Professional Responsibilities

Goal for Winter Semester 2026: Although the goal for my previous practicum in this competency went well, it is one that I wish to continue working on. This is because I did not have many opportunities to be involved with parents outside of parent teacher interviews. My mentor teacher had notified me when parents/guardians raised concerns via email, phone, etc., but I was not able to be the one to respond as it was not sent/said to me. So, in my next practicum, I hope that I can be further involved with the outside community at all times, not just dedicated days such as parent teacher interviews. 

Relevancy: Being able to efficiently communicate with parents/guardians is extremely important as an educator. I must know what to say, how to suggest proper resources, provide solutions, and more. By working on this goal, when I am graduated and have my own classroom, I will be better equipped to do this all independently. 

How I will accomplish this: As my final practicum is longer and I am taking on more responsibility, I feel that this goal will be achievable. I have already began by continuously talking to my current mentor teacher about how she interacts with parents/guardians. I have created noted based on our discussions. In my future practicum, I will make it immediately known to my mentor teacher that this is a goal and create a more detailed plan of action with them. 

Growth: This goal has gone well! I was definitely more involved with the parents. I unfortunately cannot show any examples of this as each example contains sensitive information. However, my mentor teacher consistently involved me in parent/guardian communication whether it was meetings, phone calls, emails, etc. I had the opportunity to speak durin meetings and ensured what was being said was previously discussed with my mentor teacher. I also had the opportunity to draft and send emails for a wide variety of reasons. As I engaged in more communication with parents, I developed the skills to effectively listen, resolve concerns, and communicate for different reasons such as weekly updates, behaviour concerns, progress reports and more.

Artifact: Due to privacy reasons I am unable to share an artifact for this competency

Goal for winter semester 2024: My goal for this semester is to be able to reflect on previous and future feedback from my mentor teacher in regards to student interactions and create plans of action from this feedback. These plans will alter the way in which I teach and support my mentor teacher in a positive way as well as assist in creating positive habits with my teaching style. My main focus is going to be on classroom management as that is something I still struggle with. For example, students interrupting during lessons or becoming distracted from their work.

How I will accomplish this: I will start by gathering all previous feedback and setting up a quick meeting with my mentor teacher to collaborate on a plan of action in regards to improving my classroom management. We will set little weekly goals to work towards and one final end goal which is to be able to manage the classroom with little to no support.

Reflection of Achievement/Progress:  This goal went extremely well. This was evident significantly through the progression of my lesson plans and how I had taught them. As I taught my first lessons in this semester I had recieved quite a few comments as to how to improve. These comments included things such as speaking louder, using student friendly language (simpler language), and limiting students calling out answers without raising their hand to questions asked. As I taught more lessons I realized that my interactions with the students significantly improved and my mentor teachers comments had reflected this. As my focus was classroom management, I continuously worked with the students and monitored what management styles they responded best to. I had learnt various ways to grab the classes attention through things that they enjoy (mimicking my clapping patterns) and reduced students interrupting lessons by establishing at the beginning that I will not respond to answers that are shouted out.

Artifacts: Below are the links to my lessons that I had taught. First is the connected lessons then later in the semester I taught my assessment lessons. You may see that my mentors teachers comments for areas of improvemen decrease for the second set of lessons as I had taken the feedback from the first three and improved on those areas for the following lessons 

1. 3 Connected Lesson Plans 

2. Assessment Lesson Plans 

Future Goal: My new goal for professional responsibilities is to interact with parents more and be involved in any concerns that they raise. As I am currently in my second year, the focus was more on interactions with the students and other staff members. It was difficult to be involved with the parents as I was only in field placement once a week and was often not present during the time that these interactions would occur. Ultimately, I would like to be able to talk with parents regarding their child's progress and help create solutions to any concerns that they raise.

Growth/Progress: This semester my focus for this competency was to engage with the students and get to know them.  This was far more than successful. Throughout the year I took the time to get to know the students within my field place classroom. I wanted to get to know them as a person rather than just as a student. I asked questions like what their favourite color was, if they have siblings, and so much more. On my final day in field placement I had a final discussion with my mentor teacher. Overall she was very impressed with my connection with every student. She informed me that I asked appropriate questions and put in my utmost effort when it came to getting to know every student.