Lesson 13: Wrap-up and Final Reflection

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able

• Reflect upon the entire practicum experience with a focus on families and professional development.
• Complete a self-evaluation and compare with the cooperating teacher evaluation.
• Discuss individual perspectives of practice in early childhood education classrooms.

Teaching

This lesson marks the end of your practicum III experience – A focus in families and professional development.  For this practicum there was the usual, journaling, goal setting, practicum evaluations and weekly check-ins.  The two major themes that separated this practicum from the others was the focus on family engagement and developing your professional portfolios and education philosophy statement.

It is the hope that you walk away from this practicum feeling more prepared to take on the education field with a positive, upbeat attitude that you will make a difference in the lives of many children and families.  You have been given a heavy, yet strong tool-kit to succeed in this field if you use the tools provided.  In just a short amount of time you will graduate and I wish you the best of luck!  Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to this program.  Go get ‘em!

Assessment

Lesson 13 Assignment A

Look through your weekly emails and provide:

1. Dates of initial emails sent (there should be one for EVERY week you were at your practicum site
2. Provide a 5 or 6 sentence summary about how the weekly email communication benefited you in your practicum site. 

Lesson 13 Assignment B

In addition to the evaluation completed by your supervising teacher, you will:

1. Complete a self-evaluation
2. Write a summary comparing the self-evaluation and the supervising teacher evaluation.
• Did anything surprise you?  Are you satisfied with the evaluations? What are your next steps? 
3. Do any of the areas that are not marked "Most of the time" line up with your goals?
   • How are your goals progressing? Are they still appropriate or do you need to adjust them to something more appropriate?

   Scan and submit the midterm self-evaluation AND the midterm cooperating teacher evaluation along with your summary.

How your supervising teacher evaluation is graded:

~ You can only receive a total of 80 points for the evaluation

The instructor will add the values of each box checked by your instructor and then calculate the mean. The values of the boxes are as follows:

• Almost Always = 60
• Usually = 50
• Sometimes = 40
• Seldom = 30
• Never = 0

On the last page you can recieve up to 2 points for each executive skills

• Makes genuine effort = 2 points
• Makes some effort = 1 point

For example:

If Suzy is in a Practicum I course, she should be evaluated on 30 different indicators in the NAEYC Standards #1-#6. She recieved:

• 20 Almost Always which would be 20x60=1200
• 5 Usuallys which would be 5x50=250
• 2 Sometiems which would be 2x40=80
• 3 Seldoms which would be 3x30=90

Now I add the total and divide by 30 (the number of indicators) to find the mean 1620 / 30 = 54

On her Executive Skills page she received:

• 7 Makes Genuine Effort which would be 7x2=14
• 3 Makes Some Effort which would be 3x1=3

14 + 3 = 17

THEN I ADD THE TOTAL FROM THE STANDARDS MEAN AND EXECUTIVE SKILLS TOTAL 54+17=71

ON THE RUBRIC THE INSTRUCTOR WILL PUT 71 POINTS IN THE THIRD SECTION IN THE RUBRIC THAT ALLOWS YOU UP TO 80 POINTS FOR THE SUPERVISING TEACHER EVALUATION.

Lesson 13 Assignment C

Write a 2-3 page paper (this means and introductory paragraph, a body and a conclusion.  Complete sentences and proof reading is necessary) addressing the following:

1. The specifics – where you were placed, age groups, how much time and during what times you spend there, etc.
2. What were your first emotions, thoughts and ideas when you first started at your practicum site?  How has this changed over this course?
3. What was your beginning understanding of family engagement and what is your understanding now?
4. How has your understanding of professional development grown?
5. What are the three additional major insights you came to understand through this process?  Why do you feel those things are important?
6. What are three strengths of yours that were affirmed by your practicum experience?
7. What are three areas you feel you still need to grow in (why?) and how will you remember these for your next early childhood experience?