Today in class we discussed the ministry of education and the hierarchy that is involved with it. It begins with the ministry of education at the very top. Then it goes to the school divisions such as NESD. It then goes to the schools whether they be public, separate, associate, or home schooling. The ministry of education collects taxes and then funds the public education. Which is something that I hear people contradict themselves over all the time. People want to pay less taxes but then they want better things in our schools, new roads, or any other government funded things. Therefore, if they want those things then we would need to pay more money into taxes. We also discussed hoshin planning. Hoshin planning is all about getting better results out of a factory. The idea was to give the little guy in the company a voice so that the big guys could adjust accordingly. Which would work great for a big factory. It would help the factory cut out needless jobs and create better opportunities in other areas of the workforce. We also watched a video about how to educate children to take place in our economy. Which is something that I do not think is done very well. As a young adult, I was never taught about common things such as doing my taxes and mortgages. Personally, I have always ben a strong math student and I took 2 years of business in Saskatoon at Edwards School of Business. Therefore, I believe that I have a stronger knowledge than most other people my age but there is still a lot that I do not know. I can understand how loans, mortgages, and other debts all pile up. I know a lot of people my age that think, “well its only $150 bi weekly I can afford that”. Which may be true but the do not look at the bigger picture. Many times, not all the time that is. Then these people all of a sudden have 10 payments they need to make and can barely keep up with so they do not pay things off quicker. Therefore, they will be paying for those things for years to come and will likely end up regretting some of their decisions.

Today in class, we discussed that when teaching, you are expected to teach any subject and grade that is assigned to you. Such as, if I am a math teacher but am asked to do grade 9 science, I will have to. Not to just walk over and through it quickly but to really learn it and in turn teach it thoroughly. Which can be something difficult to do. Grade 9 science is something that is out of my comfort level. If I were to get stuck with it, I would need to do a lot of homework myself to be able to teach the students properly and answer any of their questions. One of my days in the classroom last year I had a teacher who wanted to teach the shop classes but was teaching grade seven health. He talked about how nervous he was at first but he told me that it was much easier than he expected. He said that the two previous teachers of the course emailed him all of their notes, tests, and everything else. Therefore, he was able to pick and choose what they had given him and create his own course around it. I wonder if I will have the same support from past teachers when I get stuck in a class that is outside of my comfort level. We also talked about the fact that there is often a dissonance between the teacher that the teacher wants to become and the teacher that they are becoming. Many factors can lead to this including, the behaviour of students, lack of resources, and lack of support systems within the school. As a professional, despite those constraints, we need to find a way to succeed. However, if there are too many constraints it can lead to teacher burnout. As the teacher and the professional, you are still expected to succeed. I can see the dissonance in my own teaching already. At the beginning of the program, I wanted to teach high school. However, I am now leaning towards teaching middle years. We also talked about how in the past, communities would pay their teachers privately. Therefore, if a community could afford to pay good teachers, they would. Which is obviously very different from how it is today in the STF.

Today in class we had a big class discussion on resiliency. We talked about how resilient people can push through on their own but others may need help to get through it. Relating resiliency to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, people may need to go into different systems to find help depending on what they are going through. For many people, looking in their microsystem would be enough support. Whether it be family or close friends. However, depending on what you’re going through, others may need to extend into the exosystem such as a professional therapist. Over time what began as a distant relationship may begin to form into a much stronger connection. Once you begin to trust that person more then it may turn into more of a microsystem connection than an exosystem. We also discussed the gender roles that society has given everyone, both male and female. The idea behind the females is that sex sells. The main idea behind men was to ‘be a man’ and to ‘grow some balls’. Which is exactly how media portrays us and as far as marketing goes that is still the best way to make sales. However, it is something that needs to change. Some minor changes have begun to happen. Although, it is a very long road to success. One change that I noticed in my own schooling experience was with clothing rules. Girls weren’t allowed to wear tank tops or too short of dresses. By the time I was in high school, the same rules applied to the boys as well. In gym class, I used to wear muscle shirts all of the time. Once I reached high school I was asked to change and could no longer wear it. I often wonder how long it will be until all of those gender roles are erased from our community or if we will ever be able to get rid of those stereotypes. We also briefly touched on the idea of the game of cowboys and Indians. Which is a game that needs to stop. As a child, I played a similar game but we played cops and robbers. Which doesn’t paint a bad picture of a certain race or culture. Maybe children will think bad things about robbers. However, it would be better than having negative feelings towards an entire culture.

Today class was shorter than usual as it was the first day. The first big idea of the term that we touched on was professional disposition. Professional disposition is all about your own philosophy on education. There are many things that can lead to your developing professional disposition. Two of the main ideas are, why education is important to you and what your own role is in education. Everyone will have their own ways of developing their own professional disposition. My own professional disposition has already begun to form. It continues and will continue to change as I get older and more experience in the field. We also talked about modifying and adapting when it comes to curriculum. As teachers, we have the power to modify or change the outcome of a course. We can also adapt or make a slight change that we feel can better the course. As a future teacher, I think it will be difficult for me to adapt or modify anything early on in my career. Mainly because I will be too focused on getting everything done that needs to be done. However, I do think that the more years I am teaching I will be able to both adapt and modify much quicker and easier. I wonder how long it will take for me to get comfortable enough to start to make changes. Whether it will be right away or if it will take some time.

                Today in class we talked about return on investment and taxes in the education system. This is something that interests me on multiple levels. I took two years of business at Edwards School of Business in Saskatoon, so I quite enjoy the business and money side of things. Also, the fact that I am in school to become a teacher and this will directly affect my ability to teach. Many people always complain about taxes and think that they should be lowered. Not knowing the repercussions of it. If that were to happen there would likely be big budget cuts in either healthcare or education. Personally, I don’t think either of those sounds like a good idea to me. I like the safety net of having healthcare even if I don’t need it. Also, if they cut teaching budgets, even more, it will add a lot more stress to teachers. Dr. Gabor Mate talked about childhood trauma being a major cause of addiction later in life. He said that addiction is not a choice or genetic but stems from childhood trauma. The key to healing is to unpack the trauma and come to terms with it. He didn’t mention how those healing stages happen but they do need to happen. In order to help the children but to also make a stronger society. We also discussed teachers abilities to predict their own students’ marks within 5%. I think that for the most part teachers should be able to do this quite regularly. I volunteered about 100 hours in a grade 7 math classroom last year and it did not take very long for me to figure out where their marks would fall. However, this could be a potentially harmful thing for the students. There was a case study that showed that teachers favoured the ‘smart’ students and therefore they excelled and developed much quicker. Whereas, the ‘not smart’ students were not helped nearly as much and they ended up with the lower marks. Despite the labels of smart and not smart being assigned at random. How well will I be able to avoid my own opinions on the students to try and help all students develop at similar paces?

                Today in class one of the topics we discussed was appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is when you repeat certain words or sentences to put extra emphasis on them and show their importance. Which is exactly what our professor did when he told us about it. He repeated appreciative inquiry and what it was multiple times to make sure that we all heard what he was talking about. I didn’t know that this was a specific teaching strategy that had its own name. However, I have picked up on other professors doing the same thing and make sure that I take notes on whatever it is that they repeat. We also talked about using metaphors as another teaching strategy. If you can find something that your students are interested in and relate the subject to it, it can be a very effective way of teaching. Thinking back to my high school experience many teachers did this. Most of the time they would misuse the word and be completely off about a certain subject but it was still memorable. Which means it was an effective strategy. We also talked about at-risk children and what an at-risk child actually means. A big question was what is an at-risk child or what does that truly mean. Everyone came up with their own answers, mainly on a similar path. That an at-risk child is someone who could struggle to transition from being a student to being an adult. I wonder how I will be able to help at-risk children in my teaching while still making sure that the other students all get the teachings that they need.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton