Educators engage in professional development and reflective practice, understanding that a hallmark of professionalism is the concept of professional growth over time. Educators develop and refine personal philosophies of education, teaching and learning that are informed by theory and practice. Educators identify their professional needs and work to meet those needs individually and collaboratively.
Evidence: Reflection on assessment in ela & Reflection
For this evidence piece, I have chosen a reflection I wrote on how I can assess literary skills and needs in English Language Arts. This reflection focused on different assessment methods that I have seen as well as methods that I thought could be implemented to assess literary skills and needs. This piece of evidence shows that I have engaged in reflective practice and reflective teacher inquiry. I raised questions about assessment, explored observations I have made in my practicum classroom, linked my questions and observations to reading and research I had done on the topic, and developed intentions for addressing questions and needs in my own future classroom. Through intentionally reflecting on different assessment possibilities, I learned about different methods of literary assessment. With this reflection written out and saved, I can look back on it when I have my own class and use it as a resource to engage in career-long learning by researching the different methods further as well as using and adapting them to fit my own classroom and personal teaching style.
In this evidence piece, I mention that I like the opportunity for assessment, variety, and choice in the Daily 5 program. One aspect of my Guiding Principles is student-centered learning, which I find can be done through the Daily 5 program based on the student choice involved and through the assessment methods proposed that incorporate student voice. Finding practices that reflect aspects of my own personal philosophy is a way for me to develop and refine my personal philosophy of education and will contribute to and inform my own teaching and learning.
This evidence piece addresses the student-centered approach to teaching and learning. “The term student-centered learning refers to a wide variety of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic-support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students.” (The Great Schools Partnership) Focusing mainly on the Daily 5 and student self-assessments, student voice and choice are at the forefront of this reflection. It shows one area in which student-centered learning can be implemented into a classroom. Both the Daily 5 and the proposed assessment strategies focus on individual learning and goals. The Great Schools Partnership gives four criteria for student-centered learning: personalized teaching and learning, proficiency based learning (students advance once they demonstrate proficiency in the topic/skill), flexibility, and student choice; all of these criteria are met in the Daily 5 and ideas for assessment discussed in the evidence piece.
One of the bigger focuses in this evidence piece was reflecting on how to implement assessment into the Daily 5 program. Since the Daily 5 is an individualized program that focuses on each student working towards their own goal and has five different ways to engage with the material, I believe it addresses and benefits all learning styles. There is lots of room for differentiation in this program as well as in the ways to assess it (if you choose to assess it) which allow teachers to adapt how they run the program to the specific learning styles and needs of their class.
One of the strengths of this evidence piece is that it is a reflection that I wrote in the first semester of this program that I can continue to look back on and use as a resource or a springboard into further inquiry into the topic. I think that by recording my own thoughts on the topic (engaging in reflective practice), I can use it later on in the program and in my career to inform my practice or to use as a way of tracking my learning. By comparing how I saw assessment at the beginning of the program and how I will see it at various points in the future, I have already started contributing to my career-long learning.
Education is a dynamic field with new (and old) theories, practices, and ways of thinking that are constantly shifting, evolving, and being used in classrooms everywhere. Knowing that the field is continually evolving and learning, it is important that in my practice I do the same. I think it is also important to continually engage in career-long learning if we are to:
- Act in the best interests of our students (TRB 1) - Be role models (TRB 2) that model the life-long learning and practice of inquiry we are trying to instill in our students - Apply knowledge of student growth and development (TRB 3) - Implement effective teaching practices (TRB 5) - Have a broad knowledge base and understand the subject areas we teach (TRB 6) - Contribute to the profession (TRB 8).
As I grow as a teacher, I plan to hold this standard true by actively participating in professional development, inquiring into the questions I have and observations I make through reading and research, and having a growth mindset when it comes to my teaching and learning. I will identify my professional needs and continue to grow and improve in my teaching practice. By engaging in career-long learning, I am continually improving my knowledge about my teaching and learning and the things that I learn can contribute to the improvement of my skills and attitudes about my teaching and learning.
Works Cited: The Great Schools Partnership. (2014, May 07). Student-Centered Learning Definition. Retrieved March 04, 2018, from https://www.edglossary.org/student-centered-learning/
Evidence: Synthesis Project & Reflection
For this evidence piece, I have chosen my synthesis project that I created as a culminating presentation of my learning during the six weeks of the PB6 program. For this project, I chose to represent my learning in terms of a traffic light - the traffic of my brain over the last few weeks. In the green light, I created a mind map of the things that I’ve learned and explored over the last six weeks. The green light encompasses, but is not limited to, the things I’ve learned surrounding Inclusive Education, School Governance, Social Justice, Community Connections, and Aboriginal Ways of knowing and learning. In the yellow section, I outlined the things I am currently still working on. The yellow represents the questions I am still working to answer and the skills I am hoping to improve and continue to work on in my final practicum. Finally, the red section represents the questions and areas that have come up that I have not had a chance to address yet. I didn’t want the red to be a “stop” light, but rather a “yet” light for me to come back to and reflect upon down the road. Right now, it is written in ink, however as I continue on in my career it is a template for me to continue my professional growth over time and engage in reflective practice. The yellow and the red items will move into yellow and green and the green will continue to grow and expand as I explore and learn throughout my career. This evidence has impacted my insights about the standard because it has allowed me to reflect on my own learning and goals as I begin to enter my career. The self-directed format of the program has allowed me to explore questions I have and to identify my professional needs and work to meet these needs individually and collaboratively. It has shown me that learning and professional development does not always look like workshops and classes; it can be pursuing individual passions and questions and collaborating with others and hearing what questions and answers they have found. While creating this project, I realized how much I learned from my Pod and how valuable learning from each other is.
This evidence piece addresses all learning styles because it was so open. The criteria of the project was to show your learning throughout the semester in a creative way. It was so interesting and valuable to get together and see what my Pod-mates took away from the semester and in what ways they felt it could be best represented. Each of us had a different format in which we presented our learning yet we all had a common goal and outcome. I believe that the format I chose specifically addresses the learning theory of Growth Mindset. A big part of mindset is “The Power of Yet” and I think that this format is in line with that thinking, focusing on questions don’t have an answer yet and being a dynamic living document that changes and grows as I do. This evidence is a strong piece of evidence because it addresses multiple aspects of the standard. It outlines professional development that I have done as well as areas in which I would like to grow (identifying professional needs), it is a form of reflective practice, and provides a way for me to track my personal growth over time. Another strength of this evidence piece is that it also reflects the two First Peoples Principles of Learning: “Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational” and “Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.” (FNESC 2014) This synthesis allowed me to reflect on all of the learning that happened in the last six weeks and make concrete connections/relations between what I’ve learned. It also allowed me to reflect upon what I’ve learned and how that fits into my Guiding Principles, helping to develop and refine my Personal Philosophy of Education. This connection to my Guiding Principles and critical reflection of my own practice also helped me to explore my own identity as a teacher and identify the growth I’ve had as well as the areas I would like to dive deeper into.
This standard is important to my practice because teaching and learning are informed by theory and practice. As I embark on my personal teaching and learning journey, it is important that I am continually striving to improve my practice in order to be the best teacher I can for my students. As I grow as a teacher, I plan to hold this standard true by actively participating in professional development, inquiring into the questions I have and observations I make through reading and research, and having a growth mindset when it comes to my teaching and learning, and collaborating with colleagues in order to continually challenge myself and become better. I will identify my professional needs and continue to grow and improve in my teaching practice. By engaging in career-long learning, I am continually improving my knowledge about my teaching and learning and the things that I learn can contribute to the improvement of my skills and attitudes about my teaching and learning.
Works Cited FNESC (2014), First Peoples Principles of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP-POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11x17.pdf