Katie's Korner
The Rose Garden at UBC - Katie Watson 09/04/24
September 4th, 2024
What have you learned this week including your outdoor Ed experience at Britannia Shipyard Heritage site?
The week was filled with content and was a complete whirlwind re-introduction to the world of IB. With my own experience of going to an IB school until grade 6, the terms used were a familiar tickle in the back of my mind, but I felt a hesitant trepidation when hearing the comfortable nature with which IB terms were used by both TCs and SAs during the panel on the first day. The number of abbreviations and terms associated with IB had intimidated me slightly, although throughout the remainder of the week in sessions with May and Carole, I slowly started to get the lingo down. However, there is still a long way to go, and I honestly have the thought of starting an IB glossary, just so I can keep track of everything and refer to it when I am feeling unsure about a term or definition.
The experience at Britannia Shipyards also harkened back to my elementary school days, as during my grade 7 year I was enrolled in the inaugural year of the SD42 Environmental School. That valuable experience (although my 12-year-old self would argue that being cold and wet all year was not worth it) taught me to consider things from a more hands-on perspective, which was something that I appreciated from the experience at Britannia. Everyone learns differently and creating activities for tactile learners as well as providing other learning opportunities for more traditional learners created a balanced learning environment. These types of programs I think are applicable to all age levels of students, and it would be upon the teacher to adjust expectations and lesson plans to be appropriate for the grade level.
What is significant and challenging to you?
I found the task of finding opportunities for interdisciplinary learning on the scavenger hunt to be challenging, as it forced me to consider disciplines beyond my teachable subject and be outside of my comfort zone. I think that being in a group of TCs that had different teachable subjects than my own created opportunities for collaboration and open discussions of how each of our subjects could relate to one another. My favourite outcome from these collaborative conversations was the experience at the Steveston Tram, where we discussed the opportunities for math and history to come together. Our idea was that students would plan their commute (i.e. cost, time spent, overall efficiency, etc.) on the historical tram system, and then compare it to the modern-day transit system. From their research, they would choose what route would be the most cost-effective and timely, while also considering the social and economic constraints that people both historically and modernly face when using public transportation.
Connections between different parts of the week?
Taking what we learned from the first two days in the classroom to the outdoor Ed experience at Britannia was an awesome opportunity to connect and practice our newly learned understanding of IB principles to real-life applications. When presenting the individual buildings to each other at Britannia Shipyards, the language of IB was already becoming familiar to us when thinking of lesson plans and concepts that we could apply when looking at these buildings. It was also helpful to see the sites from different perspectives, as I personally would have never thought of looking at the gardens of the Murakami house through the lens of biology, but it was an interesting viewpoint that a fellow TC provided to our group, that provided a deeper understanding of the site.
Your final takeaway?
Going into the orientation week, I felt some anxiety regarding IB and honestly the teacher education program as a whole. The imposter syndrome was hitting me, and I felt that just maybe I wasn’t going to find my niche in the program and maybe that this wouldn’t be the career for me. On the very first day, we got told to take a deep breath and I definitely needed that. From there, I grew more and more comfortable with myself and my fellow TCs, learning the lingo of IB and grasping the concepts. While I know that there is a very long 11 months to go, with plenty more to learn about IB and the teacher education program, I left feeling much more confident in myself and my abilities. The imposter syndrome is still there in the back of my mind, but I think that hearing everyone else's experiences, especially those of the alumni’s, and that they felt the same way that I do, reconfirmed that this is ultimately the right career path for me. I want to keep gaining more confidence, and really grow into this program and this career path, and I think with the support of the program as well as my fellow TCs I’ll be just fine.
What else are you curious about and looking forward to learning?
I think I am most looking forward to getting into the in person setting of being in the classroom. I’ve always enjoyed being in settings where I can share my knowledge with others, and I am looking forward to learning ways to better communicate my own knowledge to both students and colleagues alike. Learning different styles of teaching and learning will help me to be a more effective educator, and that is my ultimate goal for my teaching career. I want my students to be able to take what they learn in my classroom into the world with them, being the best humans that they can be.
