Adjustment to Practice

CAP Element 1.B.2

To be considered proficient in this CAP Element, a teacher candidate must "organize and analyze results from a variety of assessments to determine progress toward intended outcomes and uses these findings to adjust practice and identify and/or implement appropriate differentiated interventions and enhancements for students" (Guidelines for the Candidate Assessment of Performance).

There is always room to grow as an educator. In order to grow, you have to reflect on your lessons, how they went, and how to adjust in the now or for the future. After every lesson, I check in with my mentor teacher to see how he thought it went, what he would do, and what I can improve on. I also talk with other teachers in my wing of the school to learn more about different classrooms and how each teacher runs theirs. From there, I incorporate that advice into my next lesson. In addition, I also took student opinions into consideration.

My biggest issue was that I was slow to adjust my practices in the moment. I would often wait until class was over to consult my mentor teacher or plan out what I would change for the next day. However, when students are starting to not be engaged or are getting distracted, I need to address them as soon as I can. Leaving it to the next day can cause the behavior to become a habit or risk losing the student for the rest of the period. As my practicum went on, I learned classroom management strategies from my mentor teacher. I now have those strategies in my toolkit of teaching for when I need them next. As I progress as an educator and gain more classroom experience, I believe that I will be more comfortable and better at addressing/adjusting my practicing in the moment.

Reflection

Evidence

Feedback from Practicum Supervisor and Supervising Practitioner

Cindy meets with her Supervising Practitioner on a daily basis to reflect on her practice & make adjustments as needed. She easily adapts her teaching practices and takes recommendations well.
She also seeks out the guidance of our other teachers in the building. Cindy has taken feedback from past observations & made changes in her practice to support those suggestions.
She needs to improve on consistently adjusting her practice in the moment of her lessons if she notices students becoming less engaged in the topic or starting to have side conversations. This can be achieved by prating a variety of classroom management techniques including utilizing more frequent "check-in" times.

Feedback from Students

At the end of a unit or project, I usually debrief with the students to gather their thoughts on how the project went, their experiences, and what they would change. Below is an example of me including the debrief question at the end of a reflection worksheet.