Consider how your artefacts, experiences and understandings connect to each other and bridge academic knowledge with your life experiences. What gaps did you notice and how might you address these gaps? What did you learn from your peers during this process? How were you able to integrate peer feedback into your portfolio?

 

My artifacts, experiences and understandings of the TQS have become solidified through this project, and I felt that not only was this a wonderful addition to my portfolio which demonstrates my learning, but it also allowed me to prepare for future interviews by understanding concrete evidence that shows my learning through student teaching and at Werklund. My experiences in practicum have bridged my understanding because I was able to put my learning and theories into practice in a really meaningful way. During this project I was pleasantly surprised looking back at how many photos I took during my field experience that I was able to use as artifact, and this actually made me feel like I am going to be looking for more evidence of meeting these competencies during the next practicum. Looking back on pictures made me feel eager to get back to my classroom and engage in the new understandings I have gained in the past 5 weeks or so. During my practicum, I faced many challenges with the complex learning environment of my class, and so I feel that moving forward I need to utilize the Teaching Quality Standards to align my actions and act in the best interest of my role as a teacher and for my students as well. I noticed while completing this project that my gaps lie in my artifacts around Legal Frameworks. In my Law and Ethics class, I was able to study cases that have taken place in classrooms that help me understand the School Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but I feel that I would like to have more evidence of my understanding of this competency to show that I do have a solid grasp of my legal responsibilities in the classroom. During my practicum, I did have an experience of working with a social agency to assist a student, so this was a big learning curve and definitely challenged me. Working in a peer group for this assignment was helpful, as we were able to bounce ideas off of each other through the process, and look back on past projects that we have completed in this cohort previously, and could share those resources and artifacts. I also learned a lot about my peers’ perspectives about their own learning in ways which I may not have noticed or thought about before. It was very valuable to be able to communicate over technology throughout the process of digging through our artifacts. I also felt that I took more value from some of the projects that we have completed in this degree now that I have aligned them with the TQS and made justifications as to how they connect to this standard of teaching that we are working towards. I feel happy to have had this experience to be able to make connections in my degree in a way that brings all my learning together into one ultimate document that I can bring with me going forward in my career and learning.