I have tried to stick to writing once at the beginning of the week about something more personal in nature (my life, family, parenting, a book I read, etc.) and once at the end of the week on something professional that I learned or accomplished in the week. This week there is only the professional post because my Sunday flight to get to a teacher preparation inspection was delayed, and I did not get to my hotel until 3:00 a.m. on Monday and I had to start my work week (the inspection preparation) by 7:00 a.m. This week’s inspection has been exhausting because this preparation program came ready with over 150 documents to review and a packed schedule—keeping the team running on close to four hours of sleep each night.
Going on inspections let’s me see how some programs are doing some really amazing practices and it reframes how I see the teacher preparation in my own institution. The two biggest take-aways from this week’s program have been their observation and feedback cycle with their forms focused on actionable feedback and key teaching methods, and the video-taped observations they have candidates do during this cycle. Both of which I would love to tweak and use with our university supervisors, mentor teachers, and candidates. The action plan feedback forms that are used by this program have all the key teaching methods at the top and then it is a three-column form that addresses clear evidence on impact on K-12 student learning, target areas that need improvement based on past feedback, and key actions step for improvement. Having a form set up like this addresses the areas in the TPI-US framework and it guides the supervisor in the both the delivery of written and oral feedback. This is accompanied by another observation form, which progresses in skill from the first clinical experience to internship as students are developing skills related to the Florida Teacher competencies. This will obviously need to be adapted given I work in Massachusetts, but the idea of a form that specifically states where we expect students to be in relation to our six essential elements (subject matter knowledge, well-structure lessons, adjustments to practice, meeting the needs of all learners, safe learning environments, and reflective practices) as they progress through the program is something I would like to look into. It’s a really powerful way to progress monitor candidate’s progression as they develop as a teacher and are supported in their pre-practicum hours. The other practice in use that I really like is the candidate’s video-taping their lessons and reflecting on this video-taped lesson through guided questions and having to time-stamp where they used each key teaching skill or where there was a missed opportunity to use a key teaching skill. I think it is really powerful to watch yourself teach and having to do this with a frame of reference (the guided questions and time stamping) requires a focus reflective nature. As I mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, I think instructors need to be doing this practice on a regular basis themselves and with colleagues to continue to develop themselves as teachers. This was one suggestion given to this program—to implement the video-observations that candidates are asked to do at the faculty level. Given this suggestion, I wonder, however, if it is best to partner with another university to do this or if doing this amongst one own’s faculty is best. I think there is value in both—internal quality control and professional learning communities among faculty would be strengthened by doing this internally, but doing this externally may allow for more critical viewing and a different type of quality control as well as starting to network outside the institutional bubble we tend to find ourselves in higher education. It might help to start internally to develop that culture and then partner with another institution and have faculty critical friends to further push development. After this week, I was left with some impactful ways to further develop the critical eye needed to help candidates develop into teachers and faculty become even better at their craft. So although it was an exhausting week, it was a good use of my sabbatical time and allowed me to really reflect and think on how to improve my own teaching as well as maybe some practices used at the university I work at.
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AuthorKristina Scott Archives
February 2023
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