Assignments

There is one assignment for PROF191. This assignment has several parts that are due at various times through the program. All parts will be included in your Professional Portfolio, which documents your professional development through the B.Ed. program. You will present your Professional Portfolio in the Exit Conference for your PROF191 section on April 30, 2013.

Your portfolio will contain many more elements, including selections from your Education courses and from your Practicum experiences. For an outline of a teacher’s professional portfolio, please see the material at http://www.execulink.com/~osstf11/portfolios.htm (OSSTF Thames Valley).

Professional Reading Assignment [30% of Final Mark]

1. The formative account of key ideas, strengths and weaknesses, messages for teachers, and links to your practicum experiences is intended to help you construct your presentation. This is not graded; your Faculty Liaison will provide comments and suggestions.
2. Your Faculty Liaison will explain how your report will be shared with others.

Professional Philosophy and Learning Plan [Graded Pass/Fail]

The two elements of this assignment are intended to inform each other as you construct and develop them through the program.

Key topics in a Personal Teaching Philosophy include Student, Subject, Learning, Teacher, Community, Environment and Society. Arranging the seven terms in order of personal priority and then explaining the sequence you chose is often a good way to begin constructing a personal philosophy of education.  Your Faculty Liaison will help you get started and will support your continuing development of your statement of personal teaching philosophy.

Teachers are expected to prepare a Professional Learning Plan annually and this activity introduces you to that process. Your Faculty Liaison will offer suggestions on how to begin your personal plan for the program.

Professional Development Assignment (Choose A or B) [70% of Final Mark]

A. Your Faculty Liaison will explain how to plan an Action Research project, obtain ethical approval, and conduct and report on your activities. Additional information will be available in the large-group meeting on November 7. Drawing on your October teaching experiences, you would plan your project in November and collect data during the first 2 weeks of practicum in December. Templates in PowerPoint and Word are available as suggested structures for your report. Examples of Action Research reports by candidates in previous years are available.

B. Suggestions to guide your Analysis of Practicum Experiences. Please select from this list and add your own topics as well. The first installment of this assignment (Jan. 9) should focus on your most important experiences and what you learned from them. The final installment (April 3) should be more analytical and must include references to articles and books that address the experiences of learning to teach. One example with material from previous Queen’s students is Finding a Voice While Learning to Teach (Featherstone, Munby, & Russell, 1997; Falmer Press). This book is available in our library, including online format.

1. A challenge you faced in the classroom, the action you took, and what you learned as a result.
2. Your attempt at a particular teaching strategy: why you tried it, how students responded, and what you would do differently next time.
3. An account of a particularly positive practicum experience: connecting with a particular student, contributing to something extra-curricular or to the school community.
4. A lesson that worked really well, what made it good, and what you learned from it.
5. A memorable discussion with another professional in the school (teacher, coach, principal, etc.): what are the key values or beliefs that guide that individual’s professional practice?
6. Learning from the students you teach: what have you learned from an individual, a small group, or a class that you will add to your perspectives on teaching?
7. What's better about your teaching now? Describe your recent development and growth as a teacher.
8. An important insight or new way of thinking about teaching and learning: what was the stimulus, how has your thinking changed, and what will you do differently as a result?
9. An ethical dilemma during your practicum: describe the situation, any consultations with others, how you tried to resolve the dilemma and what you learned from the experience.
10. Learning with other teacher candidates at your school: how collaboration and conversation with others have informed your perspectives and practices as a teacher.

Your Portfolio is a set of artifacts collected systematically and arranged thoughtfully to show your understandings, growth, and professional accomplishments during the program. It will include the required elements as well as additional materials that you select personally from your work during the 8 months of the B.Ed. program. You will present this portfolio at the Exit Conference on April 30.

Advice from a Graduate of the B.Ed. Program

• My objective was NOT to get a piece of paper, but to LEARN.
• I did not come in search of answers or resources.
• “Doing well” in my courses was the LAST thing I cared about.
• While others were laughing about what a joke all of this “reflection” was compared to the “real” assignments that they were used to in their undergraduate degrees, I actually did it and soon came to see the impact that it had on my students and myself.
• My reflection was not only focussed on my work as a teacher, but also on McArthur’s functionality as a place of education (i.e., the program structure, the courses, the professors).  Where I saw holes, I did what I could to fill them in for myself (i.e., suggesting alternate assignments and creating my own assignments).
• I became aware of the fact that “HOW we teach IS the message” both in and around McArthur, and in and around my associate school and I made sure that the messages I was sending by how I taught were consistent with the messages I was trying to teach.  (If you don’t quite know what this means yet, don’t worry, I didn’t get it at first either—you will know once you start teaching and experience it for the first time.  For the time being, just look at your professors’ teaching styles and techniques and think about whether or not what they are doing is consistent with what they seem to want you to do when you teach.)
• I fell in love with Action Research.  (Just because the assignment is long and at first seemingly complicated does not mean the procedure is; what takes you days and days to write about can be easily employed and understood every day in your classroom.)
• I shared my teaching (i.e., my learning) with my students. I let them in on the game.
• I kept an ongoing list of good ideas that I want to try eventually. There will never be enough time to do/try them all in one year.
• I kept an ongoing list of my core values that I want to be sure I never lose sight of when I am teaching.
• I sought and listened to others’ feedback, especially my students.
• I allowed myself to change.

Joseph Posca, B.Ed., 2001, now teaching in Halton DSB