Professional Learning Tool:

TQS 1: A teacher builds positive and productive relationships with students, parents/guardians, peers
and others in the school and local community to support student learning.

Student teacher practices: Influence on Student learning:

-Making classroom expectations with the -Students understand the expectations towards
students on the first day of practicum. myself as their new teacher, I understand what
they expect from me, and they understand
what they expect from each other.

-I seek to meet the needs of my students in
planning lessons, learning activities, and
assessment. Discussions with my TM and
discussions with the students helps me to know
what they need from me.
-Students are able to gain support in areas they
know they need help in. Students know they
can come to me for help with assignments, and
that I will understand if they are unsure about
anything.

-Getting to know students’ names right away. -Students feel known and valued, therefore are
willing to listen and learn from their teachers.

-Greeting students in the morning and chatting
about personal life.
-I noticed that this practice really helped me to
get to know the students better. I felt a comfort
between us growing as we spent more time
together and the lines of personal
communication grew.

-I observed my student using his device more

-Recess times with my student who is throughout the practicum. Having another
nonverbal. I joined this student for morning adult communicate to this student with his
recesses. It was wonderful getting to know him device appeared to help him learn to use the
better, to learn his likes and dislikes. We were device better. Growth with using the device
able to practice using his communication did not come from just myself, but was a joint
device during recess times. effort with the teachers and educational
assistants in the school.

-Working with students who have complex
needs. We worked through a daily routine
together. Spending some time daily with these
students.
-The daily routine helped my students to know
what was coming next, and to get excited for
the next activity. Most of these students got
together to work on the daily routine with
excitement. I felt as though I got to learn the
likes and dislikes of these students throughout
this practicum.
-Working with support staff throughout each
day. This practicum brought me into working
closely with the Educational assistants in my
school.
-Communicating with the E.A.’s in my
classroom. I made sure to try to always discuss
what we were doing in each class with my
E.A. My classroom E.A often knew where she
was needed during core subjects.
-Workshop and conferencing during work
periods.
-Speaking individually with students who have
some anxiety when writing tests to help them
breath through the stress.
TQS 2: A teacher engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical reflection to
improve teaching and learning
Student teacher practices:
-Having options for seating and areas for
students to work in. This has proved to be
necessary in gaining and increasing student
engagement.
-Recognizing individual needs. After
reflection, I have realized that understanding
what students are going through in their home
life is necessary to help them learn in each
moment.
-Differentiated instruction needs through
reflection. I have realized through reflection
that I need to explain some concepts again, and
to explain them in different ways. Sometimes
this is in one-on-one instruction, and at other
times it is through using different teaching
-I was able to reach many more of my students
during math and language arts with the help of
the grade six E.A.
-Students were able to receive help as soon as
possible during work period times. Working
closely with support staff helped the students
to gain the assistance they needed.
-During these portions of work periods, I was
able to see many students, working towards
aiding their learning. This helped students to
feel comfortable coming to me with questions.
-A few of my students told me they used the
breathing strategies I have taught them to calm
themselves when they are stressed. Many of
the students told me in a survey that they do
not use them outside of our practice time, but
they do think they would be useful to use
outside of school.
Influence on Student learning:
-Students get some movement during a class
period. This has helped their focus
significantly.
-Students appreciate a brain break when it is
needed and given.
-Students can get he instruction they need. I
am able to polish my plans upon reflection to
help students gain the assistance they require
to learn and thrive. My students show me with
a thumbs-up when they understand
information.
strategies to the whole class.
-I developed a Professional Inquiry project,
looking into if and how teaching wellness
strategies to my students would help gain and
increase student engagement in their learning.
Reflection on my part helped me to see that
movement activities that were part of a
learning activity were the most beneficial to
their learning.
-Targeting different types of engagement.
There are three types of student engagement
(cognitive, emotional, and behavioral). At
times, you can focus on one of these types of
engagement during one lesson. At other times,
you should target more than one type of
engagement during a lesson. This helps
students to understand they are valued and to
help them learn in different ways.
-Professional development days focusing on
social and emotional wellness for ourselves
and for our students. I partially formed my idea
for my PIP project when being part of these
PD days. I was also able to learn and practice
strategies that take care of my own wellness,
so I could work towards being in a regulated
mindset while with my students.
TQS 3: A teacher applies a current and comprehensive repertoire of effective planning, instruction,
and assessment practices to meet the learning needs of every student.
Student teacher practices:
-PD sessions on concept-based learning helped
me to see that breaking down big ideas are
important for students to understand their
learning.
-Making sure I mark assessment quickly and
efficiently. I tried to constantly mark and
-Students were much more engaged when we
used a movement strategy during their
learning. The students looked forward to
movement breaks and even asked for them at
times. Many of the students knew when they
needed some movement (some students would
give me a sign of a small wave when they
required a brain or movement break)
-Students were engaged in learning, and able
to see that some of the strategies we practiced
were directly done to help the students one a
personal/mental level rather than just an
academic level. A few students told me their
favorite breathing strategy verbally, ad the rest
told me through a wellness survey I had them
fill out.
-I was able to bring wellness strategies into the
classroom, such as breathing strategies and
mindfulness. Having a calm mindset when
taking care of my own wellness, made me
more excited when teaching.
Influence on Student learning:
-Focusing on how ideas are connected and why
we are moving through this learning helped the
students tie together their learning.
-Students use my feedback to inform their later
learning. Students can quickly apply feedback
return student work within one week of when
the students handed in their assignments.
-Focusing on directly relating outcomes from
the program of studies to my learning
objectives, therefore to my instruction,
learning activities, and assessments. I found
this to be a challenge at first, as it is much
easier to find interesting learning activities,
and use ones that can relate to the learning
outcome. I learned to closely link my
outcomes to the learning objectives, then to put
together learning activities that achieve the
outcomes.
-I used movement, technology, and hands-on
activities for engaging student in their learning. mediums. If there was too much lecture time
-Student choice for writing formats, this way,
students can use a medium they are
comfortable with.
-Example of a classroom activity: Making
triangles in groups. This has students all
working together. The activity cannot be
completed without all students participating
together.
-Cross-curricular learning (LA and Art). These
two subjects have a clear connection to each
other.
to later assignments and learning. Students
know what changes they need to make for the
next assignment, and what to pay close
attention to.
-I found that communicating what students are
doing and why helped gain their buy-in to the
learning activity and material. Students do
need engaging activities, but they also need
activities that directly help them learn and
practice what is in the curriculum.
-The students enjoy a change in activities and
bunched together, they would lose interest.
Keeping the activities moving along and using
different mediums kept the students interested
and wanting to do more.
-Most of my students chose to type out their
short stories rather than writing them out by
hand. One student in particular chose to write
his story out by hand, because he knows he is
faster with writing, than he is with spelling.
-Students all work together and must
communicate to complete the task.
-All of the students participated in this activity.
Students learned to communicate and work
together during this activity.
-Focus on formative assessments to give
students many opportunities to improve their
work.
-Keeping detailed notes on student work and
improvement helped inform me on how to
support student learning later on, and when
making report cards.
TQS 4: A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments where diversity
is embraced and every student is welcomed, cared for, respected and safe.
Student teacher practices:
-I taught a few Blackfoot values as themes
during a short stories unit
-Writing conferences: Students could sign-up
with me to have me review their writing. I
would at times call students to come see me
and bring their writing so I could check-in with
each student.
-Planning and practicing strategies aimed
towards provided help for my students who
have learning disabilities. A few of my
students require differentiated instruction and
practice.
-Differentiated presentation activities: A few
of my students are quite timid and would not
be comfortable presenting their projects to the
-Students quickly caught onto drawing the
images that come to mind when reading a
novel coming out of an open book.
-Students appreciated feedback and would
almost always read the comments I had.
-I found that this really helped me to target
student needs. Written feedback, along with
verbal feedback and support was made much
easier with detailed notes on my end. I found
that the students knew what they needed to
change/make better in their future work, and it
was obvious in later work that they made the
necessary changes.
Influence on Student learning:
-Students were excited to learn words in a new
language. A few of the students were excited
to use the Blackfoot value themes in their own
writing.
-Almost all students would consistently sign-
up for workshop. They learned to appreciate
feedback.
-One of my students with a learning disability
used speech to text sometimes. This same
student would often work with myself or an
EA to plan out his writing assignments and
practice math problems.
Reminding a few other students to constantly
focus was also necessary.
-The students learned new information about
ancient Athens without the stress connection.
Many students shared new information they
entire class. I had the class do a gallery walk
for their Ancient Athens project so they could
see everyone’s project in a low-stress situation.
-Aiding student communication in the complex
needs room. My students here mainly
communicated with devices and limited verbal
communication. It was important to create fine
motor activities that helped the students
practice their core word of the week.
TQS 5: A teacher develops and applies foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit for
the benefit of all students.
Student teacher practices:
-In this practicum, I taught my students a few
Blackfoot values in connection to themes of
short stories. My university Consultant Don
Shade taught me how to say a few of the
Blackfoot values and I taught them to my
class. Before teaching these values, I made
sure to gather the students’ background
knowledge about the Blackfoot people and to
explain why I was teaching them a few words
in Blackfoot. IT is important to understand
cultures that are both different and like our
own. We also need to learn to appreciate what
other cultures can teach us.
-Sharing circle: I wanted my students to share
their short stories with each other after they
were finished and marked as a celebration. We
used a sharing circle format for this. The
students each took turns explaining their story
and reading a section in some cases.
TQS 6: A teacher demonstrates an understanding of and adherence to the legal frameworks and
policies that provide the foundations for the Alberta education system.
Student teacher practices:
-Following safe distance rules with one of my
gathered from their walk.
-It would sometimes take more than one class
time until the students were comfortable
finding the core word on their device. The
students were happy for the most part to sit
quietly and listen to the book of the week and
practice using their core word.
Influence on Student learning:
-Students learned a few words in another
language. Students learned an appreciation for
the Blackfoot culture. A few of my students
were excited to use the Blackfoot values as
themes in their stories. The students were
excited to remind me when they remembered
how to say the Blackfoot word as well.
-My students gave each other their full
attention while their fellow group members
were explaining their story. It was wonderful
to see the students respectfully listening.
Groups of five students lowered the stakes of
presenting, as most of the students were
comfortable sharing to a group of that size.
Influence on Student learning:
-I only had a few minor issues with this student
complex need’s students. One of the students I at recess times. Informing this students’
was often supervising at recess needed to be classroom teacher was a quick call to make
given space at times. If there was an issue with and the situations were dealt with.
this student, I was unable to step in to even
touch this student. I made sure to give this
student space.

-Reflecting on the professional code of -It is my hope that professional behavior on

conduct. I wanted to become more familiar my part would help my students and parents of
with this document. Reflecting on this my students respect the position of teachers.
document helped me to reflect n and better
understand my relationship to my students,
school, colleagues, and to the teaching
profession in general.