There is a beautiful field overlooking the southern end of Cultus Lake. It is vast and expansive and open. As we make our yearly trek along the winding road that leads upward, I am drawn to this place. Perhaps it is its thick outline of firs and cedars or the occasional deer sighting that make this openness compelling. I am not sure. This spring, I was reminded of this image. In a new and fresh way, it breathed life into my understanding of the importance of spaces in my life.
During this past semester, the idea of space has been a recurring theme connecting my experiences, readings and reflections. The following three learning statements summarize spaces that I have investigated and have become meaningful to me: a transformative space, a mediated space and a spacious place.
Learning Statement 1 – A Transformative Space
I am learning about the Redesigned BC Curriculum and how it impacts my role as a teacher. More specifically, I have learned that curriculum and assessment are connected . Effective assessment involves ongoing, descriptive feedback with a curriculum that provides varied and multiple opportunities for learning.
What has changed in my practice as a result of this insight?
I spent the past few months reading BC’s New Curriculum and supporting documents. In the process, I made some connections with my own teaching practices that affirmed and added some clarity to what I was already doing. As stated earlier, I have already used technology to support and document student learning. It is through experimenting and reflecting on this that I see the need to more formally and intentionally use technology as an assessment tool. My readings have been clear that assessment is most effective when it is formative and meaningful to individual students. Regular communication with parents and caregivers is imperative to fully support and grow student learning. Through reflection and communication with a colleague at my school, we are starting the process to collaboratively use FreshGrade as part of our assessment tool.
Learning Statement 2 – A Mediated Space
I am exploring learning communities. More specifically, I am learning that effective communities exist within a “mediated space” and it is in this place of respecting others that we learn and grow.
What has changed in my practice as a result of this insight?
In the broadest sense, we all live in community. Our interactions with others shape the way we live our life. During this study, I have been encouraged to think more deeply about the learning communities that I am a part of. My reflections have been valuable by bringing clarity to and helping me articulate what an effective learning community should look like. I have been challenged to accept and see value in the messiness of individual and group ideas and needs. I am learning to approach this tension with a posture of being a listener first. I have learned that communities take on different forms and thus am more aware that there may already be a community growing around me that I should seek out and support. Finally, my interest in story telling continues to be shaped and expanded. I know that learning communities flourish when diversity and differences are acknowledged. Personal stories and journeys add richness and perspective to a community. Respect and care happens when we give space for sharing and reflection of our lives.
Learning Statement 3 – A Spacious Place
I am learning to live, study and grow in a place of peace and contentment as I embrace the unknown and challenges of the present.
“May the space between where I am and where I want to be inspire me”
What has changed in my practice as a result of this insight?
Much of what has happened to me over the past few months is transformative. I have felt parts of me being stretched in ways and places that I didn’t know existed. I know intuitively that I am being changed and refined in the process, but sometimes it is difficult to see any progress clearly when in the midst of the struggle. What I do know is that community and care have embraced me on this journey. I have felt evidence of peace and hope in this place of spaciousness. I only desire, one day, to remember that such a place exists for others to experience and to offer them the same compassion and love that I have experienced.