Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for all students and act in their best interest

Professional Standards for BC Educators

To me, this standard means that educators do things for the betterment of their students, to help them succeed in all areas, to find ways to help students so that they can succeed and in a way that will be helpful to the students.

My first practicum was in a grade 6/7 class at Lac des Bois. I mostly taught math while I was there, and I tried to do a mix of bookwork and hands on, on our feet activities to try and catch as many students as I could. Many students preferred getting on their feet or doing a hands on activity than sitting in their desks doing questions from their math books. However, there were a few students who preferred the book work to hands on activities. I did not have a perfect balance, but I wanted there to be pieces for everyone, or as many students as possible. While all this was happening, I had a couple students who needed extra help. I tried to help as many students as I could during the math block, but my Coaching Teacher also found moments where I could take a small group that needed help at other times in the day. With this group, I really tried to incorporate some growth mindset and celebrating wins.

At first, I was making sure I was using the word yet when they told me they did not understand, discussing I got better at math over time with them, and tried to show them when they got a questions right even though they first thought they did not. Two students told me they were bad at math and did not think they would understand. During a day when students were measuring real life objects and using the measurements to find area and volume of the objects, one student asked me to check her work to see if she did it properly. I went over, checked her math, and told her she did it properly. The student seemed shocked, she had told me only a week before that she was bad at math. So, I celebrated the win. She seemed to understand better once measurement was put into context of real objects.

Two examples of students net models for their math mini projects.

Another student would shut down during math. Activities and book work were struggles and she could not get through finishing her math without someone helping her and refocusing her. When it came time for the mini-project, she lit up. I told the students they would build a model of an object out of nets. It could be anything they could reasonably build, then they would measure the area and volume of their objects. I wanted my project to be something that students could enjoy as one of my goals was making Math enjoyable for students and not something to dread, as often happens with students. Many students made little houses, some made cars, she made what she imaged a building from her favourite book series looked. She was incredibly focused, she asked for help only to ask me if she was doing her math right, and then went right back to calculating once I told her she was doing it right. After she was done, I asked her if she realized she did all her math on her own. It was a huge win for her, a realization that she could do it on her own, which she had told me she did not think she could do before.

Every student in the class succeeded in math. I presented the example of two students who felt they were bad at math and could not do it, but I found myself helping almost all students with math. I found riddles for fast finishers to do, helped small groups, and talked students through thinking they didn’t have it even when they did. Our harshest critics are ourselves, and it is the same for kids. My favourite part of helping students succeed was seeing them realize they could do something they thought they couldn’t do.

Standard 2