Education 4571, 4572, 4574
Professional Semester III:
Course Outline
Fall, 2007
Instructor: Dr. John PoulsenOffice: W-712 Phone: 329-2463 (office)
EMAIL –
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Education 4571, 4572, and 4574 are modules delivered within the context of Professional Semester III. This course contains the academic components designed to complement and enhance the internship. The PSIII semester is intended to be a “bridging” semester for the interns between being students and teachers.
It is expected that all Interns will engage in effective planning. This means that students will create long and mid range plans based on the scope and sequence of the Alberta Program of Studies, complete with timeline, resources and unit breakdowns of lessons. It is also expected that Interns will create daily lesson plans, with Learner Expectations from the Program of Studies, objective(s) for the lesson, a detailed breakdown of lesson activities, and self-reflection. These will be available for the Teacher Mentor, Administrator, and University Mentor preferably in the form of a log book.
COURSE CONTENT
Interns will meet with the instructor on a regular basis via email. The following are requirements of PS111:
Assignment due date
Growth Plan for PS111 (TPGP) - August 28
First Day of Teaching #1 - September 7
The Professional Portfolio- September 14
First Day of Teaching #2 - September 28
The Professional Development Module- October 3
See a play #1 and in a paragraph (minimum) comment on it- October 16
Summarize and comment on the document "Parent Teacher Interviews" - October 26
The Final ReportDraft- November 30
Final Report - December 7
See a play #2 and in a paragraph (minimum) comment on it- December 14
Final meeting- End of practicum
All of the above documents will be shared with all the other students in this group.
Growth Plan for PS111 - Create 2 to 5 goals that you feel will be important for you in your Internship. Please use the Teacher Professional Growth Plan (TPGP) format your school is using. The goals should reflect the areas that you want to (and expect to) improve in. You may want to use the summative report form from PSII to help guide you. Also, include strategies you have in mind for achieving the goals plus an indication of how you will know the goals have been reached. That is, you should have goals, ideas on how to reach those goals and a method of evaluation. This growth plan should be shared with your Mentor Teacher, Faculty Mentor, and the School Administrator who is in charge of you in the form of a letter. This may be important at the end of the practicum round as this could form the basis of the Final Meeting.
First Day of Teaching #1 - Describe your first day of teaching. Please have three sections (1) Before, (2) During, and (3) After. Focus on one class, preferably. Minimum 2 pages.
The Professional Portfolio – The Professional Portfolio illustrates the Intern's development and achievements with regard to teaching. It is meant to prepare the Intern for interviews with school hiring committees. I will be making appointments to see each Intern and will evaluate the portfolio at that meeting.
First Day of Teaching #2 - Revisit your document of September 7 and comment on how the class(es) has (have) developed and how you have developed.
Professional Development Module - You will engage in a series of Professional Development activities during PSIII (for example activities during PD days). This Professional Development Module should be an event or a project. The intention of this module is for interns to: (1) improve general teaching skills or knowledge, (2) improve teaching skills and knowledge in a specific area, and/or (3) gain skill or information that may improve chances of employment.
Areas that may be considered for this module include directing a play, gaining competency and/or certification in specific areas of extra curricular activities (for example gaining a coaching certificate, or acting as curator of an exhibition of student work). A part of this module could be considered a form of advanced methods in which a specific area of interest in the Interns’ discipline may be explored in depth (for example - research on the origins and forms of Story Theatre or research the play you are directing).
A proposal for your proposed Professional Development must be submitted. The proposal is to be approximately 1 page indicating what will be achieved and appropriate due dates.
See a play #1 and in a paragraph (minimum) comment on it - You can see any live play that you wish. I would encourage you to see plays put on at schools. That is, see plays directed by other teachers or plays put on for schools by touring companies.
Summarize and comment on the document "Parent Teacher Interviews" – This will be emailed to you in October.
The Final Report - The Final Report begins with the Descriptive Report that describes your work this semester. The Descriptive Report is created by you and may be written in the first person. It should objectively describe your activities at the school during PSIII. There are also spaces in this report for Mentor Teacher and Administrator comments and signatures. Their signatures indicate that they have read the Descriptive Report and agree with its contents. The final section is for comments and signature by the Faculty Mentor. My signature signifies that you have fulfilled the requirements of PSIII.
You should briefly describe the practicum (not everyone who reads this may be familiar with the University of Lethbridge program). The placement should be described including the size of the school and that you operated like a 1/2 time teacher. Describe the classes you taught. You should describe the units you taught and how you evaluated. It is important to mention report cards and parent – teacher interviews. You should indicate what Professional development you engaged in, including PD days. Also describe your extra-curricular activity. I can provide examples. Consider not making this too informal. This should be a professional document.
I have found that most students need to complete this document through a process of creating a number of drafts.
See a play #2 and in a paragraph (minimum) comment on it.
Final meeting - This is a wrap up meeting that I would like to attend, if possible. You will be in charge of running the meeting and you should organize what will shown and said. Consider examining your TPGP for PSIII. This meeting could include indicating things you learned. It could include a description of the best experience and the worst experience. I strongly suggest you end the meeting with a round of sincere thanks to your Mentor and Administrator. Other ideas would be to show your portfolio. The reason for this meeting is to bring closure to an extremely important event.
ON LINE DISCUSSION Students are to engage in on line discussion. This should be in the form of responding to items placed on line. All assignments handed in on line will be sent to all other interns in the group. It is expected that interns will comment on similarities or differences with regard to their situation. Also interns can post concerns and it is expected that the other interns will comment.
EVALUATION
All of the above mentioned assignments MUST be completed to gain credit in this course. The course grade is a pass or fail.
Poulsen PS111 061