Throughout my time here at OISE, I had the opportunity to join the Educators of Colour in Conversation (EOCC) group. During our meetings, we discuss our experiences here at OISE as well as during our practica as educators of colour. Growing up in tight community in Scarborough, I grew up as a student of colour surrounded by many other students of colour. However, being an educator of colour has given me a lot to think about as well.

Intersecting Identities

Throughout my educational experiences, I do not feel like I talked enough about my experiences as a person of colour and how that identity intersects with my experiences in the classroom. However, by speaking to my peers in the EOCC, I can see how race and culture can be intertwined with education. EOCC was a safe space that I felt comfortable speaking about personal and touchy topics as a personal of colour that I did not always feel l in many other spaces. I learned a lot from reflecting on my own experiences and listening to others.

Keeping my physical and mental health safe is very important to me and it becomes difficult to navigate as a person of colour. There are many times where I did not feel comfortable being myself or I felt the need to conform because of my race and culture. I believe these feelings and experiences may be shared among teachers and students. When I teach, I want to be mindful of the diverse cultures and races that I will encounter during my teaching career. In addition to helping our students, conversations in the EOCC also showed me that we need to listen to our teachers as well. Marginalization can happen as students and as teachers.

Classroom Connections

All the feelings discussed as educators of colour taught me the importance to listen. In the classroom, I believe that it’s not only important to teach, but also to listen to our students. I learned from my students during my practica. This way, I can learn more in order to contribute to equity and being inclusive in the classroom. In addition, some of the things that I’ve learned during EOCC meetings have shown me the importance of critical thinking. A lot of time in these meetings are spent on navigating and understanding experiences as educators of colour. To do this, we often engage in critical thought. I believe critical thinking skills is something that should be worked on in the classroom so the topics students learn can be analyzed. It can help students navigate their own experiences as well.

Socially Responsible Global citizens

I think the EOCC is really connected to my idea of what it means to be socially responsible global citizens. These topics might be touchy, but having these conversations are so important to have so we can become more of an equitable world. It is critical to bring to light the different ways in which people can be marginalized so we can constantly work on creating a more equitable world. Especially, organizing a comfortable space for marginalized individuals and groups to voice their concerns is a way we can contribute to this.

Final Thoughts

As an educator of colour, there are definitely some experiences and feelings I suppress or do not fully process in the education field. However, at every meeting I’ve been to with EOCC, I’ve always released some sort of hindering thought that has been lingering in my mind. I end up feeling pretty relieved by the end. This illustrated the power of community, safe, and comfortable spaces. In these spaces, we can bring up thoughts that we have suppressed in the past in a community of supportive people. Even from hearing about the experiences others have had, some of them I could identify with as well. It made me feel less lonely with some of the feelings I have had while teaching. When teaching, I aim to continue to keep these conversations in mind. I want to teach in an environment where students get to express themselves in safe spaces just like how I had the chance to do so.

Curriculum Writing

What I did:

At Parkdale CI, I am volunteering with teachers to help develop the curriculum for the GLE (Guidance Learning Exceptionalities) course. The course codes are GLES40/GLE40/GLE3, so this is for grades 11 and 12. Here, I help develop a document including course descriptions, expectations, unit foci and worksheets.

Classroom Setting

Old and New

Transparency

One of the most prominent changes that I have made so far is the section called “Know your Rights”. In response to some of the teachers telling me that there are some ambiguities around legal rights after high school and which documents students can access, I decided to make a section in the curriculum that will outline some of the documents and policies that students may access after they graduate.

Planning for the Future

An emerging theme from this curriculum planning is planning for the future. There is a big emphasis on life outside the classroom and life after high school. In this way, there is a connection to “socially responsible, global citizens” in that the curriculum can help prepare students for this task. It calls students to ask: Where do my strengths lie? In what ways can I contribute to my community and the world?

Reflection

In my reflection, helping write this curriculum reminds me of the importance of self-reflection and how it applies to the real-world. The curriculum focuses on reflecting on one’s strengths and desires in order to decide what their future work would be about. When I was in high school, I don’t think I did enough self reflection. There was an enormous pressure on choosing the career path that I didn’t feel ready for and I’m sure this is still relevant for students today. I feel like I chose my field of study based on my strengths and what my parents wanted me to do. While all of those are important, I wish I spent more time reflecting on my wants in my future. Reflecting on what you want is important for your happiness and I don’t feel like I did enough of that. It is only now that I realized that the teaching field was for me, after years of studying neuroscience and physiology and hoping to get into the research field. Through this learning project, I learned that it is important to not only consider external pressures, but also internal desires when making decisions for the future. These are things that not only I experience, but also students. When teaching, this project taught me to be mindful of these pressures as well. As teachers, we need to consider that students may be at the point of transition from high school to the work place or higher education.

Service Learning Project Blog – Swim Team

What I did:

During my practicum, I had the opportunity to  help coach the swim team at Victoria Park CI (9 hours).

The Swimming Pool- A Learning Environment:

A swimming pool is a very different environment in comparison to a classroom. However, the swimming pool can be a learning environment nevertheless! Trying out for the swim team requires effort and determination, much like a test. For a lot of students, the ambiguity of making the swim team can be worrisome and discouraging. In relation to teaching, I believe it’s crucial to foster a comfortable and inclusive environment. I tried my best to be approachable and provide constructive feedback. When the swim team practices began, I provided feedback on techniques that students could work on. However, I also provided of feedback on what was done well.

I noticed that my rapport with the students was similar when teaching and coaching-most students seemed to feel comfortable with asking me for help when it was needed. At the beginning, I put a lot of emphasis on getting to know the students and their interest in swimming. I was genuinely interested but I also wanted to build a respectful relationship (especially since I was a new to the school).  The AT I was working with said something to me that guided the way I approached teaching and coaching: “Since you’re new to the classroom, the students need to know that you have not gained their respect but you also haven’t gained their disrespect either”. From this, I learned that fostering respect is a process and may not be given to me right away. I applied this idea to the classroom as well as the swimming pool by showing interest in students’ abilities and making an effort to get to know them.

Teaching Identity

I’m a pretty social person and a large part of the teaching profession includes communicating with others. I love meeting new people and learning new things about them. I definitely think this part of my personality helped me become approachable as a coach and teacher.

In comparison to teaching in the classroom, coaching the swim team required more assessment and feedback. I found it much harder to provide a lot of feedback in an efficient and motivating way. I was afraid of losing my “approach-ability”. I learned that I need to work on how I foster motivation whilst providing feedback on skills.

In addition, I believe my “teacher identity” changed from the classroom to the swimming pool. In the classroom, I was a new and inexperienced teacher. At the pool, I was an experienced swimmer and swimming instructor. As a result, I felt more confident within the swimming context. My rapport with the students seemed to build much quicker with the swim team than in the classroom because I had more experience in the field.

Insights- Swimming and Understanding Ourselves

We all can play a role in improving the world that we live in. Part of playing a role in society is understanding ourselves. By participating in the swim team, students can learn more about themselves as well many skills that align with the “self-directed learning” section of the Global Competencies’ framework:

“…Belief in one’s ability to learn (growth mindset), combined with strategies for planning, monitoring and reflecting on one’s past, present, and future goals, potential actions and strategies, and results. Self-reflection and thinking about thinking (meta cognition) promote life long learning, adaptive capacity, well-being, and transfer of learning in an ever-changing world”.

(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2017).

I believe coaches should keep these learning goals in mind when planning practices. Even communicating these goals to students will foster awareness of the transferable skills that can be built. 

Reflection

Quite honestly, I learned most of the skills through my observations. I observed teachers (the coaches) deal with incidents, provide feedback and lead. As a I said before, I was worried about losing my “approach-ability” so I feel like I was lacking with my own effective feedback. If I were to re-do this project, I would challenge my comfort level by trying different ways of communicating what students needed to work on in order to build on my understanding of motivating and leading students on a team.

References:

Ontario Ministry of Education (2017), Framework of Global Competencies http://ilr-ria.cforp.ca/ILR/GC/images/Framework%20of%20GC1.pdf 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton