Educators value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families and communities in schools.
I am writing this webpage based on my experience as a teacher educator. I do value the involvement and support from parents, guardians, and families in the classroom and learning experience of a child. I valued the time as a parent to be in classrooms to supervise a field trip or be a part of readings groups and such. However, the involvement involvement of families and parents in teacher education is limited; and many of the teacher candidates are parents and I am open to having children in the classroom, if needed. A few little people attended my class and I appreciated their behaviour and support of their parent in school.
The artefacts I would like to share are the learning opportunities the Elementary Cohort participated in during EDUC 394, EDUC 391, EDUC 405, and EDUC 421. These examples are us going into community to learn from community. It’s a meta moment for teacher candidates so that they can imagine and realize learning opportunities for K-7 students during practicum and their future practice. We went to the Prince George Public Library, the Two Rivers Art Gallery, the SD57 District Learning Centre, and Harwin Elementary. Including community into classrooms can be inviting them into the classroom or we go into community.
I appreciated learning from experts outside of the university who can provide resources and learning opportunities to teachers and teacher candidates. Each experience was memorable and meaningful. The passion of each person presenting at each venue was evident (i.e., the library, art gallery, and DLC). They shared so much information for teacher candidates to consider as learners and as teachers. At Harwin, we had 4 teachers presenting who were recent graduates of the teacher education program and we also had the speech and language therapist, the Indigenous Education Workers, and the school librarian.
When you invite community, as well as parents, guardians, and families, I become the learner. As mentioned in another webpage, I love to learn. The more I have the opportunity to learn about subject matter and the students, the more I am able to design learning opportunities that are appropriate for the learners. The big learning is that I am not the expert in everything and by inviting community to be part of my classes in teacher education, I am also modelling for teacher candidates how to invite guest speakers, access resources, or plan field trips for practicum.
