Mark McGowan’s article “Ontario Catholic Education: Its Contemporary Context” in Curriculum Matters poses critical ideas that will directly affect me as a future Catholic educator. I especially liked McGowan’s Biblical allusion at the beginning of his work, this articulates the distance many Catholic educators have from their faith. This idea is especially important for me as I would one day like to be in an administration position, where the stress of budgets and logistics are ever present, one must not forget our unique roots in Catholic faith that remains the core of our mission and vocation.
I was also interested in McGowan’s idea that “Curriculum designed in such a fashion [secular constructivism] excludes from study and advocacy, the realms of spirituality, sacramentality and discipleship, which are essential in the formation of our young people” (6). Many educators in Catholic schools follow the given curriculum and distance themselves further and further from the opportunities that faith based study can offer our students. Many times, as McGowan explores, Religion is only taught in the Religion courses in Catholic schools and left at the door for all other subjects. If a school is only Catholic in name then it presents a crisis that is facing us today and is not substantial enough to have a separate school system. I believe it needs to be incorporated at the very core of all that we do. As a future high school teacher, I use my course material and curriculum as the basis to which I can incorporate spirituality on a daily basis. I also believe the statistics found in The Blishen Report is not surprising, yet nonetheless concerning. I am an advocate for the masses that many schools hold as it allows the students to step inside of a church and see the benefits of attending, even if their parents do not. Much work is still do be done to re-establish the church as the centre of faith for many Catholic families, but it can start with the school, and with their partnership with the church.
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As a history minor I am an advocate for understanding and reconciling the past in order to heal as a community in the present and also in order to progress into a more prosperous future. The long and winding struggle that Catholic education faced in receiving government funding in Canada is one that reverberates through time. The struggles that my parents faced in receiving a Catholic education does not seem too long ago and has left its trace on 21st century Catholic schools today. In Mark McGowan’s work “The Enduring Gift Catholic Education in the Province of Ontario” a brief history of Catholic education is given in a digestible way so that the main ideas and facts can be given to the reader. The section that truly inspired me was the one that explored the ways in which Catholic education is a gift not to be squandered. I often forget how my grandparents had to fight for my parents to receive Catholic education in Toronto. I remember my grandfather sharing stories with me about how he would sell tickets to events hosted in the basement of his church in order to give funding to my father’s Catholic school. The commitment that these people had to provide a faith based education to our youth is most certainly not a gift that should now be taken for granted and squandered. One would not have to go very far to find the difficulties that Catholic Boards in Ontario are still facing today. As future educators teaching within a holistic school system, I must have the same commitment and desire to defend Catholic education just as my grandfather before me had. I believe in this system of schooling greatly and feel that it offers a diverse and nourishing approach to education. As McGowan concludes, “There is a need for schools that place Gospel values at the centre of a holistic education. In Ontario, our inheritance as Catholics has been considerable, but so are the challenges that, no doubt, the future will bring.” We must not forget about the past and allow history to repeat itself; I am committed to nourishing, improving, and defending the Catholic education system inside and outside of my classroom.
The OCT Standards of Practice provides a framework with which I build by teaching pedagogy. The reason why I have focused heavily on Indigenous and Diaspora studies in my undergraduate degree is because of my commitment to the equitable opportunities available to all students in my classroom. I am also pleased to have done my teaching degree alongside my undergraduate degree because it has allowed me to reflect on my professional knowledge both as a student and as a future educator myself, and to never lose that responsibility to engage critically with learning theory and student development as an ongoing commitment. One of my biggest teaching philosophies is to harvest life-long skills in my students, one of them being skills in collaboration and taking on leadership roles. Creating a safe and supportive learning community for my students is essential in order to facilitate student success, and the only way I know how to do this is to allow students to have an equal voice in your classroom, to validate their opinions and give every student the opportunity to be seen, recognized, and rewarded for their valued experiences and thoughts.
The OCT Ethical Standards of Practice reminded me just how important this profession is and the impact we have on multiple lives. This can be a heavy burden, but a necessary reminder to ensure that we uphold our positions as educators with care, respect, trust, and integrity. Being in the position that I am, I have had several students open up to me about difficulties they are facing in their lives. The care that I feel for these students is what guides me to helping every student feel that they are in a safe place in my classroom. I have, in collaboration with parents, guidance councilors, and through the Church, have seen students grow and heal over the course of a single year. One of my biggest pillars of teaching is respect; students must feel authentic respect in order to give that to you in return. I am committed to modelling the same level of respect that I expect in return. I will never forget the day when my MT openly admitted to the class that she was unsure of the answer to one of the student’s questions, and that as a class they would find the answer together. This broke down the illusion I had that as a teacher I could never have a moment of not being able to have the answer; I saw that as a failure to my subject. Now I see that we as educators are trusted to educate, and that means being honest and having enough integrity to admit when we do not know something and show students how learning is a never ending journey. This leads to Integrity; it is my belief that as long as you always put the students first you can not be steered down the wrong path. The students are and will always remain my number one priority; my integrity in this profession is endlessly bound to my students well-being and success. Palmer’s article “The Heart of a Teacher” reinforces many core beliefs I have about teaching, mainly that students are very aware when a teacher is not being authentic. When Palmer says, “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher” (2) it speaks volumes to the importance of knowing oneself and being true to your beliefs. I am a teacher inside and outside of the classroom, one of the best teaching experiences I have had is when I was teaching spoken word and was vulnerable with students and performed a poem called "What Do Teachers Make?" by Taylor Mali. At the end of the year my grade 12 Writer’s craft all wrote in my card how meaningful that was to them, how it moved them and how they were all more confident to perform their spoken words after mine. After that I truly realized the pay off of having heart in your teaching. Students will gain so much more from an authentic interaction, respect you when they know you are here for them and not just for a paycheck, at least that is the experience I have had.
This article also showed me how important it is to fuse together the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of teaching. This relates to my teaching because I do not make religion an “add on” to the curriculum, I weave it into our everyday work and lead by example. I show my students how I enact my faith in everyday analysis and interaction, and how I am a better person for that. In my teaching practice, students have given me feedback that they felt I related texts to their real life in ways they have never interacted with them before. When we studied the novel Station Eleven, which has a post-apocalyptic theme, we connected the events of the book to Fort McMurray and the fires that were taking place at the time. In our discussion of faith, and how we are all connected through humanity, my students were so inspired that our class started a school wide drive to raise money to help Fort McMurray efforts and they raised over $2000.00. These are the kinds of changes I want to implement in my classroom my fusing together intellect, emotion and spirituality which can be done even through one novel study. Another part of this article that relates to my teaching experiences was the section “When Teachers Lose Heart” I could never imagine myself not loving teaching, but then I remember a very difficult Grade 5 class I volunteered with in high school. I would frequently go home and cry over comments students would make and the difficulties of teaching them; however, this did not discourage me. A year later I became a student leader in grade 11 for a grade 9 and 10 class and loved it. My only fear is when, as Palmer suggests, when your heart begins to close because of the constant difficulties one faces when putting everything you have into it. Palmer makes a great comment to say that a teacher needs to focus on their own mental health and reconnect with their material and student. I will never fall out of love with teaching because it is who I am; I must remind myself of this and take time after hard days to remind myself of that in order to reinvigorate my soul. My MT has been teaching for over 30 years and has the same enthusiasm she had day one, proving that teachers can lose heart at moments, but can work at ensuring that they never lose that heart that drew them to this career in the first place. It is this heart that makes me an effective and beneficial educator to my students. |
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