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Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments
A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments where diversity is embraced and every student is welcomed, cared for, respected and safe.
Sign Language (PSI)
(e) recognizing and responding to specific learning needs of individual or small groups of students and, when needed, collaborating with service providers and other specialists to design and provide targeted and specialized supports to enable achievement of the learning outcomes
This artifact is about how I've incorporated sign language into the lessons that I've taught. Students learned the chorus of Jingle Bells for their Christmas concert, all 11 basic colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray, white, and black), 5 senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch), and the alphabet and numbers in sign language. These signs were used across multiple lessons that I taught and incorporated into various other subject areas as well.
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I chose to include this artifact because one of my goals for PSI was to learn and incorporate ASL into my teaching. As I had one deaf student who used sign language in class, I wanted to integrate signing into my lessons in order for all of my students to learn ASL and to enhance the learning experience. My goal was to learn at least one sign each day in my practicum and with the help of the Educational Assistant in our class and various online resources, I got to learn many signs every day.
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From this artifact I learned what inclusive teaching practices look like. True inclusion is integration and learning sign language has taught me what a great learning opportunity it is for both teachers and students to engage and incorporate another language into the learning experience. Sign language is a very intuitive language which can be used as a learning tool as it provides all students with a kinesthetic element to learning . I believe that learning sign language and incorporating it into my teaching has been a way to highlight my deaf students' strengths and an opportunity for the whole class to gain a deeper and more meaningful learning experience.
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The way(s) in which I grew or changed as a teacher as a result of this artifact is/are actually very personal to me. I had one deaf student who used sign language and another ELL student who spoke Korean. I found that I attempted to learn and incorporate ASL into almost everything I taught, however I hardly included any Korean into my teaching or brought any cultural aspect to ensure that my ELL student felt included and to give the rest of the class an opportunity to learn Korean. When I was growing up, my Korean identity was something that I had to work hard at excluding from my school life in order to fit in, so I really regret not being able to embrace my Korean identity and bringing in his strengths into the classroom. I think that I've really had to confront myself on many personal levels and that if the opportunity presents itself again, I will have grown to become a teacher that is eager to include all students' learning needs and strengths.
Student Choice in Showing Learning (PSII)
(g) incorporating students’ personal and cultural strengths into teaching and learning
This artifact is about the design of my social studies "Deadly Encounter" project. Students had to compare the different technologies, strategies, and circumstances in the fight between the Spanish and the Aztecs.
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I chose to include this artifact because incorporating student choice to allow for students to build on their strengths was an important part of my teaching. Giving students the opportunity to display their learning in a way that aligns with their needs and strengths while still meeting learning outcomes was an area of focus in my assessment practices.
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From this artifact, I learned how to scaffold assessments, especially for big creative projects such as this one. Being clear and concise in the learning objectives, providing steps for students to follow to successfully complete the performance task, going over the rubric as a class, and providing a space for students to share their hard work were the main steps to the execution of this performance task.
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The way(s) in which I grew or changed as a teacher as a result of this artifact is/are mostly the way I organized, planned, and created performance tasks. In order for all students to be successful in showing their learning, I found out how important it was to guide students towards success through formative checks, clear expectations, and time allocations for the completion of each project.