Weekly Reflection #5

Last week I had the opportunity to attend and present at WestCAST 2026 in Winnipeg, MB. The conference brought together student teachers from all across Canada to network and attend workshops and presentations.

I delivered a presentation on the importance of relationship building in the classroom and the benefits of communal approach. During my presentation, I shared anecdotes from my own teaching experiences and from observations of mine. I then presented research that backs up benefits of having positive relationships with students and how I have seen evidence of this during extended classroom observations. I ended by facilitating an activity that could be replicated in the classroom. The purpose of the activity was to build community in the classroom.

I attended many great workshops and had the opportunity to support my peers during their presentations and workshops. One of the highlights was a french workshop that I attended. It gave me a great chance to practice my french listening and I ended up having several french conversations with people. I am not fully fluent in french, so it is always very fun and exciting when I get a chance to practice.

I really enjoyed presenting and would definitely return to WestCAST in the future if given the opportunity.