I have completed a list of personal goals based on the nine BCTC education standards for the upcoming final practicum; however, it wasn’t until I reread my list of goals that I recognized how not a single one was discrete—they are interconnected. Reading my goals clarified an idea that educational systems function in an organismic fashion. Currently, I am considered a student teacher (or teacher candidate) and as such, there is an implication that I am there to both learn and demonstrate competence under professional guidance and assessment. But there’s more—the students I am to teach are not “practice students,” they are really people who deserve a real education, and thus, my actions exceed myself. And how about what I know, what I understand, and what I can do? My experiences, personality and knowledge are somewhat unique by the path through life I have taken up to this point. So, I also bring something new—and hopefully valuable—to ALL who I interact with, regardless of how big or small the impact. The interactions I experience lead must lead to some degree of influence and that influence may spread implicitly or explicating, transforming through communities as it goes with a memetic characteristic. What pressure! But also comfort because it is not about me, nor anyone else—it must be about us all: students, parents, family, teachers, school community staff, local community, land, country, world, people, and the past, present, and future.
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