Spring 2004
"Teaching Against the Grain: Resisting the Culture of Schooling"
Masters in Teaching Program Year Two

** Click here for a word version of the program description**

In the Spring Quarter of the second year, you are full time Teacher Candidates in public school classrooms for ten weeks. You are assigned to your schools for 11 weeks, one of which will be your district's Spring Break. Thus, you will be in the classroom for ten full weeks, ending on May 21. You should work closely with your Cooperating Teacher-Mentors, and teach full-time solo for a minimum of three consecutive weeks. Solo teaching means that you assume the full-time planning, teaching and assessment responsibilities of the Cooperating Teacher-Mentor. You must participate in the school activities that are expected of a teacher, including being on site for at least the full teacher contract day (usually 30 minutes before and after school start/finish times) , as well as for staff meetings, committee meetings, and special school events.

You need to plan, enact and assess developmentally appropriate activities for children consistent with the course of study provided by the school district and EALR’s. Creating lesson plans, reflective writing, videotaping, and weekly Field Seminar discussions with colleagues and faculty provide opportunities for discussion and the integration of constructivist theory and practice. Faculty and Cooperating Teacher-Mentors will observe you and meet with you for a formative assessment at mid-quarter and a summative assessment at quarter's end, using Evergreen’s Student Teaching Assessment Rubric.

WEEKLY FIELD SEMINAR
Seminars are designed to cluster Teacher Candidates both geographically and by grade band for discussions that bridge theory and practice.

Field seminars: type and location and faculty contact addresses/numbers:

Betsy - Seminar 3151 - middle school primarily (diffendb@evergreen.edu)

Sonja - Sem. 3153 - elementary primarily (wiedenhs@evergreen.edu)

Gery - Sem.3155 - high school primarily (2001-jubilado@comcast.net)

Jan - Doubletree Southcenter - middle and high school, North (kidoj@evergreen.edu)

Field Seminar Schedule - Thursdays, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.

Regular weekly assignments
 
 
Dates

Assignments

Week 2 (March 18)

 

Week 3 (March 25)

 

Week 4 (April 1)

 

Week 5 (April 8)  
Week 6 (April 15)  
Week 7 (April 22)  
Week 8 (April 29)

 

Week 9 (May 6)
  • Video tape teaching & evaluation form
Week 10 (May 13)
  • EALR's Project - due to faculty Week of May 17 (last week in schools) / electronically to Scott by end of quarter
Week 11 (May 20)  
Week 12 (May 25-29)
Week 13 (June 1- 5)
Last two weeks

 

REGULAR WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS 

  1. Weekly Reflection Sheet  - see form attached (handwritten OK)
  2. One complete lesson plan that you have either observed or taught each week posted on Web Crossing by Sunday evening. If you are observing at first, see if you can write a lesson plan for what your Teacher-Mentor is teaching as you watch….what do you think is his/her central concept? goals? Specific objectives for the day? Procedures? Any assessment? Or if you’re teaching, what was your lesson plan for? (include all lesson plan requirements attached to this syllabus) Faculty will comment on these each week by e-mail.

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF OTHER ASSIGNMENTS

LESSON PLANS (neccessary lesson plan components)

Put your completed, typed lesson plans into your Presentation Portfolio in chronological order as soon as you begin designing and teaching your own lessons - due for faculty check-off in class Tuesday, May 25.

For the first week or two, your Teacher-Mentor may let you use his/her lesson plans as a way to get started, or he/she may want you to begin by working from a textbook or taking a small group as he/she teaches. This is fine and you need not put your teacher's lessons in your portfolio.

 

PRESENTATION ALBUM

Contents of the Presentation Album must include at least:

Section I - Spring Quarter Lessons . Separated into your ten teaching weeks, each week to include:

Section II - Two of your best constructivist lessons.

VIDEO TAPE

Videotape yourself teaching and fill out attached Video Self-Evaluation form - due Thursday, May 6 in field seminar.

 

EALR’s Project (guiding questions for the planning and writing)
due week of May 17th, 11th week - you can bring it to 3 way conference

    As we did during the Fall Quarter teaching, when you solo teach in the Spring you are responsible for meeting the Washington Administrative Code requirement that you "demonstrate a positive impact on student learning", by assessing the impact of your teaching on helping to move your students toward one or more learning goals expressed in the EALR’s for your grade/ subject matter area. See the details of this project which are spelled out on page 14 of Section 1 of the Student Teaching Handbook and the more detailed version handed out in Fall and attached to this syllabus.

Cultural Encapsulation
Take notes on your own "cultural encapsulation" during the Spring teaching experience. You will prepare a final statement for discussion with your colleagues during the final two weeks on campus.

We will continue our self-examination of the cultural beliefs, values and experiences (or lack of experiences) that we bring to the classroom. These topics should be a part of many field seminars, with the question : "How is your teaching addressing second language, disabled, low status and/or historically marginalized students in your classrooms?"

As defined in Section 2: Assessment Guide of your MIT Student Teaching Handbook, p. 24, learning to reduce"cultural encapsulation" refers to "The degree to which an individual is able to acknowledge and critically reflect upon his/her own received cultural perspectives and comes to know how one’s perspectives influence his/her understanding of and actions towards individual from groups different than his/her received culture."

Final Professional Portfolio
due June 1

    As a part of your work during your second quarter of student teaching, you will be planning lessons/units and systematically filing your lesson plans in your Spring Presentation Album. These materials, as well as photographs of your classrooms, and videotapes of yourself teaching, will provide rich material for the development of a more compact and selective Professional Portfolio of your own design.

    The materials from your two Presentation Albums will give you an opportunity to select and assemble your best work. For those of you who want to develop a full Web based Professional Portfolio, you can add selected constructivist lessons and images to what you have begun. If you prefer both a Web and/or only a paper Professional Portfolio, you can assemble it to include your letter of introduction, resume, philosophy of education, "best" constructivist lesson plans, classroom photos, student work, etc. in a slim volume that demonstrates your best professional work for job interviews.

    Draft Self-Evaluation
    e-mailed to field seminar faculty - due Tuesday, May 25.

During Year Two of the program, your Self-Evaluations and Faculty Evaluations need to be submitted in final form each quarter. Since you will need to send your transcripts out to districts for hiring before the end of Spring Quarter, your evaluations will become part of your formal transcript when you submit them at the end of each quarter. Bring three copies of your final Self-Evaluation on the correct form to your Evaluation Conference.