Educators engage in professional learning.
I think that I am so fortunate to be a part of the BCTF, SD57 and the UNBC School of Education, as the amounts of professional learning that I have been able to be included in so far, right from the start of my own educational journey has been nothing short of amazing.
I still remember my first professional development was POPEY, and I still hold onto the mass amounts of information that I obtained from that learning. I think that COVID-19, while it has been something unfortunate that we have all had to deal with this past 17+ months, allowed for me to have so many different professional learning development experiences that I would not have had access to if it had been a normal school year.
I have gotten to sit in on so many different professional developments and meet teachers who are just starting out like myself, to others that have 20+ years of experience. Being involved in conversations, discussions and even just listening in has expanded my own knowledge more that I could have ever hoped for. It has also allowed for me to make new connections with people outside of the Prince George District and see how other areas and schools share their information and how they are all ran.
As someone who is currently in school, and never took a break from high school to my BA to now my B.Ed, I think that learning is a key part of being an educator and for us to encourage our students to learn and to support that learning we need to be learning as well. I stand by the moto of being a lifelong learner as so many things are continuously changing, updating, developing and expanding, and it is my personal responsibility to keep myself as educated as possible. Not only for my own personal development, but for a professional development and the support that it can offer my students. The reason why there are so many professional learning opportunities is because we are never done learning, there is always something new to learn and implement in our classrooms and having those opportunities provided and so easily accessible is a gift that I know I will continuously accept as a new and future teacher in BC.