edTPA Making Good Choices

The first time that I learned about the edTPA I panicked. I had no idea how I was going to fill out all 15 boxes and keep my lessons aligned. However, the more I practiced designing lesson plans, the less scary they became. While I do feel more confident about lesson planning, there are still a few areas that I need to improve on. For example, my assessment plan could improve and so could my parent/community connections. Even though my assessments do align with the learning objectives, I always tend to forget about the rubric unless I am asked to provide one. I know that there will not be a rubric for every lesson, but I still need to be thinking about how students are going to receive feedback from me. Then, for parent/community connections I tend to focus more on the parents than the community. I usually send out a letter at the beginning of a unit and emails when necessary. Lately, I have been considering creating a blog where parents/guardians can view what I am doing in class and give me feedback on how I am doing or what they would like to see done in class. Additionally, I plan to include a brief explanation of how skills being taught in class can be used in the community.

I know that all of my lesson planning practice will culminate with the edTPA. Although I have known about it for some time and have been preparing for it, it remains daunting. When I created my first lesson plan it was short, but now most of my lesson plans are at least five to six pages not including supplemental material. I hope that I can stay within the page limit for the edTPA. Another thing that worries me is recording myself teaching. Just the thought of that makes me cringe. I hate going back and watching myself do anything because I usually focus on what I did wrong instead of what I did well. This quarter I will be recording myself teach, so hopefully I can practice taking out the important details and putting them in a short video clip. Despite being nervous about the edTPA and having to record myself, I am happy that I know what I will be expected to do and still have time to prepare. Until then, I am going to work on polishing my lesson plans and getting comfortable in front of the camera.