Professional Workshops Reflection: Coming into the University of Windsor I knew that I was interested in becoming a teacher, which

is why I chose the concurrent program, but I was unaware of the many different aspects associated with the teaching profession. During my second year of university I was placed into a school in a role that I was unfamiliar with. It was quite the eye opener being in the role of a student teacher as opposed to just being a student, which I was familiar with. It was quite nerve racking to see all of the different things teachers were responsible for and had to do in order to be successful in teaching their students. Thankfully, there was a saving grace, that being the professional workshops that we had to attend in years 2-4 which helped me become a more confident student teacher. These workshops were meant to help guide us on the path to not just becoming teachers, but becoming good teachers that were familiar with all aspects apart of the profession. One of the workshops that was very beneficial to me was the seminar that was lead by two members of the Childrens Aid Society. During this seminar we were exposed to different ways of identifying students that are at risk; this included ways of identifying (physical, mental, emotional) signals that students may give off if they are in a tough situation at home or at school. I felt that this seminar was very important and beneficial for me in my future job as a teacher. There will unfortunately always be students at risk, and we as teachers have a responsibility to act in a way that helps as many students as possible be successful and safe at school as well as out of school. Therefore, these identification strategies that I learned as well as the plan of actions that I was shown will help me ensure that all students are safe. I am confident now that I will be able to identify students who are at risk, and I now have the knowledge to know how to act accordingly. Another part of the workshops that I really enjoyed took place during my third year; we had to choose a local organization and do research about that organization. For this assignment I chose the organization Children First. This is a non- profit organization that helps families with young (birth- 6 years of age) with mental health issues. I really enjoyed doing this project as I was exposed to other local organizations throughout my research, as well as seeing the presentations that my peers made about the organization they had chosen to do. Before doing this assignment I had no knowledge of 80% of the organizations that are out there. This portion of the program was a great exposure for me, and I know that there are a lot of organizations out there to help students with disabilities in my class. In the fourth year of the program, the workshops were all directed towards showing us how to become successful teachers by showing us different things we need to employ in the classroom. One of these workshops was all based on lesson planning. During my placement in my fourth year I was teaching a lot of lessons and I quickly realized just how important lesson plans are. Having a good, in detail lesson plan directly leads to a lesson being successfully taught. During the workshops we were shown all the different things good lesson plans incorporate from identify prior learning, to an overall time table of how the lesson will be taught. I was able to take the lesson planning strategies and structure what we were taught and put it into practice. The result a lesson that was well executed, and was shown through evaluating the students on the material taught. I believe that the success is due to

the lesson plan being successfully built to optimize student learning, from catching the students attention with a hook to assigning further reading/practice problems. Another workshop that I benefited from in my fourth year was the workshop devoted to differentiated instruction. During this workshop we were shown that all students dont learn the same way but there are three main types of students. These are students that are: visual- learners, auditorylearners, and kinaesthetic- learners. Therefore, we as teachers need to have lessons that appeal to all the students to ensure that the class as a whole is academically successful. Another workshop that we had was based around assessment. This workshop was very important as it re-introduced us to the KUTICA way of assessment, and the importance of each of these components. After this workshop I believe that assessment is one of the most important tools that we as teachers possess. It is mandatory to assess the students in order to distribute marks, but it is also extremely important to see how we as teachers are doing. During this section we also discussed different ways of assessing the students so that it is not always the traditional paper and pencil testing, but multiple ways of assessment which allows for all students to be successful. In conclusion, the workshop portion of the concurrent program was very helpful in identifying the different parts of the education world. These workshops and placement being done at the same time was very beneficial. I say this because it is key to practice things as soon as you learn them to insure that we have a full understanding, giving us a chance to ask questions if we dont. I was able to take the things I learnt in the workshops (assessment strategies, teaching strategies, lesson planning) and put them into practice. Some things are good and theory and not in practice, however, taking all of the information that I was taught in the workshops and putting it into practice showed me just how well these things were taught do work.