Section Five: Teacher Candidate Reflection

Introduction

The Capstone Portfolio project illustrated my abilities and competencies towards

becoming an effective Elementary Grade Teacher. Throughout the project I talked about why

this is an important project, key teaching competencies that create a successful teacher, my

readiness to enter the teaching field, the significance of educational theorists, my background

and experiences and how they relate to the classroom and my philosophy of education. I have

also displayed numerous artifacts that demonstrated my teaching competency such as my teacher

Weebly website, my Pecha Kucha presentation, and my Annotated Bibliography to name a few. I

have also defined the New York and Ontario curriculum requirements, Professional and Ethical

Teacher Standards and talked about how the artifacts I presented aligned to these standards and

requirements.

In this section, I will highlight and reflect on my learning experiences throughout my

time at Medaille College in the Masters of Elementary Education Program. I will also explain

how my experiences relate to classroom applications and instruction and I will identify areas of

readiness in becoming a beginner teacher. Throughout this section I will reference the

professional standards of the Teacher Education Accreditation for Education Preparation Claims

(TEAC/CAEP) as appropriate when referring to my experiences and readiness for entering the

classroom. I will finish off the section by reflecting on future learning opportunities for

becoming a master teacher and then conclude the section.

It feels as though the first day of classes were only yesterday, yet a whole year has gone

by and a lot of valuable and significant learning experiences have taken place that have helped

re-shape my way of thinking, going about things and individuality overall. I was not sure what to

expect at the start of this program but knew that it was going to be a busy year with lots of

learning, development and relationship building.

During my first semester at Medaille, I learned to become very organized and disciplined

with my time as we had many different assignments that we were required to complete along

with working a full time job and attending classes every other weekend. This process trained me

to be prepared for the requirements of future Medaille semesters and for the amount of hours it

will take in the future to plan successful lessons based on knowing my students, a dynamic and

effective classroom and also for providing efficient and helpful feedback to students.

(TEAC/CAEP Claim 1: knowledge of subject matter, TEAC/CAEP Claim 3: caring educator)

Throughout time at Medaille, some of the things I learned about included: the importance

of different educational theorists such as Benjamin Bloom, Jean Piaget, Howard Gardner, I also

learned about the importance of creating a culturally diverse and accepting classroom

environment and how to organize a classroom, I learned how to build rapport with parents and

how to have positive parent/teacher meetings, I learned how to do a successful read aloud with

students and check their learning, how to formulate a lesson plan based on a read aloud and how

to incorporate students with different needs into the lesson, I learned about the different

standards a specific school in New York State meets or does not meet based on completing the

New York State Report Card Review Assignment, and I also learned about how a school district
in Ontario operates by completing the Research in Education School District/Board Website

Project.

All of these assignments were very valuable as they provided a background and a toolkit

with how to approach the teaching profession. Learning about theorists provided background

knowledge and evidence based research about successful educational practices as well as how

children learn as they go through the different stages of development. Understanding the

significance of a culturally diverse classroom and how to organize a classroom to be effective is

very important as we live in a very multi-cultural world and it is important to understand and

take into consideration the needs of others so that they can be helped to learn and grow.

(TEAC/CAEP Claim 1: knowledge of subject matter, TEAC/CAEP Claim 2: effective pedagogy

and best teaching practices for Diverse Learners, TEAC/CAEP Claim 3: caring educator) It is

also important to build positive relationships with parents so that they can see their child is

important and in certain situations help with their child’s development. (TEAC/CAEP Claim 3:

caring educator) Writing effective and inclusive lesson plans are also very important because it

shows that you are a caring, capable and competent teacher who is able to meet the diverse needs

of the classroom. (TEAC/CAEP Claim 1: knowledge of subject matter, TEAC/CAEP Claim 2:

effective pedagogy and best teaching practices for Diverse Learners, TEAC/CAEP Claim 3:

caring educator) Also, understanding the standards and curriculum requirements at your school

district or board and specifically at the school you work at is also very important in order to be a

successful teacher and reach students effectively.

Some of the assignments mentioned above were displayed as part of my artifacts in

section three of this portfolio project. For example, the classroom management project was my

eighth artifact in section three and the survey assignment was my fifth artifact in section three,
and it talked about how students with special abilities felt in today’s classrooms. Some of the

other artifacts that were displayed in section three included my teacher weebly website, my cyber

safety presentation, my duo lingo application presentation and my SAVE and Child Abuse

Certificates. This portfolio project taught me to continue to keep organized and to save

assignments and pieces of work for future reference as you never know when it could be a

valuable resource.

All of the assignments mentioned above and the artifacts stated in section three of this

project can be related to classroom instruction as they teach you how to understand your students

and build a culturally diverse classroom environment, how to successfully interact with parents,

how to build effective and inclusive lessons, how to work with students with special needs, how

to understand your district’s or board’s requirements, how to use technology as a tool and build a

website, how to educate students about cyber safety and how to educate yourself about safety

and bullying standards. (TEAC/CAEP Claim 1: knowledge of subject matter, TEAC/CAEP

Claim 2: effective pedagogy and best teaching practices for Diverse Learners, TEAC/CAEP

Claim 3: caring educator)

Readiness to Become a Teacher

It feels as though the teacher education program at Medaille College prepared students

well for entering a future classroom. Classes such as ECI 510: Research in Education, EDL 550:

Developmental Literacy, EDU 500: The Core of Education, ECI 535: Cultural Competencies as

an Emancipatory Pedagogy, ECI 610: Transitions: Roots to Presents, EDU 506: Child Abuse

Awareness/SAVE, EDU 507: Dignity for All Students Act, EDU 571: Technology for the

Elementary Classroom and ESP 600: Foundations of Special Education have all provided helpful

and significant background information and tools to use in future classrooms. Each of these
courses talked about different areas of the classroom that we as future teachers need to be aware

of. For example, ECI 510: Research in Education, talked about the importance of educational

based research and ensuring your information comes from qualified sources to prove a point on a

specific topic. EDL 550: Developmental Literacy, talked about the different stages that students

went through from early literacy stages to advanced literacy stages and the lessons and

assignments that were required in each stage for student development.

After completing these courses, I feel confident in being able to plan for an effective and

culturally inclusive classroom. It is important as a beginner teacher, to over plan and have back-

up lessons for our classrooms as we do not yet have experience to know how long a lesson and

an assignment will take and how engaged and well received a lesson will be by our students. It is

also important to take into account the different backgrounds of students in our classrooms as

well as their different learning styles and to prepare a lesson that uses different learning styles in

order to be able to reach the most amount of students or hopefully all of the students in our

classroom.

Technology is also a significant tool in today’s elementary classroom and it can be seen

through my Weebly website that I have a strong ability to use technology as a tool and can plan

for an online classroom.

My SAVE/Child Abuse Certificates demonstrate that I understand the importance of

Child Safety and building a classroom that fosters a safe space. My Pecha Kucha presentation

that talked about Cerebral Palsy and my Survey Assignment that talked about classroom

inclusiveness for children with special needs displayed my ability to create an inclusive

classroom.
 Finally, my ability to relate the New York State Standards and Ontario Standards to the

artifacts in sections three and to the standards in section four and also to use them to build

effective and efficient lesson plans showed my readiness and ability to be a successful

elementary teacher.

However, being a successful elementary teacher does not end with completing the

courses required at Medaille College for Certification. Throughout my teaching career it is going

to be important to participate in professional learning opportunities, to continue to learn new and

best teaching practices as they become available, to update my skills and to follow the

advancements of technology as they become available. Starting in a classroom will just be a

beginning, to attain teacher mastery I will have to continue to learn and grow throughout my

teaching career from others, from the profession and from taking future classes as they are

available.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in this section of the project I have outlined my learning experiences

throughout my time at Medaille College in the Masters of Elementary Education Program. I have

also explained how my experiences related to classroom applications and instruction and I

identified areas of readiness in becoming a beginner teacher. Throughout this section I

referenced the professional standards of the Teacher Education Accreditation for Education

Preparation Claims (TEAC/CAEP) as appropriate when referring to my experiences and

readiness for entering the classroom. I also finished off the section by reflecting on future

learning opportunities for becoming a master teacher.