edTPA: Making Good Choices
I had some mixed reactions to the edTPA "Making Good Choices" document. This isn't the first time I've looked at this document; I gave it a look prior to my decision to move forward with pursuing a teaching certificate. When I looked at it the first time, I almost decided to cancel the whole thing. Looking at it a second time, I found myself feeling the same anxieties and fears that I had experienced during my first reading. There were some positive things that came out of the reading however, so I will focus on those first.
One of the things that has been most difficult for me when planning out my literature unit has been knowing (or not knowing, really) how to handle the assessment portion. The only education class I've taken prior to this one was Intro to Education, and that was well over six years ago. I've never taken a class that taught me how to assess student learning. So for me, "Making Good Choices" helped a little in that it provided a list of "do's" and "don'ts" for the assessment portion of edTPA lesson plans. Having those guidelines to show me what I should include in an assessment and what I shouldn't include will be incredibly helpful as I continue to work on my literature unit project, and in the future as I work towards certification.
While the assessment guidelines in "Making Good Choices" was immediately the most helpful to me, it also created the cataclysm which brought out my past anxieties about the teaching profession. During my most recent consideration of teaching as a profession (I've thought about it many times in the past), I scoured the web looking for information on teacher certification, and at some point found out about the edTPA and what that process entailed. Its not so much the edTPA itself that concerns me (there should definitely be some way of evaluating potential teachers), but my vision of the overwhelming and daunting list of expectations a teacher needs to meet. It feels as though there are so many things to keep track of (curriculum, standards, assessment, IEPs, etc.), and I cant help but feel as though I am not capable of managing all of these aspects of teaching. I know that the whole point of a teacher education program is to teach us these things, but it is difficult to remember that sometimes. As a new student looking at the edTPA I feel under-prepared, as if I should somehow know how to do all of these things already.
One of the things that has been most difficult for me when planning out my literature unit has been knowing (or not knowing, really) how to handle the assessment portion. The only education class I've taken prior to this one was Intro to Education, and that was well over six years ago. I've never taken a class that taught me how to assess student learning. So for me, "Making Good Choices" helped a little in that it provided a list of "do's" and "don'ts" for the assessment portion of edTPA lesson plans. Having those guidelines to show me what I should include in an assessment and what I shouldn't include will be incredibly helpful as I continue to work on my literature unit project, and in the future as I work towards certification.
While the assessment guidelines in "Making Good Choices" was immediately the most helpful to me, it also created the cataclysm which brought out my past anxieties about the teaching profession. During my most recent consideration of teaching as a profession (I've thought about it many times in the past), I scoured the web looking for information on teacher certification, and at some point found out about the edTPA and what that process entailed. Its not so much the edTPA itself that concerns me (there should definitely be some way of evaluating potential teachers), but my vision of the overwhelming and daunting list of expectations a teacher needs to meet. It feels as though there are so many things to keep track of (curriculum, standards, assessment, IEPs, etc.), and I cant help but feel as though I am not capable of managing all of these aspects of teaching. I know that the whole point of a teacher education program is to teach us these things, but it is difficult to remember that sometimes. As a new student looking at the edTPA I feel under-prepared, as if I should somehow know how to do all of these things already.
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