I was a Bachelor of Science student (majored in Mathematics) and my original plan was to apply to the STEM Education program. However, I went through a car accident in China in the summer of 2019 and I stayed in hospital for 4 months. I could not finish my Bachelor of Science degree on time as I expected before but I was very close to 90 credits. Therefore, I changed my mind and applied to the Bachelor of Education program instead. Because of COVID, I finished my first year of B.E.d virtually in China. I planned to go back to TRU to continue my second year studies in Fall 2021 semester. Unfortunately, something went wrong with my toenail and I had to have a toenail surgery in China. Therefore, I had to defer for a year. I returned back to campus in the semester of Fall 2022.
I learned many things from these two incidents: (1) Things do not always go as we planned; (2) We need to be flexible; (3) It is important to be resilient; (4) The importance of physical and mental well-being; (5) Setback is ultimately a positive thing.
These learnings also apply to: (1) Unit/lesson planning: Remember to always plan ahead. If you are sick or have a medical leave for several days and you have planned your units and lessons ahead of time, then it will be much easier for a TTOC or another teacher to cover up for you. Also, having a plan B is important. If you find students are not interested in the lesson or the activities and you can see that they are not learning, then feel free to shut down whatever they are doing and take out your alternative plan. Remember to be flexible! (2) Classroom management: Sometimes, you will think this lesson will be a great one before teaching it but it ended up as a disaster because students were not into it and they were acting out. In this type of situation, flexibility plays an important role. Feel free to shut down the activities and have students do a brain break, dance break or even let them go outside and play a bit. Moving helps them learn! Also, teachers’ physical and mental condition has a big impact on students’ learning. Therefore, make sure that you are in good health and have a positive attitude towards teaching and learning. In this way, students will learn better. Sometimes, you will have a bad day in terms of classroom management. Lots of teachers might consider it as a setback in their career life. However, it has a positive impact on teachers at the end because it helps us build up experiences and equips us with more strategies to deal with tough situations in the future. (3) Assessment: This makes me think of one pillar in UDL which is multiple ways of action and expression. As teachers, we need to be flexible in the ways that we assess our students. It is beneficial to offer them various ways to demonstrate their learning (e.g., writing, drawing, audio-recording). This can show students’ different strengths too!