As teachers, it is important to consistently assess our practice to ensure that our students are learning, our lessons are engaging and well targeted to curriculum, and that our classrooms are safe spaces that welcome the hearts, minds and voices of all children.
For teacher candidates, it is often challenging to find a clear set of criteria upon which to self-assess their practice. To support them in the process, we recommend that our teacher candidates make use of the Practicum Evaluation Protocol as follows:
- Get a green, yellow and pink highlighter,
- Print out the Year ONE Self-assessment Learning Outcomes OR FINAL Year Self-assessment Practicum Evaluation Protocol_2016_printable,
- Review each requirement in the PEP using the highlighters to indicate traffic light colours, as follows:
- Highlight with green if you are good to GO and feel that you have good control over the requirement.
- Highlight with yellow to indicate that CAUTION is required if you feel that you are beginning to have control over the requirement but are not consistently meeting the target.
- Highlight with pink to indicate STOP if you not meeting the requirement or are not completely clear on what is being asked of you. Get assistance from a peer, seek out resources and/or speak to your Mentor Teacher, Course Director, or Practicum Facilitator.
- Get a visual perspective of your performance at that point in time.
- Repeat the process every 3 weeks, comparing the visual perspective each time. Initially you will see the yellow highlights remain somewhat constant as some pink highlights turns to yellow, and some yellow highlights turn to green. However, the green should also be increasing while the pink is decreasing. Toward the end of practicum, you should see mostly green highlights with a few yellow and very few red.
- Continue to focus on moving from red to yellow to green, seeking assistance and securing resources to support your progress. Discuss your self-assessment with your Mentor Teacher to see if you share the same perspective.
