One of the activities for my teaching certification clinical is a "virtual scavenger hunt", the details of which will be recorded below:
Get academic
Share a recently published academic article or journal in your subject
area that you would like to read and why.
"Implementing Minecraft as a Tool to Teach Vocabulary in a Saudi Intermediate School: An Experimental Study" - accessible here.
I am very interested in gamification, and the potential uses of games in education, both as a teacher and as an avid gamer. Any teacher knows the power of harnessing students' interests to aid in learning and comprehension. For instance, I've created flashcards to teach the alphabet featuring Pokémon, with great success. Besides vocabulary, there are a wide variety of other topics that could be taught with video games, for example social emotional skills and 21st century skills.
In fact, Minecraft has an "Education Edition", specifically with this purpose in mind!
Develop professionally
Share an upcoming conference or academic event that you would like to participate in.
"Making the PYP happen: Implementing agency" - Virtual Workshop offered by the ibo.org in February 2023.
My goal is to transition to an international school, and many of those schools teach an IB curriculum, which I don't have much experience with. I hope that by attending this workshop and receiving the certification upon completion, my chances of being employed at an IB school will be significantly increased.
Build life skills
Host a scavenger hunt activity for your students on life skills or social-emotional
learning and take a picture of items collected by students.
My 4 year old class completed the following scavenger hunt in the indoor play area at my school, where they have access to many toys, games and activities:
Find something that makes you happy.
Find something that you can play with together with your friend.
Find something that will cheer up your friend when they feel sad.
Find something that makes you feel excited and energetic.
Find something that makes you feel calm and cozy.
Find a book that everyone in class can enjoy together.
Pictured below: "Find something that makes you happy."
Create awareness
Implement an activity with students to overcome any one stereotype towards
culture, ethnicity, gender, or learning differences.
I shared the following video with my kindergarten class - "How children get to school around the world"
In Korea (being an affluent first world country) most children have convenient and safe access to education, including transportation to and from school. Kids here take it for granted that the nice driver will pick them up in the state-of-the-art bus and shuttle them safely to school, and drop them off right outside their front doors. It was a real eye-opener to see that this is not the case for every child!
After the video we had several topics of discussion. How do they think the children in the video feel about going to school? How do they feel about the video? Why do those children have to go to school like that? Why don't they have a bus? It was a very interesting and rewarding lesson!
Create a memory
Take a picture with your cohort with any educational prop.
Here is my cohort during one of our Zoom virtual classes:
Find common ground
Show pictures of a hobby or interest that you share with a teacher colleague at your school.
We all love Korean food, but sometimes my co-teachers and I just need something different. We like to go to restaurants that serve Western food and just enjoy a pizza together. We still love our kimchi though!
Get social
Add a post on the Twitter hashtag #tncohort or on the Facebook Cohorts community page with one important thing you learned during your clinical practice.
I would be hard pressed to create such in-depth lesson plans for every single lesson I taught, since there isn't a formal curriculum in place at my current school, and I'm doing the lesson plans from scratch. However, the value in having clear objectives, of building in assessments, and creating a sense of flow and progression in the lesson, improve the lesson and the student experience exponentially.
Share an achievement
Share the biggest learning challenge you faced in the program and
how you overcame the challenge.
My biggest learning challenge in the program was group work assignments. I am a very independent and organized person, and it's hard for me to rely on others, or to wait on others who are slower or less methodical than me. Fortunately it was mostly in my head, and everyone in my cohort was just as dedicated and hardworking as I was. I actually learned a lot from them, and came to appreciate their insights and experiences.
Get personal
Share one professional ethic that you always live by.
~ Authenticity
Students may have a lot yet to learn academically, but emotionally they can be startlingly sensitive and on the ball. Kids can sense, consciously or subconsciously, when someone is being fake or dishonest. I believe that genuine authenticity is the foundation on which a solid rapport is built between the teacher and their students. So what does it mean to "be authentic"?
Authenticity is about congruence between our deeper values and beliefs (our “true self”) and our actions. The way we feel about the world and the way we interact with the world are in alignment. This isn't always easy, and there are certainly times when we have to moderate our self-expression based on the social context, but being ourselves, and being accepted as ourselves by others, is one of the greatest pleasures we can experience.
What does this look like for me as a teacher? I share my passions with my students. I am honest about how I'm feeling. I admit when I make mistakes, I apologize, and I reflect on how I can learn and grow. I am humble and honest. I speak up on issues that I feel are important. I am "the change I want to see in the world."
Perhaps the biggest boon an authentic teacher can give their student is the message that "if it's okay for the teacher to be herself, then it's okay for me to be myself too." Encouraging authenticity in the classroom not only strengthens the rapport between teachers, students, and the community, but also increases happiness! When are you more happy than when you are being your real self? Happy students learn better. Happy people live better.
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