The Grid and what it means to me.

Yesterday was Penn GSE's annual Fall recruitment event! We had well over 100 people come to Philly (some from as far away as D.C. and Tennessee) to learn about all of the great programs GSE has to offer. I was happy to see a group of people turn up to learn more about the Teacher Education Program, and I hope I did a good enough job of convincing them to apply/come to TEP! While most of my responsibilities as a Graduate Assistant involve putting in hours at the Admissions desk answering phones or contacting prospective students, it meant a lot to be able to talk about my own program and all it has to offer. As I told the group on :, when I applied to the TEP at Penn, I knew that if I didn't get in, I would really have to think about what my next steps were going to be. For me, it was the only program I wanted to be a part of, and I'm pleased to report that after four months, I still feel that way!

After I was accepted to the TEP, I went to an Accepted Students Day event just for my program. I met a few of my current classmates and it was such an exciting day. I remember getting a piece of paper that had the program layout on it in a lovely, organized grid. The progression of the program through different terms and focuses really attracted me to the TEP. Here is a brief snapshot of each term in case it's hard to see the picture I included:

*these dates are for next year*

Term I: July 1 - August 14

• Focus of inquiry: Neighborhoods and Schools
• Fieldwork: PreK field placement, most likely in the same neighborhood you will be student teaching in the fall
• Major assignment: Neighborhood Study - my first big grad school assignment; nearly killed me, but in retrospect it really wasn't too bad.

Term II: August 26 - October 9 

• Focus of inquiry: Learners and Learning
• Fieldwork: 2 days a week in a K-4 grade classroom (emphasis on observing and working 1:1)
• Major assignment: Child Study - my second big grad school assignment; see previous blog posts for how I dealt with this assignment…

Term III: October 12 - December 18

• Focus of inquiry: Pedagogy
• Fieldwork: still 2 days a week, but the focus shifts from working with one student to working with small groups
• Major Assignment: Integrated inquiry into practice - you come up with a question about instruction (e.g. What is the ideal balance of teacher-talk to student-talk? How can I make sure that students with varying levels of ability reach the same goal?) and then teach four lessons to small groups: one each in Social Studies, Science, Math, and Literacy. During each lesson, you focus on answering the question and analyzing your teaching. This is the Term I am currently in and I promise to write another blog post about how it's going!

Term IV: January 4 - February 1

• Focus of inquiry: Curriculum
• Fieldwork: 4 days a week in a different grade level and the emphasis is now on whole class instruction
• Major Assignment: Curriculum design - looking forward to this assignment!

Term V: February 1 - May 6 --- then you'll graduate on May 16, 2016!

• Focus of inquiry: Praxis (not the test, rather the practice of teaching)
• Fieldwork: 5 days a week in the grade level you started student teaching in Term IV 
• Major Assignment: Master's portfolio in the form of a website and PDE student teaching evaluation

I think this layout is really beneficial to my fellow classmates and me. We know what the expectations are for each part of our program, as does every one of our professors and Classroom Mentors, and I have really appreciated easing into my student teaching placement. The focuses of inquiry have been very helpful guidelines as well. There is a big difference between focusing on how students learn and focusing on how to teach, and the Terms allow me to take one thing at a time as opposed to attempting to learn about all of the dimensions of teaching at once. 

When I was holding the program layout in my hand and talking to prospective students, I felt like I was still in their shoes, just waiting to start at Penn. I can't believe I'm already three terms in and well on my way to becoming a teacher! I'm relieved to have Terms I and II behind me, but I know that more challenging days are ahead. However, I also know that the bar for what I label as "challenging" is getting higher and higher. Bah! 

With that eloquent ending, I'll end this post.

p.s. For all my fellow Whovians who need to relax: enjoy!