Standard 7: Educators engage in professional learning.
Being a teacher is not a simple job, it involves a lot of time and energy that goes into the students and the lessons. Its important that you’re always developing and fine tuning your practice, because you never stop learning even as a teacher. Its important to be reflective as a teacher and think about what you can do to improve how you teach. When standard 7 talks about teachers and their professional development, it means taking the time to advance skills, and work on pedagogical growth. Professional development can be attending workshops, learning new ways to teach a subject, or earning certificates through study. Through these activities, teachers can expand and refine their practices for their students and how they teach them.
Professional development isn’t just for the students, it’s also to assist and encourage teachers to try different methods and styles of teaching. It’s a good way to get out of your comfort zone and participate in a judgment free zone. A way I will be taking part in this standard is with the 20th annual Spring Fling B.C. pre-K-12 education conference. There will be workshops on classroom management for new teachers, how to build student confidence, and integrating math games into math lessons. I’m unbelievably excited to participate in this conference, I feel it will be a great way to get a sense of what professional days are like before I become a full fledged teacher.
Photo credit: Maddie Corbett, 2020.