UNBC Education #2020 Word

My one word for my Education 491 Practicum and 2020 was Authenticity. I chose this word because it is important for me to be authentic to myself, which will then reflect onto my teaching practice. Throughout my practicum, I wanted to try new things and challenge myself to be the best, most authentic educator that I could be, while being true to myself and my identity. The last few months in my practicum, have been a transformative opportunity. My goal was to look towards authenticity for myself, my practice, and my future students. This goal was not only reasonable, but still something I will be working towards in future years. I want to integrate more of myself into my teaching practice, as this word still resonates with me.

In order to be my most authentic self, it entailed a lot of self-reflection, and integrating mindfulness into my practice. This allowed me to input more of my interests, and my student interests into the classroom, as I wanted them to have an equally authentic learning experience. This lead me down a road of Place-Based and Mindfulness focused education, as I believe both are crucial is truly imprinting who you are in your learning. In order for my students to dive into this authentic learning, I had to show them my own passions for learning and how I best learned. This entailed show them pieces of my nerdier interests, including Star Wars and games like Dungeons and Dragons. From my experience, many student appreciated and latched onto these interests, as they often made connections from movie media to material that we were learning into the classroom. They began to see connections beyond the classroom, which helped them learn and understand the content far more than I imagined. This helped me reach my student goal of stirring their curiosity and enthusiasm, so as to push their learning limits to discover their potential. Students showed me their learning with materials that interested them, including creating scale factor models of Baby Yoda, and connecting genetic engineering technology to their one day “ideal progeny”. This worked well for my students, as they were authentic to their interests, and this brought in passion projects and creations I wasn’t expecting. I would do this again, and allow students to always have choice in regards to projects.

Through this, I learned a great deal about myself, and how to engage student learning. My goal of authenticity made it easier for my students to relate to me, and be more of their authentic selves. I noticed this is student projects, where they produced products that resonated with them. When I allowed them choice, and showed them what I choose to do, such as relating a Harry Potter Potions class to Chemistry, students are open to taking chances that expand their understanding of what learning could be, and how they can express it. I hope to continue on with my authenticity learning journey, and continue to see how this influences my practice.