Teacher Work Sample:
Let me guess your thoughts right now about those three words above:
-a lesson plan
-an activity
-a collection of plans
-a collection of student work
-anything that is created by a teacher
A Teacher Work Sample is a 40-50 page document that a student teacher must complete in order to pass student teaching...You've guessed it...I don't get to teach kids all day and pass student teaching, that'd be way too easy :)! Haha, that was a joke of course On top of student teaching for 16 weeks, each student teacher must write a Teacher Work Sample about their experience at their first 8 week placement...so, guess who started their's today?! You got it...THIS GIRL! :) But first, I must explain to you the different parts of the Teacher Work Sample so this way, when I'm blogging about it, you will know exactly what is going on ;)! Here it goes!
Parts of the TWS: (Teacher Work Sample) that we must include in order to pass:
1) Contextual Factors: This part of the TWS describes the demographics of the community, school district, specific school you're in, and your classroom. It may sound easy, but let me tell you, it is a difficult section to write because there are so many different parts to include!
2) Learning Goals: Through student teaching, we are required to create an entire unit and teach the unit to the classroom. For those of you with an educational background, learning goals may look familiar to you and you know exactly what they are. For those of you who don't...learning goals are goals that teachers write in order to show the expectations they want each student to reach during their unit. These learning goals are then aligned with the Iowa Common Core standards to be sure that we are reaching that one special rule...You've guessed it.. the No Child Left Behind rule!! Duh silly readers, didn't you know that!? :)
3) Assessment: The assessment is created and done by the student teacher in order to show that their students have learned throughout the unit. We must create and perform a pre-assessment (before beginning unit), formal assessment (during unit), and post assessment (after unit) to ensure that at all times, our students are learning.
4)Design for Instruction: Design for instruction may be better described and known as lesson plans, activities, games, etc. to help students learn the material in the unit being taught. This is the part that most student teachers spend time on because we need to find and create activities that will help successfully teach our students the content we want them to learn.
5) Instructional Decision-Making: So, everyone knows that some things don't always work the first time...right? Okay, well the same thing happens in teaching so this is the part in the paper where we have to admit our faults and why the students may not have learned, and then better prepare and organize activities that will make them learn. Simply said...everyone knows that nobody is perfect, and this is the point in the paper where we may have to admit that :)!
6) Analysis of Student Learning: This part in the paper is where a student teacher may get to brag a little bit...(me hopefully ;) )...because this is where you show student work and how they did throughout your unit!!! Usually this is always a positive section because you see awesome results and as a teacher, that is an amazing feeling!
7) Reflection and Self Evaluation: A huge part of teaching is being a reflector and that is one main reason I like to blog. It lets you think about your day and what worked and what didn't. This part in the paper is where we reflect and self evaluate ourselves on what worked vs. what didn't work, what succeeded and what failed, etc. It's a fun section to write because it's pretty simple and reflecting is usually one of the easiest things for myself to do.
So, now that you've read through the description of the Teacher Work Sample...how do you feel? Do you feel overwhelmed? Maybe a bit confused? Well lucky for you, you don't have to write one...but this girl does!!!
And that is what brings me to Milestone #3: I have begun my Teacher Work Sample!!! YAY ME!!! :) I have almost finished the Contextual Factors section and I couldn't be happier. It's taken a lot of work, but it's almost done! I will keep you updated on how this paper is going, but now, when you see TWS in my future blog posts, just think to yourself...oh ya...it's that 50 page paper that I will never have to write :)!
Hope you all enjoyed the slight humor ;) Goodnight everyone. Stay safe and sweet dreams!
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