A teacher builds positive and productive relationships with students, parent/guardians, peers and others in the school and local community to support student learning.
Building relationships with people is what I am good at. I am an empathetic person, always willing to listen to others and support them in any way that I can.
It is very important to me to continue to act in a way that is “honouring cultural diversity and promoting intercultural understanding”. I started the Inspired conference 5 years ago because I felt that the homeschooling community was lacking inclusion, and it has been my own personal mission to support any parent that is looking for support. In my classroom experiences I have committed to myself and to my students to make sure that I am following a critical pedagogical approach that allows all of my students to see themselves represented in my lessons. I have chosen these two excepts from lesson plans to show how I put this into action.
In all of my field experiences, my partner teachers, as well as my field instructors were able to notice that I was “demonstrating empathy and a genuine caring for others”. From the moment that I entered the classroom I would treat the students as I would want my own children to be treated in the classroom. The Ted talk Every Kid Needs a Champion by Rita Pierson, reminded me that even though I may be having an off day, the students that I am mentoring and encouraging need to be supported by caring people every single day.
Finally, my partner teachers and field instructors also mentioned in my assessments that I was “acting consistently with fairness, respect and integrity” when interacting with my students. It is very important to me to have a classroom culture that is based on mutual respect, and so I make sure that I include character lessons and model social-emotional learning whenever possible. This extends to my relationships with staff, parents, and other educators as well.
In every lesson that I teach I make sure that I am questioning the resources that I am using. In this particular lesson on families, I was sure to consider all abilities, as well as cultural and racial diversity. Click HERE for the whole lesson plan.
In my practicum schools I have had the pleasure of a very diverse set of students. It was important to me that they saw representation in their learning, and so when my partner teacher and I were planning lessons in our fairy-tale unit I made sure to source books that showed a more inclusive and multicultural world.
During my teaching I make sure that my mentor-texts are representative of the real world. This book about Rapunzel is a good example of one of the books that I used while lesson planning.