In this section you will create a personal values statement. You also want to share your scholarly goals. To this end you can discuss where you are and where you want to go as a scholar and person. Some questions for you to consider: How does your current path connect with your preferred future? How are you going to reach your goals? What are your current strengths and weaknesses as a student? What motivates you to learn?
My Scholarly Goals and Values: Present and Future
All of my life, learning has been something that I have always dedicated my time to. This goal has served me well so far in my academic career. My desire to learn is both a value and future goal that I need to continue to nurture and foster. As you can see in the picture above, reading is one of my favourite ways to dive into learning. I cherish reading above almost all my other hobbies. Now that I am immersed in my education journey to become a teacher, I think this intent to learn will serve me well.
One goal that I have in regard to my value of life-long learning is to never get discouraged, to take every experience in the classroom as a learning experience to grow and evolve from. I think that when it comes to teaching, a lot of the knowledge I am given won’t completely make sense until I am in the classroom. This insight might mean that sometimes there is trial and error. My goal is to always learn and grow from these experience as I strive to be better as an educator.
Throughout my time in the education program, there is a lot of information, tips and resources that have been given to me. As I am now coming to the end of block two, I am very grateful for the time I spent in my experimental practicum where I got to put my ongoing knowledge into practice and learn more about my own educational pedagogy. My time in my practicum has assured me that my place as a teacher is in elementary schools, as I have a real passion for the primary ages.
In these last two blocks, I have realized how important relationships, inclusivity and diversity are to me and my personal pedagogy. In my practicum, I noticed how the better I got to know each of my students, the better I was at providing them with the learning or teaching strategies that they needed to succeed on their own. I also learned that it is crucial for me that all of my students feel that my classroom is a safe, inviting and respectful.
What would be the point of teaching a lesson if I don’t know what my students need? This question has led me to see the value and importance of formative and ongoing assessment so that I can see what my students need to adjust accordingly. Due to this realization, assessment has become another goal I want to dedicate time to learn more about. I feel strongly that I cannot provide my students with the best educational experience possible, if I don’t know who they are and what they need. This professional value of mine means that I have set goals to invest my time to learning about strategies and resources that help me include everyone one of my students in the classroom learning environment. It is important to me to have ways for all my students to invest and access their own success.
Eventually, it is a goal of mine to get my masters for education. A big reason for this aim is because I never want to stop learning and I want to always be striving to be the best teacher I can be for my students. This objective means that I need to truly invest myself in learning, as it will be important for my long-term and future achievements.
I have a lot of continuous learning to do, but I am more than happy to put in the work.