As you know from my midterm update I was struggling with working toward this goal while not being able to be in the classroom. Over the past few weeks I have taken time to think more about what this goal means and what is important about classroom presence. Below I have included a mind map of what I have identified and come to know are the important elements of classroom presence. To identify these elements I spoke with my peers about what classroom presence means to them and read many different teachers accounts of finding their classroom presence. Through this research I found all of these elements which I can use as cues to help me remember to keep up my classroom presence. This is an ongoing process that will be put to the test when I enter the classroom for practicum in a few weeks but I am hopeful that these elements I have learned will help me in my classroom.
At the start of this goal I connected it to three UVic teacher competencies, competency two: Developing Growth Mindset, competency three: Exploring Professionalism, and competency five: Practice Effective Communication. Overall this whole journey was one of growth mindset, with lots of time spent working through challenges, finding collaborative ways to get around challenges, and most of all learning new skills. When I spoke with my peers about what it meant to have a strong presence in the classroom, two words that came up quiet frequently were professionalism and communication. Your presence is all about how you carry yourself and act in front of others, which means it plays greatly into how you are viewed as a professional. Taking time to explore how I wanted to carry myself in the classroom allowed me to explore my professionalism and how I want to be viewed as a professional. The final competency of effective communication I learned that a big part of your presence is how you communicate. The tone of voice you use, the volume of your voice and how you speak to people will drastically effect how you are perceived in the classroom. It will effect how other teachers, students and parents interact with you so it is important to be aware of the element of communication when focusing on your presence in the classroom.
