Michielsen Kallyn 1565157 f19 425 1

Advanced Field Experience Final Assessment
Student Teacher Name: Kallyn Michielsen ID Number: 1565157
Course: EDFX 425 Term: Fall 2019
Mentor Teacher Name: Keri Hove-Steiner University Facilitator Name: Caroline Lakusta
School Name: Terrace Ridge Elementary School District: Wolf Creek Publics Schools
Subjects: all subjects except music Grade Level(s): 2
Grade: It is recommended the student teacher receive Date: December 2, 2019

a grade of: CREDIT
Description of the school and context of teaching: Terrace Ridge is a school situated on the north end of
Lacombe, Alberta. Our school has a population of approximately 410 students PreK-grade 7. The school is in
the newest part of the city of Lacombe, which has a population of about 13,000.
NOTE: Prior to completing this document, please carefully review the instructions for
completion found in the appendix. The TQS is also available in the appendix.
Competency 1: Fostering Effective Relationships
A teacher builds positive and productive relationships with students, parents/guardians, peers and others in
the school and local community to support student learning.
(Note: For reference, the sample indicators associated with this competency are available in the appendix.)
Areas of strength: mentor teacher to complete
Kallyn is exemplary at fostering effective relationships. She values making a connection with all the students in
our classroom and is consistent with fairness and respect. Being patient and consistent has been important in her
dealings with some of students with emotional needs and Kallyn does this very well. She takes the time to greet
and talk with each student at the beginning of the day and creates a welcoming atmosphere. Students have come
to know that she genuinely cares about their well being and wants to learn about each and every one of them.
During parent teacher/guardian interviews she helped to build positive relationships with each family that
attended. Kallyn collaboratively planned our physical education classes with our grade two partners, so that
classes could have physical education lessons together. She has made positive relationships with our school
staff and administration team.
Distribution: Students need to retain a copy of the final assessment for their records. Undergraduate Student Services retains a copy according to the
faculty’s retention schedule. Copies will not be retained by mentor teachers, university facilitators, or employees of the University of Alberta without
written permission of the student teacher.
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Supporting evidence/examples of areas of strength: student teacher to complete (with guidance from
mentor teacher)
In my mentor classroom I promoted a fair classroom and showed my students respect. When dealing with
discipline issues, I made sure to remain calm and listen to my students. I did this to make sure my students felt
safe and heard in class. While on practicum, I developed many new relationships with both my mentor teacher
and the other staff within the school. To develop these relationships, I have participated in supervision both
during and after school, this gave me a chance to make connections with both educational assistants and other
teachers. When teaching social studies, I collaborated with the other grade 2 teacher and together we planned a
Christmas Around the World unit. We also collaborated on gym activities to keep the kids active and ensure the
lessons were developmentally appropriate. This gave me a chance to work with both the students in my class as
well as the students in the other grade 2 class. Our class also participated in buddy activities with both a grade 7
class and a grade 5/6 class. This gave me a chance to collaborate with other teachers from higher grades to plan
activities for both classes. It also gave me a chance to get to know other students within the school. I regularly
attended Professional Development Day Sessions, every second Friday, where I got the chance to spend time
with the staff and make new connections. I attended parent teacher interviews with my mentor teacher, which
gave me the opportunity to meet many of the parents of our students.
Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

Kallyn really shines in her ability to build positive working relationships with the students, EAs, teaching staff
and administration. I would encourage her to continue to notice not just the students who demand attention
daily, but also the cooperative and quiet students who could easily be missed during a lesson.
Strategies for ongoing growth: student teacher to complete (with guidance from mentor teacher)
I would like to continue to develop relationships with the FNMI members within the community so that my
students are able to learn more about FNMI history from Elders in the community. When teaching I found it
hard at times to connect with all the students everyday, due to the diverse learning needs in our classroom. In
the morning I tried to say good morning to all my students. This way if I became busy in the day, I still was able
to connect with each student. I would like to continue to work towards making sure that I touch base with every
student throughout the day in order to make stronger connections with my students.
Competency 2: Engaging in Career-Long Learning

A teacher engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical reflection to improve teaching
and learning.
Kallyn participated willingly in all our professional development days and took the time to talk with our grade
level team members. Coming from an Educational Assistant background, she approached planning for support
for student learning and emotional needs with confidence. Kallyn was patient and adaptive to meet the needs of
our grade two students. She made herself available daily to reflect on her teaching and discuss lesson or unit
progressions, along with student progress. She was quick to notice the diverse learning needs of the students in
our classroom and make suggestions to support our weakest learners. In our grade two class we have students
who are non-readers to mid-level grade three readers. Kallyn was open to learning from not just the teaching
staff but also our highly skilled EA, who was shared between both grade two classes. In our grade two
classroom, we have a student identified with severe ADHD and general anxiety disorder, a student with a severe
emotional disorder who appears to lack empathy and a student who has lost his only parent to cancer over the
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summer break. Kallyn was able to remain consistent and calm, regardless of the behaviors and needs that arose
during the day with our twenty-five students. During our school professional development days, we focused on
literacy, FMNI and developing intervention learning plans to support our students. Using the giant Indigenous
Map, First Nations elder Josephine Small taught our grade two students and staff about how Canada was before
Europeans arrived and how it changed after Europeans arrived. Kallyn helped to promote cultural
understanding, when the students were invited to step onto the giant map and look for the symbols discussed to
identify locations of reserves and residential schools.
mentor teacher)
While on my practicum I came in early to collaborate with my mentor teacher regarding lessons or events/
activities happening. At the end of each day I would stay after school to help set up the classroom and connect
with my mentor teacher regarding past and future lessons. I would also make time to connect with the other
grade 2 teacher regarding lessons and plans for the gym. During after school meetings, I would connect with my
mentor teacher on ways of modifying lessons to meet the needs of all my students. When working with students
within the classroom, I collaborated with the educational assistant in my class to be proactive for when we
didn’t have an Educational Assistant to help prevent negative student behaviours and to support my students
needs. I attended PD sessions on different ways to incorporate technology within the classroom, FMNI, as well
as, promoting literacy within the classroom. During a class activity our students went to a presentation on the
history of FNMI and it gave us a chance to identity and learn about where FNMI reserves are and where
residential schools are.

Kallyn is open to learning more about the approaches to teaching printing, story development and supporting
students in small groups within the classroom setting. She seems to instinctively recognize the need to work
with students in smaller groups while managing the class as a whole group. When class sizes are large and
Educational Assistant support is limited to only a few periods a day, it becomes essential to train students to
learn to work independently. Through her student teaching she came into classes that had most of the daily
routines established. I would encourage her to explore how these routines are formed at the beginning of the
year through structures such as Daily Five or Workshop model teaching.
To improve my growth of career long learning I hope to continue to learn about how other teachers promote an
inclusive environment and learn about other ways teachers integrate technology within their classroom.
Through teaching experience, I want to develop ways in which I can have whole group learning as well as small
group learning such as reading groups. I also want to learn more ways to help those students who are ahead in
their learning and give them a chance to be challenged in the classroom.
Competency 3: Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge

A teacher applies a current and comprehensive repertoire of effective planning, instruction, and assessment
practices to meet the learning needs of every student.
Kallyn created sequential lessons using the program of studies to complete a unit of study in math, social
studies and science. She also planned and taught lessons in language arts to support reading and writing
strategies being taught from the program of studies. The students especially enjoyed the writing lesson she
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created using children’s literature as a model to follow. In an interactive writing lesson, the students created a
class book that followed the writing pattern and goals of her writing lesson. Then students were given guided
practice to create their own stories using the same pattern. In this series of lessons, Kallyn demonstrated a clear
understanding of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model in teaching students. She collaborated with our
grade two partners to plan for developmentally appropriate physical education classes that included warm-up
activities. Kallyn integrated social studies into her art lessons and referred to phonetic word patterns as they
came up in her science and social studies lessons. During her time in our grade two class she used technology,
when it was appropriate, to teach and to review concepts being taught. Kallyn showed a solid understanding of
how important it is to connect student background knowledge with new learning. As students worked, she gave
timely and specific feedback to help the student’s make progress in their learning and took the time to work
with students struggling to grasp numeracy concepts individually with hands on materials. Her lessons were
engaging and included a variety of excellent teaching strategies including similarities and differences. Kallyn
developed her own formative assessments to finish her math, social studies and science units. Her assessments
were appropriate for the grade level and student learning needs in our classroom. As part of our school
assessments to show student growth, our teachers prepare both digital and binder portfolios. Kallyn helped to
choose student work and create assignments to be added to show student learning based on the program of
studies.
mentor teacher)
During parent teacher interviews I was able to discuss the assignments and assessments I had chose for the
portfolio and how it showed evidence of learning. While working with my students, I learned what the students
were interested in and I was able to help create assignments based on learning activities they would enjoy. By
collaborating with my mentor teacher and the other grade 2 teacher, I was able to develop new ideas on how to
teach different units and how to adapt them to meet my students' learning needs. When teaching I make sure to
explain my expectations to my students for the assignment, for example for writing I looked for punctuation,
capital letters and phonetic spelling that showed the student attempted to sound out the letters within a word.
While working on writing assignments, I would give my students feedback to help them improve their writing. I
would also provide my students with feedback after completing their writing to help improve their future
writing. While on practicum, I helped run a small imagine learning group where students developed reading
skills on the computer. In the classroom, I helped promote numeracy through movement and hands on activities.
I created a unit for my students to learn about patterns by using pattern blocks so students could create and
extend block patterns.

Kallyn will be successful in any elementary grade level she is given. It will be important for her to take the time
to develop units and lessons based on the program of studies, as she did for her practicum experience. I would
encourage her to keep the outcomes in a place where she can easily refer to them as she is working through her
units of study. One of the challenges of teaching is ensuring that there are assignments, projects or assessments
to show student learning for each outcome. Generating more than one piece of evidence to inform instruction or
to demonstrate learning is important.
I would like to continue my development of student assessment and evaluation. When it came time to creating
unit tests for my students I found it somewhat difficult, because I wanted to make sure my students were being
tested on what they learned, while making sure my tests were fair and that all my students would be successful.
I collaborated and communicated with my mentor teacher when it came to creating unit tests and study guides
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for my students. In the end my students were successful. I also would like to continue to develop different ways
to assess my students to meet their different learning needs.
Competency 4: Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments

A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments where diversity is embraced and
every student is welcomed, cared for, respected and safe.
Kallyn worked in an inclusive classroom with twenty-five grade two students. Three students in our grade
two class have been diagnosed with emotional needs and several students are working below a grade two
level in literacy and numeracy skills. Our grade two class shares an Educational Assistant with the other
grade two class, giving us support for no more than half a day. Many of the students in our class have a
difficult time working independently, even when the work is differentiated to their own learning level. Four
students in our classroom are on an individual learning plan (two primarily for emotional needs) and seven
other students are on adapted learning plans. In addition to students working below grade level, we also have
several students above a grade two level in their literacy skills. This grade two class is not a typical grade two
group of students and present with some challenges in both learning and behavior. Kallyn has shown
exemplary skills in managing the diverse learning and emotional needs in this grade two group. Her approach
to the challenges were varied and consistent to support each student. Kallyn believes that every student can
learn, when their learning is differentiated to support their learning style and level of understanding. She
adjusted tasks to help students experience success at their level and challenged students to work in the zone of
proximal learning. Our grade two students sit at six tables in our classroom and she helped to plan seating
arrangements to support optimal student learning, while considering mental wellness needs.
mentor teacher)
When establishing an inclusive learning environment, I made sure that my grade 2 students were all included.
During classroom activities, I made sure that my students felt cared for and were treated fairly. When my
students were having issues with friendships, I made sure that I listened to both sides of an argument and then
we came to an agreement. In science, when I was teaching my students about the water cycle, I provided them
with different options when it came to creating their own water cycle drawing. I provided them with the words,
but I gave them the option on how they drew their pictures and how they incorporated their arrows. In math
when teaching addition and subtraction the students were given the option of counting using their fingers,
counters, a number line or a hundred chart. This gave them the option to choose the option that best suited their
needs. This also gave me the opportunity to work with students who needed extra help. Having experience
working as an educational assistant, gave me a greater level of understanding towards ways student learning
needs are met and helped me to address their needs. During my practicum I also helped make seating plans to
help make sure students would work well in the spot they were placed.

Kallyn is learning another strategy to support students, who react inappropriately to daily events. Students are
asked to use a scale to rate how big their problem is with clear examples of each level on the scale to refer to
from their own experience. When a student is having a temper tantrum or fits of crying, she is seeing how
talking through this scale to rate the size of the problem helps to reduce an upset student’s reaction to less
serious problems. I would encourage her to continue to seek out new strategies to help support student needs.
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I would like to continue to develop my understanding of differentiation to meet student learning needs. I will
develop this by learning about my students by talking to my student’s past teachers and family to learn about
what activities work well and don’t work well. I want to be open to learning about new ways to help all students.
I would also like to learn more about what inclusive students need and be open to learning new ways to help
them succeed in the classroom. I also want to incorporate more student leadership in my future classroom.
Competency 5: Applying Foundational Knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit
A teacher develops and applies foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit for the benefit of
all students.
Areas of strength:
Kallyn is proficient in applying foundational knowledge of FMNI. In our social studies unit on Meteghan,
Kallyn talked about the Mik maq people. She also attended our school professional development days, which
occur every second Friday, and participated in FMNI staff learning. One of our professional development days
included a poverty simulation activity that she participated in. Elder Josephine Small came in to teach our grade
two students, using the giant Indigenous Map, about Canada and how it changed with the European settlement
and the introduction of reserves and residential schools. Kallyn participated along with the students and
modelled cultural respect towards the elder.
mentor teacher)
During my practicum, I communicated with my mentor teacher about different types of books I could use in my
classroom on FMNI topics or written by FMNI and approved by Alberta government to use in a classroom. I
attended Professional Development sessions on FNMI where we discussed the history and how we can
incorporate FNMI into our classrooms. I got the FNMI specialist at out school to share her power point
presentation with me so that I can continue to follow along with the Terrace Ridge schools learning on FNMI as
the year goes on. When teaching social studies to our students I helped teach about the Mi’kmaq and how they
related to our Meteghan unit. On one of our professional development sessions, we had Elder Josephine Small
come in and do a poverty simulation with the staff. This gave us an opportunity to learn about being in the
position of someone who lives in poverty. It was a powerful session that gave us the opportunity to think about
the positions some of our students and their families are in. Elder Josephine Small also came in on another day
to share the giant indigenous map with our students to walk on and look for reserves and residential schools. I
made sure to show respect to those involved in the poverty simulation and towards Elder Josephine Small.

It is important to learn about the treaties and agreements with First Nations, Metis and Inuit people. As a teacher
I would encourage her to find the areas in her grade level curriculum to add in their perspective. Together
Kallyn and I discussed many of the great books written for students to gain understanding of FMNI
perspectives. I shared a book list with her and would encourage her to begin to collect these books for her
classroom teaching library.
I would like to continue to develop my understanding of First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) even more
throughout my teaching career. I would like to continue to build my resource collection of books and activities
so I can help teach my students about the history and experiences of the FNMI people. By continuing to read
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through Terrace Ridge schools FNMI power point, I will be able to continue to increase my knowledge on this
topic. I hope to attend more PD sessions on FNMI throughout my teaching career.
Competency 6: Adhering to Legal Frameworks and Policies

A teacher demonstrates an understanding of and adherence to the legal frameworks and policies that provide
the foundations for the Alberta education system.
Kallyn conducted herself as a professional working under the legal frameworks and policies teachers are
expected to adhere to. During her time at Terrace Ridge School, she has gained the respect of both our students
and parents. She was exemplary.
mentor teacher)
While on practicum, I made sure to adhere to the legal policies and procedures of the school. In doing this I
dressed professionally, and I made sure that I treated both my students and staff with respect. During parent
teacher interviews I gained the respect of the parents of students by making sure I communicate positively with
them. I promoted the policies and procedures within the school by making sure my students were following the
rules.

I would encourage Kallyn to bring her questions as they come up to her school administration and/or her local
ATA. By becoming actively involved in a leadership within the school in some capacity, Kallyn can gain
another perspective and greater understanding of the procedures used within a school to maintain policy and
build positive relationships with groups such as parent councils.
I hope to continue to develop my understanding of the policies and procedures of the future school I will be
working at. I will make sure I am positive about my future school and I will continue to dress and speak
professionally with both the staff, students and guardians at my future school. I would like to continue to
develop and learn more from the ATA, as well as, build relationships with those involved in parent council.
Final Comments
Mentor teacher summative comments: Considerations include organizational skills, ability to work with
others, ability to self-reflect and self-assess, extra-curricular involvement, ability to engage students,
adaptability, work ethic, resilience, etc.
Kallyn is an exemplary student teacher, who is ready to step into the teaching profession. It has been a pleasure
to work with her. She has a positive attitude towards teaching and has a natural gift in building relationships
with people, especially with children. Our grade two students loved having her come to teach them and know
she genuinely cares about them. Making a connection with each student is essential in creating an excellent
learning environment. Kallyn was quick to get to know each student and learn about their academic needs.
Having experience as an Educational Assistant prepared her for the adaptability needed, as a teacher, in a
classroom with diverse learning and emotional needs. Her love of teaching is evident in how she engages the
students in her purposefully planned lessons. From the opening of our classroom to the end of the school day,
Kallyn demonstrated solid organizational skills and an awareness of the routines of our day. Kallyn showed
growth in her classroom management skills and created engaging student activities that were meaningful. Using
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movement breaks, she was able to maintain student stamina and focus on learning tasks. She recognizes that
there are many parts to teaching reading that requires a systematic approach with opportunities to work with
students individually or in smaller groups to allow for differentiation. Students who are working below grade
level often require a reader or scribe or opportunities to draw to show their learning and she made plans to
include the needs of students working below grade level for both learning tasks and assessment. Kallyn is a
teacher, who will work hard to become knowledgeable in what ever grade level she is hired to work with. She
has a strong work ethic and will be a great addition to any school team.
Student teacher reflective comments: Considerations include what you feel you can contribute to a learning
and teaching environment, what created dissonance and how you overcame it, how you implemented
feedback and/or professional development opportunities and their results, ways in which this field experience
shaped your evolving philosophy of education, etc.
I am eager to step into my own classroom and feel I have grown as an educator in my final teaching practicum.
Having students with diverse learning needs can be challenging, especially within a large class setting. With
purposeful and systematic planning to meet each student’s learning needs I can provide my students with an
inclusive classroom environment where all students can be successful and make gains in their learning. When I
was given feedback from my mentor teacher, I applied it directly to my teaching practices and looked for ways
to continue to learn as a professional. I will continue to put connection as a priority in my own classroom.
Students we know learn best when they feel understood, safe and valued. Every student can learn and deserves
to have support to help him/her meet their full potential.
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Advanced Field Experience Final Assessment

Student Teacher Name: Kallyn Michielsen ID Number: 1565157

Course: EDFX 425 Term: Fall 2019

Subjects: all subjects except music Grade Level(s): 2

Grade: It is recommended the student teacher receive Date: December 2, 2019

Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

Competency 2: Engaging in Career-Long Learning

Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

Competency 3: Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge

Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

Competency 4: Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments

Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

Competency 6: Adhering to Legal Frameworks and Policies

Areas for growth: mentor teacher to complete

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