PSIII TPGP U of L Faculty of Education Fall 2013 James Loach

GOAL 1 Continue to develop my awareness in a classroom setting and timely and appropriate responses to misbehaviour and disruptions Rationale Based on my PSI and PSII experience and in order to avoid management concerns, and to keep my classroom as safe as possible, I need to always be aware of what is happening in my classroom. I need to expand my focus beyond the small group that I may be working with and be aware of the entire class. Additionally, responses to student misbehaviour and safety concerns need to be prompt and consistent in order to establish a safe and just classroom environment. Strategies 1. When dealing with small groups or individual students, position myself strategically so that I can observe the remainder of my class effectively. 2. Identify clear personal policies prior to teaching for the issues which I may encounter in the classroom, and set clear reactions to them. 3. Employ these reactions consistently in my classroom and continue to refine my personal policies regarding disruptions and behavioural concerns. 4. Make the class aware of expectations to minimize the disturbances experienced day-today by always setting clear behaviour expectations in lesson introductions, as well as building a foundation of expectations from the beginning of the practicum/semester. 5. Ask my MT and / or school administration for specific feedback on my awareness of the class beyond what was my specific focus in the instance. Indicators of Success 1. I always know what is going on in my classroom and can identify what individuals are doing regardless of my position in the class. 2. I respond consistently to misbehaviours and disruptions and my students are never surprised by these responses as they are consistent, fair and known to the class. 3. The frequency of small misbehaviours and disturbances decreases as my awareness improves. 4. Anedocial evidence of improvement demonstrated through improved MT and / or school adminstrator comments. Outcomes 1. My classroom will be a safer and more productive environment thereby promoting student success and well being. 2. Students are aware of classroom expectations as well as their consequences and feel comfortable in the environment. 3. I will feel more in-charge of my classroom.

Connections This goal is an integral part of classroom management. Successful classroom management in PSIII will not only lead to a successful internship, but will be of significant benefit throughout my career. Timeline 1. PSIII Practicum Reflections Throughout my internship effective monitoring has become much more intuitive. During the beginning of the internship I was conscious of my positioning in the classroom and worked to ensure that I was scanning the entire classroom. Actions in the class such as eye contact and proximity have helped reduce management issues. By breaking up instruction in order to move around the classroom students have been forced to remain engaged and on-task. Personal policies enacted with more dynamic classes such as moving students and implementing a seating plan worked well to reinforce expectations of student behaviour. Throughout my internship experience I have refined a management plan to use in my own classroom moving forward in my profession. Overall I feel that I have developed this skill significantly in my internship but moving forward these actions are useful to continue to implement and reflect on.

GOAL 2 Refine Learner Objectives and have these clearly stated and available for students Rationale Feedback from my PSII practicum noted that my learner objectives were sometimes unclear and often misdirected. In order to focus both lesson content and student attention effectively, learner objectives need to be well written and clearly defined for both myself and students. Strategies 1. Identify learner outcomes for each lesson which are focused and descriptive. 2. Refer to learner outcomes when planning each instructional activity in order to ensure that the learner outcome is being met. 3. State learner outcomes in student friendly language at the beginning of each lesson and have students record these objectives. 4. Review relevant literature to clarify how to produce learner objectives and refine my own view of them.

Indicators of Success 1. Both students and I are able to clearly state learner objectives and how they were met at the end of a learning activity. 2. Students have learner objectives clearly visible in their notes to refer back to and are able to respond to these objectives when prompted at the end of a lesson or on an assessment piece. 3. The learner outcomes are clearly visible in the lesson plan and can easily be linked to the learner activities by peers, mentors and administration. Outcomes 1. Learner activities will be better constructed and more focused in order to better deliver content to students. 2. Students demonstrate skills and knowledge directly related to the learner objectives. 3. All content presented in classes has strong links to curriculum and assessment. Connection Creating strong learning outcomes directly relates to multiple KSAs and allows me to demonstrate a strong understanding of curriculum. Timeline PSIII practicum. Reflections This was a goal I was very aware of throughout my internship. I made it a habit to refer to literature when planning lessons and made a conscious habit of stating learning objectives to students at the beginning of each lesson. Objectives were refined based on feedback from my PSII practicum in order to make students aware of how they would be applying information learned in class. Basing learner objectives to assessment pieces is something I was unable to do during my internship. Having assessment pieces built and refined after some more experience will allow me more time to review them prior to instruction in order to improve on learner objectives.

GOAL 3 Prioritize assessment by having assessment tools prepared before learner activities relevant to the assessment are administered Rationale

Student success and confidence relies heavily on appropriate assessment tools and feedback. Ideally, assessment will be designed prior to content instruction in order to ensure the skills and proper application of knowledge is given to the students through the lesson content. In previous practicums I sometimes found myself scrambling to make up an assessment, and sometimes struggled to connect it to already taught content. Strategies 1) Identify assessment resources while unit planning. 2) Prioritize assessment when managing planning time. Ideally, unit plans and unit assessment plans will have assessment pieces included. Indicators of Success 1) Assessment pieces are designed based on curriculum, and lessons are ideally based on assessment, and double checked for accurate ties to curriculum. 2) Complete assessment pieces are available to guide lesson planning as well as student preparation for specific skills required in the assessment piece. Outcomes 1) Students become more efficient with assessment in terms of their time and required effort. 2) Students success, both personally and academically, rises as specific skills and knowledge directly related to assessment, rather than generally, is imparted. 3) Lessons are planned with the end in mind, with learning objectives strongly linked to future assessment pieces, and strongly to curriculum. Connection Sufficient planning time in PSIII allows for a focus on gathering assessment pieces and designing assessment pieces relevant to the context and learner objectives. Timeline PSIII practicum Reflections I saw moderate success with this goal throughout my internship. Initially, I struggled to have assessment pieces completed before instruction as I was still going through the process of gathering assessment resources before compiling quizzes and review material. Towards the end of the first unit I taught I began to concentrate more on this goal and had assessment pieces developed to review prior to instruction. This allowed me to ensure required vocabulary was

discussed in class and allowed me to address the context of quiz questions, such as reviewing how to read graphs. Moving forward, I would like to begin blueprinting more of my assessment pieces to guarantee strong links to curriculum and to ensure curricular outcomes were being assessed multiple times, and preferably in multiple formats.

GOAL 4 Engage in regular communication with parents regarding assessment, classroom activities and school functions Rationale Increased parental involvement helps to hold students accountable and also keeps parents feeling informed and empowered about their childs education. A foundation of positive communication helps minimize conflict and maximize parental support in the community. Strategies 1) Make contact with parents early on in the school semester (once school email is available). 2) Set up Remind101 and encourage both parental and student use of the system. 3) Make contact with parents regarding their childs positive contributions to the classroom whenever possible. Indicators of Success 1) Remind101 is used regularly by me, and a significant number of parents and students are subscribed to the service. 2) Parental emails begin within the first few weeks of school, and phone calls home are made occasionally, with emphasis on students positive contributions. Outcomes 1) Parents feel informed about their childs education and what is happening within the classroom. 2) Parental support is increased as communication is established and maintained. 3) Students are held more accountable in class as there is encouragement from home and from school. Connection This is the first opportunity for me to really establish contact with parents, and it is in an environment which is supportive. Timeline

PSIII Practicum Reflections Parental feedback regarding use of Remind101 and a class resource webpage and blog was very positive. Parents who signed up with Remind101 found it extremely useful and it became a great tool to refer parents to when they became frustrated with lack of information from their child and/or the teacher regarding classroom events. Setting up a class resource webpage and blog also made a difference for myself and students as it made it easy for them to access resources for use on digital devices, and gave them no excuses for not being able to prepare for quizzes. This also helped cut down on teacher workload as it became the students responsibility to print new copies of misplaced assignments and ensured these were accessible in the case of longer term illnesses. Additionally, I made the effort to call parents the week before report card grades were to be submitted in order to inform them of missing student work or poor student grades while students still had time to submit work and make up grades. Parental response to this was overwhelmingly positive, with most stating that they appreciated the information. I will likely continue implementing all three of these strategies because of the ease and results of their implementation.