Report Submitted by: Inez St. Dennis
GRAPHIC VIEW OF REPORT

Report Submitted by: M.J. Witter
GRAPHIC VIEW OF REPORT
 
 

PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES

Ms. Watson has worked comfortably with students, staff and parents during her final practicum.  She has a very positive, caring manner with the children, and she has approached teaching with much energy and enthusiasm.  Ms. Watson has been very reflective about her teaching.  She constantly strives to improve her techniques in order to maintain a healthy and positive learning environment.  She is eager to receive feedback and to implement suggestions for improving her practice.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Ms. Watson has used a variety of management strategies during the past six weeks.  She uses positive reinforcement very well, and takes advantage of every opportunity for individuals to make meaningful and positive contributions to class discussions and activities.  Ms. Watson used her voice very effectively for management purposes.  She is able to speak softly with impact, and to alter intonation or dynamics in order to gain the attention of the students.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION

In the six weeks that Ms. Watson was in this kindergarten class, she taught theme units on Hawaii and Dragons, maintained all the regular routines such as calendar time, centres, library, storytime, "letter" lessons (one letter per week), Art, and Math activity tubs.  Full units have been taught in Science, "Light and Shadows", and in Mathematics, "Two and Three Dimensional Shapes".

Lesson plans were well written, motivating, and age-appropriate.  Plans indicated motivational activities, clear development steps, closure and assessment strategies.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT

Lessons were thoughtfully presented, with much care given to ensure maximum student participation and understanding.  The purpose was well stated at the beginning of lessons, and review was used to set the stage for new learning. Student input was encouraged and used to further understanding.  I was particularly impressed with Ms. Watsonís attention to vocabulary development in Mathematics and Science.

A variety of activities were used, all of which encouraged active participation.  The balance of discussion and seatwork activities was appropriate for the age group, and Ms. Watson was flexible, providing assistance, or encouraging independence where appropriate.

Anecdotal comments on student progress indicated what the students had learned, what was yet to be mastered and what concepts had presented difficulty for the individual students.  Taped student commentary on their learning and work selected for inclusion in the student portfolios were also included in the assessment of student progress.
 

SUMMARY STATEMENT:

Ms. Watson has shown considerable growth in the areas of classroom management and student assessment during the past six weeks.  She has a very kind and caring manner with the children, and has worked comfortably with students, teacher and colleagues, teaching assistants and parents.  Ms. Watson has demonstrated many fine teaching skills and attributes with the kindergarten at Frank Hobbs School.
 
 

Ms. Watson has very successfully completed her initial Practicum in this Kindergarten placement at Frank Hobbs School.  She has, at all times, been most professional in her demeanour and attitude.  With practice and experience, she was able to establish an effective level in presence in this classroom, built upon her increasingly confident and relaxed manner.  Ms. Watson demonstrated a very caring, nurturing way with children, showing warmth, respect and empathy for each student in her care.  She has a pleasing personality, and has developed and maintained a good level of rapport with staff and students alike.  Ms. Watson uses her reflective skills well to analyze lessons with a view toward modifications and improvement to subsequent presentations.  She is receptive to suggestions offered and quick to implement these into lessons.

Management strategies have shown consistent improvement with routines handled much more efficiently and effectively.  Ms. Watson has become quite consistent in her approach, utilizing firmness where required, while including extensive use of positive feedback and reinforcement of on-task or appropriate behaviours - "catch them being good"!  The students responded well as Ms. Watson became more adept at setting clear and appropriate expectations and was more consistent with follow through.  She is encouraged to continue her focus on developing her management "bag of tricks" - her repertoire - finding these strategies which work well for her and using them to advantage.  Small group control was more easily attained, yet with significant growth noted in her management of whole class activities and in dealing with one or two individual behavioural "challenges".  Good rapport was developed with the students who regarded Ms. Watson as one of their "teachers" and who regularly looked to her for advice and help.

Planning and preparation were considered to be areas of strength.  Ms. Watson was always well organized for her lessons with an excellent variety of materials and aids creatively utilized throughout the practicum.  Her "Space" and "Celebrations" themes were very much enjoyed by the students and were planned to include a good variety of age and grade appropriate activities.  She demonstrated commendable flexibility in being able to quickly evaluate which of her planned activities would work well with this age group. She was able to adapt and modify her plans to suit the childrens needs and capabilities, as well as changing circumstances.

Ms. Watson effectively maintained established classroom routines, which is especially important at the Kindergarten level, and became much more confident in lesson presentation with smoother and more effective transitions noted.  She successfully incorporated a good variety of interesting and creative "hands-on" type of activities in many of her lesson presentations, which certainly captured the attention, interest and focus of the students.  She discovered quite quickly the value of the "mini-lesson" for early primary learners - of particular note here were the numerous interesting discussions around the "Space" theme.  Ms. Watson used her voice to great advantage as the practicum progressed - especially during the story reading - with god use of dynamics, changing pitch, tone, volume etc.. - providing "excitement" and interest in the story.

She was resourceful and creative in developing interesting and motivational extension activities which were both age and grade appropriate, and reflected initiative and resourcefulness on her part.  In this regard, she is urged to continue her focus on developing strategies that encourage active pupil participation (used very successfully a number of times) and discovery.  Questioning skills showed consistent growth throughout the practicum with a greater emphasis on those requiring higher level thinking skills.  Assessment and evaluation of progress and effort are being appropriately carried out primarily through questioning and observations (monitoring ) of daily work.

SUMMARY STATEMENT:
Ms. Watson has very successfully completed her fall Practicum.  She is a conscientious and dependable person who shows a keen desire to succeed, along with a warm and genuine caring and concern for the welfare of her students.  She is open and receptive to suggestions offered and is quick to act upon these in a positive and appropriate manner.  Ms. Watson has continued to show consistent growth throughout the practicum, demonstrating an earnest, sincere and professional approach to teaching and toward improving her overall effectiveness in the classroom.