Moreover, every student should have the right to learn in a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment. I will always support an inclusive, caring community of learners that embraces both individual and interactive learning in an environment that encourages creativity, curiosity, and life-long learning.

Ultimately, my goal as a teacher is not only to foster students who can excel academically in a multilingual classroom but also to develop their skills in thoughtfulness, kindness and teamwork abilities. As an educator, my goals include supporting the diverse needs of every student while promoting inclusivity and empowering all types of learners. I use various teaching strategies to create opportunities for students to interact with each other and participate in active learning. This approach is supported by constructivist and social constructivist theories of learning. I use various teaching activities such as think-pair-share activities that helps the student to form individual ideas and also be able to share these ideas with a peer. With my focus on collaborative learning, I continue to develop systems that encourage all students’ full participation in the classroom. I also use guided reading programs to provide low-risk environments for enhancing literacy skills while also strengthening collaborative learning.

I truly believe that “learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational” and we can easily engage with the First Peoples’ Principles & Perspectives throughout our teaching practices. We should emphasize that we have a shared history with Indigenous peoples and we should emphasize connectedness, a drive for reconciliation. We can do this by integrating Aboriginal resources into every unit, rather than as a separate unit. We can also visit the Musqueum Cultural Resource Center, invite an Elder to the classroom (ensure that contributions of the Aboriginal community be reciprocated in the case that they take the time out of their lives to enlighten the class), visit the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society. We can also engage with the power of storytelling. It is important for educators and students to understand land-based education and how to give back to communities.

My goal is to provide students with regular feedback in a respectful manner with the main goal of improvement. This can be most effective when feedback is regularly communicated soon after the learning. I believe that students learn best with constructive suggestions for following up. I believe the sandwich approach to feedback works most effectively because it identifies what went well, it provides suggestions for improvement and reiterates what went well. It is important for students to take ownership for their learning. I do this by ending each lesson with class discussions that require the students to review what they learned and discuss questions they have about the lesson. I believe in meaningful assessment practices that support formative assessment balanced with summative assessment. I regularly monitor student progress and I also self assess my own teaching methods, and modify student expectations in order to better improve student attainment. Individual exit slips also help students reflect on what they learned which also helps my own self-assessment of my teaching methods in order to modify any lessons.

In my teaching journey, I hope to support each student with their social, emotional, and academic needs every day. I believe in supporting each of their multiple intelligences, which is most effectively done through multimodal, experiential, culturally-appropriate, place-based learning. One of my long-term goals is to bring inquiry-based, student-centered learning to my home country, the Philippines, and hopefully build a school there one day. I truly believe that education is a right, not a privilege.