Standard 8: Educators contribute to the profession.

The role of an educator is very dynamic and requires a lot of support. I do a lot of work with my fellow Teacher Candidates, debriefing and bouncing ideas back and forth. I value their experiences and advice, as much as they consider what I have to say. A large part of being an educator is contributing to the profession, and giving back as much as others have helped you (especially through the first few years).

I choose to give back to the profession in a few ways, one of which is through my involvement in the first ever UNBC Education Club. I’ve been a part of the executive team since its fruition in 2017 as a Secondary Representative, and was later voted in as the Vice-President for this past year. The purpose of this club is the emotionally, and financially support the elementary/secondary teacher candidate cohorts, and plan events or learning opportunities. As an Education Club executive team, we’ve planned events, fundraised and publicized different learning opportunities open to all future educators. We’ve worked hard to make connections, which has made me very proud of the role I hold as I have enjoyed it immensely, and love meeting and interacting with the different future educators.

Teacher Candidate Alicia Gola and I posing with some of the work we’ve created throughout the semester (including the skeleton) at the UNBC Discovery Day!

I participated in UNBC’s Discovery Day, as an opportunity to share my learning as a second-year Secondary Teacher Candidate to potential future School of Education students. Discovery Day is annual UNBC event where potential future UNBC students can learn about the various programs UNBC offers, meet faculty, tour the campus, and become acquainted with student services. I volunteered as a School of Education Secondary Science stream representative, where I talked about the program and showed them examples of the work we do in the program throughout the year to prepare for teaching. We had a great time getting to know the various potential future teacher candidates, and got to know them by working alongside them creating silly putty and putting the pieces of a skeleton together.

Fellow Secondary Science Teacher Candidates at UNBC Discovery Day!