Our zoom call with Rebecca was very significant for me. As I mentioned at the end of our time with Rebecca, she was one of the teachers I admired at George Jay, one of the teachers that inspired me to follow my dream of becoming a teacher, and one of the teachers I will take inspiration from in years to come, so, to be watching and listening to her speak with my own Education cohort felt very fulfilling.
In the past, I have bought her book for my sister who is a primary teacher and I’m buying her book for my Secret Santa in our cohort. I hadn’t ever considered buying it myself until now, but who are we kidding, I’m a student, I’ll borrow my sisters!
I had the advantage of previously witnessing Rebecca’s classroom in person, yes, it is as Pintrest-like as it looks, but more importantly, I have watched her with her students. I heard some of my cohort’s concerns with regards to the reality of teaching while following an inquiry based pedagogy: managing behaviour, safety, incorporating curriculum, divergent learners but, IT IS entirely possible to do. Of course, Rebecca makes it look easy, but she’s had some pretty challenging high flyers over the years and yet still executed her curriculum following an inquiry based model. I’d also like to mention that Rebecca always took on extra responsibilities within the school.
I’m sure, like all of us will do, her first years were spent finding her feet before she developed her style and focus, but how lucky are we to have a benchmark of where we can take things with our students in the future. I appreciated Rebecca saying her “practice is constantly evolving.” I took that as what worked one year, may not another, we have to shift and adapt. The BC curriculum has been designed to go slower than in the past; we have the advantage of teaching competencies & content in a way that suits us and our students. The curriculum doesn’t tell us how to teach, just what to teach!
My favourite take away from the entire presentation was the analogy of a flower wilting. Would we fix the flower, or would we fix the environment it lives in? How true this is for students.
Creator: sabelskaya | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
