As I spend more time in the classroom, I begin to understand the importance of including others in classroom discussions. There is a sense of ownership and power when you get into your classroom, which can become a blind spot.

To mitigate the potential bias and misinformation that can develop in a closed-off classroom, it is beneficial to invite community members to speak in and participate as part of your class. I am interested in trying to be part of the Sigmund Brower writing groups which allows students to find new ways to connect with writing.

There are so many different skills that students can benefit from learning, and it is impossible for one person, a teacher, to be exceptional in them all. Elementary education is such a complex thing to teach, there are so many skills students should learn to be their most successful selves in the future. My favourite examples around community-based skill sharing would be when students get to go to the public library. There is so much information available, and all of it is so interesting and useful.

Another way I like to see the community involved in education is when grandparents are willing to come and share about their lives or skills they feel successful in. The students seem to connect with learning from people in different generational roles. I believe this is another authentic way that we can bring Indigenous ways of knowing to the classroom.

With the technology available, we can present community ideas through so many channels. It is okay if you are in a rural classroom because now you can Zoom in the library or have a Facetime call with a student’s grandma. Technology is a superpower that will allow the community to be a part of the classroom in a whole new way.

I was not prepared for how much I would miss this group of people. The staff, students and parents all welcomed me into the community and truly made me feel like part of their family. It was with many tears and some very beautiful words, gifts and performances from the students that we said goodbye.

I feel like this practicum allowed me to find my footing and voice as a teacher, as well as set a goal for how I want my own classroom to feel. There was this incredible sense of closeness and trust that made developing new and amazing things possible.

I have learned that one of my goals is to have a very clear and well-thought-out assessment system. I found that I fell into a very institutional method that took away from the individuality of my students. I also found that I need to have a well-marked-out hand-in and hand-out system. The students were easily overwhelmed, and suddenly papers ended up EVERYWHERE. I was informed that drowning in paper is a uniquely intermediate problem. The primary teachers confirmed that they did not find they had the same issues.

A highlight of this practicum has been the sharing of meals. My CT stated that food was a universal tool of connection, and I found that she might be right. We had a taco day, a soup day, a pizza party and even made apple crisp. Every time there was food in the classroom, the students would exclaim that it was the best day ever. I look forward to being able to implement similar practices in a classroom.

I was able to see a setting where all social and emotional needs were able to be met, even if only for a bit of the day, and students were able to fully connect with the academic aspects of education. I truly think that I am stepping out of a dream, and hope that the afterglow does not leave me too quickly.

To Beaverly Elementary, I say thank you to you from the bottom of my being.

I have been given a great gift.

When you are in the thick of an adventure, it is so easy to lose sight of how privileged you are. These last 16 months I have been focused on getting my work done so I can start my career. I had gruelling courses, exhausting practicums and a mountain of financial responsibilities to deal with. Every time I woke up, I began to think about what going to bed was going to be like. This cycle continued consistently, spinning me round and round all to spit me out here.

It’s done. I have completed two degrees and now I stand on the precipice of a far more terrifying adventure. It felt as if I was having to fight my way to this point, and as I got stronger the challenges became less daunting. In reality, each fight was providing me with a new boost.

I am about to walk away from the UNBC teaching program with a toolbox filled with ideas, resources and skills. I have a strong and tight-knit community of amazing new teachers who will be willing to support me whenever I need it. Most amazingly, I have a collection of instructors who have had the opportunity to get to know me, Karlea and are excited to hear about the things I am working towards.

I have been part of the UNBC community since 2017, and it never ceases to amaze me how close of a community this university has created and maintains. I look forward to future collaboration with the UNBC Education program.

We had the opportunity to go to Barkerville as a cohort. On the way to the township, we made a variety of stops. The initial stop was to Blessings Grave where my perspective was challenged. I was very interested with how we would approach murder, death and honouring the resting place of someone with no personal connection to us. There is a need for greater sensitivity around historical locations. I found that many of us seemed to forget that we were standing over the remains of a very real person. We then went to the Chinese grave sites, and had the opportunity to ponder what it was like when reconciliation happened, and the bodies were moved out of the Wells area.

My personal point of enjoyment was walking through Wells and getting to experience an outdoor classroom. I was amazed with the incredible community space that was created, and how easy it was to access for the school. We had the opportunity to have a local artist lead us in building natural mandelas. This was a creative way to immerse ourselves in place based learning.

When it came to the actual visiting of Barkerville, everything was short lived. There was some illness in our group which caused us to leave early, but for me I have been to Barkerville at least once a year since I could remember. I was excited to get a donut and some candy, before seeing a Chinese school lesson.

This entire experience has helped me to better understand the importance of exploring history in Northern British Columbia, and diving into place based learning. I would like to continue this learning through exploring more historical sites closer to Prince George.

I spent my 4-week practicum at Beaverly Elementary. My time there was wonderful and felt like returning home. I previously spent time at Beaverly as an IEW but spent minimal time in the classroom. It was exciting to be able to enter the building in a new way and learn how to teach a group of people that have previous notions of how I work.

Many of the students remembered spending time with me taking body breaks, or playing with rubiks cubes. I had to tread carefully earlier on in the practicum to avoid a lack of respect and to really solidify my change of position within the school.

There ended up being minimal tension within the classroom, and I was able to transition into the classroom environment pretty smoothly. This definitely boulstered my belief in myself. I felt like I could finally see myself as a teacher in an average classroom.

During this practicum I ran a 4 week long readers theatre style lesson that connected all subject areas. The students were given the opportunity to end school early and go to Fiji instead. This resulted in us learning about New Zealand and Fijian culture. We then went on a cruise that ended up sinking and thrusting the students into a survival situation. It was a very unique and eye opening experience. After seeing how a strong community culture and safe space can allow for diverse learning, I feel like I have been filled with a new sense of excitement and intrigue.

• Why is it so hard to leave students behind?
• What have I learned from trying experiences?
• How has this changed my perception of teaching?
• Who did I see myself as before this experience?
• Where do I see myself going?

Above are the questions that I am sitting here thinking about. They are all things that will probably go unanswered for quite some time. Mostly because I don’t know if I really had a proper understanding of myself prior to this experience.

Education feels as if it is always changing you, and when you continue changing without time to reflect, you exist in this haze-like state. To begin looking at these questions, I first consider what the overall experience was like for me. In two words, my experience was empowering and reaffirming. I have thought about being a teacher for some time, and being at Harwin allowed me to feel like I was truly in the right place. I think it is hard to leave people that you relate to, and you feel seen by. The students at Harwin were welcoming, and willing to accept vulnerability. I felt like I was able to make mistakes and be appreciated for my effort to correct the. This is probably one of the many reasons it was so hard to say goodbye. I learned that my age and experience do not mean that I am all-knowing. I also learned that anyone that tells me otherwise has not honestly reflected on the world around them.

Considering this experience, I feel that teaching has a lot more to do with connections to students and the community than curricular content. There are many many steps that need to be taken before we get to the more widely understood concept of teaching. Prior to Harwin, I imagined that I was going to learn all these skills to help inspire and excel students in their academic futures. I felt like I was the reason students were going to get a better education. In reality, I am just another vehicle for students to use when exploring education. I offer something that is not individually mine, and students can be just as or more successful with or without me.

I see myself continuing to learn about how I fit into education, and attempting to find the strength to be humbled by the students I encounter.

Having the opportunity to learn in situ is something that is often not possible. I was lucky enough to be part of a cohort that was able to enter an elementary school once a week for six weeks prior to practicum. During that time I had the opportunity to try out what I thought would work well in a classroom, some ideas had more merit than others, and see how real-life students react.

I was also given the opportunity to co-teach with one of my peers. There are so many amazing benefits to teaching alongside someone with a vastly different teaching style. I could see how simple things such as calling a class attention can create very different classroom experiences. This experience has helped to strengthen my connection to my cohort, as well as my identity as a teacher. I would love to co-teach if given the opportunity in my career because the diversity within the classroom is so incredibly valuable.

The most difficult thing I had to do during this experience was trying to create very small linked lessons that can be accomplished in 1-hour intervals. When in an average classroom you have a much longer amount of time to work in, and this is something that has far more value than I once considered.

I felt like my strongest area in this was my ability to develop connections with students while in the classroom. I have been told I will be back in this school for my 3-week practicum and that brings me comfort when considering meeting another class of new people.

Spiral of Inquiry and how I got here.

I began this journey prompted by the reading of “the Spiral Playbook”. I have always personally been a curious person willing to challenge people’s thinking. That said, I have rarely been directed to apply a why or how to my questions. The directive of finding an inquiry to guide me through my education felt rather simplistic. I have tons of ideas! As the weeks went by and time ticked closer and closer to the start of practicum, I find myself feeling like a butterfly stuck in a jar. I am fluttering around just trying to find a way out of this and know that I will end up pinned down eventually. I have so many questions that will lead me down a path of inquiry but feel unsure of what the correct one to follow is.

Taking the plunge, here is what I’ve ended up with after weeks of consideration. Many students seem to be caught up in jumping right into being ‘grown’. There is a desire from students that they should be treated in a mature manner and supported with more mature content, but noticeably lack the skills to understand what is being shared. It feels like there is a poor game of leapfrog being played and many students are missing critical elements required for their educational development.

How do we know this? I personally have a skewed perspective because I work with youth that have fallen between the cracks. I work with youth suffering from addiction and homelessness, and there are so many attributes between my weekend youth and the students I see in school. These similarities make me wonder what is happening in schools that contribute to this type of lifestyle. If I can see similarities between an 18-year-old and a third grader, is there something I could be doing to support that student and make them feel prepared for the world and happy to be in my classroom?

Are we teaching things that are important to these youth? I personally remember saying that I wish we had learned how to do taxes in school because that is a point of stress for me as an adult. That being said, are the subjects being taught too nuanced when considering their real-world application? Is this where students are finding a lack of value in content? What would happen if we had practical coursework starting at kindergarten? Should we be instilling the value of resume-worthy experiences from a young age?

The more I think about the what-ifs and how I would approach stuff, the more I feel tied up in knots and unsure of where I want to go from here. I hope to continue to develop this post as I push through the wild jungle of inquiry.

Applied Design Skills and Technologies

What is it, and why do I care? ADST feels like an easy cross-curricular component. The more I learn about it, the more I realize it is prevalent in most aspects of education. As we worked through the program and learned about what hands-on learning looks like, I was able to sign up to participate and witness an ADST work block at one of the local elementary schools.

When thinking of what ADST is, I often think about STEM and the more lab-based hands-on learning. When I walked into the library space, the first thing I noticed was bins. Bins on bins on bins. There were students with bins of yarn, students with bins of buttons, robotic mice, red solo cups, and what appeared to be scrap paper.

The first thought through my mind was, what could a student possibly be learning by stacking red solo cups? The answer is that they were given the supplies and asked to come up with a hypothetical problem and then solve it. The students stated they were building a wall to block other students from staring at them. The problem was privacy, so they developed a privacy blind. As I continued to walk through the room, students explained how some of their work followed the same framework of solving a problem. Other students were following their inquiry and just experimenting. Some students were there to play games on a computer, so they found materials to make a game controller and then began playing computer games through that.

I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the amount of options in the room so to take a step back and focus on one area, I chose to try out coding mice. The mice are made for K-3, so that felt like an excellent place to dip my toes in. Wow was I wrong? That poor mouse struggled to get to his cheese, and I ended up having to call in support. There were four student teachers hovering over this robotic mouse, just about ready to rip out our hair. There is a required understanding of sequencing that ended up having to be taught by the teacher overseeing the class. I feel that students having a sense of comfort and a strong grasp of ADST can only result in a better-equipped student going forward.

Land-based learning is essential to me. I have grown up with many outdoor learning opportunities, and find that they leave me feeling centred and more self-aware. As I embark on my teaching journey, I find myself seeking out these land-based adventures any chance I get.

After being able to go to the trapline, I found out about Epic Jr. A group of teacher candidates were chosen to support students as they worked on land-based inquiry. The first day included going to a local park and collecting fallen wood. Before starting we circled up and discussed the energy we wanted to bring into the day, and how we can show respect.

Walking to the park, the students were very willing to explain what they were feeling and how they were choosing what to harvest. My favourite moment from the first day was when a fellow teacher candidate was able to explain how wildlife used the branches as a food source. Many of the students were eager and willing to make assumptions and back up why they thought a specific way.

The next day was when we had the opportunity to help with fire making. There was a very cool dynamic of students identifying themselves as leaders because of various experiences with fire making. This ownership of skills allowed for a much more open and creative learning environment. We again walked to where the fire-making was, but this time it was in a staff member’s backyard. We discussed reciprocal relationships and how respect was a factor in them. The students were eager to try out different methods of fire-starting and were happy to explain any and all decisions in the process.

I was empowered by the Lead Learner Dawn Bast and her comments about how I was able to use directive questions to further understand the student’s inquiry. This is a skill I would like to continue to develop. I feel that often people leave a trace of their understanding with everything they touch, and attempting to find students’ unaltered understanding becomes difficult.

I look forward to future opportunities with Epic Jr.