Blair Withers

During my practicum at Westsyde I continued to develop and refine my assessment skills. I used a number of different assessment methods however, there were a ew common ones. My go to assessment strategy for students was a worksheet that reflected upon the content discussed in today’s class. Although the majority of worksheets weren’t handed until at least the next day they supplied me with feedback regarding what my students understood, and what material I needed to do a better job explaining. I also incorporate student participation into my lessons because as students are answering, I can get a sense of whether they are understanding the material. If they are struggling to answer, I can immediately try to correct what I am doing. I did do a few summative assessments in the form of quizzes and tests. I used quizzes more often because they were worth less overall so students didn’t feel as much pressure. These quizzes were another way for me to check students’ understanding and review any issues before a summative test. While constructing the quizzes and tests, I learned that a lot of effort goes into a well designed quiz/test. A good quiz reflects what we focused on in class and tests the students knowledge based on what we actually discussed. I did do one test with my students, and tests with Mr Wills were worth more than quizzes. This test was just ok. Many students skipped the test, many students expressed test anxiety, and overall I wasn’t happy with how the test went. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and how to make this a better situation. One thing I wished I had come up with beforehand was to instead of doing a test for the chemistry unit,  have the students design their own chemistry lab. This would cover all of the content from chemistry and bring in a lot of curricular competencies under planning and conducting and questioning and predicting.  After listening to some of your feedback during our mock interview, I was wondering how to do this a dual test/assignment where I then weighted whichever part the students did better on more heavily. I did also try to use self assessment forms during my practicum. I typically did these when we were doing labs and used these to address curricular and core competencies. One activity I did with the students was the day before a lab, I had them brainstorm what a good lab partner looks like. I took their responses and incorporated them with curricular and core competencies as a self assessment sheet. This way I was assessing The curriculum and core competencies as well as letting students have some say in how they are assessed. I found that I liked doing these self assessment sheets when we were doing some sort of activity. They were short, three categories and students just checked the boxes indicating what level they were at (developing, meeting, exceeding).

When the practicum shifted to online I ran into some difficulty with assessment. Things slowed down and I got a lot less feedback from students. So I started creating simple worksheets based on that day’s content that could be completed online. I would use the breakout room function in Zoom and have students work through the sheets together in small groups. I would jump from group to group, and was able to see what content I needed to spend more time on. While these all these assessment strategies worked during my practicum, they are by no means perfect, or what I am content with. I know I need to keep evolving my assessment practices to ensure they are a fair and holistic representation of students learning. I had things that I wanted to experiment implementing, such as kahoots, google feedback forms, and anonymous polls with cell phones. Oh well, just things that I will have to try at a later date.

1. Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.
   1. To me for a teacher to uphold this standard, they must form meaningful and trusting connections with their students. This will help the teacher value each student’s success because it will mean different things to different students. For some students their success will be an accomplishment, for others it may be relief, regardless it will mean something to every student. Acting in students’ best interest might mean modifying content for a specific student, postponing the rest of a lesson so students have more time to understand or work through material, or even developing alternative assessment methods to limit anxiety and ensure students are putting their best work forward. During my teaching practice I have seen the impact success has on students. I understand that I have to get to know students to see why they value their success, as this motivates me to try to bring out the best in them. I have tried with many students to present material in different ways to promote interest, adapted content to make it more manageable and implemented alternative assessment solutions. In all my classes I create an inclusive and supportive classroom, where anyone with any background or gender orientation is welcome.
2. Educators act ethically and maintain the integrity, credibility and reputation of the profession.
   1. To me this standard means two things; first it is reminding us that as teachers we must treat every student equally and fairly. We should not make any judgments on students, and cannot let any past interactions bias new ones with students. We don’t know their whole story, why students may be acting a certain way so we cannot assume or conclude. We can only show compassion, patience, and understanding to all students equally. The second part speaks about our professionalism inside and out of the classroom. Teaching isn’t a 9-5 job, it doesn’t stop when we leave the building. We must be role models anywhere we go. This means dressing appropriately, being approachable, and not stirring up unnecessary trouble. I feel like I have held myself to the second teaching standard. I feel as though I conduct myself positively, compassionately, and professionally with the students in the classroom. I feel as though I am prepared for each day and am able to keep my composure during class. I feel as though I don’t do anything that contradicts my in school behaviour outside of the school.
3. Educators Understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
   1. To me this is both a reminder and a challenge to educators. It serves to remind us that we cannot just use one form of assessment for our students. Different students excel at different challenges and in different situations. As educators we need to be fair to our students and assess them in a variety of ways. This demonstrates that we understand each of our students and in which situations they excel. Educators also need to understand what is an achievement for each student. Every student is at a different point in their learning, work that may be satisfactory for some students is exceptional for others. Teachers have to understand this and both motivate and praise students to reach goals and learning outcomes specific to them. I have incorporated this into my own teaching practice in a variety of ways. One example was giving out effort marks for report cards. For a few students, I could have given them an S instead of a G. However, they had IEP’s and considering this and their background, they were actually doing very well in class. Therefore I gave them a G to show them they had achieved well for themselves and give them a confidence boost to keep going. I also allowed some students to hand in a lab they made instead of doing  a unit test. I did this because it covered the same content and competencies and put the students in a position to succeed.
4. Eductors value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families and communities in school.
   1. Every member in a child’s life plays an important role. They function in some way as a role model or inspiration for children, and know them in different ways than a teacher might. Therefore, other members of a child’s support system should be included in decisions made at school for a child. They can advocate for children in  ways that we as educators may not have thought the child needed. I have seen this first hand during parent teacher interviews. I got to talk to numerous parents, who told me their child had anxiety and gave me advice on how to support them. They told me that their child was shy and needed time to grow comfortable. After parent teacher interviews I felt far more prepared to help some of my students achieve the best they could. I feel this standard is also here to remind us that kids have a life outside of school. They only get to be kids once and as teachers we need to make sure we are helping them balance school and life.
5. Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment, and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.
   1. To be successful at upholding this standard, educators must put effort into their profession. Successful educators overplan so that they seem prepared and in control, overplanning means they know what they are expecting from their students and they know where they are going. A prepared educator knows what they want their students to know, what they will test/assess them on, and how they are going to do this. Students see this as excellent leadership and are more likely to follow a prepared teacher. This makes assessments and reporting more accurate and authentic. This also allows educators to put more effort into building relationships with their students, which is essential for creating a respectful and inclusive classroom environment. I believe during my practicum I have demonstrated that I overplan, am well organized, have a good idea of what I am teaching, and where I am going. I also feel like I demonstrated my ability to connect with students and how to quickly build meaningful relationships.
6. Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.
   1. The word “broad” is key to this teaching standard. It implies that yes as educators we must have some sort of background in what we teach and understand the content that we teach but we must be able to do this from a variety of perspectives. We should as teachers be able to tie in content from all curriculum areas and various indigenous perspectives in order to broaden our students’ understanding and to provide students with a well rounded education giving them appreciation for others perspectives. I implement this in my own teaching practice by relating science to english, math, and history. I incorporate Canadian first nations perspectives into my lesson, not just as throwing away one liners, but meaningful engaging experiences, such as, talking circles, hands on learning, or group collaboration. This creates a rich educational experience that widens students’ minds, and teaches them to consider perspectives other than their own.
7. Educators engage in professional learning.
   1. This standard is short and sweet, it is a reminder to me to never stop learning. As an educator we should believe in evolution, making ourselves, our lessons, and our students better. There is no such thing as a perfect lesson, but we should reflect on our lessons and strive to improve them. We should ask our colleagues for advice, and listen to those who have gained many years of experience in the profession. We should keep ourselves up to date on the latest technology, skills, training, though professional development. We should seek out opportunities to hear from experts in the field. As educators we should do all this so that we do not become stagnant, set in our ways, because when we do this, we risk losing connections with our students making learning more difficult for everyone involved. In my own practice, this has included seeking advice from my teacher mentor and faculty mentor. I have also sought advice/ opinions from other teacher candidates. They may have an idea that never crossed my mind, or be able to relate to me and therefore give me advice that is more specific to my situation. In the future I will seek out advice from experienced teachers and principles, as well as any professional development opportunities I can access.
8. Educators contribute to the profession.
   1. Teaching is all about community. We create a community within our classes where we encourage students to collaborate, share, and improve upon their ideas. It would be hypocritical if we did not do the same with our colleagues. As educators we want to see people succeed, this includes our colleagues. Contributing to the profession may be as simple as taking a new young teacher under your wing, giving them advice and guidance as they learn how to teach. It may be taking on a teacher candidate, helping them to find themselves as a teacher and professional. We should also want to share our own ideas, being young and new educators, we have different views to share that provide a unique and fresh perspective about the profession. For me I want to contribute to the profession by mentoring teachers. This of course will have to wait until I have enough experience to be able to give them meaningful advice, but it is something I would like to do nonetheless. I want to attend professional development conferences and share my ideas as well as listen to others ideas about teaching. Creating a giant community amongst educators where everyone is contributing should help to keep our education system from becoming stagnant, which would benefit our students as they won’t be waiting for us to catch up with the times.
9. Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of ways of knowing and being, histories, and cultures of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis.
   1. This Standard is here to remind us that as educators we can be role models for how to reconcile. This would include; being respectful to Canadian indigenous culture and people, authentically engaging in Indigenous culture and practices, and being mindful of the past. By showing students we believe in and are committed to reconciliation, they will be inspired to follow us and carry reconciliation with them as they become members of society. For myself I try to incorporate authentic indigenous experiences in learning. I have done talking circles, hands on learning experiences, and plan to bring more natural indigenous knowledge into lessons. I believe these experiences need to be authentic and not just throw away one liners for us to truly make a difference, and to truly show the right form of compassion and respect towards indigenous culture.

I also really appreciated the feedback after the lesson you observed. I agree with your comment that you can’t predict everything and that every lesson we teach, we learn from. I think this is important for me to remember, no lesson will be perfect but I can always try to learn from each lesson. I tell my students that it’s ok to make mistakes, or miss judge things as long as they learn something, I guess I should probably follow that too! Lastly, while I have lots to work on and learn during the next week, I  want to try and focus on working with Kevin on classroom management. I realized this week that I am very inexperienced with this. I need advice and knowledge, which I will seek out from Kevin as well as other teachers around the school. The more information I can gather, the better prepared I will be should something arise (hopefully). Overall, the first two weeks at Westsyde were fun, the kids were great, the staff are awesome, and I am finding myself as a teacher. I look forward to what week three has in store.