When I first heard of WestCAST, I wasn’t too sure of it. I had imagined that it would be some boring conference that I wouldn’t be too worried about if I missed out on something. Boy was I wrong!
WestCAST turned out to be a blast! (Good job to the organizers, by the way!) I had to work during some of it, so I wasn’t able to go to all the sessions I wanted to, but the few I got to go to were awesome!
I went to a session about internationally educated teachers that I found had a lot of valuable information. It was a panel of four teachers who had been born, raised and used to teach in Asia and Africa. They discussed differences between our education system and the education system from their home countries. They agreed that they liked the Canadian education system, but they thought that we could incorporate some ideas from their home countries into our education system to make it that much more effective.
The one lady had been a teacher in India for ten years. She had no textbooks or resources for her class of 55 students. She stood at the front of the class and lectured. The students took notes to study from. Another teacher from South Africa said the same thing. He said that it was the student’s, NOT the parent’s responsibility to learn. It was up to the student to take notes and study. They both agreed that the work ethic that these students developed was phenomenal, and students in Canada could learn from them. One other thing that they agreed on was parent involvement. They said they liked having parent involvement in Canadian schools, but they thought that it should be more of a balance between Canada and their home countries. Yes, parents should be involved, but they have to realize that teachers go to school in order to do their jobs and have proper training to make the right decisions for their students.
I thought it was very interesting to hear about the different types of classrooms around the world. I think knowing this would make me a more effective teacher to immigrant or EAL students. At least I have a vague idea of where they are coming from. It was a very good session!
Can’t wait for Calgary next year!
Brittany, it sort of sounds like that session was pretty closely connected to the MCIC presentation, too. I'm really happy to hear that you enjoyed WestCAST so much. It was great. I'm glad that so many of you accepted the opportunity to attend. That makes all the work of putting it together worthwhile!
ReplyDeleteJackie