Frame of Reference

Casey Andersen

Connections

I have always prioritized getting to know each and every one of my students’ strengths,

stretches, and interests. My personal philosophy is that creating a safe and supportive classroom

community is crucial for enabling students to learn at their highest ability. Throughout the last

few years of my practicum experiences, I have learned that it is also important to build relation-

ships with parents and colleagues. I look up to many teachers that I have met over the course of

these past few years, and I know that they have so much advice and resources that they would

love to share. Collaborating with other teachers is a great way to improve my practice and con-

tinuously gain new insight. I make sure to always put a constant effort into building positive rela-

tionships with parents. It is so important to have an open dialogue with parents in order to best

support my students, it also enables an ongoing communication of learning.

Strategies

Throughout the five years that I have been in the education program one of the most im-

portant things that I have heard anyone say is, “Connection before direction.” Most of what else

I have learned goes under that same umbrella of deeply caring for my students before caring

about what my students learn. One of the things that goes along with connection that I believe is

very important in a classroom that is included in the OECD’s seven principles of learning, (Du-

mont, Istance and Benavides, 2010) is making the learning environment highly social. I ensure

that I provide my students with structured cooperative learning opportunities that are challenging

for all so that students will gain both academic and behavioural skills, which are skills that will
benefit students for their entire lives. I believe that putting learners at the centre is the most im-

portant aspect of teaching because it can be one of the most intrinsically motivating factors for

students. Everyone wants to learn about what they love, the trick is to find out what that is and

make them love it more.

Classroom Management

One of my favourite classroom management strategies to use is positive reinforcement.

Once positive relationships are formed within the classroom, students strive to hear consistent

positive praise from their teachers and classmates. When students are following expectations that

are consistently positively reinforced, they feel safe, valued, and appreciated. Through observing

a variety of teachers I have learned that it is crucial to have boundaries, expectations, and proto-

cols. At the beginning of each year I would like to co-create classroom expectations with my stu-

dents. I believe that all students do the best that they can everyday but that sometimes different

things happen in their lives that make it hard for them to self-regulate. Students like to be in con-

trol of their own learning and behaviour, so it is very important to provide students with an ex-

tremely clear understanding of expectations. I believe that self regulation is an important life

skill for students and helps them blossom into independent and confident problem solvers.

Assessment

A benefit of learning in a social environment is that teachers are able to make formative

assessments of students constantly. I value formative assessment more that summative assess-

ment, because formative assessment allows me to provide constant specific feedback that will

pinpoint my students’ strengths and stretches to best support their learnings. However, I still be-

lieve that there is a place for summative assessment because it is an important life skill for stu-
dents to be able to follow steps to complete a task. I believe that the best time to use summative

assessment in the classroom is for an inquiry project. For example I would give students clear

criteria that we would create as a class, and then they would be able to choose the medium that

they would like to use to share their learnings.

Curriculum & Competencies

The curriculum, the competencies and the First Peoples Principles of Learning align beautifully

with a social learning environment because they encourage conversations, inquiry, and real world

experiences. I connect to the First People’s principle that, “Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflec-

tive, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a

sense of place)”. I am excited that having conversations in class is now not only acceptable, but

is also now seen as beneficial for learning. I believe that students that are learning under this new

curriculum are gaining important life skills such as problem solving, and social and emotional

wellness and responsibility which will take them through most of their lives. The past curriculum

was entirely academically focused without much hands on, experiential, or emotional learning,

so students who struggled with their learnings simply thought that they were not smart when in

reality we should have been catering to the variety of learning styles that exist.

Inclusion

The fourth principle, in the First Peoples Principles of Learning, is to recognize individ-

ual differences. I like to do this in a way that allows my students to blossom and embrace their

differences through creating groupings of students that have all different strengths so they can

help each other grow. A great way to support students who need extensions in their learning is

through teaching what they learned to one of their classmates who needs support. This also pro-
vides the two students with an opportunity to implement the core competencies into their learn-

ings. In recognizing individual differences, I am aware of the importance of providing students

with different learning opportunities that are specific to a variety of learning styles. In every les-

son that I teach I incorporate plenty of hands on, experiential, visual, and auditory learning op-

portunities. When I notice that my kinaesthetic learners are struggling to focus, I implement a

full class body break, or give the student the opportunity to individually use their own body

break strategies that they are able to implement on their own.

References

Dumont, H., Istance, D., & Benavides, F. (2010). The nature of learning: Using research to

inspire practice. Paris, France: OECD

First Peoples Principles of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/up-

loads/2015/09/PUB-LFP-POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11x17.pdf.