Standard 3: Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
In my 10 week practicum at Nukko Lake Elementary School, I learned a lot about assessment and how it can be done and applied in different ways. My coaching teacher was passionate about ensuring as much assessment was done as possible and that there was always evidence of learning. As a future teacher, I realize how important it is to have evidence that shows student growth and learning. I also learned that there are different methods to assessing and that as a teacher, I am able to come up with a form of assessment that works for me and my students at the time. I learned that it is important to collect as much evidence as possible because if students end up missing some days at school, there will still hopefully be some evidence that can be reported on when it comes to writing report cards. Something else that I learned is how to assess students that are on IEP’s. Students are assessed based on their IEP, meaning the proficiency scale may differ for each student depending on what is included in their IEP and how they learn as students. I found during my practicum that this was the most difficult thing to navigate as it really is up to my interpretation what I consider is proficient. I learned that this is why it is important to have explicit criteria when giving assignments and projects so that whatever each student gets on the proficiency scale, I have something to back it up with. During my practicum, we found out that quite a few students in class would benefit using speech to text. Once speech to text was set up for these students, we noticed a significant improvement in their language arts which also increased the confidence and willingness to participate in class activities. Differentiating and ensuring every students needs are met is something I will constantly need to work on as a teacher which is why it is important to me to advocate for my students so that they are coming to school with confidence and feeling like they are entering into an inclusive environment.