Educators act ethically and maintain the integrity, credibility and reputation of the profession.
Educators are role models. Educators are held to a higher standard and are accountable for their conduct on duty and off duty. Educators understand the law as it relates to their duties. Educators’ individual conduct contributes to the perception of the profession as a whole. Educators know and recognize the importance of the Professional Standards for BC Educators.
This is the most difficult standard for me to write about because I have always considered myself to be professional, and I consider myself to have high standards for myself, which affect my integrity, credibility and reputation of any organization or group with whom I am associated.
Therefore, I would like to approach this standard through the lens of looking back at my growth in the teaching profession.
I applied to become a non-certified TTOC and was hired in the late winter. My first day was shortly after spring break in April 2019 – EXACTLY FOUR YEARS AGO! And, yes… It was because I was good with kids of all ages, I had left a very stressful occupation and needed a BIG change, and summers off sounded awesome with my son, who was in Grade 7 at the time! I knew nothing about the teaching profession, but I was pretty good at everything else I took on, so why not?
By April 2020, the pandemic was just setting in. I had taken on a full-time teaching role at McNaughton Centre as the Mathematics and Foods Teacher. I was winging it every step of the way, but the Administrator supported my innovative ways to reach out and connect with students. In hindsight, I didn’t understand why the other teachers were having such problems connecting with the students; now I know the boundaries that I was pushing. I suppose they either thought that I didn’t care about them, or they didn’t care if a non-cert got in trouble. I didn’t doubt anything I was doing. I would send messages to the students and check on them and ask them to call their teachers, and they would respond to me. It was simple. Now I know that having access to watching them “party” is the same as supporting them in it and why that boundary exists.
By the Spring of 2021, the pressure was on for me to make a decision. Was teaching really something I was going to do long-term? I had taken a second contract at McNaughton Centre teaching Math, PE, and Leadership and I was falling deeper and deeper in love with the impact I was having on the community and the reciprocity it had in my life. I knew by this time there were some obvious gaps in what I didn’t know about the profession of teaching, but I was doing much better than keeping my head above the water. I was a respected voice in the alternate school. The problem was as a non-certified teacher; it couldn’t last. and what would that mean?
I bit the bullet and took a few upgrading courses, registered for UNBC and was in the thick of my Bachelor of Education by the Spring of 2022. OMG! You really don’t know what you don’t know! Being a teacher candidate at UNBC alone tested my professional boundaries more than a time or two. I have stretched myself in directions I didn’t know was possible and learned that there is so much more learning to do.
And here I am in the Spring of 2023 finishing my program. Am I more professional than four years ago? Absolutely. Am I perfect? No. But, I don’t know anyone who really is. I’m working very hard on balancing zipping my lips and not writing emails on impulses and following my gut intuition. I am trying very hard to work on my self-care to ensure that I am not projecting my personal stressors onto any situation and I am defining my own set of personal boundaries that will help me maintain the best life as an educator in the years to come.
