Philosophy: What do you think it means to be a “quality educator”
I believe a quality educator is someone that is passionate about what they are teaching, knows their student’s strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds, and can reach every student effectively through using a universal design for learning while adapting with differentiated instruction for the students that need it. In this case study, Dyer is recognized as a quality educator by his superiors due to maintaining high educational standards with increasingly diverse students in his classroom (p. 33). He also admits that he implements a standards-driven and norm-referenced style of teaching that lends itself to breaking down his course into measurable outcomes using tests, quizzes, and well-defined performance tasks (p. 33). While this style of learning has earned him the praise of his superiors, I would not consider Dyer to be a quality educator, yet. Giving your entire class the set same of instructions and marking them the same way is not effectively teaching each student in your class. Dyer realizes this near the end of the case study where he notices that the “corner girls” are more than just that. While two of the four girls were able to succeed in his assignment, he realizes that the other two students may not understand what was being asked of them, considering English is not their first language. Here, Dyer is showing signs of evolving into a new version of the “quality educator”. Dyer is able to critically reflect on himself and his methods, and comes to the conclusion that it would be unjust to score the two girls the same as everyone else. It was at that moment that Dyer realized that he now had to re-evaluate his teaching methods, expectations of his students, and his approach to assessment (p. 34). Self-reflection is key in becoming a quality educator in order to be sure you are meeting the individual needs of your students, and changing something if you are not.
This case study caused me to reflect on my own experiences from my first practicum. I was placed in a grade three classroom, and I had no idea what to expect from the students, or the teacher. I was fortunate in that I had an amazing Teacher Mentor who had recently graduated from the TRU B. Ed program. I was also quickly introduced to the concept of Inclusive Education Programs, and how they worked. This showed me that while all of the students in this classroom were the same age and in the same grade, they still had individual needs that needed to be met in order for them to succeed. This was new to me, but I immediately understood the importance once seeing it in action. This also further instilled in me that a quality educator must be passionate about what they are teaching, get to know their students and their students’ needs, and must be willing and able to adapt the ways they’ve been teaching before.
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