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Section Five:
Teacher Candidate Reflection Guidelines

Introduction

This capstone portfolio project has been eye-opening and an amazing experience. I have

wanted to teach Elementary school since I was a young child and to think I am just a few months

away from this dream coming true is unbelievable. Choosing to complete my Masters was a

tough decision to make with all of the different pieces of the puzzle I needed to consider. With a

husband who travels for work a lot, and a young son at home, I needed the support from family

and friends to help my family through this time in our lives. I had the dream support team and I

wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. I am so proud of stepping out of my comfort zone

and pushing through the tough times to get me where I am today. I am so excited to get into the

classrooms for practicum and beyond. I have attended four different post-secondary education

institutions for various programs, Medaille College has been the most effective, where I have

learned the most valuable lessons and most applicable material. I am incredibly thankful for my

time at Medaille College in preparing me for the future. Section five of my portfolio is the final

reflection of looking back at my time at Medaille College and preparing to go into the classroom

for practicum. I will reflect on my time in the Medaille College classrooms and my own

experience in local classrooms. My teacher portfolio has helped me to collect the most effective

artifacts that showcase my true ability that employers would like to see.

Portfolio Project/Teacher Education Learning Experiences

Having an entire course dedicated to gathering important artifacts, and reflecting on our

experiences within our journey to become teachers has been a very valuable experience. It has

forced me to slow down and really look at the quality of work I have been producing over the
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course of the last year. When I was looking for artifacts I looked back to the first semester work,

specifically the very first lesson plan I wrote. As much as I was afraid of the quality I produced

in that first semester, when I looked at the lesson plan I was pleasantly surprised, it was better

quality than expected (DOE Claim #2: Pedagogy, and Best Teaching Practices; CAEP Standard

#1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge). If I were to use that lesson plan in the future there

would be very little I would change to have it classroom ready. This shows the quality of most of

the teaching at Medaille College.

I have always wanted to teach, just what I have wanted to teach has changed. My path to

having my own elementary school classroom has not been a conventional one but it has been one

that has made me appreciate what other educators do. I first completed my Early Childhood

Education Diploma at Conestoga College, went to complete my Bachelor of Early Childhood

Studies from Ryerson University and then finally completed my Masters of Science in

Elementary Education at Medaille College. Through this process I have gained more knowledge

and experiences both inside and outside the classrooms (DOE Claim #2: Pedagogy and Best

Teaching Practice; CAEP Standard #3: Candidate Quality, Recruitment and Selectivity). After

completing my Early Childhood Diploma, I worked in a daycare centre with preschool children.

At first, I loved it, I was very happy with the children I was working with and with my co-

workers. My enjoyment of that job made me question my teaching desire, maybe working with

preschool aged children was what I wanted and that is where my path would end. I was then

given the opportunity to move classrooms and work with the Kindergarten aged children. In this

time, I also started working on the school board in the Kindergarten classrooms. This is where

my dream of becoming a teacher was confirmed. I knew I wanted to work in the schools, it was

also confirmed that I wanted to work with students grade three to six. I wanted to create a
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program that was engaging and educational for students, I wanted to have a positive impact on

tomorrow’s future.

Many of the classes at Medaille College were very helpful, but one in particular was

EDU571: Technology for the Elementary Classroom. I have always believed there to be a place

for technology in the classroom but I was never confident in my abilities to successfully add it.

Through the Technology for the Elementary Classroom course I was gained knowledge and

understanding of tools to add to my teaching repertoire and teaching portfolio. I learned new

ways to engage my students in the lesson and have them as active participants in the lesson. The

most valuable assignments I took out of that class was creating my own SMART Notebook

lessons and a classroom website – both can be seen above as artifacts in section three. These two

assignments which encompass many tools for my toolbox in way to engage parents and students,

and to incorporate curriculum activities (DOE Claim #2: pedagogy and best teaching practices).

The world has drastically changed in the last few years and many school boards and districts are

implementing many technologies uses in the classrooms. It is important for me to be able to

demonstrate my abilities to future employers of how I plan to add technology to the classroom.

Because of the changes in the times, technology will have a large impact on my curriculum

delivery (CAEP Standard #4: Program Impact).

I am walking away from Medaille College with valuable knowledge but if there is one

thing I have learned, it is that my learning is far from over. I am forever going to be upgrading

my skills and keeping up to date with the latest and greatest technologies, policy and curriculum

changes and gathering new ideas to reach my students. I look forward to the opportunities that

await me, I look forward to forever updating and upgrading my resume with valuable courses

and learning opportunities.

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Readiness to Become a Teacher

Prior to starting the program, I felt optimistic in my ability to learn how to plan engaging

activities based on the required curriculum, however after completing the Medaille College

program I now feel confident in my abilities to plan curriculum with accommodations and

modifications for the students with IEPs or 504s and other needs in my classroom. I understand

that not every lesson is going to go completely according to plan but I am confident in my skills

to go with the flow and think on the fly and adapt as needed. Throughout the program I was

thankful to draw from my experiences in the classroom. Medaille College provided real world

experiences and real-world situations for us to work through and provide solutions to problems

posed.

My time at Medaille has given me a plethora of resources both online resources and

contacts within my cohort and professors who I can go to with questions. I am also excited to get

into the classroom for placement and beyond to ask questions to gain knowledge, strategies and

teaching material. Before starting at Medaille College, I started working in Kindergarten

classrooms as an Early Childhood Educator. Since starting Medaille College I have had the

opportunity to become an Emergency Supply Teacher in a few local Elementary schools. These

supply days have given me the opportunity to teach from someone else’s plans and also gather

ideas for how I want to set up my classroom and ways I would like to present different

curriculum expectations.

Conclusion

This is it, the final section. It seems so surreal to me that I have almost completed my

Masters program. This section has been more of a culmination of what this capstone includes and
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what I have gained from the program. Even though this has been a long process, I feel extremely

proud of my accomplishments. I feel that I have been able to be a great role model for my son to

show him that no matter how long it takes him to complete something, as long as he perseveres

through it will be worth it. I am incredibly excited for what the future has to hold for me.

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