edTPA Making Good Choices

The Making Good Choices handbook does a fantastic job of thoroughly explaining what is expected of teacher candidates. The guide is so thorough in its walkthrough of the edTPA process that it borders on cheating. The handbook shows teacher candidates how to go above and beyond when it comes to their edTPA's a fantastic example of going above and beyond is this bullet point from the handbook "Move beyond showcasing or summarizing your classroom practice. Write your commentaries in a way that shows you understand how your students learn, and identify and analyze what you do to help them learn and the evidence of their learning. edTPA provides an opportunity to reflect on your beginning teaching practice and what you have learned by planning, instructing and assessing student learning." (7). One of my favorite sections was the one where the handbook walked teacher candidates through how to justify their rationale for modifying mandated curriculum. Having no control over the curriculum that I teach has always been one of my biggest fears as a future teacher. The fact that this section talks about taking student's background and abilities into consideration when dealing with mandated materials has put my mind at ease. Another section that stood out to me as super useful was the one that deals with how to go about letting students with specific needs demonstrate their learning. The handouts suggestion on how to handle this situation is fantastic "You may need to design alternate assessments for one or more students with IEP/504 plans or other learning needs. In that case, the modified, differentiated versions of your selected assessments must still measure how well students understand what they are learning relative to the central focus, while reducing barriers to demonstrating learning and allowing students with specific needs to express their understanding in alternate ways." (20). This handout is a fantastic resource that I have bookmarked and plan on referring back to many times in the future. The best point that this handout makes can be found on page 7 "Perfect teaching is not expected.”