3/24/2021 Summative Evaluation
Summative Evaluation of Practicum
Master of Teaching
Teacher Candidate: Carmen Szeto
Year: 2 Practicum Session: 2
Dates: February 16, 2021 to March 12, 2021
Associate Teacher: Alan Tang
Grade level and/or subjects: Sci Gen/Chem/Bio
School: Northview Heights S.S.
Board: TDSB
PROFESSIONALISM
Carmen demonstrated exceptional professionalism throughout her practicum. She always came on time with
enthusiasm, energy, confidence, and a strong command of the class. She was always prepared for class, and
openly received feedback on her lessons. While she wasn’t actually qualified to teach my timetable, Carmen
was keen to learn the content and spend a lot of time preparing each lesson so that she was able to tie together
what I taught previously with the content that she taught. This is commendable, since it shows her dedication to
professional learning even though she was not trained on the content of the course in her studies. In addition to
her dedication and enthusiasm, she was always on time (early, in fact) and took the initiative to ask our vice
principal to watch her lesson, which shows her level of organization and confidence in her abilities. In addition,
she kept professional boundaries with students, including scheduling replies to student queries by email to
working hours of school days.
DIVERSITY AND EQUITY
Carmen planned each lesson with a focus on the diversity of the learners in class. She used differentiated
instruction and multiple platforms such as Padlet, Menti, and Slido, as well as splitting the room in discussions,
animated videos, and hands-on easy-to-do labs as well as an esters lab that she learned from scratch. We even
made butter! This kept students engaged and active throughout the lessons. Her content was culturally
relevant, where the topic was related to the students’ personal lives, in addition to a focus on socioeconomic
factors as well as an environmental focus. Her environmental focus was not lip service as sometimes an
environmental focus may seem. Instead, Carmen is a real environmentalist herself, and she debunked a lot of
myths that even I didn’t know were myths. Carmen also got to know the students through a questionnaire
Padlet that she designed, and asked students to contribute ideas and questions to structure her lesson. Thus
she was very responsive to the students in front of her. She also adapted her lessons to our virtual cohort where
she knew some ideas from class had to be modified to maintain their attention.
INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL / COMMUNITY LIFE
Carmen got to know the students’ goals for university (or other post-secondary goals) and provided advice for
some of the students. She went from breakout room to breakout room to help students when we provided time
for students to work on the website project that she designed on biopolymers. In addition, she asked students
to complete a self-assessment for the polymers website, and she learned a lot about the students through
reading their reflections. She was involved in our staff meeting as well. Since I was not running clubs this year, I
was not able to provide her with an experience with our clubs at Northview Heights, but she is already heavily
involved in Downsview Secondary School’s Built2Read program where she volunteers after school. This shows
Carmen’s commitment to student learning and building community, even for students who she does not teach
directly.
In addition, Carmen is volunteering to deliver her last lesson after practicum is over, even though she is not
required to do that at all. This shows her commitment to the students she taught even though it was not asked
of her.
UNDERSTANDING CURRICULUM AND THE LEARNER
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3/24/2021 Summative Evaluation
Carmen took a big risk with my grade 12 chemistry course as she was not even qualified to teach it based on
her teachables. She took the time to learn the curriculum, and also extend the learning into relevant application
topics. She made the curriculum come to life. She got students actively discussing chemistry topics that were
very interesting. She asked a guest speaker from Ripley’s Aquarium to speak to our class, and not only did she
provide topics that were relevant to the course for the guest speaker to speak about, she also submitted
questions from the class in advance so that the guest speaker would address topics that students were
interested in. She provided career insight into careers that I would not have been able to share with students
due to my own training.
As mentioned before, Carmen collected data from the students about what they would want her to teach, which
shows her responsiveness to her students. She also started her lessons with an intro about herself which was
very interesting and helped students build rapport with her. At the end of practicum, Carmen put together a
short presentation about life skills that she wished teachers taught in high school, and the students found it very
relevant and engaging.
ASSESSMENT, PLANNING AND INSTRUCTION
Carmen prepared her lessons well in advance of actually teaching them. She worked very well with the course
calendar with the quadmester hybrid model. Her lessons were always planned with active roles for students so
that they maintained their engagement. She addressed all learning needs, including musical learners when she
played music on a few occasions during a portion of her lesson. She uses a problem-solving approach in her
lesson style which was very engaging. For instance, she asked students to research the best doggy poop bag
for her new dog which she would receive at the end of practicum, and students learned about polymers and
recycling through this relevant, creative, and engaging activity.
As for assessment, Carmen designed two projects for the students that are very relevant to the students’ lives,
or a career that we explored. The projects were very well-planned, and clearly took a very long time and
creativity to imagine. She spent a lot of time assisting the students after a very clear delivery of the instructions.
She also compiled a website exemplar where she also put frequently-asked questions. The questions on her
assignments were of an appropriate level of challenge, with questions representing multiple levels of
achievement and Bloom’s taxonomy of questioning.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Carmen took command of the classes by not tolerating students talking while she was teaching She used a
seating plan regularly and called student names to address misbehaviour. She used techniques such as
proximity and pausing to get students to stop talking to each other and/or using their electronic devices. Part of
her management strategy came from her rapport with the students. Her confidence is also an asset, because
students knew that she could manage the class by just her demeanor. Her use of various activities to break up
her lessons into several active parts also kept the students engaged, which minimized behavioural problems.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
It was phenomenal to work with Carmen. She is very dedicated and organized. She is a type of teacher who has
“withitness”; she is a true “go-getter”. She even asked the office staff for a set of keys, which I didn’t even know
was something they would give to student teachers (now I know). It made her life (and mine) a lot easier when it
came to accessing various rooms at school. While she was in practicum, she shared with me that she got hired
onto the TDSB eligible to hire list, and was selected to join the occasional teacher list. This is reflective of how
she is never passive; she is always dedicated to doing everything that she possibly can to be the very best
teacher that she could be.
Overall appraisal: Pass Fail
Authenticity check: An original copy of this document can be downloaded directly from OISE’s servers at:
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