Teaching teachers how to teach
The new curriculum in B.C. encourages teachers to change the way students learn in the classroom.
To make this happen, teachers are changing the way they learn how to teach. The Insitu Teacher Education Partnership with UBC Okanagan allows teacher candidates to work and collaborate with mentor teachers from Central Okanagan Public Schools.
Teacher candidates and mentors work towards a common goal: teaching children the skills they need to achieve and experience success. As a teacher candidate, I was lucky enough to be a part of the experience this year.
Each week, my colleagues, mentor teacher and I sat in a group and co-created a lesson that would teach a particular learning outcome to a group of elementary students.
After collaborating, my colleagues and I went to our mentor teacher’s classroom and taught the lesson that we co-created as a group.
Afterwards, we came together to debrief and discuss what went well and what we could have done to improve students’ learning.
Personally, I found the debriefing process most beneficial to my own learning, as it modeled the importance to being a reflective, lifelong learner. The partnership really underlines the importance of collaboration and learning through experience.
It is also vital to repeat these reflective methods in classrooms with children.
There is always something new to learn and there are many innovative changes happening in Central Okanagan Public Schools that make me feel very optimistic and excited about the future in education.
NOTE: Sally Wallick is a teacher candidate.