Lethbridge 0 Professional Semester III Final Report Faculty of Education Field Experiences Fall ___ Spring 7 Semester, 2016 (Please check appropriate semester) ‘Professional Semester Tis a Tve-course equivalent Inlegraled semester Indudng halfime leaching end professional study in curriculum design, leadership, advanced methods, and reflective practice. Intern Teachers are assigned full time to schools for the semester during which they assume responsibilty for approximately one-half of the teaching day. PS Ill professional study is designed to complement and enhance the intemship. The professional study components may occur on or off-campus and are coordinated by the Faculty Mentors in Collaboration with Intern Teachers and school personnel Place a checkmark ¥ in front of the course in which you are registered Education 4571 Elementary Educat Y_ Education 4572- Secondary Internship Education 4573- Special Focus Internship Education 4574— Fine Arts Internship - Art or Drama Education 4575- Fine Arts Internship - Music Intern Teacher Amy Stiff Grade Level(s) Sovial Studies 20-1 Legal Studies 30 School John G. Diefenbaker Administrator Mike Bester Lisa Hannay Teacher Mentors Gordon VonMeuhidorfer! Faculty Mentor Patrick Glashan Jason Swanton Intern Teacher's Descriptive Report: During my practicum at John G. Diefenbaker, | feel that | have grown exponentially as a teacher. Having my own classroom for almost the entirety of a semester has allowed me to develop meaningful relationships with students and to gain a deeper understanding of planning, assessing and differentiating for the needs of individual leamers. This semester, | taught Social Studies 20-1 to a group of enthusiastic students who were eager to learn. | loved having the opportunity to see these students using critical thinking skills, engaging in educated debate and connecting with the material. | also taught Legal Studies 30 to a much more diverse group of students, with class scores ranging from 15% to 95%. This class gave me the opportunity to expand my differentiation techniques and pushed me to think critically about the planning of my lessons ~The first goal that | aimed to achieve through my professional growth plan during this practicum was to improve my classroom management skills. | feel that | have worked hard to complete this goal, and that | will continue to work on this goal throughout the years as | gain more experience in a variety of different classrooms. My Legal Studies class proved to be a challenge for me in terms of classroom management. There were many reluctant and disengaged learners in this class who gave me ample opportunities to try a variety of different management techniques. With this class | learned the importance of being friendly yet firm and at which times to apply Page tof 8PS Ill Final Report for Amy Stiff 001160621 Intern Teacher's Descriptive Report (Continued) which approach. | feel that the benefit of being a young teacher in a high school setting is that it gives an opportunity to readily relate to students. | used this to my advantage to earn respect and cooperation from students, but also learned that this can lead to students taking advantage of that kindness. This is where | have learned the balance between firm and friendly and how using the balance effectively can contribute to a classroom where all variety of different learners are able to succeed in a calm and effective learning environment. My second goal for professional growth was to incorporate technology into the classroom. | chose this goal because | taught both Social Studies and Legal Studies in a computer lab. This gave me an opportunity to encourage students to use higher level thinking through a variety of different computer programs. The primary technology that I used was Desire2Learn, which allowed students to access and submit assignments, receive continuous feedback, engage in discussions, take quizzes and more. | have really enjoyed using D2L because it allows for continuous feedback between students and teacher, as well as makes students more responsible for their own learning, | also used other technologies such as Poll Everywhere, Google Docs, and Google forms. | liked using these programs to encourage collaborative, interactive assignments and discussions among students. | also used a program called Net Share, which allowed me to monitor student computer use as well as share my screen and communicate with students as a class or individually. This program became of particular use because | found that a computer lab adds a high level of distraction for the students. | found that many students began to abuse the privilege of computer access and being able to control or block students from specific programs or sites was very useful in terms of classroom management. Overall | learned a lot more about the educational uses of technology in the classroom than | knew before my practicum at Diefenbaker. Throughout the semester, | have had many opportunities to engage with the larger learning community at Diefenbaker and to establish a professional learning community. My mentor teachers were helpful throughout my practicum, and provided me with class materials as well as constructive feedback. They provided support that helped me to come up with effective classroom management techniques and techniques to achieve critical thinking and high level thought processing and expression. | was also able to make a connection with several other teachers in the Humanities department, who allowed me to bounce ideas off of them and helped me to develop. During my time at Diefenbaker, | was able to participate in many Professional learning days, which were very helpful and covered a variety of topics such as incorporation of technology, Iris, inclusive education, and gender guidelines such as Bill 10. Furthermore, | built community within my classroom and through extracurricular activities. | became involved with the badminton team, model parliament, law day and participated in the Ride of the Chiefs Bike-a-thon. | feel that these experiences helped me to connect with students on a personal level and to establish a deeper relationship with them. I would have to say that getting to know the students was my absolute favorite part of my practicum experience at Diefenbaker. Being able to share in academic as well as personal successes with them has been an extremely rewarding experience that | won't soon forget. Page 2018PS Il Final Repor for Amy Stif 091160521 Intern Teacher's Descriptive Report (Continued) Additionally, | was also able to invite the outside community into the school. In my Legal Studies 30 class, | had a Probation Officer as well as the School Resource Officer come speak to the class and | felt that the students were very engaged and gained a great deal of information that will be relevant to their future career aspirations. In Social Studies, my class had the opportunity to participate in a program called Valour Canada at the Military Museums, where they researched and debated contemporary issues in the Middle East with students from another school. | especially appreciate being able to take part in these experiences because it has shown me the importance of providing opportunities for students to get out and explore the community in order to develop an evolved understanding of the world around them. | will definitely continue to take students on field trips in my future teaching career. Overall, my experience at John G. Diefenbaker high school was an unforgettable learning experience. At the outset of my practicum, | felt that | knew a lot about building effective lesson plans and different techniques for differentiating learning. However, | learned throughout my time at Diefenbaker how to bring those skills to life in an actual classroom setting. There is nothing as valuable as the opportunity to spend time with real students in real classrooms in order to develop competencies and confidence as an educator and | am very thankful for having had that opportunity. May 12 20 Page 30f8PS II Final Report for Amy Suit 001160621 ‘School Administrator Comments: | had the opportunity to observe Ms. Stiff on May 12, 2016. On this particular lesson with a Social Studies 20-1 class she was introducing some new terms. Ms. Stiff began the class with a review of the previous day's lesson. Reviewing is important as it connects concepts and tasks and supports students with scaffolding skills and ideas. Ms. Stiff introduced the day's task and had the outline of the class activities on the board. There was a seamless use of technology and a blended approach to the class as all the resources, notes, and links were on the D2L shell. This particular class had the students working in groups on a SEE-I poster. As the task proceeded, Ms. Stiff circulated and supported individual students and groups. Ms. Stiff has already developed a presence with her students and the students were largely on task and engaged with the creation of the poster. | have suggested that Ms. Stiff consider the components of High School Redesign, as well as personalization of learning when designing tasks and learning opportunities for students. | would also suggest Ms. Stiff include assessment as part of the teaching and learning cycle, and ensure that assessment is part of what drives what is taught next, and what students need as next steps in learning and showing their learning Ms. Stiff created a very solid lesson plan that clearly demonstrated she has reviewed and works with the Program of Studies. Ms. Stiff does regularly post the learning outcomes for the students and as she grows as a teacher will appreciate supporting students as they create their own evidence of learning to show what they have learned, by building these opportunities into her lesson plans. Ms, Stiff attended our Professional Development days, department meetings, Parent-Teacher conferences and various field trips hosted by the Social Studies department. Page 4 ofPS Ill Final Report for Amy Sti# 001160621 Teacher Mentor Comments (Jason Swanton): During her field experience at John G. Diefenbaker High School Amy taught Social Studies 20-1. Amy has a refined and professional pedagogical technique. Using a variety of engagement strategies, including simulations, group discussions, think-pair- share and others, she effectively maintains student interest on task. Amy has extensive knowledge of social studies. During a recent class project on Ultranationalism, Amy was able to provide background information, research pathfinders and detailed feedback for many diverse projects, most of which were fantastically well prepared thanks to her involvement. Moreover Amy understands that Social Studies is a rich and constantly evolving discipline and is constantly updating and refining her teaching materials to reflect a rapidly changing global reality. ‘Amy creates learning environments in which students feel physically, psychologically, socially and culturally secure. As an energetic and engaging educator, ‘Amy has had a few classroom management issues. When problems do occur, she is able to use her strong relationships with her students and one-on-one coaching to refocus students on task and avoid heavily punitive measures. Amy is able to select from a variety of teaching strategies, keeping in mind the complexity of our students’ demographics, subject area content and curricular objectives in order to meet the learning needs of individuals and groups of students. Amy effectively engages students in active inquiry and critical thinking using class discussion and student centered activities. By infusing technology into her instruction as a hook for student interest, she provides multiple entry points to learning tasks. Amy fully embraced her role as a professional educator, attending parent- teacher interviews as well as school and off-site professional development. She Participated in planning and leading students in an off-site activity where her students Participated in a inter-school forum on international affairs. In summary, Amy has had an extremely successful field experience and | highly recommend that she receive full academic credit. Amy will undoubtedly be an asset to the teaching profession. Disposition: Pass ct A Mer 17 20/6 Herter Teagher Siature 7 Date Page Sof 8PS III Final Report for Amy Sif 001160621 ‘Teacher Mentor Comments (Gordon VonMeuhidorfer): Amy started teaching my Legal Studies 30 class at the start of the second semester. Despite having very little background in Legal Studies, Amy was keen and enthusiastic in embracing the opportunity to teach this course. From the outset, Amy demonstrated competence, confidence and keen organizational ability. Initially, Amy impressed with her lesson and unit planning. It was evident that she had reviewed the Program of Studies, and had given a great deal of thought to organizing the course in a well-planned and systematized manner. While she did have access to a general course material and resources, she employed a creative approach in her lesson planning and structured her learning activities to meet the needs of a very diverse group of students. She provoked students to engage in a higher level of thinking by actively using discussion boards on D2L, having effective classroom discussions, as well as engaging in many creative projects where students were encouraged to share their knowledge with each other. | was particularly impressed, for example, with Amy's conduct of a mock trial for the Criminal Law module, Amy employed innovative and inclusive techniques to ensure that a maximum number of students could participate in a meaningful way. She demonstrated flexibility and utilized differentiated instructional techniques to meet the needs of her students at an individualized level. In terms of learning activities, Amy was always clear and precise in communicating her instructions and expectations for the students. She was firm in her level of expectation, but demonstrated flexibility when it came to issues such as due dates and attendance for students who were facing other challenges. Amy was quick to employ the “Circle of Success’ model of our school’s academic philosophy by utilizing learning enhancements such as Friday School, morning tutorials, and Flex-time. Amy also utilized instructional delivery that was wide-ranging and diverse. She was thoughtful in her approach toward ensuring that students were engaged in any given activity, and provided alternative activities when appropriate. Amy was very effective, for instance, in bringing in guest speakers to enhance student interest and engage the learner, and she helped organize and participated in a number of field trips with the students. In terms of assessment, Amy's approach was broad and effective. She employed formative assessment by providing feedback to students on a regular basis. She utilized assessment rubrics effectively, and gauged student progress by using regular summative testing methods such as quizzes and module exams. She continually made her students aware of any work they were missing, and gave them opportunities to succeed in the course. Amy's classroom management was effective and efficient. For Legal Studies, she did have somewhat of a challenging class in terms of student attendance and reluctant learners. She increased her level of confidence over the course of the semester in dealing with behavior issues, and in particular in dealing with talking, texting, and distracted students. This is an area in which she will continue to grow to even more effectively manage distracted behavior demonstrated by reluctant learners. Amy was very effective in speaking to students at the individual level and establishing relationships so that behavior issues were minimized Page bofPS Ill Final Repor for Amy Sti 00116062: Teacher Mentor Comments Continued (Gordon VonMeuhidorfer): In terms of her involvement in school life beyond the classroom, Amy's effort was stellar. She became involved in a variety of clubs and activities, such as Model Parliament, Law Day, the Badminton Team, and participated in our first annual Bike-a- thon. At all times, Amy demonstrated a high level of collegiality with teachers on staff, and established herself as a collaborative partner. It was a pleasure and privilege to participate as a Teacher Mentor for Amy's PSIII placement. She has demonstrated on a continued basis that she has the makings of an effective, engaging, and inspiring teacher who has her students’ achievement and interests foremost in mind. Disposition: Pass Ah es 12 a0 Metter Teather Signaiyre Page 7of 8PS Il Final Repor for Amy Stitt This page Is to be attached to the Intern Teacher's Report. Faculty Mentor Comments: ‘Amy Stiff has done very well in her PS Ill internship at John G. Diefenbaker High Schoo! in Calgary. She ‘was assigned Social Studies 20-1 and Legal Studies (a senior high elective course) and taught both subjects effectively. Her lessons are invariably well planned and purposeful. In my observations, | noted that Amys classes were interesting and involved a high degree of student participation and engagement. One of her greatest strengths is instructional planning. Her lessons are well paced and carefully crafted with clear, measurable goals. Amy is calm in front of her students and projects confidence and mastery of the subject material she is teaching. Her classroom management skills are commendable, especially na ‘young person at the beginning of her career. She uses technology to good advantage but also does a fine Job of individualizing instruction and maintaining the human touch with her students. She has a good ‘Sense of humour which is an invaluable asset in dealing with teenagers. It should be noted that Amy's classes — especially the Legal Studies course ~ include students with a wide range of intellectual abilties ‘and motivation. Her students include academic “high-rollers” in the International Baccalaureate program in ‘addition to far less motivated individuals and those with limited fluency in English. With this type of ciass, lesson presentation and classroom management can be quite daunting but Amy, with the support and. advice of her mentor teachers, handled everything smoothly. She always seemed to strike a healthy balance between an orderly learning environment and a classfoom “culture” that encouraged students’ creativity and participation. Early in the internship, Amy and her mentor teachers, Gordon Von Muehidorfer and Jason Swanton, struck up a healthy and productive relationship, one marked by mutual respect and trust. Amy has proven to be a “quick study’ and is always ready to learn more about both the curriculum and her students. Her steadfast approach and problem-solving ability are traits that should serve Amy well throughout her teaching career regardless of school or grade level. It should also be noted that Amy has a strong ‘background in athletics and found time to volunteer her services as a coach at the school, She is a reflective person with a real concem for others and an appreciation that today's classroom can be quite diverse and challenging. As part of her internship, Amy prepared a Professional Growth Plan which indicates her thoughtfulness and determination to become an exemplary teacher. She also found time to ‘work on a Collaborative Inquiry Project the results of which are described at some length in her e-portfolio. In summary, Amy Stiff has the potential to be an outstanding teacher. She is reliable, good-natured, diligent and highly organized. She would offer a great deal to any school fortunate enough to employ her. She is a friendly young woman with a calm demeanor in the classroom and a warm, supportive attitude that students ~ as well as their parents — appreciate and to which they respond positively. If you need further information about Amy and her suitability for the teaching profession, please contact me at palashan@outlook.com or call me at (403) 320-9676, | have read the complete Final Report and certify that the assigned grade is PASS, Patrick Glashan, PhO 17 May 2016 Faculty Mentor Signature Date Page Sof 5