Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.

Regarding Standard three, I believe that the main piece that underlies this standard is the understanding that growth and development is a large curve that individuals will process at their own rate. What I mean by this is that even though the steps of child development are relatively the same for most individuals the way and time in which they take to journey through these steps can vary from child to child. I think this idea is very important because sometimes we can become frustrated or worried when a student may not be hitting the expected targets or seems behind in comparison to their peers. In connection to this thought, we have to remember that even if a student is struggling or has not met a target does not mean they never will, it just means they are not there yet. Of course, when it comes to assessment it is important to take into account where the child is compared to their peer so that you can know how to best support them but this comparison should end there. This does not reflect their complete abilities and this is where taking the whole learner into consideration comes in. Another big piece of this standard is to not expect more of your students than they are capable of. Yes, there will be those students who are a bit ahead or exceeding ut exceeding should not be an expectation in my eyes.

In my own experience through our practicums so far I believe I have enacted this standard by trying to take the whole learner into account. This can happen in practice by things such as planning for diversity and knowing that the ability of your students will vary and that this is okay and one hundred percent normal. We have also just completed our diverse classrooms course as well as our inclusive education course where we were schooled on all the things inclusion. I would like to delve into some more education on the specific milestones of child development to gain some more understanding but overall, I am of the view that the best thing we can do as educators when it comes to Standard 3 is to teach holistically and take the whole learner into account.