Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.

There is a fine art to, and meaningful relationship between thorough planning, facilitating and assessment of everything that happens in a classroom.

Common feedback that I have received is how I make this relationship appear to be seamless, and done almost unconsciously. While this is feedback I am more than happy to receive, it does not mean that I am merely sleepwalking through my practice. What the facilitation of my lessons does not show is coming into school at 6:45 AM every morning. Seamless facilitating of learning in my classroom does not show the hours at home tweaking lessons, reading/researching to enrich my practice, or mapping out future materials/content.

I am proud to be one of the first people in the school each morning and one of the last one’s out. Putting in the time and hard work to ensure effective planning, instruction, assessment, to create respectful, inclusive learning environments pay huge dividends in the end; not just for myself, but for my students.

The Unit Map for my Cross-Curricular, Place-Based Unit for EDUC 491

Exemplars from EDUC 491 Practicum:

Planning in Physical & Health Education can look a little different than in other subjects. There is, however, still a great need for planning and ensuring that there is purpose in everything done with the learners.

A combination of the Prince George Secondary School 5 point proficiency scale and a single-point rubric — adapted from Jeremy Kavka

Assessing the Curricular Competencies — Giving learners multiple ways to demonstrate learning and proficiency of skills

27 Jan

• Am ready for the first 2.5 weeks of my practicum for 2 of my periods – materials completely prepped and ready to go
• Have an pretty detailed out line for all the way up to spring break for these two period as well

Always at least one week ahead in my planning (materials prepped, lessons planned, etc.)

All assignments completed this week aim to reach both ends of the spectrum of student ability. Everyone was able to meet the access point each and every day, if they were in the room.

9 Feb

• Planning for the next unit (10 blocks) completely prepped, and has been sent off to CT for feedback.

11 Feb

• Assessing students on the curricular competencies we covered during the unit – everything else in the unit was formative – assessed on 5-point progression scale
• Evidence from formative work can also inform the summative mark, despite being separate assignments

13 Feb

• Met for about an hour with a teacher in my school who runs professional development courses about assessment. I had her go through my unit plan and give me feedback, both on the unit plan as a whole, as well as on the assessment pieces of it.

18 Feb

• Making adaptations to the comprehension questions for students to ensure they can meet the learning objectives without drowning with the amount of work

28 Feb

• All marking is up to date, and ready to be passed on to CTs to enter into their gradebooks

9 March

• Like with the previous final assignment for HUM, I went over the criteria and instructions for the new final assignment for their novel study
• Using combination of PGSS proficiency scale and single point rubric, showed how they will demonstrate proficiency of the curricular competencies through their assignments
• Went over the same assignment and criteria 2 days in a row to ensure clarity

Each morning I take all work that was handed in the previous day and mark it – always get back to the students the next day so it is still relevant for them/so they can implement the formative feedback to their ongoing work