Section Two: Teacher Candidate Background Experiences

Introduction

To be completely transparent- becoming a teacher was not my original career goal; in

fact, up until I was in grade eleven, I was dead set on becoming a doctor. What happened? I have

read a quote that says, “life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans” (Saunders,

1957), so I suppose the short answer to that question would be- life happened. Throughout this

second section of the portfolio I will be sharing some of my personal experiences that have led

me to wanting to become a teacher. This section will contain my educational background and

work experiences, my school observations and their classroom applications, my philosophy of

education, as well as my resume.

Teacher Candidate Educational Background and Work Experiences

Education experiences.

Throughout all of elementary school, and most of high school, I was one of those

students that school work came very easily to- I was one of the first to finish in class

assignments, I did not have to study very much prior to quizzes and tests in order to do well, and

I did not need frequent redirection, as I genuinely enjoyed doing the work. According to what I

have learned during the MSED program, my teachers should have enriched the material they

were giving me in order to support my learning needs better. For the most part, that was not the

case. I did a lot of extra silent reading, I almost never had any homework left to do at home, and

I would often get partnered up with students that were struggling. It was not until grade eight that

I had a teacher who supported me with enrichment material- my assignments would be slightly

different than those of the other students, and on a couple occasions I actually got extra

assignments. I was thrilled! It was not the case that I had had bad teachers previously, I have
very fond memories of many of them, however none previously had taken the time, or effort,

into varying the material being given to the students.

As I started high school, grades nine and ten progressed similarly to all my previous years

of schooling, and even though I was enrolled in all academic (and one advanced placement)

courses it was still relatively easy for me to succeed. Things started to change in grade 11. All of

a sudden, I was not able to follow along with some of the concepts being taught in my math and

sciences classes. The assignments took longer to complete, and I got questions wrong or was not

able to answer them at all. I failed a couple quizzes and even though I tried to study it turned out,

that I did not really know how. Majority of children’s habits and routines form by nine years of

age, so around third grade (Jackson, 2015) and since I never really had to study in the past, that

was never a habit that formed for me. I struggled through grade 11 and 12 maths and sciences,

since my goal was still to become a doctor. My final grades definitely were not what I wanted

them to be but I got accepted into a Life Sciences program at a local university. I’m not sure

what I was expecting, but the same courses that I had struggled with in high school, I continued

to struggle with when I started university, except now the concepts being taught were more

advanced, there was more work assigned, and instead of being 1 in a high school classroom of 25

I was now 1 in a lecture hall of 250. I managed to scrape through first and second year, but my

marks were extremely low, so was my self-confidence, and probably because of those two

factors I not only was not enjoying what I was learning, but I started to despise it and I knew I

needed to make a change.

During grades 11, 12, and those first two years of university I was also working as a

lifeguard and swimming instructor, and when it came time to think about what sort of field I

could envision myself thriving in and enjoying, that part time job helped me decide. I loved
teaching children to swim- their excitement to get into the water, how proud they were of

themselves when they mastered a new skill for the first time, and my ability to evaluate them in

order to problem solve when something was not working. This love was what inspired me to

enter an Early Childhood Education diploma program. The difference for me in this program

compared to my previous post-secondary attempt was night and day. Part of that was because I

was so interested in what I was learning about, but a much bigger factor was the professors. I

was attending a smaller college located in Northern Ontario, so the class sizes were much smaller

and because of this the professors were really able to form relationships with their students.

Another factor in my success was the difference in lectures, my professors did not stand in front

of the room and talk at us for three hours, assign homework, and then leave. Instead, the classes

were very interactive with group work, discussions, and hands on learning.

At this point, becoming a teacher still was not the goal, and it did not become even a

thought until my fourth semester of the program. Each semester we were required to complete a

placement in a childcare setting, and during my fourth semester I got the opportunity to do my

placement in a Full Day Kindergarten setting- and I was hooked. I fell in love with kindergarten,

and by the end of the placement I decided that I did not just want to be the Early Childhood

Educator in a kindergarten classroom, but that I wanted to be the teacher in a kindergarten

classroom. After I completed the ECE program I bridged into the third year of a Bachelor of

Early Learning Program Development degree, which upon completion allowed me to enter the

MSED program at Medaille College.

Work Experiences.

As I mentioned above, I worked as a lifeguard and swimming instructor in the past.

During the school year I would work at indoor municipality run pools guarding and teaching
lessons, and during the summers I worked at an outdoor waterpark guarding. Those summers

spent working at the outdoor waterpark helped me so much to grow into the person that I am

now. There is a very stark difference in working at an indoor municipality run pool compared to

this outdoor waterpark- the main difference being that almost nothing ever happens indoors; you

may have to remind a patron of a rule, but that is about the extent. The outdoor waterpark that I

worked at was very busy, patrons frequently broke the rules (whether accidentally or

purposefully), and the lifeguards were in the water daily doing rescues. Throughout my time

spent working there I learned how to think on my feet and make snap decisions, to remain calm

in high pressure situations, to stand my ground, to be flexible, and to trust my team members.

For my last two summers spent working at the waterpark I was promoted to a headguard

(essentially a supervisor position), which meant that I had the added responsibilities of

overseeing the other 12 members of the guard team, dealing with extreme PR situations, ensuring

more major first aid situations were handled properly, and signing off on documentation such as

incident reports. Some days spent working there were extremely stressful, however I know that I

would not be the strong, confident, and meticulous person that I am today.

As I shared previously, it was through my job of teaching young children to swim that I

was able to realize down the road that I wanted to become a teacher. This job involved creating

lessons plans, observing and evaluating the children, problem solving how to improve their

skills, and above all keeping the children safe while still having fun. Even then I would try to

diversify how I taught them to make sure that I was meeting various learning needs, so I would

make sure to verbally explain, demonstrate myself, and physically correct for children. Halfway

through the swimming session children would get a brief report for how they were progressing

so far, and at the end of the session they would receive a full report card. For both I would make
myself available for conversations with parents, who were at times disappointed that I had not

marked their children as having done better. While writing my comments for the children, I

always made sure to use the ‘sandwich’ method of starting out with a positive, then including

something that still needs improvement and reminders of how to keep practicing it, and finishing

off with another positive. There were many private lessons that I taught, for which it was just

myself and one child, but for the most part I taught group lessons. For lower levels and younger

children, the maximum number of children per group was four, however for the higher levels I

could have up to ten children in one group. Not only did I have to make sure to have my eyes on

all the children at all times, I also had to keep in mind each child’s strengths, weaknesses, what

they had already mastered, and what they needed extra practice with. For my younger children I

loved singing songs with them, to spare the older ones from listening to my not-so-talented

singing voice, I always made sure to include some games in each lesson.

Since graduating from the ECE program I have registered with the College of Early

Childhood Educators and am able to work and refer to myself as a Registered ECE. I spent

majority of the time that I was completing the last two years of my degree working for one child

care organization- I would pick up supply shifts when it did not conflict with my class schedule,

and for two summers I worked with school age children running summer camp. I have worked

with infant, toddler, preschooler, and school age groups and each has so many unique aspects

from the others. The organization that I worked for follows a project approach, and during my

summers with the school age children we were required to fully complete at least one project

over the course of the summer. A project can be completed based on anything that educators

observe the children are interested in. There are three phases involved with completing a project.

During the first phase information is gathered from the students regarding what they already
know, what they want to find out, and how they can find out. During the second phase is when

investigation occurs to answer the questions that students came up with, this stage can involve

observations, experiments, research, talking to experts, and field trips. During phase three the

project comes to a close through the presentation of what has been learned, this can be through

the creation of a book, a video, or a gallery and are shared with families and community

members.

My current job is as a supply ECE for my local suburban school board, and I have to

admit that it has been my favourite so far since it has brought me back to the setting I enjoy the

most- kindergarten. I have been very lucky, since because of this position I have been able to

work in and experience so many different classrooms and teaching styles. I have gotten to see

routines, procedures, and lessons that I loved, and I have also gotten to see many that I did not

enjoy. There are some classrooms that I have returned to multiple times, so I have been able to

form connections and relationships with students, those are the calls that I appreciate most

because nothing beats seeing children light up with a smile as they see you enter a room. There

have also been very difficult days having to interact with behaviours because I am a stranger, but

figuring out how to get through to those children and seeing them bring their walls down is

incredibly rewarding. It has been very interesting to be able to observe the teachers that I work

with, after having been learning how to be a teacher myself. A lot of the time I saw what I was

being taught in action, but unfortunately, I have also seen some teachers act in ways that I have

been instructed not to.

School Observations and Classroom Application

During the first two semesters of the MSED program I was able to participate in three

field experiences. The first field experience was in a grade 1 class at a school that was located in
an upper middle-class suburban Buffalo setting. There were about 25 students in this classroom,

and for majority of the time that I was observing there were three adults in the room- the teacher,

along with two special needs educators. I got to observe the morning routine in the classroom as

the students came in, an ELA lesson, and usually a math lesson as well. For the most part, the

teacher would be near the door, greeting students as they were coming in, chatting and asking

questions about their weekend, and the students would have some sort of worksheet on their desk

to work on until the morning announcements started.

I particularly liked the ELA lessons that I was able to observe in this classroom, the

teacher would start off by gathering the students on the carpet and reading a book to them, and

then they would break off into small groups. Prior to actually reading the book, the teacher

would do a picture walk with the students in order to orient them with the book. By doing this

orientation with the students, the teacher was promoting their engagement with the text, as well

as providing them with necessary information prior to reading so that during the reading students

can use the new information for comprehension (Briggs & Forbes, 2009). The teacher would

usually talk with the students and ask questions about the front cover, flip to a few different

pages and point out characters, ask students about what they thought might be happening, and

point out unfamiliar words or phrases. She made sure to leave some questions unanswered, to

peak the students’ interests and ensure they were paying attention to the actual reading. Another

strategy that I observed this teacher employ in combination with the picture walk was think-pair-

shares. Many times, after the teacher asked the class a question, she would tell students to think

about it on their own for a minute, then to turn to their elbow partner so the two could discuss

their answers, before finally bring the class back together again and asking students to share their

answers (Lyman, 1981). By letting students share their thinking with a partner first, there is less
pressure than if the student were sharing to the whole class, it also gives the student a chance to

gain another perspective from their peer (Cooper, 2018).

The second field experience was in the same school as the first, but this time in a grade 4

class with about 25 students again. The teacher herself said that she got lucky with this group of

students because from the beginning of the school year they had been one of the best-behaved

groups she’s even had. I was able to observe a particular science lesson in this class that I really

enjoyed- the students were put into small groups in order to complete an experiment. This lesson

was a great example of discovery learning which has many benefits for student learning,

including encouraging active engagement, promoting motivation, autonomy, and independence,

as well as encouraging problem-solving skills (Bruner, 1961). I saw the students work together,

think critically, discuss, and eventually come to a consensus in order to be able to present their

finds to the class.

The third field experience that I was a part of was in a grade 5 class that was in a school

that had an urban location. This experience was a little tricky because I would observe and spend

time with one group of grade 5 students as they were coming in in the morning, having their

breakfast, and doing some math RTI exercises, but then that group would trade rooms with

another grade 5 class. After the switch, I would observe the new grade 5 students during their

ELA lesson. Unfortunately, I was only able to observe in this field experience five times, before

schools were shut down and the border closed due to COVID-19. Out of those five times, the

teacher would generally start the lesson with a reading from the textbook. She would either pick

students to read or read herself, which is actually the more beneficial option for students since

she is able to model appropriate fluency, pacing, prosody, and pronunciation (Clay, 1991). A few

times throughout the text the teacher would pause the class for a couple discussion questions that
were included in the book. She would give students some time to write out their own answers

and then she would ask a few students to share what they came up with. There was one lesson

specifically that she did with the class that I really enjoyed observing. The students were

preparing to write their state test soon and in order to show them how their written answers

would be scored, the teacher provided groups of students with examples of past answers as well

as scoring rubrics and asked them to evaluate what score they thought the answers would have

received and why. During this exercise, students were using the top tier of Bloom’s taxonomy

and implementing their higher-level thinking skills. I also think it was a very practical and useful

exercise for the students to understand how their work would be evaluated and to understand

what components they would need to include.

Regarding the observation hours that I needed to set up myself, I completed the majority

of those in a suburban school in Ontario, in a grade 1 classroom. I think out of all the teachers

that I have observed so far, this one did the best at diversifying the work that students were doing

and meeting everyone’s unique needs through implementing the framework of Universal Design

for Learning (Meyer & Rose, 2014). She had also very successfully gotten the students into the

routine of working in small groups independently while she conducted guided reading groups, I

was impressed at how well the students were able to focus on their work and problem solve. I

also liked this teacher’s use of songs as teaching resources, she was able to implement songs

from various parts of the curriculum that the students loved to sing along and dance to which

helped them to remember the information.

After reflecting about these various observations, I have come to the conclusion that there

is no one right way of being a great teacher. When I become a professional teacher myself, I will

be taking all these experiences and applying them to my classroom, my teaching style, and to my
students. I will be basing my teaching on so many different theorists, many of which I have

already mentioned within this portfolio, as well as other frameworks and strategies. A teacher is

never done learning, even after I have completed my MSED I will continue to learn from my

teacher peers, my administrators, experts during professional development workshops, and most

importantly from my students.

Philosophy of Education

This current philosophy of education will outline my personal beliefs and perspectives

regarding seven aspects of education- the school, the curriculum, learning, the learner,

assessment, classroom management, and the teacher. Similarly to how I will never stop learning

as a professional teacher, I am sure that my philosophy of education will continue to evolve

throughout my teaching career based on new experiences, both in and out of the classroom, new

information, and new students.

The school.

I believe that the mission of a school should be to prepare students for all aspects of their

futures, not just the academics. The school should instill a growth mindset in each student, a love

of learning, and equip them with the tools they need to take care of and better all parts of

themselves- physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Schools should have a positive

effect on the society in which they are found, and they should be a safe space for all students and

staff. I believe that schools should all participate in community service acts, such as cleaning up

garbage, and not just once a year on Earth Day, but on a continual basis throughout the school

year. Most importantly, I believe that schools should have policies of zero tolerance for

harassment of any kind.

I am a firm believer that anything and everything should be taught in schools, even the

topics that some believe are ‘taboo’ like sex education, racism, and religion. I also think it is

important that as the teacher can distinguish between teaching students facts and presenting

information, without being biased or attempting to sway them in certain ways. I believe that

having honest, and sometimes uncomfortable, conversations with students and giving them

reliable and true information far outweighs leaving students to attempt to find things out for

themselves and possibly becoming misinformed. I also believe that math, science, language arts,

visual arts, physical education, music, drama, and social studies are all very important and there

should be more equality and balance between how these subjects are incorporated.

Learning.

As I mentioned in section one of this portfolio, I strongly believe in the work of

Bronfenbrenner (Ecological Systems Theory), Vygotsky (Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive

Development), and Pearson & Gallagher (Gradual Release of Responsibility). I think the

evolution of learning has come a long way- coming from a teacher standing at the front of the

classroom lecturing to students and if the student did not learn anything then it was the student’s

fault, to now teachers realize that there are many different learning styles and needs in their

classrooms and it is up to them to figure out how to cater to all the students through various

methods. I think there is still bias in instruction, students getting labeled a certain way and then

not being able to escape that label, and I think that we still have a ways to go with regards to

teachers advocating for their students’ needs in order for all students to be able to succeed. I

believe that technology is a great tool that teachers can utilize in various ways- for gathering

information, assessing knowledge, and modifying and accommodating learning. I think the first
step to schools meeting the diverse needs of students is to really get to know the students and

form relationships with their families, because after all, that is who knows the student and their

needs best. The next step would be to advocate for the students, ensure that they have the

necessary modifications and accommodations, as well as any other services that will help them

be successful. Lastly, it is up to the teacher to put in the effort and work of diversifying their

teaching methods, classroom, and assessments.

The learner.

I would like to work in a kindergarten setting because I love the mix of learning through

play, the way that children are so excited to grow and explore their interests, and there are so

many firsts to be a part of. Kindergarten students are in the preoperational stage, according to

Piaget, so they may or may not be able to think about things symbolically already, they are

developing memory and imagination skills, and often engage in pretend play (McLeod, 2018).

Their thinking is still based on intuition, not yet entirely logical, thought is often egocentric, and

there will be many emotional needs to support (McLeod, 2018). I believe that the responsibilities

of the student are to try their best, be willing to learn, and be kind to those around them.

Assessment.

I believe that students should be assessed and evaluated many times on an ongoing basis,

and that final marks should be compiled of multiple assessments done in various styles and on

multiple days. We all have bad days, when we are in a bad mood or things simply do not go our

way, so I think it is unfair to treat children as if those days do not happen to them. I believe the

goal of assessment should be to figure out next steps, to see if the students are understanding the

material presented and it is time to move on, or whether we need to stay where we are for a while

longer and look at things from a different perspective.

Classroom management is a big factor in the quality of learning that students receive- if

students are constantly misbehaving or interrupting, the teacher must stop teaching, which affects

how much students are learning. I believe that classroom management comes down to policies

and procedures that a teacher establishes during the first week of school. If students know what

to do in a situation, they do not need to ask. When students understand that their negative

behaviours will have consequences, they are less likely to occur. I believe that one of the most

effective techniques for classroom management is forming genuine relationships with your

students. When students know that their teacher cares about them, their interests, and their

wellbeing they will care about that teacher as well, and they will be more likely to want to listen

and follow directions.

The teacher.

I may be a little biased in my beliefs regarding necessary educational background for

teachers, but I strongly believe that my ECE diploma combined with my BELPD degree have

prepared me extremely well for becoming a professional teacher. I have had so many field hours

already since almost every single semester of those two programs require a placement

experience. I also have completed a full research project during my last semester of getting my

degree- which I completed on the relationship between outdoor play and children’s abilities to

self-regulate their behaviour. I believe that the most important personality and professional

characteristics of a teacher include being knowledgeable, confident, genuine, caring, creative,

compassionate, adaptable, fair, prepared, positive, and critical thinkers.

Resume

Introduction.
 Following is my current resume, including my profile which includes my most relevant

characteristics and qualifications, my educational experiences, as well as my most relevant work

experiences.

My resume.
Conclusion

I hope through sharing about my educational experiences, work experiences, school

observations, and my philosophy of education I have been able to thoroughly introduce myself as

a person, and also as a professional that is ready to become a teacher. I am thankful and

appreciative of the experiences that have brought me to where I am now, and so grateful for the

opportunities that I have received in the past which have helped me to learn, grow, and become

the person that I am today. My top goal in life is to never become stagnant but to keep

discovering and educating myself in being the best teacher and human I can be. In the next

section of this portfolio, I will be sharing artifacts and rationales for why each is important and

demonstrates that I am ready to be a professional teacher.