F. Personal and Professional Attributes
KSA #12: The teacher demonstrates the importance of engaging parents in the learning process
KSA #13: The teacher demonstrates that student learning is enhanced through the use of home and community resources
KSA #14: The teacher demonstrates the importance of contributing collegially to the quality of their school
KSA #15: The teacher demonstrates the characteristics of career-long learning
KSA #16: The teacher understands the importance of a personal, overall vision of the purpose of teaching
Descriptors:
· Cooperates with custodial, secretarial, support staff, teachers and administration
· Promotes a “TEAM” concept at the school level
· Contributes professionally beyond the assigned teaching duties through participation in co and extra-curricular activities
· Contributes to committees, staff meetings and other school activities
· Participates in community activities
· Takes initiative to improve professionally and attends professional development activities
· Makes positive phone calls home to the parents
· Positively promotes the school image
· Develops in students a sense of community responsibility and citizenship
· Encourages parents and the community to come into the classroom
· Works effectively with specialized services and division office services
This practicum gave me an opportunity to interact with parents a lot more than my previous experiences. I enjoyed the support of the school community that included staff, students and parents. In the second week of school there was a welcome back barbecue in conjunction with "Meet the Teacher" night. Although I had already met a couple of parents by this point, it was my first chance to formally introduce myself and my inquiry project. The initial feedback was very encouraging and supportive, and this support has continued throughout the whole term. One of the parents who is also a basketball coach asked me to help design the logo for the SMS Basketball teams. From my drawings another parent who is a graphic designer digitized the logo and finalized the design. This was a unique opportunity to collaborate with parents and to contribute to the school community!
KSA #13: The teacher demonstrates that student learning is enhanced through the use of home and community resources
KSA #14: The teacher demonstrates the importance of contributing collegially to the quality of their school
KSA #15: The teacher demonstrates the characteristics of career-long learning
KSA #16: The teacher understands the importance of a personal, overall vision of the purpose of teaching
Descriptors:
· Cooperates with custodial, secretarial, support staff, teachers and administration
· Promotes a “TEAM” concept at the school level
· Contributes professionally beyond the assigned teaching duties through participation in co and extra-curricular activities
· Contributes to committees, staff meetings and other school activities
· Participates in community activities
· Takes initiative to improve professionally and attends professional development activities
· Makes positive phone calls home to the parents
· Positively promotes the school image
· Develops in students a sense of community responsibility and citizenship
· Encourages parents and the community to come into the classroom
· Works effectively with specialized services and division office services
This practicum gave me an opportunity to interact with parents a lot more than my previous experiences. I enjoyed the support of the school community that included staff, students and parents. In the second week of school there was a welcome back barbecue in conjunction with "Meet the Teacher" night. Although I had already met a couple of parents by this point, it was my first chance to formally introduce myself and my inquiry project. The initial feedback was very encouraging and supportive, and this support has continued throughout the whole term. One of the parents who is also a basketball coach asked me to help design the logo for the SMS Basketball teams. From my drawings another parent who is a graphic designer digitized the logo and finalized the design. This was a unique opportunity to collaborate with parents and to contribute to the school community!
As part of the architecture design project and learning about structures in science, we invited a couple of guests into our classroom to share their expertise. My mentor teacher had a connection to a father of a previous student who is a Building Science engineer. Mr.Mulleray gave a great presentation on structures and I was pleased that the girls posed many great questions and gave sophisticated answers to our guest's questions. He also brought in many different examples of building materials to talk about their strengths and weaknesses, and what they were used for. Mr.Mulleray expressed that he was really impressed with their knowledge. I reached out to Mr.Gallant, a landscape architect and sculptor who brought in a couple models and examples of his work. We were all very impressed and honoured to meet the sculptor who created many of the large scale public artworks in our city. The girls were familiar with many of his works. Hearing about the story behind the sculptures and the process of their creation was very inspirational. Mr.Gallant thoroughly enjoyed the experience and stated that he would love to return for more presentations in the future. He also connected me to another local artist and teacher at Emily Carr University and I arranged to have her come in as a guest art teacher. Heather Caldwell taught the girls a bit about one point perspective, and also some chalk pastel portrait drawing techniques. I learned a few things as well! A few of the girls were so engaged drawing shapes in perspective that they asked if they could stay in at recess time to continue drawing and shading. This experience made me realize how important the larger community can be for education. There are so many wonderful people with amazing talents and knowledge out there. Making new connections is very exciting and opens up so many more possibilities.
At St.Margaret's, the Junior School (K-4) had a cross-grade/curricular program called "Explorations" and this year's theme "Engineering is Elementary." Students worked in different groups to investigate, explore, and build structures for different purposes. It was great to help out as one of the facilitators. The first challenge was to build a shelter to keep a small stuffed animal dry from water. The girls came up with many great questions they wanted to investigate further. Questions included "How much water will be poured on our structure?" and "Do animals fight over their building materials?" Their second challenge was to build a nest. The staff collaborated through Google Docs and email in the planning process. I contributed a few ideas for additional building challenges that could be done next term based on feedback I got from the different groups. Other teachers also reached out to me throughout the term to help make banners, and posters for assemblies and bulletin boards. It was great to be able to contribute to the various activities in the school.
At St.Margaret's, the Junior School (K-4) had a cross-grade/curricular program called "Explorations" and this year's theme "Engineering is Elementary." Students worked in different groups to investigate, explore, and build structures for different purposes. It was great to help out as one of the facilitators. The first challenge was to build a shelter to keep a small stuffed animal dry from water. The girls came up with many great questions they wanted to investigate further. Questions included "How much water will be poured on our structure?" and "Do animals fight over their building materials?" Their second challenge was to build a nest. The staff collaborated through Google Docs and email in the planning process. I contributed a few ideas for additional building challenges that could be done next term based on feedback I got from the different groups. Other teachers also reached out to me throughout the term to help make banners, and posters for assemblies and bulletin boards. It was great to be able to contribute to the various activities in the school.
I had the opportunity to work with a small group of grade 9 girls once a week during lunch and taught them how to play the ukulele. We performed 2 songs at the assembly my class hosted. Although we only had about 6-8 practices, I was really proud of their achievement. I am also one of the teachers of a district wide ukulele group called The Island Ukuleles, and I invited the St. Margaret girls to perform at our annual Christmas concert. The music teacher also asked me to accompany the choir on the piano so I had the opportunity to spend more time with all the girls from K-4. I was quite amused that the girls thought I was some sort of celebrity after playing some very simple accompaniment.
Throughout the term there were many special days of activities and I had a chance to work with other staff to ensure everything goes smoothly. In September there was "Outweek" which was action-packed with activities and field trips every day. Activities included house games on the field, and trips to Bird's of Prey, and Camp Thunderbird.
Although I was busy with this practicum, I had a chance to reconnect with my art and music connections here in Victoria. I was very thankful to be placed at home so I was able to participate in a few art shows and exhibits in town, return to the Island Ukuleles, as well as begin teaching piano again. I also was able to perform at Craigdarroch Castle again on an antique Steinway Grand Piano, and surprised my students by giving them a special performance during our tour of the castle the following week.