Author: tfrost

Over the course of the Bachelor of Education program at TRU I have had amazing work experiences through practicums. I completed my Teacher Certification Practicum Placement at Ecole Nesika Elementary which is apart of School District 27. During this placement I taught lessons and units in all subjects in the 4 and 5 BC Curriculum. I built relationships with over 29 students and ensured all students felt attended to with individualized lessons, personalized feedback, class discussions and encouragement. As well as worked on classroom management, organization, assessment and teaching structure.

I have worked many jobs from high school until present day such as, babysitting, waitressing, ranch work, equipment operating and book keeping. However, the most important in helping me confirm my desire to teach was waitressing and working on a cattle ranch.

From 2016 until 2020 I worked part time as a ranch hand doing many jobs such as haying, feeding, range riding, calving, property maitenance and many other duties that go along with ranch work. Although, this many not seem in any way related to teaching I was able to make connections. Being around animals allowed me to see my ability to care and nurture a living thing much as young students need within the classroom to create a positive and safe learning environment. Bottle feeding claves is another great example because orphaned calves need to be taught to feed from a bottle and although sometimes difficult I was able to persevere and have patience until I was able to teach them, another quality needed in teachers. Lastly, this job was located in Tatla Lake, BC which is a rural part of the Cariboo Chilcotin region near my band of Tl’etinqox Government. This showed me the desire I have to live in this area and teach rurally, potentially at a band school.

From 2016-2018 I worked part time as a waitress, a job I loved but once again on the surface appears completely unrelated helped me further believe I would excel as a teacher. I began waitressing in high school and had always been shy but getting that job made me confident in speaking to people and in fact created a love for talking to different people and hearing their stories whilst serving. While I had previously doubted my ability to succeed in a career such as teaching due to my shyness, waitressing showed me I had the capability to engage with others and get to know them, once again, something teachers need to be able to do with their students.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teacher-regulation/standards-for-educators/edu_standards.pdf

The link above will direct you to the “Professional Standards for BC Educators”.

The BC Teachers Council’s “Professional Standards for BC Educators” outlines the responsibilities teacher must uphold in their teaching practice. It is something I hope to continually and constantly be committed to throughout my career. All nine standards are equally important and serve as something to guide teachers. At the centre of these standards is always the student, which is why these standards can be used to guide my endeavours in creating a safe learning environment for every single student who enters my classroom. As a teacher your goal should only ever be to act in the best interest of your students which is why it is the first standard listed and by upholding the standards you are acting in your students best interests.

https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/overview

The link above will direct you to the BC Curriculum website.

The BC Curriculum website is a great resource for myself as a teacher candidate and I know it will continue to be one as I start my career as a teacher. The website highlighting the Core Competencies allows me to continually weave these throughout all of my lessons since it is easy to view creating a reminder of what is most important aside from the content itself. The big ideas help give a goal overview and the content portion is detailed. Besides these three main points it also gives tools for assessment and Indigenous educational resources. This website serves as a guide for most if not all of what I will do in my classroom. Especially as a teacher candidate it give me direction in planning and being prepared for my students. I look forward to becoming even more comfortable with the website as my journey in the Bachelor of Education program continues.

The following is my response to Call to Action 62 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and how as educators we can achieve this call with ideas to use in the classroom.

As future educators we play a role in ensuring the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is in fact carried out. We can do this specifically throughout classroom practices and address call number 62 i. “Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015, Call to Action 62, i) Already as a teacher candidate I have tried to do this and make Indigenous content my priority when lesson planning and this is the key to fulfilling this call to action. 

It can be used in any subject at any grade. Some examples include a unit to begin the year that shows when we paddle a canoe we must work together and incorporate a lesson on traditional Secwépemc use of the canoe since discussing history of local Indigenous people is a part of this call and incorporates classroom building and social studies. Another example could be an activity incorporating a word wall using the Indigenous languages of the local First Peoples in English Language Arts. Teaching about Residential schools also needs to go past Orange Shirt Day while it should still be commemorated there needs to be more learning than just on that day. There are so many great resources such the First Nations Education Steering Committees online website, specifically, FNESC/FNSA Indian Residential Schools & Reconciliation Gr. 5 Teacher Resource Guide (First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2015) which can help generate ideas and activities. I hope to utilize all of these in my future classroom. Every day we must do these things to continue to work towards reconciliation, we cannot just check the boxes.

The following are examples of lesson plans and unit plans I have created as well as executed within the classroom.

EDHC-4100-

EDPR-4200-Math-Unit

In January 2023 to February 20234 I volunteered as the Grade 5 Girls intramural basketball coach as Ecole Nesika Elementary during the basketball season. I planned and facilitated weekly practices. Organization of travel, parent communication and permission forms were apart of responsibilities I took on. In addition to this I coached games after school.

In January 2021 to February 2021 I volunteered with the Boys and Girls Club of Williams Lake in their afterschool program. My supervisors were Deana Conde-Garza and Tiffany Boston. The children in the program ranged in age from 5 to 12 and there was typically 10-15 children a day in the program. I helped with the following: helping supervise and interacting with the children including providing meals, assisting with arts, crafts, board games, outside play and other activities. I was delegated to create a day schedule for Pro-D Days which included age appropriate, entertaining and educational activities for the children.

In July 2019 to August 2019 I worked at Tatla Lake Ranch in Tatla Lake, B.C. for their community program helping children learn to ride and interact with horses. My supervisor was Lars Satre. The children were 5 to 12 years old and there was approximatley a group of 5-10 children. During my particpiation in this program I worked 85 hours. My job included the following: helping assist children with learning basic horse care, riding techniques, equipment care and safety. Taking the children on supervised trail rides with the horses, providing them with experiential knowledge and a guided exploration learning environment.

From 2019 to current day I have volunteered with an elder in my community while I am working in the summer months as well as during my winter break from school with many tasks including the following: delivering wood to heat her home, errands, gathering food, and any other jobs she needs help with. These experiences have allowed me to learn traditional knowledge from the elder. This has helped me to learn about ways of teaching traditional knowledge which can relate to teaching in general and ways in which Indigenous students learn best.

Resume-14