Welcome to Mr. Booker’s Digital Hub

Hello and welcome! Thank you for taking the time to check out the culmination of my uOttawa Teacher Education experience. My name is Michael Booker and I am a junior/intermediate teacher candidate. My digital hub serves as a central collection of moments, artifacts, and experiences throughout my time in Fac. Ed. classes, in my year 1 practicum teaching grade 8 math at Lester B. Pearson CHS, and my year 2 practicum teaching grade 4/5 and St. Luke Ottawa. My digital hub also leaves room for growth and expansion as I progress through my newly started career in education.

As an introduction, I wanted to discuss some of my personal beliefs and philosophies when it comes to teaching. I have chosen artifacts throughout this website that reflect my values as a teacher.

I believe that for learning to take place the teacher and student need to have built a relationship, and a student’s well-being is necessary for their success in the classroom. Understanding who my students are as people makes it easier for me to implement differentiated instruction that best fits the present needs in the room. If you don't know anything about a student to begin with, how are you going to notice if something is wrong or off. It starts with putting that student’s needs above all else. Having conversations and showing care are very important and go a long way for creating a positive learning space for all. I think that a safe and caring learning environment starts first and foremost with positive relationship building and having a genuine interest in the well-being of every person in that room.

I believe that learning is a social process and that collaborative environments help build more impactful learning. Teachers can use the diversity of thought and perspectives in their classroom to enhance the learning environment for everyone involved. One example I can give from my year 2 placement, on one of my first days there I did a small survey with my group of 4/5s that would be the basis of my class profile I was creating. One question I asked was about how they feel they learn best in school. Many of them responded by saying group work and working in teams. For some lessons, it was just a brief table conversation to share thoughts, and for others the entire lesson was designed around working with a team. There is always going to be diversity of thought and perspective in the classroom, and as teachers we have a great opportunity to leverage this diversity to enhance learning.

I believe in incorporating a UDL framework to ensure everyone’s needs in my classroom are being met as best as I possibly can. There is so much variance over the course of a semester or term that I believe flexibility in planning is an essential skill for teachers. I want my planning to be responsive to the needs in the room. Having a UDL approach helps me be achieve this responsiveness. In my classroom, differentiation is not an afterthought for specific students. I see it as a seamless part of my instructional planning through a UDL lens. I want my students to feel that they have multiple forms of representation and engagement from the outset. This helps me ensure that inclusive practices are woven into the curriculum I teach. I am always looking to find ways to make the learning as relevant and impactful to that specific group in the room as I possibly can.