Eportfolio for Teaching Practicum
British Columbia College of Teachers Standards for the Education
During my teaching practicum I complete an exploration of the 8 standards of teaching. Enjoy.
1. Educators value and care for all students and act in their best interests.
On the last day of my practicum I organized a fruit and chocolate fondue party with my biology 11 class. This student baked me a delicious chocolate cake and we had a great class party.
From the very beginning of my practicum I felt a need to win the hearts of my students. Somehow they had managed to charm me within days. It took a little longer for me to win over my class and build relationships with my students. The classroom community that grew as the weeks went on was astounding! I really enjoyed getting to know my students and I never hid who I was as a person; I was super smiley, enthusiastic and nerdy! And the best part was that the students accepted me! I wanted to show the students that everyone was wonderful in their unique ways. I wanted to foster a safe classroom climate where everyone was accepted, mistakes weren’t frowned upon and everyone encouraged everyone else! By the end of my practicum we were a highly functioning classroom community
On the last day of classes I asked my students to complete an honest ’2 stars and a wish’ for me and my teaching. The following note is a direct quote from a female biology student ’2stars and a wish’ form;
“I have never enjoyed a science class more, not to mention learned more information because of your teaching approach. Your sense of humor and enthusiasm took me about 1-2 weeks to figure out & appreciate, but after doing so, I’ve never liked+ respected a teacher more! Come back for our grad! And id like you more!”
I cared for my students so much and I truly think that they cared for me.
From the very beginning of my practicum I felt a need to win the hearts of my students. Somehow they had managed to charm me within days. It took a little longer for me to win over my class and build relationships with my students. The classroom community that grew as the weeks went on was astounding! I really enjoyed getting to know my students and I never hid who I was as a person; I was super smiley, enthusiastic and nerdy! And the best part was that the students accepted me! I wanted to show the students that everyone was wonderful in their unique ways. I wanted to foster a safe classroom climate where everyone was accepted, mistakes weren’t frowned upon and everyone encouraged everyone else! By the end of my practicum we were a highly functioning classroom community
On the last day of classes I asked my students to complete an honest ’2 stars and a wish’ for me and my teaching. The following note is a direct quote from a female biology student ’2stars and a wish’ form;
“I have never enjoyed a science class more, not to mention learned more information because of your teaching approach. Your sense of humor and enthusiasm took me about 1-2 weeks to figure out & appreciate, but after doing so, I’ve never liked+ respected a teacher more! Come back for our grad! And id like you more!”
I cared for my students so much and I truly think that they cared for me.
2. Educators are role models who act ethically and honestly.
My family at lakeside park in Nelson.
I began my practicum by introducing myself to the class with a Prezi about me. I showed my class pictures of my early life and my family. I touched on the exchanges I did in highschool to France and Costa Rica before I launched into my travel pictures and the stories that accompany them.
I explained how my highschool biology classes had started my love for biology and how the biology trip to Costa Rica had cemented my love for the biology. This led into my animal encounter stories from Africa and I had the whole class hooked!
I explained the hierarchical levels that I witnessed at a rhino kill in Kruger National park . I described the lion rehabilitation efforts that go on in Zimbabwe. I told stories of the ruggedly, beautiful desert landscape of Namibia… I was just as lost in my stories as my students.
I finished my Prezi with Five things you should now about me:
›1. I love David Attenborough!
›2. I get really excited about invertebrates!
›3. I don’t know everything but I love to learn…. So ask questions!
›4. You are incredibly smart and wonderful human beings!
›5. MAKE MISTAKES! That’s how you learn!
At the end of my prezi, when I finally took a breath to asked the students if they had any questions. There was a pause; Then one boy piped up and said “wow, that was inspiring”.
I had arrived and inspired my students on the very first day!
Ps: None of my students knew who David Attenborough was on the first day but every student knew him well by the end. I asked my students to try to remember my “five things about me” on the last day of classes, and they did!! I was astounded!!
I began my practicum by introducing myself to the class with a Prezi about me. I showed my class pictures of my early life and my family. I touched on the exchanges I did in highschool to France and Costa Rica before I launched into my travel pictures and the stories that accompany them.
I explained how my highschool biology classes had started my love for biology and how the biology trip to Costa Rica had cemented my love for the biology. This led into my animal encounter stories from Africa and I had the whole class hooked!
I explained the hierarchical levels that I witnessed at a rhino kill in Kruger National park . I described the lion rehabilitation efforts that go on in Zimbabwe. I told stories of the ruggedly, beautiful desert landscape of Namibia… I was just as lost in my stories as my students.
I finished my Prezi with Five things you should now about me:
›1. I love David Attenborough!
›2. I get really excited about invertebrates!
›3. I don’t know everything but I love to learn…. So ask questions!
›4. You are incredibly smart and wonderful human beings!
›5. MAKE MISTAKES! That’s how you learn!
At the end of my prezi, when I finally took a breath to asked the students if they had any questions. There was a pause; Then one boy piped up and said “wow, that was inspiring”.
I had arrived and inspired my students on the very first day!
Ps: None of my students knew who David Attenborough was on the first day but every student knew him well by the end. I asked my students to try to remember my “five things about me” on the last day of classes, and they did!! I was astounded!!
3. Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
At the very beginning of my practicum I conducted an online survey. The survey helped me to get to know my class in addition to giving me specific information about individual students. One question specifically asked the students to identify their learning styles: Kinestictic, auditory or visual. Since this was a biology 11 class, the students were aware of their learning styles from experience. Had the students been younger I would have done a guided inquiry into different learning styles. As it turns out, almost every student in the class was a visual learner. It was at this point, early in my practicum, that I was grappling with how to attack an upcoming seven week animal unit. After a little brainstorming I came up with the idea of making a life sized phylogenetic tree for the Animal Kingdom!!!
Our phylogenetic tree for the animal kingdom about half way through the Animal unit. Notice that labelling is not complete.
I started out with just the tree trunk and branches, then as we completed units we added them to the tree. It was an excellent visual representation of what we had learned and where we were going with the unit. Once we had learned all the Animal Phlya I cut out leaves and over the course of a couple classes we wrote our favourite memories from the unit on the leaves; best lab, favourite animal, coolest fact etc. Our phylogenetic tree actually gained quite a bit a popularity throughout the school and it had many admirers. We even had the Home-links students visit our class. The biology 11 students explained the trends in the phylogenetic tree and answers questions from the younger students about where their favourite animals belonged.
This project took on a life of its own and gave back to our class every day. During the animal unit I referred to the phylogenetic tree every lesson to show the relationships between animals. Our life sized tree fostered ownership from the students and provided the most perfect visual aid to our lessons.
Our phylogenetic tree for the animal kingdom about half way through the Animal unit. Notice that labelling is not complete.
I started out with just the tree trunk and branches, then as we completed units we added them to the tree. It was an excellent visual representation of what we had learned and where we were going with the unit. Once we had learned all the Animal Phlya I cut out leaves and over the course of a couple classes we wrote our favourite memories from the unit on the leaves; best lab, favourite animal, coolest fact etc. Our phylogenetic tree actually gained quite a bit a popularity throughout the school and it had many admirers. We even had the Home-links students visit our class. The biology 11 students explained the trends in the phylogenetic tree and answers questions from the younger students about where their favourite animals belonged.
This project took on a life of its own and gave back to our class every day. During the animal unit I referred to the phylogenetic tree every lesson to show the relationships between animals. Our life sized tree fostered ownership from the students and provided the most perfect visual aid to our lessons.
4. Educators value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families and communities in schools.
As a student teacher I wanted to make use of everything the school had to offer me. This, combined with my new found relationship with the janitorial staff, led me to one of my best guest speakers! Kendall is the “fix-everything” man at the school and he’s also a bee keeper!! He was very excited to talk to the biology 11 students about bees. In our Arthropod unit Kendall brought in some bees and talked about the colony roles and bee keeping techniques.
Most of the students had no idea that Kendall was a bee keeper let alone an Arthropod expert!
I felt so lucky that I was able to use the community to enrich the student’s learning!
During my Practicum I was a medal bearer for the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Man in Motion Relay. I shared my stories about the event with my students and even made it onto the front page of the paper! Many of students were already very involved in their community and I was super impressed.
Most of the students had no idea that Kendall was a bee keeper let alone an Arthropod expert!
I felt so lucky that I was able to use the community to enrich the student’s learning!
During my Practicum I was a medal bearer for the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Man in Motion Relay. I shared my stories about the event with my students and even made it onto the front page of the paper! Many of students were already very involved in their community and I was super impressed.
5. Educators implement effective practices in areas of planning, instruction, assessment, evaluation and reporting.
The SMART learning booklet had a great visual that showed how much information you retain by hearing, seeing, writing, talking and teaching. This visual had a deep impact on how I was going to teach during my practicum. I made a large poster for my class in the second week of practicum and explained it to my biology 11 students. I explained that, as a student teacher, I am learning about the best ways to learn and this poster shows that teaching is the best way to retain information. To practice teaching I had Mr. Easterbrook’s grade 5 class come in during a lab. I explained to my students that this was there chance to practice teaching. So we had the grade 11′s teaching the grade 5 about protists under microscope!
6. Educators have a broad knowledge base and understand the subject areas they teach.
BIOLOGY! ~ MATH! ~ SCIENCE! ~ CHEMISTRY! I can do it all!
My Practicum gave me the opportunity to push myself to see what I was really capable of. You never know what you are made of until you push beyond the comfort zones. The %80 course load brought me to a new level of efficiency and I thrived in a busy environment. I taught Math and Science 10; both of which are provincial exam-able courses.
The most time consuming part of my practicum was researching my subject areas. I deeply enjoyed this research because it deepened my personal understanding and gave me more confidence. I succeeded in mastering my subject areas without too much stress and I look forward to expanding my expertise. As a teacher I feel as though I am more “learner” than “teacher”.
Science 10 Organic Chemistry lab: Dehydrating sugar with sulphuric acid
7. Educators engage in career-long learning.
I have a hunger for knowledge and that extends to every part of my life! I am so excited that there is a standard that directly focuses on self improvement and I look forward to continually engaging in life long learning.
When I started my practicum I realized that I had a ton of information to brush up on! I was in class explaining what a polychaete or tube worm was and realized that I needed to do some serious research! How can I learn about the underwater world?
I need to get into the underwater world! I got to get to Nicaragua! We booked a flight for Little Corn Island which is a tiny Island that is world renown for scuba diving!
Me learning how to scuba dive in Nicaragua aka a research trip for my biology 11 class!
Little Corn Island is a tiny island in the Caribbean that is too small to have motorized vehicles. And it was in the beautiful shallow water that I learned how to scuba dive! I panicked at first but once I got the hang of it, I was able to explore the world that I had to teach my class about!!!
When I got back to my classroom and told my class stories about eagle rays, sharks, lobsters and tube worms it was such a rewarding experience! I also had a fresh reservoir of underwater knowledge and I was an expert on marine live.
I had a knowledge gap and I went out there and filled it. I will continue to learn and gain knowledge as I progress through my career. Bring on the learning!
8. Educators contribute to the profession.
I was warmly adopted by the staff at JVH elementary secondary school. When there was talk of planning a ProD Day I was honored that they had accepted my request to do a short edmodo workshop.
The Pro-D day focused on technology and it turns out that I could speak to many different techonolgies including smart board, google docs and Khan academy in addition to edmodo. So I ended up doing a couple quick games with the staff on the smart board displaying different smart board softwear before launching into my Edmodo talk.
The staff at J.V. Humphries Elementary Secondary School.
The student response to Edmodo was great and I think it brought a fun, usable, student-friendly technology into the class. I used Edmodo in two out of my four classes and it was super successful. I hope that the student’s experience with Edmodo will help bridge the gap between high school and post secondary education in a technological sense. It was also great for getting students to share their learning and interests with me and their class. I look forward to using Edmodo again in my future classes!
The Pro-D day focused on technology and it turns out that I could speak to many different techonolgies including smart board, google docs and Khan academy in addition to edmodo. So I ended up doing a couple quick games with the staff on the smart board displaying different smart board softwear before launching into my Edmodo talk.
The staff at J.V. Humphries Elementary Secondary School.
The student response to Edmodo was great and I think it brought a fun, usable, student-friendly technology into the class. I used Edmodo in two out of my four classes and it was super successful. I hope that the student’s experience with Edmodo will help bridge the gap between high school and post secondary education in a technological sense. It was also great for getting students to share their learning and interests with me and their class. I look forward to using Edmodo again in my future classes!