Blog Assignment # 4 - Tools of the Trade

Teaching in the average classroom is currently not a very high tech profession. While most teachers will use chalkboards, whiteboards and handouts on a daily basis, the two most important tools a teacher will use daily are her brain, full of creativity and textbooks.

To teach successfully a teacher will need to use her brain to be creative. One thing that many students do not realize is that the material a teacher covers on a daily basis is primarily created by the classroom teacher. Teachers share lessons and the province sets provincial goals, but the day to day is up to the teacher to lay out. I know that I had never really thought about that aspect of teaching before I got into my PDP program.That means a lot of work before and after school to even be ready to have students in the classroom. This is why a teacher's brain filled with creativity is one of the most important tools needed to teach. Creativity will enable a teacher to create lessons that will hopefully interest the students and help to teach them the lessons and concepts they need to be successful.

Creativity alone will not get the teaching job done. The other very important tool that a teacher will need to use is the course textbook. The course textbook(s) is very valuable in helping a teacher plan the curriculum. without a text, a teacher will have a lot of work to do on her own to set up units and readings for the course. A coursetext book in most public school is something that will rarely be replaced which means that a teacher could using the same textbook for a good portion of their career. This leads back to the fact that teachers need creativity to be successful. Teaching out of the same book for years can get boring and if the teacher is not interested in the material, you can bet the students won't be either.

Teaching utilizes many tools beyond brain power, creativity and textbooks. Teachers will need to master grade software, attendance systems, projectors, televisions and more to be successful in their classrooms.

Blog Assignment # 3 - How to Become a Professional

Becoming a teacher is not something that one can do directly out of high school. Teaching requires a professional degree, certification and membership to the both the provincial union (the BCTF) and a local district union.

Once a person makes the choice to become a teacher, the first thing to be done is to search out a certified professional development program (PDP) at a university. There are two routes into a PDP: one involves getting a Bachelor of Education through a 4 year program, the other is completing a regular four year Bachelor's degree in a program of choice and then completing a one year teaching program. Either way, you will need to know what you want to teach even before applying to the program because teaching high school requires that you have completed a university major in a teachable subject, or teaching elementary will mean that you have completed coursework in all elementary subjects up to a certain university level.

Acceptance into PDP is based on school grades, personal references, volunteer hours and a personal application. Once accepted into PDP, a student can only become a teacher by completing specific coursework, maintaining a good grade point average and successful completion of two in-class teaching practicums. A teaching practicum is when a student teacher goes into an existing classroom over a period of weeks and takes over regular classroom teaching from the classroom teacher. While the students teacher is teaching, the regular classroom teacher and a university PDP instructor watch and critique the student teacher. This process involves constant feedback, reflection, and improvement. At the end of the practicums it is in the hands of the classroom teacher and the PDP instructor to decide whether or not a student teacher is ready adn capable fo having her/his own classroom. It possible to fail practicums and asked to repeat the following year, and is possibelt o be asked to leave the program permanently if perfomance is very unsatisfactory. Controls like this are in place here in Canada to make sure that only qualified and capable people are becoming professional teachers thus maintaining our high quality educational standards.

Here is a link to the PDP requirements at Simon Fraser University: http://http//www.educ.sfu.ca/pdp/admissions/index.html