WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

Week 4: Reflection and Advice for

Future Candidates

Courtney Burnett
TED 690
Professor Johnson

Abstract

WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

The following paper is intended to reflect on what has worked for me during the
duration of this course TED 690, and what has been the most challenging. I am
asked to also reflect on what information or advice I would give to future candidates
coming into this course. I took this opportunity to reflect on what worked well and
what I wouldve done completely different and changed completely. I also added, at
the end of the paper, my rationales for choosing the artifacts that I did for Domain B
and Domain E.

WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

In all honesty, coming into this course, I wasnt prepared for the amount of
work and rigor this course would require. In hindsight, I wouldve scheduled the
course to not fall within holiday times. I felt that there were so many outside strains
pulling my attention elsewhere and that led to a frustration on my end. I wanted so
desperately to put all of my effort into this course each week, but I had so many
student and family obligations that made it difficult to place my full attention into
the course. If there is any way possible to make this course a two month course for
the future candidates, I think that would be a great benefit. Even now, as I go
through classroom artifacts and through my PDQP, there are so many more things
that I would like to add to the portfolio. I will, on my own term add them, but I find
myself wishing that I could still have my peer candidates to share the material with
and gain their feedback from it.
My journey has been great throughout pulling artifacts from my teaching
experience up to this point to put into the PDQP. It was nice to take a minute and
view where I have come to this point of my teaching. I found it a really good thing to
do, and have made a promise to myself to do the same reflection in the next few
years again. I like all of the artifacts I have included in the PDQP, but as I just
mentioned, I am starting to stumble upon so many more I would like to add. I am
thankful that this project is an ongoing project and should be viewed as such. The
PDQP should be never ending and should stay current to my teaching practices.
The biggest change made throughout the project was to my future plan for
professional development. My statements were not convincing and with
determination. They were almost indecisive. It was suggested to me to make my

WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

future projections more direct. Once I made that change to their wording, I felt more
confident about my decisions as well. It motivated me even further to attain those
short term professional goals for myself.
I think the implications that this project will have on my teaching practices, is
the reminder that teaching is fluid and ever changing to meet the needs of the
changing students. I dont want to get stagnant within my profession and always
need to look into ways to make my craft better, more engaging, and more creative.
Having this PDQP now will give me a place to do those things.
If I had any advice to give up and coming candidates to this part of the
program, it would be to set aside as much time as possible to put all you have into
this important project. It will be worth it! It seems that the biggest challenge faced
in this course for most, is the time management element of the course. You really
want to do well with this project and it is going to take an incredible amount of time
to do so. I would also tell future candidates to view the PDQP in sections and try to
not get overwhelmed by the project as a whole. The project is meant to be done in
portions, to get the best reflection out of each activity and artifact. Lastly, I would
tell the candidate, as with any part of teaching, open up to those who are here to
help you if you are having trouble, that is why they are here.
I would like to take this time and explain my rationales for using the artifacts
that I did for Domain B. The TPE found under Domain B states that we should be
assessing student learning. This is a given for most, but it is good to take note of
how those assessments are being administered. I brought up the fact that I like to
use more informal assessment to gage student knowledge. Especially if there is a
significant amount of time spent between teacher and student in small group

WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

instruction, you get to know what their knowledge is pretty well. I included pictures
of a small group center where I was preparing them for a unit test and we were
working together with counters. Whenever one made a mistake I was right there to
help them correct the mistake and figure out why the error was made. If the student
was really comfortable with the material, I was able to challenge them further. This
reminded me of something I read in our text found in chapter 7 that teachers
independently research strategies and theories related to improve instruction for
the included students. (Costantino, P. M., De Lorenzo, M. N. 2009 p.125) I chose to
show these small groups interactions because it shows the value of the informal
assessment. I feel like this was preparing them for the formal assessment above all
else. For Domain B, I also included a formal lesson plan, this shows all the areas
where I stop for information assessment through checking for understanding. This
artifact shows the value in which I place informal assessments through each new
piece of material I present to the students. The last artifact I included in Domain B
was a literature review that supported the fact that informal assessments should
hold as much value in the classroom as formal assessments. Especially with them
being such a natural part of teaching.
For Domain E, I added an artifact that consisted of my weekly lesson plans
that are submitted to my administration each week. I felt that this artifact was
valuable to show what instruction time looked like each week for my students. One
of them also included the week we had parent teacher conferences, this was
important to show how much time can be taken away from instruction time within a
week. This can pose as a challenge for the teacher, and events such as these
actually come up quite often when you look at the entire year. I was excited to use
my next artifact under Domain E, which was what I use for classroom management.

WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

I use the ClassDojo website, where students get to choose their own monster to
feed good or bad points to. I was not seeing the results I wanted to with the
standard clip up, clip down system within my classroom. So, I switched to only using
the ClassDojo. Since I made this switch, one of the best aspects of my classroom
has become the way it is managed, and the positive results I see from each
classroom group of kids using the ClassDojo. I love how they grow together as an
encouraging team for each other. I love the features of the program. I can contact
parents through the Dojo website. I have replaced my pulling sticks for random
selection to the virtual random selector on the program. I teach many different
groups of kids during RTI, so instead of trusting them to clip up or clip down in their
home room class, I can keep all of the reinforcement within my own class, because
they all have their own Dojo. I use the Dojo points as a classroom incentive program
to go to the treasure box each Friday. I have them skip count by 5s to know how
many treasures they get to get from the classroom treasure box on Friday. Every 5
points gets a trip to the treasure box. I can also program any behavior I want to
positively or negatively reinforce. These can be changed as the needs of the class
change. Because the ClassDojo is such a huge part of my everyday classroom, I
knew that it needed to be included in PDQP and this is where I saw a perfect fit for
it. The last artifact that I used under Domain E is a literature review that supports
the use of positive reinforcement in the classroom as opposed to negative
reinforcement. I thought that aligns well with the way I use my ClassDojo.
Overall, I feel my PDQP has turned into a great success. It is something I have
come to be proud of and have shared my website with friends and colleagues to
view. It has been a process to get to this point, but I am glad that I have made the
effort to get here. At one point, my half done PDQP was not even something I was

WEEK 4 REFLECTION AND ADVICE FOR FUTURE STUDENTS

interested in viewing out of lack of confidence. Now, for it to be something I am
proud to share with others is a huge accomplishment, and I am excited to see where
it continues to grow from here.

References
Costantino, P. M., De Lorenzo, M. N. (2009) Developing a Professional Teaching
Portfolio. A Guide for
Success. Pearson: New Jersey.
http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/standards/adopted-TPEs-2013.pdf
https://teach.classdojo.com/#/launchpad?_k=83crwl