5. Educators implement effective practices in areas of classroom management, planning, instruction, assessment, evaluation and reporting.
Educators have the knowledge and skills to facilitate learning for all students and know when to seek additional support for their practice. Educators thoughtfully consider all aspects of teaching, from planning through reporting, and understand the relationships among them. Educators employ a variety of instructional and assessment strategies.
The first evidence piece for this standard is the first of four Science lessons for a grade 7 class.
In planning for this lesson, one of the first things I learned was the importance of pre-assessment. The grade 7 curriculum requires students to learn that elements and compounds are pure substances. After consulting with their current and previous teacher, however, it became apparent that before I could teach the content in the curriculum the students needed to learn the concept of matter and its properties. Had I not taken the time to establish the students’ knowledge and skills, I would have taught a lesson the class was not ready for.
After I had established the students’ prior knowledge, I decided I wanted my lessons to include as much hands-on learning as possible so this evidence piece has an activity in which students took turns to observe different samples of matter and recorded their observations. During the planning stage, I invested a lot of time thinking about strategies to avoid potential classroom management problems such as students getting up and walking around to get a different sample when they were done observing the first one, samples getting spilled, samples collecting at somebody’s desk because they were taking too long to record their observations, etc.
Planning and teaching this Science lesson has had a tremendous impact in my learning, as it has led me to understand the importance of assessing students’ skills and abilities not only after, but also before teaching any content. We should never make assumptions about this. To better understand students’ needs when preparing an activity or a lesson, educators must take the time to determine “where” to start so that the lesson or activity is appropriate for those needs and skills.
As a result of this experience I have also realized that planning lessons thoroughly, trying to foresee and minimize potential classroom management problems contributes significantly to the success of the lesson. After many days of thinking about how to complete the matter observation activity, I found a way to ensure all students had the opportunity to observe all the samples with minimal distraction and no spills or accidents. Students seemed to enjoy this activity greatly and were very engaged, but without thorough planning and pondering about possible classroom management issues it could have quickly turned into chaos.
This experience has had a deep impact in my teaching approach in relation to TRB 5 because it has shown me that effective classroom management requires ample planning and reflecting on all aspects of the learning experience, investing the time to evaluate effective strategies to keep students on task and minimize disruptions. Standard 5 states “educators implement effective practices in areas of classroom management…” As I grow as an educator, I will continue to learn and implement effective classroom management methods that will assist me in providing students with positive and enriching learning experiences.
Standard 5 also requires educators to implement effective assessment strategies. As a teacher it is my responsibility to ensure the lessons and activities taught fit the needs and skills of the students. Therefore, I will aspire to implement pre- and post-assessment practices in my teaching, to assist me in determining the strengths and stretches of my students to ensure my lessons are planned accordingly.
The second evidence piece for this standard is a Science Unit Plan for a grade 4 class, a final assessment sample and the corresponding assessment criteria
The B.C. science curriculum requires students in grade 4 to learn about the changes caused by Earth’s axis, rotation and orbit and the effects of the relative positions of the sun, moon and Earth including local First Peoples perspectives.
In planning this lesson I strove to include all learning styles so I incorporated videos, learning through movement by representing the motions of the Earth, sun and moon and lots of discussion with partners and as a group. Throughout the unit students progressively completed a workbook that was to be used as a reference to create their final assessment tool: a poster where they would show everything they had learned. This grade 4 class has a wide range of skill levels so all lessons included accommodations; for example, illustrations were done on the board as a group and used as a reference prior to students having to do this independently in their workbooks.
I relation to Standard 5, I learned by biggest lesson while the students were working on the final assessment. I was very confident and happy with my planning because I had incorporated many learning styles. Students understood the expectation as they had been given a self-assessment rubric which had been explained in class. In addition, they could decide how to organize the content, how much to draw or write, etc. So I felt I was giving all students an opportunity to show what they had learned in a way that suited their abilities. There was something I had not considered, however. What about students that have missed too many classes or that for some other reason are not able to create the final poster? My sponsor teacher was very supportive during my entire practice, so I felt very comfortable seeking her advice. She offered a very practical and effective solution for my assessment dilemma: do it orally.
When given the opportunity to casually converse about what they had learned rather than having to draw, write and meet a deadline some students were able to show me what they had learned during these five lessons. As a result of this experience, I learned that as teachers we may plan lessons thoroughly, but we might still encounter unexpected situations that require us to think outside the box and come up with more effective assessment practices.
This evidence is a solid example to support TRB 5, because as a future educator I implemented a number of instructional and assessment strategies to facilitate learning to a variety of learning styles. In addition, even though I did fail to consider one particular scenario, I was able to find an effective assessment solution by seeking the support of a more experienced educator.
This experience has had a deep impact in my teaching approach in relation to TRB 5 because it has shown me that as educators we must not only have “he knowledge and skills to facilitate learning for all students,” but also the ability to recognize “when to seek additional support for [our] practice,” because ultimately teaching is not about feeling confident and good as a teacher, but about providing the best possible learning experience for all our students. Therefore, as a future educator I will continue to learn effective ways to facilitate learning, striving to include all learning styles and skill levels, remembering that there will be times when I will need the support of my colleagues.