The TPA and What You Learned
The TPA forced you to analyze your planning, teaching, assessment techniques and your students' learning and then reflect about it and what you would do differently if you had a chance to do it again. What did you learn that will help you as a teacher?
posted by Chris @ 10:11 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
The TPA - oh boy, where do I begin.
When I was doing the write up for my lessons I realized that I put in quite a bit more thought than I knew. What I mean is that I had a lot to say about my lessons and I had a method for my madness. It was pretty cool to think that I have become able to include the different pieces without trying. I think that this is coming off as not how I want it to sound. Perhaps what I mean is that planning lessons is easier than that first one that we did in 464, you know that we wrote, edited, peer edited, then rewrote and spent one week on a 50 minute lesson plan. I am getting better and more capable.
What I also learned is that when I really do put focused attention on an aspect of my planning, such as assessment, I see a marked improvement, both in my own preparation and my students abilities.
Most of our table discussions and discussions with out mentor teachers have revolved around the theory versus reality that is in the TPA. In my mind it is not reality. I think it would be the best thing in the world if we had to time analyze a learning segment like we did for the TPA and an opportunity to improve, but that is just not feasible. My teacher and I keep going back to the fact that sometimes I spend hours (like 3) planning and prepping for Algebra I and then it is over and done with in 1.5 hours, never to really be revisited. I do not like that I spend all of that time and then it just is over so quickly. I can't spend an additional 2 hours rethinking it and reflecting.
I thought that the TPA was good for me to really analyze why I do what I do and great for student teaching, but there is just no way that it could span out in real life.
Yes, I do reflect after my lessons and make changes accordingly, so I guess I do a mini-TPA each time. Perhaps what I really want to say, so in conclusion, the TPA helped me to see where I am and where I could be. There is so much left for me to learn.
The TPA-
I like what Katrina said about realizing that we know how to make lesson plans that incorporate all of the important pieces without even trying. Having the TPA make me write all that down helped me realize that I did everything I was supposed to as a teacher without actually planning it out in my head. I just wrote the lesson plan, taught the lesson and then realized that I did everything the TPA wanted me to! It was awesome.
I also agree with Katrina (and probably everyone here at the kitchen table around me) that the TPA is NOT a reality. A teacher does not have time to sit and write pages upon pages of reflection about every lesson plan they write. I know we all understand that the TPA was a learning tool for us during student teaching but I am also very glad I will not be doing this everyday during teaching.
Another student teacher who had to do something similar to the TPA was seriously considering not being a teacher because of the stress and the feeling of being overwhelmed. She felt that doing all this extra work was actually making her not be able to teach her children because she was more busy reflecting than she was preparing to teach. This put everything in perspective to me. I realized that yes, it is important to reflect in your mind how each lesson and goes and change your teaching accordingly in order to reach all of your students, but in real life I will not be spending hours doing it. It made me excited for my own classroom.
Bottom line the TPA was a good learning tool and made us realize what we have learned at WSU, but it is not something that teachers actually do on a day to day basis.
The TPA…
I think the TPA made me realize how much I really do know about teaching. In reflecting daily, planning my unit and assessments, and finding a research base for my lessons, I found that I knew exactly what I was doing and wanted to say from our class work. It seemed to come fairly easily even though it took time to write it all out.
The TPA also made me realize how quickly lesson plans can (and should) change. My lesson plans I wrote for the TPA changed very quickly from what I’d originally written. As this was early in my student teaching, it was nice to have the safety net of an actual lesson plan. However, almost the minute I started teaching, things changed based upon what I realized the kids did and didn’t know and how the pace of the class was going. This is something the daily reflections helped me see as well.
The TPA was good practice, very explicit to what we need to do as teachers in a unit in our planning, assessing and reflecting. This being said, as Katrina mentioned, the majority of the conversations we had regarding the TPA related to how unrealistic to teaching the TPA is. I think it is great to be able to show that you know what research supports your TPA and can explicitly say why and how you did every part of a lesson. However, I think there are much more succinct ways to do this than writing a 50 page, single spaced paper about it. There is not realistically this much time to do this when student teaching. It gave me a good basis of what I need to do mentally when I plan and teach, but I find myself now and prior to the TPA reflecting daily and during lessons about what went well, what didn’t, what needs to change, and the why behind everything.
I think that in the end I learned so much more throughout the semester that the TPA is not necessarily a good snapshot of my teaching. I filmed early because I wanted to get it done in time to submit it by the deadline. However, I think if I were to film again and write out another set of lessons, they would be much stronger. That being said, I would not be able to (or willing) do all of this during my full-time teaching experience, so I’m glad I got it done when I did.
Katrina-
As you can tell from my blog post (and our conversation while writing this…) I very much agree with what you said about the TPA. I find myself reflecting daily in a much more efficient manner than the TPA. It was good in helping to expose our thinking, but it didn’t even really train us to do this kind of thinking because if you aren’t doing it at this point, the TPA is not enough practice to instill a habit of reflection nor will it be a good picture of you as a teacher if you aren’t already reflecting. Additionally, as Sam mentioned, I agree with you that it is cool to realize all we know about teaching and we are able to do it constantly without even thinking about it. It has become an ingrained part of our teaching, which is cool to see.
I think that like everyone else here, the TPA did show me that we need to reflect as teachers, and that we do know what we are doing. It's just funny to me how I used to plan lessons during the blocks, and it would take me hours and hours as I figured out which strategies I wanted to use and which theories those went along with, but now I can plan a lesson without thinking about those things. They are automatically in the lessons, but I don't have to conciously think about the best strategies and theories anymore because they have become a part of what I do naturally now. Also, reflecting is something that I naturally do now. After every lesson, I sort of debrief with myself to think about what went well, what didn't go well, what clicked with the students, what didn't click, what changes need to be made, what things I need to keep doing, etc. I have even found myself doing this during my lessons, which is good.
Also like everyone else, I just want to say that the TPA is not reality. I understand that we need to reflect and we need to put actually strategy and theory into our teaching, but we are not going to spend hours upon hours laboring at a computer to write down which strategies and theories went into our lesson plans, and we are not going to sit down every night and do intense reflections of our teaching. These are the things that we do naturally, and quite frankly, I am thankful that we do not do the TPA as teachers. I had more than one teacher at school comment about how unrealistic the expectations of the TPA are and how it is really unrealistic to expect a teacher, let alone a student teacher, to do a project of the magnitude. I also feel as though the TPA took away valuable planning time for my classes. Yes, I had every lesson planned beforehand, but we also know as teachers now that hardly anything ever goes as planned. Because of this, I needed to make changes almost each day to my lessons, and I barely had time or energy to devote to making those changes that absolutely needed to be made. I don't want to complain about the TPA at all, but I just wanted to point that out.
I did learn a lot from the TPA, and it will carry into my teaching career, but I am so thankful that it is done and behind us.
I don't think in writing back to anyone else that I have anything additional to say, so this part is just sort of my response to everyone to say that I really agree with what is being said here, as well as what we have said as we have discussed the TPA around our dinner table almost nightly. The TPA has been cool to see how far we have come in the sense of planning and executing lessons, but I know that we are all so thankful that we will not have to worry about the TPA anymore.
When I first heard about the TPA and when we went over each section in seminar, I was extremely overwhelmed. I could not imagine being able to answer all questions, going into so much detail and meeting the needs of my students. However, while working on the TPA I discovered that it was very manageable and really not too difficult. Even though there was repetition throughout and at times I was unsure what the question was asking, I was able to answer each question with evidence. Practicum experiences are extremely beneficial and give you a great opportunity to learn more about yourself as a teacher and learn from your cooperating teachers. Even though practicum experiences in Pullman were fantastic, I never had the opportunity to really get to know each student and create bonds like I have throughout student teaching. Starting the year off with the students helped create bonds and helped me learn more about each individual student. Knowing my class so well when I started working on the TPA made answering the questions a lot easier than I expected.
Each question in the TPA also helped me realize that each student in your class is a different learner. It is extremely important as a teacher to factor in differentiation throughout each lesson. It is also important that you give assessment so that you can learn more about each students understanding and use those assessments as teaching tools for you as a teacher, rather than just grades in the grade book. I also found that student voice is extremely beneficial for everybody in the classroom. My students at first found it difficult to express their thinking, however, after a few examples they enjoyed sharing their thinking. As a teacher I was better able to determine where each student was in their understanding and by sharing they were helping other students. Finally, I learned how important keeping evidence of student work is. I found this to be very important when guiding lessons, as well as during parent teacher conferences.
I believe the amount of work put into each lesson required for the TPA is unrealistic, but I do see the benefit of creating these plans now so that we create lessons in the future that meet the needs of our students. It is better to be over prepared when lesson planning than unprepared for challenges that will arise!
Cheryl, I completely agree with your comment about filming early. It is amazing how much we have grown as teachers over the 2+ months since filming our TPA lessons. I know that I feel more comfortable teaching, dealing with unplanned circumstances and I know my students more. I am happy the TPA was due early in the semester because it would be very overwhelming taking over the class and working on it. Best of luck with your last 2 weeks! Can you believe we only have a few days left with our kids????
The TPA was an experience in itself. It did provide me with a chance to look at different aspects of my lessons and what was effective for the students and what was not. One thing it did help me realize is that I am comfortable writing lesson plans and I can find activities and exercises that connect to the standards with out realizing it. I feel like the TPA showed me where I stand currently on creating lessons and assessments and when working through it I did realize that I could improve on creating formal assessments for my classroom.
One thing I would say is I do agree with what others are saying that it is not life like but I realize that is not necessarily the point. But I also feel like there are a lot of other ways for us to analyze our lessons and see where we stand and I do not personally feel that the TPA was all that helpful for me. I teach the same class multiple times a day and that is nice because it allows me to practice different things with the same lesson. If something doesn't work first period I can change it up 3rd and see what could be improved. It was the actual experiences that I feel like taught me lessons about my own teaching, not the TPA.
One thing the TPA did show me is that if I were able to turn it in now on a lesson later in my time here I would have been way better at it. I feel like I had to start it too early and use a lesson what I could teach way better now then I did then. I find that kind of frustrating because I feel like I turned in assignment before I really had a chance to grow.
All in all i did learn a few things about myself. I learned that I need to be more creative in my summative assessments for the classroom. I also learned that I should try some more classroom management techniques because I still do not feel like I have a really great grasp on my most difficult class. I just personally feel that I would have learned this information just fine with out the TPA.
Sam,
I like that you mentioned the other teacher who was overwhelmed. I feel like the TPA was this big project that at times I felt like I wasn't teaching as well as I wanted because I was also trying to focus on getting the TPA done on time and everything. I feel like the emphasis of student teaching should be teaching and that the way the TPA is presented I almost spent the first half of my teaching experience worrying about a paper and not focusing solely on teaching. After turning it in I feel like I have connected better and been able to put all of my focus into my lesson plans 100%. Do you feel like it took away from your teaching at all?
Wowha! That is a heavy question when I think about the immense amount of work I put into this project called the TPA, and I not only did I learn a lot about teaching through this assignment, but I also learned a lot about myself as a person. When it comes to helping me as a teacher, the TPA forced me to truly reflect on the reasoning behind every single lesson, which forced me to reflect on why I am teaching in the first place!
Through completing the TPA I was able to learn how to time manage as a teacher, which is something that I have always struggled with, but the TPA helped me improve in this area. Through careful planning I realized that prepping for lessons is not just a write up. I noticed that by time managing when it came to planning my lessons I was able to have real think time about how I could make the lesson the best it could be for all my students.
I also learned what it meant to execute differentiated instruction throughout all lessons within a unit. The questions and requirements to meet the needs of ALL students in the class helped me learn how to be flexible with grouping in the classroom and focus on other ways of teaching, rather then falling back on whole group instruction and expecting all students to understand.
I learned how to utilize student voice, which is something we have always focused on throughout our program, but I really put into action when completing the TPA. I saw the real value in what student voice can and should bring to a lesson and delivery of instruction and assessments! It was a bit time consuming to interview students, but helped me think of faster ways to collect information from students throughout a lesson. I plan on really making student voice a part of my over all teaching philosophy throughout my career because of seeing the benefits of it through working on my TPA.
Cheryl-
I agree with the statement you made about the TPA not being a good “snap shot” of what we have learned through student teaching. Granted, I did get a lot out of working on this enormous project, but I think there is and should be a better way to reflect on your full time student teaching experience. I valued the filming and analyzing of our actual teaching, but the amount of analyzing our lessons and assessments was a bit over the top, and I know in the daily life of a teacher doing this for every single unit would be impossible with all the other demands! I hope the creators of this assignment listen to our feedback!
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