Blog Post: Unit 1 Who Am I

The most memorable teacher that I had so far was my behavioural facilitation instructor, who focused on the students' needs and how it aligns with the curriculum than the other way around.  He created a safe environment through various small and meaningful activities that help progress the discussion and practice specific skills.  It is important to note that the instructor made sure to create a fostering and sage environment by having students interact in pairs, small groups and only then challenge them to perform a skill in a group setting.  He also made it easier to practice skills through giving examples that students can use as a template or as a starting point to generate other ideas.

As a facilitator of occupation-specific essential skills and employability skills, I aspire to become a teacher that can efficiently deliver curriculum for individuals with a wide range of barriers (including language barriers).  I would like to be better at creating a safe environment for English language learners, and help them increase their chances of finding employment and keeping them.  Perhaps the most challenging aspect of my job is to find ways to teach learners with low language benchmarks the appropriate behaviours, skills and attitudes for work.  The learners must be able to understand instructions and feedback in order to pass technical training and acquire employment, and continuously incorporate feedback in order to maintain work and transition over to piecework.

Perhaps the most important skill or attribute that I would like to practice is the ability to create activities or materials that learners can immediately connect with and is effective in imparting important information regarding the workplace.  Tailoring is a related skill that is important in this process, and it is essential that me (as a teacher) to ensure that materials and activities are tailored towards the knowledge or skill gaps and interest of the learners.  I believe that I am creative and flexible enough to create materials that would help learners, but I aspire to become a teacher that has a good understanding of what the student exactly needs to learn the content.  I am motivated to become efficient at what I do, and aware that there are many ways to address learning issues and each situation would need to have a unique approach.