ECS 100 - Professional Teaching Portfolio

ECS 100 Professional Teaching Portfolio; Giulia-Nemeye Giubertoni
Professional Teaching Portfolio

ECS100: Knowledge, Schooling and Society
Giulia-Nemeye Giubertoni
Student number 200367331
A.Y. 2015-2016
Fall Semester
University of Regina
About me
My name is Giulia-Nemeye Giubertoni. I am a third-year Italian student
from Bergamo on a university exchange in Canada. In detail, I am a
language student from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice studying at
the University of Regina thanks to an Overseas agreement between the
two institutions. I am studying here in Saskatchewan for one semester,
until December 22 2015.
While my first name is a typical Italian name (Giulia, pronounced
exactly like the Canadian version Julia), my middle name is not. In
fact, Nemeye is an African name under my parents wish. I was born
on December 10 1994 in Brescia (Italy), few years after my dad had
come back home from a three-year-long charity work in Rwanda
(central and east Africa). He had been working as a nurse specialized in
nutrition education for African mothers and learned the language Figure 1 Together with my family 1 Together with
my family. From left to right: my brother Filippo,
through a language course attended in Italy and then thanks to the help my father, my mother, my sister Cecilia and me
(and patience) of the locals this is the reason why my second name is
August 2015
in the Kinyarwanda language. Its meaning can be translated as either she that helps her neighbor or she
that is open-minded and willing to help anyone. This name is not easy to translate as there is no exact word
for it in either Italian or English.
I personally love travelling and I have so far lived in three cities
which are not my hometown: Stokmarknes (in the North of
Norway), Venezia (Venice) in Italy, and I have been living in Regina
(Saskatchewan) in Canada since September 2015.
In Norway, I was a 16-year-old exchange student with the

Figure 2 Lets smile big for Christmas (host) family picture!
December 2011
organization AFS for 10 months, hosted by a Norwegian family. I

learned how to speak Norwegian and improved my English since I
interacted daily with Norwegian people and classmates and other exchange students from all over the world
(USA, China, Germany, Thailand and many other countries). In addition to this, I think I discovered how much
I enjoy kids company during my stay in Norway. I have often been told I make adults, peers, and children
feel very comfortable in my company. I consider myself a good listener and very passionate about learning
new things.
I really enjoyed preparing typical Italian meals for my Norwegian

host family. I also have a very good connection with children and
love playing with them. I was often together with my two oldest
host-nieces, Jasmin and Sophia, who were 3 and 7 years old.
My exchange year took place while I was studying at High School,
placed in the province of Bergamo. As a matter of fact, I had
been attending a Grammar School specializing in foreign
Figure 3 Together with my two host-nieces during my
languages for five years (from 2008 to 2013). Specifically, I had 10-month-long experience in Norway February
been studying English and Spanish for five years and German for 2012
two years.
Furthermore, before I came to Regina, I had been living in Venice (Venezia) for the past two years, since I am
attending an undergraduate program at the Ca Foscari University of Venice. In detail, I am studying English
and Russian with a degree in teaching and linguistics. I had studied Brazilian Portuguese for one year, too.
I am now studying Applied Linguistics and Semantics (courses offered by the faculty of Arts) and taking a
course from the faculty of Education at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. I hope to improve
my skills at speaking English during my four-month-long stay overseas.
I mainly decided to come to Canada because a friend of mine
had been an exchange-student in Penticton and come back fully
in love with the Canadian lifestyle and Canadian people. I guess
she had a point, since I find Canadian people very friendly and
open-minded. However, I am finding it very difficult at times
because of the Canadian way of doing university and school in
general, which is deeply different from the Italian organization of
higher education institutions I am used to. In Italy, students are
more independent; there are neither midterms nor other
Figure 4 In front of Lake Moraine in Banff Park - October
2015
assignments due every week, which determine the final grade

one will eventually get.
After graduating in Italy, hopefully in Spring 2017, I would like to continue my studies to improve my
preparation as a teacher and then work as a language teacher, either of Italian abroad or of English in Italy.
In conclusion, I also find myself as a very tolerant, adaptable, and responsible person. I easily adapt to new
environments and I am proud of my flexibility and willingness to learn. I have good organizational and
technical skills and I truly believe in teamwork.
Ecological issues are important to me and my home has always had a recycling system in place. I also love
being outdoors, leading a healthy lifestyle and practicing sports. I have participated in many charity-runs
held in my province (this summer 2015 I have once run 20 kilometers) and I am a member of the University
of Venices Dragon Boat team of the Department of Western Languages.
I participate actively in the so-called Buddy Program, organized by my Ca Foscari University, whose aim is
facilitating the integration of incoming International students in Venice. I enjoy being involved in causes that
help others. I have been a blood donor for the last two years, since I turned eighteen.
In general, I like having new experiences, but I also enjoy

spending time with my friends and family. I enjoy both
informal chats and serious discussion.
Figure 5 With my department's Dragon Boat Team during and

right after the race - May 2015
Table of Contents
About me ..............................................................................................................................................................2
Philosophy of Education (I Believe statements) ...................................................................................................6
Professional Teaching Practices ...........................................................................................................................2
Professional Knowledge .......................................................................................................................................4
University Books ...........................................................................................................................................4
Websites .......................................................................................................................................................5
Topic Exploration Paper ...............................................................................................................................6
Topic of Writing Prompt ...............................................................................................................................6
Professional Growth Plan .....................................................................................................................................7
Classroom artifacts-photos, sample work, collections, photos, treasures from the Field Experience ................9
Resume and Letter of References21
Philosophy of Education (I Believe statements)

Firstly, I believe that a learner-oriented teaching is important. This means that I wish my teaching to
not only be purposeful but also enduring. For this reason, I also believe that a teacher is responsible for
getting to know his or her learners. This becomes fundamental for creating a syllabus that fits their needs. As
a future teacher, knowing my learners will also help me create stimulating connections between what the
students already know and what I am going to explain to them. I want my class to be collaborative and not
passive.
Teachers should also demonstrate curiosity and passion. Anyone can agree on the fact that working
with enthusiastic and passionate people is less boring and much more effective. My philosophy of teaching
is to create a stimulating environment that allows for supervised exploration.
In conclusion, I believe that an effective teacher should be a good and complete person, he or she
should be a curious, passionate, interested adult who is always willing to know about his or her pupils'
interests, wishes, and feelings. Further, a good teacher should be creative, imaginative and ready for new
experiences.
Philosophy of Teaching- Teaching How to Learn and How to Live

I think that my ambition as a teacher may have come from my own experience (educational and
non): I believe I can say that I have experienced places and cultures different from mine. Even if such a
unique background and upbringing implies a fair amount of inevitable struggle, I am extremely grateful to
my parents for such a great and precious opportunity.
Anywhere I have been to, mostly as an exchange student, professors at my host schools have been of great
help to me. They especially understood the overwhelming feeling of trying to absorb the new environments
characterized by a new and different culture from mine. They knew how it could have been tough to try to
make friends out of the blue, and some of them in particular made me feel safe in their classroom, either
supporting or encouraging my efforts to learn a new language and way of life, and accepted me as who I
was. In general, I think teacher are ones of the first people one can trust and count on for being caring and
helpful. My aim as a teacher is being exactly this to my students. I want to be there for someone, as a
consistent figure of comfort and kindness from who to learn from too.
I wish to create a classroom where learning is not just about facts and cold information, but fun and
meaningful experiences. I personally consider myself as a creative and patient person. I am also very serious
and responsible. I want to be respected from my class group, but not feared. Nevertheless, another
important aspect of my philosophy of teaching is discipline. Fairness and consistency when dealing with
discipline are notable. As a teacher I wish to establish rules and consequences and make them clear with
my students as soon as possible. Students are all individuals worthy of responsibilities, just like I am.
I truly believe in the power of empathy. In a profession such as a teachers, being able to get along
with other humans is fundamental. May these other people be either students or colleagues, it does not
count. Regardless of the environment and the group, caring about, recognizing and evaluate different
experiences and attitudes different from your own ones is important. Empathy has also the priceless power
for mutual knowledge and connection.
In conclusion, I want my students to be lifelong learners, and want to do the same. I wish my
students to know how to learn, and how to live, because this is exactly what will be valuable and essential
throughout their lives.
Professional Quotes
1. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, feed him for life
Chinese Proverb
2. Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

Aristotle
3. [Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.
Jim Henson, It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider
4. He who opens a school door, closes a prison.

Victor Hugo
5. "I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why
they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen.
Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had
their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book
report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why."
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
6. "All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out
of my dorms room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my Essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet
without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were
going to make me read the book."
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
7. The effective school is an inclusive, anti oppressive, caring community of adults who attend to the
academic, emotional, social, physical needs of the children and youth entrusted to their care
Forrest W. Parkay, (Becoming a Teacher, page 136)
8. In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.

Phil Collins
9. "I got schooled this year.

By everyone.
()
I got so schooled this year.
By a nine-year-old.
He taught me that it's okay to live life
a little backwards.
And how to laugh
At what you would think
is un-laughable.
()
Colleen Hoover
10. ...Youre going to write the next chapter in history. Not just for yourselves, but for your generation
and generations to come. And that's why getting a good education is so important. That's why all of
this that you're going through - the ups and the downs, the teachers that you love and the teachers
that you don't - why it's so important. (...) The difference between a broken community and a thriving
one is often the healthy respect between men and women who appreciate the contributions each
other makes to society. The difference between a languishing nation and one that will flourish is the
recognition that we need equal access to education for both boys and girls.
Michelle Obama's plea for education (2009): 06:23-07:02
Speaking at a London girls' school in 2009, Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case
for each student to take education seriously.
Professional Teaching Practices

There can be found many different teaching strategies in a classroom, helping a teacher becoming
an effective teacher. Nonetheless, there is no clear and unique indication of what way of teaching is the
best, making the topic of effective teaching a rather complicated and wide matter.
One of the things I have been observed thorough my personal education experiences is that when
learners are enjoying the class, they learn better in a more significant way. May it be an academic subject or
a simple hobby, if learners enjoy it, they also enjoy and do not mind working hard at it.
Clear goals and intellectual challenges are to be mentioned, as well. Effective teachers want to set
high standards for their learners, and make those goals clear with the class. Students have to know in
advance what they are to learn and to be valued upon. Learning should be planned and guided. This also
permits the relationship they have with their instructor to be based on mutual frankness, openness and
respect.
The learner can also be seen as someone who puts together his or her discoveries to create his or
her own knowledge. Pupils do not control the curriculum, which is designed and developed by their teacher.
Nevertheless, this curriculum has to be necessarily flexible. Good teaching should be open to change.
Teachers are supposed to be constantly trying to find out what the effects of their instruction are on
learning, and modifying the instruction in the light of the evidence collected.
Teachers can adopt more practical strategy, such as the pair-share strategy. After posing a
question, the students are given some minutes to reflect upon the main topic. After this time they find a
partner (that is to say, they have to create a pair) for a quick discussion about what they think and why. After
giving time for discussion, teachers ask their students to share their insights with the entire class. I have
seen how this strategy can prove to be helpful in engaging students in a more meaningful way. Pair-sharing
gives time to think about the answer to a problem and time to discuss it with a peer, before proposing an
answer or solution to the entire class, which can cause anxiety in shy personalities. Regardless of whether
the result ends up being shared in the larger class discussion, the process often leads to more thorough,
deeper critical thinking on the part of each student.
Cooperative learning is similar, but different under some aspects. It involves having students working
together in small groups on a common task, elected by the teacher. Small-group learning can be a successful
educational experience for many reasons: students feel responsible for their groups success and therefore
make an effort for doing well and therefore support one another. At the same time, and conversely, group
members test and develop their interpersonal and collaborative skills, which are needed to cooperate and
work successfully. Students gain an opportunity to actively participate in their learning, questioning and
challenging each other. In fact, in order to be a good team player some skills appear to be necessary: one
has not only to verbalize but also to justify his or her ideas, he or she may also have to handle conflicts and,
when disagrees, will have to know how to disagree politely). However, cooperative learning has to be
carefully structured in order to be effective for students, especially if young like my 9-year-old fourth-graders
(for further examples, please see Field Reflection A Final Responde for the Field Experience in the
document regarding Field Logs).
Professional Knowledge
University Books
- Balboni P., Caon F., 2015, La comunicazione interculturale, Venezia, Marsilio.
-
Caon F., 2008 (a cura di), Tra lingue e culture. Per uneducazione linguistica interculturale, Milano,
Bruno Mondadori.
La Comunicazione Interculturale (Balboni and Caon, 2015) and Tra lingue e culture. Per uneducazione
linguistica intercultural (Caon, 2015) are the titles of two university books I read and studied during my last
years Didactics of Literature and Intercultural Communication course at my Ca Foscari University of
Venice. The books and the course itself were about the topic of intercultural communication, which is a
form of communication whose aim is information-sharing across different cultural and social groups. As a
matter of fact, as much as communication processes are often linked to communication problems, they are
more likely to come up in cases of conversations held between individuals belonging to different
backgrounds (religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds).
Both Caon and Balboni show that our culture determines how we encode our messages, and the way we
interpret other peoples messages. In detail, intercultural communication seeks to understand how people
from different countries and cultures may act, communicate and perceive the world around them
differently. In analyzing this data, Intercultural Communication is concerned with awareness: it mainly
focuses on the fact that even if differences may set us apart, we are all human and our personalities are
often different, even within the same culture or family. Its goal is to show how to avoid prejudice and
stereotypes, be tolerant, and eventually accept and honor all differences present on the earth.
A teacher will always have to face a diverse group of student. This simply means that all the people are
unique in their own way and that their differences may span from their personality, reading level, athletic
ability, to their cultural background, religious beliefs, and so on. Diversity has always been present in schools.
However, it is always and endlessly important to embrace it and make positive use of it. Teachers should
value diversity and need skills in intercultural communication. When diversity is valued, it is simultaneously
recognized and respected.
Websites
- Pinterest Boards about Teaching
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=teaching&term_meta%5B%5D=teaching%7Ctyped
Pinterest is basically a virtual bulletin board that allows users to find and collect images and texts. This
enables its users to discover and save creative ideas into a personal collection, which can be considered
a form of self expression and create an opportunity for further social sharing. As a matter of fact, by
typing the word teaching, one can find many interesting sources to draw inspiration from as an actual
or a wanna-be teacher.
EXAMPLES:
Ice breakers that rock

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/497225615088037263/
30 Most Important Classroom Procedures

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/298293175293164286/
Topic Exploration Paper

- Giubertoni, Giulia (2015). Immigration and Intercultural Classrooms What Is Immigration
and Who Are Immigrant Students. Topic Exploration Paper for ECS100 Course, University of
Regina. Instructor: Dr. Richard Buettner.
The aim of this paper is to outline how information about globalization and intercultural awareness
can facilitate a teachers when determining his role and curriculum and facilitate him in making good
methodological decisions in the case of multicultural classrooms, which he aims to be not only
intercultural but efficient, too.
Adequate efforts by all the involved actors seem to be necessary in order to facilitate knowledge
about migration and to improve the welfare of all the people directly or indirectly affected by
migration. The intention of this is the creation of a healthy and good intercultural sense of community
something any society could gain from.
Topic of Writing Prompt
- Giubertoni, Giulia (2015). Il sistema educativo norvegese: The Norwegian Education
System. Essay for the Didactics of Literature and Intercultural Communication course, Ca
Foscari University of Venice. Instructor: Dr. Fabio Caon.
For my course Didactics of Literature and Intercultural Communication, I had to write an essay, in
which I decided to deal with the structure of the Norwegian educational system and then attempted to
make a cross-cultural comparison between it and the way the Educational System is organized in Italy.
The main reason why I decided to explore this particular topic is closely related to my direct experience
as an exchange student in Norway.
The essay is divided into three main parts. The first part is dedicated to the importance of
education in past and present society, the second part deals with the way education is structured in
Norway and its comparison with the Italian way of doing school. Finally, the third and final part of the
essay presents my personal reflections and conclusions about what I have made note of.
Professional Growth Plan

In my opinion, education is a unique and individual experience for every one of us: after all
everyone has ever been a student in his life. In order to let all children benefit from what schools offer,
teachers should primarily understand the importance of their job. Even so, this does not mean that teachers
are supposed to consider teaching to be a lifestyle, and therefore act as educators 24/7. That would be
exaggerate and inhuman. This is something I have always believed in and I am now more aware of. I believe
that if a teacher is a true role model for his or her students, then she or he does not need to show them
more than what he or she does during school. What is certainly needed is coherence and integrity. As
professionals entrusted with the education of young minds, teachers must facilitate students learning and
growth under an academic, personal, and ethical perspective. By providing a quality education, a teacher
gives his class the tools necessary for success in life. I understand teachers are role models for students and
have therefore the potential to have a lasting influence on the decisions and choices students will make. But
a person is not only a teacher; he or she can also be a mother or father, a sister or a brother, a friend, a
neighbor, and so on Nonetheless, a teachers obligation to his or her students does not end when the bell
rings: his or her life goes on. Even so, teachers carry work out of their classrooms and into their lives. In my
opinion, the most important element of this is maintaining a life of integrity and balance.
In my opinion, and even more after my experience, I think that there are no perfect teachers and
that we all are different, both among students and teachers. As a matter of fact, when it comes to
describing my favorite teacher, my middle school professor of English, I remember very well how some of
my classmates disliked her. She was a very strict and serious professor but an extremely respectful, outgoing
lady at the same time. She had a strong personality and this made her slightly intimidating to some students.
professoressa Consoli has been a great professor and model to me though. I remember she used to teach
us grammar for one part of her class and then gave us some pages of a book (Harry Potters books for
example) to read in English, then translate them into Italian for an eventual comment all together. We also
used to write a lot of short stories with 150 word limit, for example. I have always enjoyed reading and
writing, and that is probably why my first contact with the English language was so positive that I am still
studying it and willing to improve my skills at it.
I believe a teacher should always try to do his or her best in order to be able to meet the class
needs. My placement at W. S. Hawrylak School for my ECS100 field experience taught me how this could
be difficult to put into practice. The adjustment of teaching to fit each different students needs is nothing
easy. In a classroom there can be many different personalities, background stories and possible disabilities.
From my Field Experience I have also understood how a teacher firstly need to establish a
relationship with his or her students, gain their trust and respect for later letting the satisfaction of the
needs of his or her students to be possible.
Before my Field Experience I was not sure what the term Canadian Multiculturalism would have
actually meant. I knew that Canadas population consisted of people from a multitude of racial, religious and
cultural backgrounds, and nothing else. Through both my stay at the University of Regina and the Field
Experience at W. S. Hawrylak School, I could experience it directly. As a matter of fact, communication with a
non-English speaking student is a very contemporary issue a teacher can face at some point of his career,
being immigration a very common fact of modern life and can turn out to be very hard. The increasing
numbers of foreigners would need specialized literacy programs in order to facilitate non-English speaking
students education and integration. In my opinion, however, the language barrier cannot be ignored and
action is needed. It is important to bear in mind that communication does not happen only through spoken
word. I have been observing my supervisors behavior and came to the conclusion that there are techniques
a teacher could adopt in order to make his class more comprehensible for not fluent students. These can
be: body gesture, slow and clear speech, short sentences. Furthermore, if the student commits mistakes
when speaking, the teacher should politely correct him or her. A teacher could use an online translation
service as well. Assigning a buddy to the non-English speaking student could be a good idea too. Children can
help each other and have opportunities to develop friendships this way. The teacher should anyways not rely
too much on technology and peer-help, though, because it may be become a source of non-inclusiveness
(and it can sometimes give incorrect translations which may reflect badly upon the teachers professionalism
in the non-English speaking students mind) or a burden for the buddy-student.
I believe diversity to be present anywhere and not only in Canada nowadays. There cannot be nondiversity. Schools are becoming increasingly varied in their backgrounds and experiences, reflecting the
diversity one will anyways witness in the broader society. As a consequence, there have been written
several helpful strategies for instructors concerned about different kinds of diversity, such as abilities and
disabilities, gender diversity, and racial, ethnic and cultural diversity. Specific recommendations must be
outlined in order to ensure an inclusive environment for both students and the teachers welfare.
Classroom artifacts-photos, sample work, collections, photos, treasures from the

Field Experience
I will now attach some of the best and most interesting photos I have taken during my Field Experience at W.
S. Hawrylak School in Regina. I will also write a short comment for each one of them.
SAMPLE WORK
Writing prompts
A teacher can give an infinite number of writing topics to his or her students. The aim of these topics
is to spark creative ideas in young learners during their school year. They can span from My Favourite...,
What If (things that could possibly happen), they can concern students feelings or memories,
descriptions of animals or people, and also Story Starters (creative ideas for beginning stories). The more
creative the writing is, the more fun and engaging writing will become for students.
Figure 1 Looking Forward To This Year

Figure 2 Favorite Memory from Last Year
Creating a story from scratch and illustrating it
Nowadays children are too often exposed to

electronic screens (either watching television,
texting, or playing video games on computer
screens). In order to limit this, art may consist of a
very good alternative, since it offers a better
chance for creativity and personal expression.
Drawing also helps stimulate kids imagination, and
can also help them improve visual and perceptual
skills. Drawing is also a great activity for them to
do when they finish their assignment earlier than
expected.
In the classroom
The students drawings can be used in order to
decorate the classroom. This certainly helps
creating a functional and comfortable space for
learning.
The photos displayed on this page: Some of my

fourth-graders enjoying their drawings time
Group presentation
Two heads are better than one: it has been acknowledged that
group work tends to be more creative, and motivating than
individual work, as long as all the group members are interested
and willing to cooperate. Positive group experiences, moreover,
contribute to student learning and success.
Figure 4 Karen and Larissa are working together for a group presentation
about cats. For better presenting the topic to the rest of the class, they are
using a big poster decorated with some photos and writings.
Portraits
Figure 5, 6 and 7 Some of the drawings displayed on the classrooms walls.
Through
such
as drawing
theiritown
their
classmates portraits,
students
should
be able to create
Twoactivities
heads are
better
than one.:
hasand
been
acknowledged
that group
works
tend
something concrete that says something about themselves and, in the process, possibly learn new techniques of
drawing. In addition to this, activities like painting and drawing are relaxing and rewarding hobbies. They lower stress
levels by providing a distraction.
TREASURES
I love getting gifts, especially if they are personalized. I am amazed by artistic people, and regardless of the
drawing or the note I receive, it always makes me very flattered when someone puts effort in expressing his
or her affection towards me.
Figure 8 Aarza and me, holding a sweet card I had just got from her
Figure 9, 10 and 11 Some of the lovely notes I have got from my sweet fourth-graders

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ECS 100 Professional Teaching Portfolio; Giulia-Nemeye Giubertoni

Professional Teaching Portfolio