Reflecting on Term One: Growth & Adaptation

In September, I began Teacher’s College with a lot of excitement and energy, but with limited traditional teaching experience. My learnings in school gave me names for many of the skills that I had acquired as a mom, an operations manager, and a graduate student – adaptive expert, professional, and community of inquiry. I will reflect on the way that these three concepts have developed during the first term and through my experience in practicum.

Adaptive Expert

As a parent, the idea of reflecting, seeking new information, and trying again is a part of survival. Applying Timperley’s model of adaptive expert (2015) in a more formalized way to both my personal learning and classroom experiences has helped me to grow as an educator. Nowhere was this more evident for me than my PED 3152 Enhancing Math and Science Thinking course last term. I have always held the belief that I am not good at math. And as a result, would become anxious and panicked in my early learnings, sometimes resulting in unsuccessful attempts. Thus, a self-fulling prophecy was created. I found myself slipping into this same pattern when faced with a STEM task on the first day of class. It was later that I learned the term “fixed mindset” and its more productive sister, “growth mindset” (Kaplan, n.d., para. 2). It had never occurred to me that my own anxiety was causing a mental block.

This lesson had two outcomes. The first, I purchased a number of math workbooks to work through to help build my confidence and undo years of fixed mindset. And second, when students in my grade five and six practicum class asked for support with their math lessons, I suggested that we work together to find an answer, incorporated encouraging and specific feedback, and let them know that the right answer is only part of the process. By examining my own education and personal assumptions, I was able to apply new techniques to teaching.

Professional

In the Standards of Practice the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) outlines the importance of professional practice through appropriate planning, assessment, pedagogy, evaluation, and use of online materials (Ontario College of Teachers [OCT], n.d.). This notion of professional practice became of utmost importance when my practicum class pivoted to virtual learning due to a COVID-19 case before the winter break, which then continued into the New Year. While I was gaining access to my students’ personal lives through their computer screens, they had the same type of access to mine. A balance needed to be struck between students having access to my home virtually – a space they would never see in any other circumstance – and remaining professional with clearly defined boundaries. For me, the solution was clear, create a home office space where my camera faces a wall or window; therefore, limiting cameos of family members passing by.

Furthermore, when teaching virtually it is never possible to know who else is in the room with a student. There could be a parent, grandparent, or sibling, any of whom may be paying attention to the way that I am teaching and interacting with students. Professional practice is always important as an educator as teachers are always being watched, virtual teaching just invited more people to the audience.

Teacher as Learner/Communities of Inquiry

On the first day of my practicum, I became a part of a community of inquiry (University of Ottawa, n.d.) that I had not anticipated. In addition to working with my associate teacher (AT) there was a year two teacher candidate in the classroom. Ms. H. and I developed a relationship of reciprocal learning. I was able to observe her math talks and science lessons in my first weeks of practicum. She shared lesson plan templates and we brainstormed ways to engage students in Phys. Ed. We also worked collaboratively to teach our class while our AT was absent (with support from the occasional teacher). By working together, we modeled to our students the importance of collaboration and teamwork and reinforced the concept of peer learning.

While it has been a year of change and uncertainty, it has also been a year of growth and learning. The first term brought with it so many new people and experiences. I look forward to what this term holds.

References

Kaplan, K. (n.d). Expert Corner: If I only had a [math] brain. Explore Learning. https://blog.explorelearning.com/2016/09/expert-corner-if-i-only-had-a-math-brain/

Ontario College of Teachers. (n.d). Standards of Practice. https://www.oct.ca/public/professional-standards/standards-of-practice

Timperley, H. (2015, October 18). Professional Conversations: Adaptive Expert. Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pE7lbvgTfw

University of Ottawa. (n.d.) Teacher Education Program Conceptual Framework. Faculty of Education. https://education.uottawa.ca/en/ConceptualFramework