Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.
Professional Standard Number 5
Standard 5 of the Standards for B.C. Educators states that “Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.” When I read this standard, my mind is immediately flooded with the voice of Gretchen insuring us as a cohort that we would receive prompt and real feedback on all submissions whenever possible. She has reiterated this sentiment at the beginning of every course we have had with her thus far, and every time I hear it again out loud or in my mind I have come to a place where I recognize just how much weight that gesture really carries.
Arguably everything about the function of an educator’s role within their classroom, and how that classroom functions can be significantly inhibited or enriched by how the teacher implements their planning, instructional, and assessment methods into their learning community. In addition, and perhaps of equal importance is the punctuality with which the teacher responds to student submissions. The faster students can receive their finished work without jeopardizing the authenticity of the feedback they are given, the more time they have overall to respond to that feedback and make improvements based on suggestions. Especially when it comes to using a scaffolded approach to teaching, if you have not given students a chance to correct potential misunderstandings from the first level, then how can they reasonably expected to succeed on the second level when the understanding of that level is inextricably tied to the first level? The truth is, they can’t.
Drawing my attention to experiences in the program, I can observe a direct correlation between my average scores and the time I have spent responding to and considering feedback. Granted that a single participant does not make for a well rounded case study, however it is interesting to note that the course I have done by far the worst in was similarly the course where feedback was not given on any assignment prior to the final exam. In contrast to that isolated course, each other professor in the program has committed to and followed through on providing us with thoughtful and useful feedback to our assignments in a manner timely enough to allow us to ask questions, make modifications, and adjust our understandings if we needed to.
For myself, holding myself accountable to a punctual schedule for returning student work will be a number one priority, and one that I am aware that I will need to approach with intention. As a procrastinator by nature, it is in the realm of normalcy for me to put things off for much longer than I should, especially if I do not have a reminder. Forecasting this as an identified weakness however, allows me to build in safeguards that prevent it from impacting my performance. Constructing a schedule or “formula” by which I maintain a flow of intake and output will help me with a daily reminder about the role I have taken as a profession. In the end, for me it is also about recognising that some of that nature does not have to change, but just be left at home. Teacher Ryan will not procrastinate, but Home Ryan? You better believe it!