This evidence piece for TRB Standard 2, “Educators are role models who act ethically and honestly,” is a volunteer experience I shared with a few of my classmates at Our Place Society in Victoria. Our Place is an inner city community center serving Greater Victoria’s most vulnerable, including the working poor, elderly, impoverished, mentally and physically challenged, and the homeless. We visited the center as part of our Community Action Project, and to learn how we can include our students in community out reach projects with organizations like this in our districts. We left this community center having accomplished this and much more.
TRB Standard 2 highlights how important it is for educators to act as role models. While at Our Place, I gained a better understanding of how building connections with diverse groups in my community is so valuable, not only as an individual, but as an educator and as a community member as well. The foundation of my teaching philosophy lay in building relationships and connectedness. I believe that one of the best ways I can facilitate learning is to provide space for my students to get to know each other and engage with one another’s diverse perspectives, experiences, interpretations and knowledge. Like the students in my classroom, the people at Our Place Society have incredibly diverse backgrounds. It is important that I engage in my community, both in my professional and personal life, practicing in my life what I hope my students will practice in theirs. |
This is a strong evidence piece for TRB Standard 2 as it shows that I understand that there is no definitive line between my identity as an educator and my identity as an individual and community member. TRB Standard 2 is important as it reminds me that my actions and interactions in my personal life directly affect who I am and who I can be in the classroom. I aim to hold TRB Standard 2 true in the future by getting to know people in the diverse demographics of my community in which I teach and finding a way to help and interact with those who are less advantaged than myself.
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