Standard 7 is about educators participating in Professional Development activities, such as workshops, conferences, reading books or journal articles about education and more. The most obvious time for educators to engage in professional learning is during Pro-D days, I think. There are so many workshops and conferences where educators can go to hear about studies, from programs such as POPEY, or from people in different areas of knowledge than your own. Educators can learn about something they might need more perspective on for their classes, something they have never heard of, or a topic of interest. Professional learning can come from many places though. Collaboration with other educators who work with the grade or age range can lead to learning for educators, whether something they then want to learn more about at a Pro-D event, or from another educator in the collaboration.

Educators engage in professional learning

professional standards for bc educators

Professional learning to me, is quite broad. It is something I think can be done in little ways on any day, and in big ways on Pro-D days or when doing other conferences. There are times when I think educators, especially those new to the profession, might have little moments of professional learning from a co-worker, from admin, in conversations. As people move through the profession, get years under their belt, professional learning happens more at conferences and workshops on PD days. I think PD days, workshops and conferences are incredibly important, but I won’t discount the little moments either.

The sessions I signed up for at the Early Learning Conference from my name tag.

On January 29th, I attended my first Conference, the Early Learning Conference in Prince George. Before this, I had attended PD, heard key note speakers and went to a few workshops, but I had never gone to a conference. I did not know what to expect beyond that I signed up for two workshop sessions and a key note speech. I decided that my morning session would be a writing workshop and my afternoon a math workshop. The reason being, was that writing seemed like something so broad, yet so simple. Most classes I have seen have journals, have a chosen topic to write about, or occasionally, a free writing day. Then there were grammar lessons, punctuation lessons, writing lessons about the different types of writing, and on. As for math, I really want to get as many ideas for math as possible so that I can bring a variety of math experiences to students and make math something fun or interesting, something where students can ask questions and explore and hopefully feel a love for math I did not feel until I was out of the K-12 system.

I enjoyed learning about book making at the conference in the writing session in the morning, and given students choice in writing and how to build up writing using book making as students move up in ability. The emphasis on word choice was interesting, as word choice is something I have been noting on how it adds to how growth mindset is taught and implemented. Using “he makes books,” “she makes book” instead of a person “writing books” is such a simple difference in words, but one noted to make a large difference.

The key note made me think deeply about the differences I will see in the classes I teach in, the differences students will feel between them, their classmates, me and other staff in the school.

Math manipulatives that come in shapes from 1 up to 10 called Numicons I had never seen before the Early Learning Conference.

In the afternoon sessions about math, my notes were filled with types of math manipulatives and tools I had never heard of and how I could use them. Ones that schools have, ones that are becoming more popular, ones from different countries.

All of the sessions gave me a very different take away, something that struck me and stayed with me. In talking to others, I heard some of their take aways were the same, and some were different. That’s what I find so interesting about learning. One session, one lesson, one topic can have different important moments for different people. Whether it be because they are thinking about the students in their class at that moment, or because they are interested in a different piece of the session from the person beside them, or because they walked into a sessions about something new to them. Learning, whether professional or not, can be a very internal, personal practice, even in collaboration.

Standard 8