8 UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY © WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS IN EDUCATION i EDUC 465: FIELD EXPERIENCE If PARTNER TEACHER NARRATIVE ASSESSMENT si ‘INDIVIDUAL/GROUP LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS Student Teacher: Kim Whitmore ID#: 267492 School: Colonel Walker School Field Instructor: Kevin Tonak NOTE: This is not a letter of reference and will not be distributed by the WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION to potential employers, however potential employers may ask for this assessment from the student directly. “The purpose of this four-week field experience isto focus on the complex dimensions of individual/group learning in classrooms. The student's Field Experience Dossier and her/his participation in the field placement should provide evidence of an emerging ability to act thoughtfully in the classroom and within the school community, and a preliminary understanding of learners and of the enactment of curriculum and pedagogical relationships within the classroom environment. The narrative assessment should address the student teacher's growth in their initial ability to plan for, implement and assess learning, It should also comment on the student teacher's growth in relation tothe relevant Teaching Quality Standard, including, the student's own goal setting and personal/professional assessment throughout field experience. The following report on the students ‘work should be organized in relation tothe questions: Whereis the work particularly strong? What could the student do to further her/his ‘professional growth and development? You may also want to consider the elements assessed as part ofthe midterm assessment. Kim has developed a strong and confident teacher presence throughout her time with me. She has demonstrated a strong understanding of the term “career-long learning”. She consistently applies feedback given to her by me, and is always Eeyrhing for ways she can improve in her practice. 5 ‘Kim has shown immense improvement in her classroom management strategies. She shows a strong, yet caring, command of the classroom through use of these strategies. With a complex learning environment, this was a difficult task for Kim. She exceeded expectations through immediate application of feedback each and every day. Kim has shown a great desire to provide students with the accommodations that they need to be successful within our diverse classroom. She attends to student needs within her lessons and attempts to accommodate for learners who require support. On her midterm assessment, one of her goals was to account for student differences/needs. She has achieved this through thoughtful planning and application of feedback from myself. to further her learning. She consistently asks thoughtful questions to understand the workings ited many other classrooms Kim takes every opportur of a school and classroom, attended a school council meeting, went on a field trip, and within the school to get the most out of Yer experience. ‘ pate_Arprit 18 Zo14 Student Teacher's Signature MUNA WAL pate_Nori) (©, 201% ion to the Office of Undergraduate Programs: Non-Credit the student? ed) No Piease remember to also sign and date any additional pages and attach to this for ls Please ensure the student signs the Narrative Assessment. Please provide the original Narrative Assessment to the student teacher and keep a copy for your own records. ‘The student teacher is required to submit a copy of this Narrative Assessment to their Field Experience ructor, as per the instructions of the Field Experience Instructor, in order to receive their final grade. Partner Teacher's Signature, Recommend: ‘Was this assessment reviewed | i8 UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION EDUC 465: FIELD EXPERIENCE Dl FIELD EXPERIENCE INSTRUCTOR NARRATIVE ASSESSMENT INDIVIDUAL/GROUP LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS 7 Student’s Name: Kim Whitmore DH: 00267492 NOTE: This is not a leter of reference and will not be distributed by the WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION to potential ‘employers., however potential employers may ask for this assessment from the student directly. ‘The purpose of ths four-week Field experience isto focus on complex dimensions of individual/group leaming in classrooms. The student's Feld Experience Dossier and his/her participation in the Field placement should provide evidence of an emerging ability to act thoughtfully in the classroom and within the school community, and a preliminary undersanding of learners and of the enactment of curriculum and pedagogical relationships within the classroom environment. ‘The Narrative Assessment should address the student teacher’s growth in thei initial ability to plan for, implement and assess learning. It should also comment on the student teacher's growth in relation to the Teaching Quality Standard, including the student’s own goal setting reflections and personal/professional assessment throughout the field experience. ‘The Field Experience Instructor's assessment should also address the student's overall participation in both collaborative and cohort learning assignments including D2L and the final presentation assignment. The following report on the student's work should be organized in relation to the questions: Where is the work particularly strong? What could the student do to further his/her profesional growth and development? You may also want to considet ‘the course outcomes as a method of organizing the assessment, Ms. Kim Whitmore was placed at Colonel Walker Schoo! for her Field II placement this semester. Colonel Walker is small community school in the Inglewood area, which shares some building space with Piitoyas Family School (for First Nation’s students). The teaching team at Colonel Walker School includes six energetic and creative individuals who, along with the principal practice a highly collaborative approach to improving learning for students. In addition to designing inquiries and learning tasks through which students gain knowledge and develop capacities and skills associated with Alberta Education Programs of Studies, the team also works closely with the Parent Association and extended community to provide program enhancements. Ms. Whitmore graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from U of C in 2007. She went on to do an Event Management Certificate at Mount Royal, then worked as an Event Planner at U of C for 7 years before heading back to school to pursue her Bachelor of Education Degree. Ms. Whitmore developed relationships with all of her students within her short time at Colonel Walker School. She worked very closely with her partner teacher designing learning experiences for her students and receiving open honest feedback to make her practice stronger. They collaborated closely with the other Grade 1/2 teacher and her student teacher to plan everything from units to field trips. As Colonel Walker is a very small school, she was truly welcomed by all teachers and admin staff, all of whom were excited to share resources, advice, and include the pre-service teachers within the school culture. She also had the pleasure of working with the school’s Educational Assistant who was a strong resource within such a diverse classroom. From scribing, to providing small group support and one on one instruction, Ms. Whitmore was always seeking ways to differentiate for the needs of different leamers. Her learning tasks involved helping to motivate students who needed extra support, separating students who cause distractions and carefully planning group work, checking in with students and encouraging them to work in partners or groups if that best suited their learning needs. ‘Ms. Whitmore is the type of pre-service teacher who fully embraced the opportunities to get involved in the total school program. She met many of the students? families throughout her time at Colonel Walker and truly felt like she Field Instructor’s Name: nal Fonte i For Field Experience I: Individual/Group Learning in Classrooms, the recommendation is: i ‘redit on-Credit_ ‘SigataeWas a part of the community. She did this through morning and recess supervision, to morning fitness, attendance at student-led parent teacher conferences, a field trip to the Grain Academy at Stampede Park, staff meetings, a school council meeting, PD day and working with parent volunteers. Ms. Whitmore also had the opportunity to spend time in several other classrooms at the school and visit a classroom at Piitoayis Family School focusing on First Nations perspectives, which shares a building, library. and gym with Colonel Walker School. In one of the classes I observed, with her grade 1 and 2 students, Ms. Whitmore was leading a Hula Hoops lesson as part of the Physical Education curriculum. Students were aware of structures and routines and the lesson plan incorporated a warm-up, a tag game activity, and then individual skill development time concluding with students demonstrating their “skill”. Ms. Whitmore’s students were highly engaged and enthusiastic and she used cues effectively. The objectives and learning intentions of this lesson were clearly met and Ms, Whitmore’s students had a very positive Phys. Ed class being engaged, being active, and having fun! The other class I observed was a lesson in Literacy with grade 2 students who were learning to write rhyming poems. Again, her students were aware of structures and routines including the materials they needed to retrieve (writing folder, literacy book) in order to effectively transition to Literacy. Ms. Whitmore made good use of a document camera, smart board, and flip chart in order to structure and scaffold the learning activity for them. Her students were engaged, contributed to the discussion and lesson, and were productive. There was a wide variety of diversity in what students were able to produce as this class had a wide range of learners within it. ‘Through this Field experience, Ms. Whitmore was able to get to know the curriculum on a much more intimate level, and was able to start designing learning experiences which were relevant to her students and their community. With such a diverse classroom, she found a huge discrepancy in the time that it took students to complete tasks. Because of this, she discovered the importance of planning relevant and engaging sponge activities that challenge early finishers and further their learning. She also leamed the importance of really breaking things down for students and providing explicit instruction in small manageable chunks. Planning for classroom flow and transitions was also a focal point of Ms. Whitmore’s learning during this Field experience. Ms. Whitmore’s attendance at a Professional Development day highlighted the importance of leveraging curricular connections from resources throughout the school’s community. Located in the heart of Inglewood she and her peers ‘were able to tour Fort Calgary and learn about the resources they have available for school groups, visit historical East Village, the new central Calgary Public Library as well as various bridges and rivers all of which they explored together by foot on the staff PD day. The principal then challenged teachers to think of ways they could utilize these resources within the community to create deep, meaningful learning and conceptual understanding for our students. ‘Ms. Whitmore is excited to explore communities where she teaches in the future and seek out these connections. Ms. Whitmore displayed many strengths during this Field Experience. She is confident, mature and works in the manner of an experienced professional. Clearly, she has a strong commitment to life long learning and constant improvement of my teaching practice. She was able to openly receive feedback and apply it to her lessons and learning tasks immediately. Throughout this practicum she also had a strong focus on learning and exploring classroom management techniques. Ms. Whitmore developed a strong, yet caring command of the classroom through the utilization of many techniques. She developed a strong application of scaffolding during this practicum, building on her studenits’ prior knowledge to design applicable learning tasks that build on one another. Like all pre-service teachers, Ms. Whitmore has areas for growth to consider during her longer Field placements. With ‘more experience, she will be come more conscious and aware of time and the timing and the amount of time that it takes for students to complete work or an activity. This will come with more experience and longer Field placements. (One area Ms. Whitmore would specifically like to grow in growth is in the application of interdisciplinary leaning. While she was able to make cross-curricular connections from Phys. Ed to literacy, this is one area she is very interested in expanding as she gains in her deeper understanding and knowledge of the curriculum. Always seeking to ‘grow and improve her practice, she is also looking forward to further exploring her classroom management techniques and developing an elastic type connection between herself and each one of her students, being able to release them to Field Instructor’s Name: _ Ai ee Civnl Torte a For Fiald Experience I: Individua/Group Learning in Classrooms, the recommendation is: Te ei . : THI i Cre Bs i te pub i pone eR celearn independently or pull them back in to the larger class activity or lesson at any time. Ms. Whitmore has had a great start to Field Experience II and has established a very strong foundation from which to build upon. I have no doubt that she will continue to grow and develop further as a teacher when she steps into longer Field Experience placements next year. Ms. Whitmore made a very positive impression during this Field UI placement and she will only grow and continue develop further as a professional during future Field Placements. a Field Instructor’s Name: 4A Bax Signatare ning in Classrooms, the recommendation i