Goal 

In my next practicum I want to focus on the ways in which I can support my students in self-monitoring their learning. I am interested in the different ways that I can take up co-constructing learning intentions/expectations with my students, and how I can do this in a developmentally appropriate manner (A 3).

Strategy

Helping students to self-monitor their learning can be a complex task, so I want to do this by trying to find ways to get students to self-reflect on the learning and work that they have done. I am sure that my mentor teacher will be a huge help to me in developing self-assessment and co-construction of learning intentions that are meaningful and developmentally appropriate. 

Growth

Something that really helped students to self-monitor and assess their learning was the use of smiley faces. Grade one students have an understanding of what this means, and constant use of the smiley faces to assess their understanding of their learning was super helpful. Students also benefitted from the use of exemplars, and brainstorming together what made a piece of work 'good.' 

Goal 

I want to work on my ability to constantly use formative assessment techniques, and use these to inform my teaching as it is happening. Coming up with a list of strategies to use will help me to keep tabs on what my students are understanding (A 1). 

Strategy

In order to achieve my goal I will work with my Mentor Teacher to see what formative assessment strategies she uses, has used, and finds the most effective. I will collaborate with my MT to develop strategies that work best for us and our students. 

Growth

I feel as though I have learned a lot about formative assessment techniques from my university classes, so I was excited to try some of them out in my practicum classroom. My biggest takeaway from using formative assessment in the classroom is the importance of getting to know what works for a specific group of students. The class that I was in needed more support in terms of reading and writing, so getting them to do exit slips was quite tricky at times. I found it to be way better to use physical assessment tools like holding up fingers, moving to different parts of the room, or thumbs up/middle/down. 

Future Goal

In my next practicum I want to focus on the ways in which I can support my students in self-monitoring their learning. I am interested in the different ways that I can take up co-constructing learning intentions/expectations with my students, and how I can do this in a developmentally appropriate manner (A 3).

Goal 

Going in to the Winter 2023 semester, I want to create a variety of assessment tools that are aligned with curricular outcomes and have a clear set of criteria. 

Strategy

In order to achieve this goal I am going work with my Mentor Teacher to get an understanding of how she creates assessment tools and criteria. I want to work to create assessment tools that are clear and aligned with the curriculum, and that my field work students can use. I will know I have achieved my goal when I have accumulated at least five quality assessment tools. 

Growth

This semester I was able to learn from my Mentor Teacher about how she creates assessment tools. Taking the Effective Assessment course also helped me a lot, and showed me how to go about creating assessments. I got to practice creating assessment tools that were aligned with curricular outcomes, and I will continue to grow my collection of quality assessment tools. 

Goal 

My goal for the Fall 2022 semester is to gain a better understanding of how teachers communicate assessment data with parents. I would also like to learn more about what the process of writing report cards entails. 

Strategy

To achieve this goal I will ask my mentor teacher if I can attend parent teacher interviews in order to see how they interact with parents and relay information regarding assessment. I will also ask my teacher how they go about writing report cards and I can practice writing a few. 

Growth

I did not attend any parent teacher conferences last semester because my MT was a gym specialist and did not have any! My MT did run me through how he writes report card blurbs for his students, and this is something I am interested in learning more about in my time as a teacher candidate!

Goal 

For the upcoming Winter semester, I hope to work on my ability to properly assess my students. I have not yet observed how my mentor teacher assesses his students but I will make an effort to learn how he goes about this.   

Strategy

I intend to achieve my goal by planning a time to meet with my mentor teacher to discuss how he assesses the students in his gym class. After I have met with him, I will choose three students to assess over a certain period of time and will use my mentor teacher's strategies.

Growth

In the Winter semester I was able to gain a better understanding of how my mentor teacher assesses his students. I was able to track and assess multiple students throughout the semester and work 1:1 to help them gain more confidence.