Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.
This is a standard that I am still developing, however; I plan to increase my knowledge base thoroughly as I go throughout this program. However, the topics that I have taught during my practicums I have ensured that I knew a significant amount before I taught them. For example, during a science unit in grade 6 my students were learning about mixtures. I took over this unit for my practicum 490 and had to take the grade 6 textbook home and actually study to ensure I knew all about mixtures before I began teaching about them. I did not remember much about colloids, emulsions, heterogeneous or homogeneous mixtures and needed to study before I could begin this unit. Once my understanding of the topic of broad I was able to begin doing lessons and labs with the students. One of my favourite and the students favourite labs that we did was making a colloid. We did this by making whip cream in a jar. By adding air (by shaking) to the liquid cream we were able to create whip cream. The students had many questions about this process and thankfully due to my studying I was able to answer all the questions and explain the process to them. We enjoyed the whip cream made by each group after with some strawberries. In the future as I continue my practice as an educator I plan to always ensure my knowledge base in well developed on whichever subject I am going to teach before I teach it.
