The Professional Responsibilities of a 21st Century Teacher

What is your responsibility as both an educator and learner to uphold these standards as a learner and educator?

We think the responsibility as an educator and learner is to continue to strive to meet these standards. Although it is a continuous and on-going thing, We think that it is our responsibility to uphold them because they set the foundation for a successful teacher and learning environment  .

Are these standards relevant to teaching and learning in 21st Century?

Yes these standards are relevant to to 21st Century teaching because regardless of what approach you take in your teaching you still need to insure that you are meeting the standards laid out in this document.  Furthermore, we feel that the standard of practice relating to Professional Practice is a perfect example of the relevancy of these standards.  This standard is focused on ensuring that educators are using the most effective means of teaching to ensure the success of their students.  We believe that the evidence in support of the efficacy of incorporating the Web 2.0 into your teaching is overwhelming, thus a teacher that is not incorporating at least some aspects of the Web 2.0 into their classroom is in fact not meeting this standard.  Furthermore, teachers who are unwilling to learn effective ways to incorporate technology into their learning also fail to meet the 4th Standard of Practice in our opinion.  

Do these standards encourage innovation, risk taking and on-going learning?

Emily and myself both believe that the Standards of Practice do encourage on-going learning.  The 4th Standard alone is specially dedicated to ensuring that teachers are always pushing themselves to learn new things and evolve as a teacher.  We also believe that the worst thing a teacher can do is to become static with their teaching style.  When a teacher finds themselves in a comfortable routine, of say teaching the same grade year after year, we have noticed that they revert back to old lessons and continue to teach in the same manner as they always have.  We believe that this is done because people find comfort in what is familiar to them and they feel safe teaching the same way they always have.  However, we believe that to truly grow and improve your skills as an educator you need to stay current with new pedagogy and continue to challenge yourself to try new things.  It may be more work in terms of preparation and the lessons may not always work out, but it is through this risk taking that innovation arises.  When I (Jon) was in my second teaching block my supervisor commented that although my lessons covered the necessary material they were, as she described, “safe.”  I never really understood this and always thought that as long as I covered the curriculum and the class learned the material then I had accomplished my job. However, after teaching grade 1/2 last year I realize that teaching is about more than just making sure students know the curriculum. As teachers, we always want our students to move out from their comfort zones and try new things to challenge themselves.  it is important that we not only teach them the curriculum but to also instill in them a sense of confidence in themselves.  However, students take cues from their teachers and if a teacher is not comfortable enough to try new things and take risks with lessons then why should we expect our students to do any different.  For me (Emily) I believe that when I had the opportunity to learn I need to take it. During my first teaching block in a ELKP classroom I witnessed how a teacher and ECE were taking this new opportunity to make the learning experience for their kindergarteners the best it could be. These two teachers were new to the program but they took every opportunity to collaborate with other teachers and participate in workshops to fully understand how they were suppose to teach their students. To this day I still talk to them and they discuss how they are changing how they are teaching the students and the positive impact it is having for both parties. They demonstrate the standard of practice “of ongoing professional learning” and how a classroom can be so rich because of it. One issue that arises for me is how do we as educators willing to make change get teachers caught in their ways to understand the importance of innovation? How do we as teachers help those who are new to technology and hesitant to use it without making them feel like we are criticizing them?

While we think that these standards do encourage innovation, risk taking and on going learning, we also think there is a pressure from principals and school board administrators that deters teachers from branching out and taking chances.  Teachers are always scrutinized by the public and administrators to ensure that the curriculum is always being covered and we believe that this has caused teachers, especially young educators trying to get a contract to revert to “safe” lessons so they can, show parents and administrators that they have taught their students what the Province expects them too.

Authored by Jon & Emily