Professional Learning Series (PLS) Workshops Reflection

As a part of the Bachelor of Education program, Faculty of Education students are required to attend a set of mandatory Professional Learning Series (PLS) workshops. These workshops typically involve a guest speaker or set of guest speakers that run these workshops in which we, the students, attend and learn from. Topics of these workshops ranged from lesson planning to how to increase equity and diversity in your classrooms. These workshops were always hosted on Fridays and were typically just a single guest speaker, sometimes two, and would last around an hour and a half to two hours. However, there were a few webinar events where we got to choose three or four workshops to attend throughout the morning and early afternoon. These were my favourite since I was able to actually choose which workshops I was attending and could cater them to my interests. Whether it be classroom technologies, how to make classrooms more inclusive, programs in Ontario that are available to students an teachers, etc., these webinars offered a great variety of workshops for all students to choose from and attend. The key was to register early though, otherwise you would not be able to attend the session(s) that you wanted.

I really liked the webinar events because I was able to choose which workshops I was going to attend. One of the topics that I chose which I loved was one about classroom technologies. I forget the exact name of it, but during this workshop, a guest speaker discussed various classroom technologies and tools that teachers could use to help engage their students more and even make their lessons more fun. I have been using Mentimeter for all of my lessons since the students seem to love the games and how it lets them be more engaged with the lessons, but I was curious as to what else was out there that I maybe did not know about. They talked about a few such as Nearpod and Mentimeter, and even though I had heard about a few of them already, it still allowed me to learn about different ways I could use them, or which one’s they found to be more successful in their classroom since they were also a teacher. Additionally, they discussed when different classrooms technologies should be used, and how sometimes they can even be more of a distraction then a benefit in the classroom, which is something that I did not immediately think about. One of the points that they brought up about that was how with interactive presentations, if the students are using their phones, they may become distracted as they can switch to other apps/sites and not actually focus on the lesson. They offered some good suggestions for this such as using classroom computers instead, or by ensuring you walk around the room to keep everyone on task and focused.

Another workshop that I remember well was about the LEAD program within the Faculty of Education that second year consecutive and fifth year concurrent students could take as part of their practicum placements. The LEAD program allows students to learn about the Ministry of Education’s Student Success initiatives and Guidance and Career education to help students who are “in-risk” of failing or not obtaining their credits in school. During my first practicum placement I actually got to work with a few other LEAD student teachers in their final year of Teachers College and was able to see what they did. Additionally, I was even able to work with the Student Success Teachers that LEAD students get to because my Associate Teacher was a Student Success Teacher. This is primarily what drove me to go to the workshop. The workshop by Dr. Salinitri was very well done and gave me great insight into the program, which I do plan on taking when I get to fifth year.

Another workshop that I really enjoyed was how teachers can make their classrooms more inclusive to LGBTQ+ students. This has always been a subject that I wanted to learn more about as a future teacher, as I want my classroom to be as welcoming as possible for my students. This workshop showed us what we can do as teachers in terms of actions we can take, as well as what we can do in terms of our classrooms. They gave examples such as various posters we could put up, pride flags, and more. After the completion of the workshop, I definitely feel a bit more comfortable with the knowledge I have which will help me to make my classroom just that much more welcoming and inclusive so that my future students will always have a safe space to visit while at school.

The workshops were overall very well put together and ran very smoothly, which is always nice. The guest speakers that were chosen for these workshops were very interesting to listen to and all had some great knowledge to share with all of the students which was fantastic to see. I at first was not very excited for the workshops since they were taking up my Fridays, but after they were all completed, I can definitely say that I did in fact enjoy them and learned quite a lot of information from them as well. The fact that they were not too too long and offered content that was not overwhelming to us made it all that much better and enjoyable for us student teachers. If I had to offer some suggestions for the workshops, I would say to make more of them like the webinars that were held throughout the year. I think a lot of students liked that they had the ability to choose which workshops they could attend, rather than all attending one workshop that they may not all be interested in, which can also mean that the level of attention is lower as well.