Wellness

Here's What (...TC Learning at York)

York University aims to promote a healthy, inclusive and supportive environment that fosters mental health and well-being among members of the York community. The initiative was developed on the premise that wellness is a necessary pre-condition to learning and working, and that physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, mental, and cultural and environmental health and learning are interdependent (Mental Health Steering Committee, York University, 2016) .

We remind our teacher candidates that safeguarding their wellness is key to effectively supporting and facilitating learning for the students in their practicum classroom. We use the well-known airline analogy of "securing your own oxygen mask before helping others" to provide TCs with a visualization of the theory.

So What? (...Linking to Practice)

In addition to providing direct experience and an opportunity to apply newly acquired skills and knowledge, the practicum placements are a major source of curriculum in the sense that they bring candidates face to face with concrete situations. The underlying assumptions of this approach are that teaching can be considered as a form of problem solving and that teacher candidates learn best within cohesive academic and practical situations that allow them to understand and to master their environment.

To ensure that the "problem solving" aspects of practicum do not overwhelm TCs, it is important to ensure TCs feel that they are part of a school community, where they can take some pedagogical risks with the support of a mentor, site coordinator and peers, all of whom are there to facilitate success and model strong skills and strategies.

Now What? (...Suggestions for MT and TC Collaboration)

  • Engage in ongoing conversations to understand where the stress points are in the TCs' practicum progress, then collaborate to determine ways to reduce stress and increase TC confidence in their abilities.
  • Make time daily to communicate as colleagues and partners in educating the students in your classroom.
  • Understand that teaching 100% of the day is not the objective. Demonstrations of successful skills development for lesson planning, assessment, student engagement, professionalism and reflective practice serve as the indicators of successful achievement of the learning outcomes and exit requirements of the program. Dedicating time to talk about practice, think aloud and co-teach/plan greatly facilitates skills development.
  • Contact your York Practicum Facilitator to help your TC access wellness supports through York's Mental Health and Wellness program http://mhw.info.yorku.ca/