Professionalism

The teacher’s responsibility:

To provide an engaging program that teaches all of the Ontario curriculum including 3 strands of Mathematics, Language, Social Studies, Health and Physical Education, Art, Drama, Science.

And to do so in a way that recognises and affirms that value of all cultural, social, economic, racial, and sexual identities according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To ensure the physical and emotional safety of the students

To implement procedures to assess learning of students including screening that will detect learning disabilities if and as evidence of them emerges.

To continue to learn how to teach, both by responding to the needs of my students and my assessment of the teaching strategies I use, and to continually renew my education to keep my understanding current and informed by research-supported best practices in teaching.

To communicate with family and support people in my student’s lives to promote the connection of school learning and learning in the broader context of their lives.

I understand that children have complex lives and come from a wide variety of homes with differing values and cultures. It is important to me that every student in my class be welcome and I strive to create an environment where we can learn about and enjoy our differences as well as our commonalities.

All children are entitled to a good education among their peers. I welcome students of all abilities and disabilities to learn and grow academically and socially in my classroom.

I expect my students to learn respectful behaviour toward each other and myself including appropriate language and actions so that we can share our learning and our space harmoniously.

I invite parents and guardians to communicate with me and meet me often so that we can ensure that every child is receiving the guidance, support and care that is needed to thrive and learn under my care.

My role in my student’s lives involves me in their private concerns and I understand that I am responsible to treat my knowledge as confidential except when there is evidence to suggest any kind of abuse. I am obliged by law to act on my concern for the student’s welfare by reporting evidence of abuse.

I strive to be a good example to my students both in the good choices I always try to make and in my approach to solving problems including those that result from my errors.