Running

head: PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL ASSESSMENT #1

EDUC 540 S12: Field Experience III

Personal Professional Assessment #1
Houston LJ Doig (UCID: 10085931)
Due: Sunday, November 15, 2015
University of Calgary

Personal Professional Assessment #1

The goals that I set for myself at our initial field experience seminar were
classroom management, organization, managing time, and teacher presence. Over the
course of my first week I tried to be aware of these areas and progress further in related
skills. For classroom management I believe that not all classrooms are alike and so the
management techniques I use may differ from classroom to classroom. For instance, in
the Traditional Learning Centre (TLC) program classrooms, as opposed to the Regular
program classrooms, students are more attentive and work more quietly so there is less of
a need for me to manage the volume of the class. Furthermore, since every class is unique
I will come to learn which techniques work with different classes and which do not; these
will become more apparent over time as I get to know the students.
As for organization I believe that it is a key aspect of teaching and that it closely
connects to my third goal of managing time. Having all your classroom materials and the
steps to your lesson firmly in your mind prevents you from sacrificing instructional time.
Moreover it is important to know which areas require more of your time and which are
more vital. Managing my time relates to the KSA 2f, which deals with short, medium,
and long range planning. I am finding at Colonel Irvine that keeping track of time periods
in the school day is also very important. Since there are no bells at the school it is key for
the teacher to be watching the clock to know when they should be bringing the class
back, wrapping up topics, and getting students to pack up so they are not late for their
next class. My partner teacher has solved this problem by setting silent alarms on his
phone to alert him that the class is nearing an end.
In regards to my teacher presence I feel like I am definitely making progress
towards a final product. In this first week of practicum my partner teacher (Mr. Tesarski)

Personal Professional Assessment #1

was sick for two days and a substitute teacher filled in. The substitute was not a math
teacher and so I took the lead and instructed the three math lessons for one of the days
that Mr. Tesarski was absent. I felt like the lessons went smoothly and I really started to
feel like an actual teacher. I also became less resistant to using my teacher voice to
make sure that all students could here me. During that period I also supervised three tests.
The goals that I will be revisiting in the next two weeks are going to be all the
goals that I have set thus far. I feel that these four goals are major to teaching and will
never truly be reached, as there are always ways to fine tune and change them as I
progress and encounter different students and classes. I may revise my fourth goal
(teacher presence) to also include professionalism and building connections with other
staff members. Another goal that I will continue to work on will be learning students
names and getting to know who they are and what learning needs/difficulties they might
have. This goal also relates to KSA 2f and 2i, for as I get to know the students I will
begin to know how to accommodate them. It is already apparent that there are different
levels of knowledge and I will have to be thinking of ways to differentiate learning for
them.