This week has been fairly quiet but I cannot believe I’ve finished at Tracy Locke.

As stated in a previous post I presented to the team about my life in Scotland, university, politics, healthcare and cultures and traditions. When thinking about the SPRs this most definitely related to Trust and Respect. Part of it states that as student teachers we should be: “Demonstrating a commitment to motivating and inspiring learners.” Although I was not teaching to school pupils, I was teaching adults about Scotland and how different it is to America. After my presentation so many people said they wanted to visit the country and i believed my presentation inspired them to do this. People also asked me questions to do with the presentation but also things I hadn’t included such as bands and musicians, which I believe motivated the listeners to dig deeper into what they knew and wanted to know about Scotland.

This week I have also been doing research for the Catherine Violet Hubbard foundation. This is a charity set up in Connecticut after the SandyHook Elementary School shooting in 2012. One of Tracy Locke’s employee’s daughter lost her life in the attack and the charity has been set up for her. A week before the attack the mother overheard her daughter talking to a butterfly with Catherine saying “tell all your friends that I’m kind“. From this they have set up an animal sanctuary which organises educational and fun visits for school pupils in her honour. This charity was also set up due to there being such negative energy in the town. Most people campaigned for gun laws to be tightened, understandably, but the people who set up the CVH foundation wanted a positive impact for the town and set up the animal sanctuary.

I have been doing some research of Cannes Lion Award winners for Meg in the Connecticut office so they can see what work other non-profit organisations have done to win the awards and how the CVH foundation can do this too.

I have done some work for people in the Connecticut office while I’ve been here after I met them a couple of weeks ago and I feel like I am meeting the Professional Commitment standard. Part of it states that we should be: “Engaging with all aspects of professional practice and working collegiately.” This type of work has allowed me to work and learn collaboratively with people form different teams and offices and is something which I feel will benefit me as a teacher as collaborative work is vital for the career.

Finally, today I listened in on a meeting and presentation with Hugh, the CEO. creating a legacy not “fixing” the problem.

The group was originally called “Diversity Action Group”. However, they wanted to change it and take the word diversity out and make it descriptive of the change. After some brainstorming the team decided they would call the group TL ALL as it incorporates Tracy Locke and the word all means everyone.

We then worked in teams to come up with ideas for specific days in the year. I worked with 4 others to help decide what ideas we could come up with for International Women’s Day and came up with ideas such as each women in TL mentoring a girl from a local school and supporting young female entrepreneurs. This work was good as it allowed me to collaborate with people to come up with new ideas which is something I will most definitely do as a teacher. It also allowed me to work with people I hadn’t met before so helped with confidence and communication.

This has been yet another great week and I cannot believe it is all over!