“Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.”

Some key words here that need to be defined are “value”, “success”, “all”, “care”, “act” and “best interests.”

  • Value: to regard or esteem highly https://www.dictionary.com/browse/value#:~:text=to%20regard%20or%20esteem%20highly
    I like this definition from dictionary.com, I really can’t think of anything to add.
  • Success: the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/success#:~:text=the%20favorable%20or%20prosperous%20termination%20of%20attempts%20or%20endeavors%3B%20the%20accomplishment%20of%20one%27s%20goals.
    “Success” is a difficult concept to pin down in a broad sense. I do believe it implies accomplishing one’s goals but in our case there are many goals: those of the province, the district, the teacher, the parents/caregivers, and the student. If the student’s goal is to drop out or to harm other students then I don’t think we would call their success a positive outcome. Clearly we have some preconceived notions on what “success” looks like, and we need to be clear on whose goals by which we are measuring success.
  • “All” does not need a dictionary entry but is included here for emphasis. A simple and cost effective system that routinely works for 75% of the class cannot be considered a win. We have to keep reassessing our system and receiving feedback and assessment from students to ensure we reach that 100% goal.
  • Definitions of “care” are varied and include everything from concern and desire to anxiety and worry. I think “take care of” would also be applicable in this sentence. I think this implies that we keep students from harm while still granting them agency, but the term “care” is certainly open to interpretation. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/care#:~:text=a%20state%20of,care%20to%20dance%3F
  • Act means take action, which means being both active and proactive. Even when we let students do their own projects or take their own direction we still don’t want to adopt a passive mindset.
  • “Best interests” is extremely subjective and defies a concrete definition. I think we would generally agree on keeping students physically safe, free from bullying, and reasonably prepared for life after high school. I imagine people could offer examples that they consider obvious, but as with “success” I think we enter the realm of personal opinion pretty quickly.


To summarize all of these definitions with the original professional standard, I think we as teachers are being called upon to treat every one of our students as a valuable member of the school community and to try our best to give them the opportunity to function socially, academically and professionally both within the school and out in the world.

After all, Every Child Matters.

I was there to take the photo and yet it still takes me a while to find myself. I attended class with everyone for four months but I still forget a few of the names represented here.

It is very easy to overlook someone. It was about a week into my first practicum that I realized some students would only join activities if I specifically called on them by name to join in; otherwise, they would assume that the activity was for someone else, I guess. I imagine that they did not feel a sense of belonging at school and that this extended to the classroom.

When presented with a room full of students (thirty-five pictured) it is difficult enough to manage overall learning without adding the challenge of assessing each individual student. For me it wasn’t until I started noticing each student individually that I accomplished anything at the classroom level.