Welcome to Graduation

Well, I made it.

In the morning, I walk to campus as I've done so many times this year, but this time I'll keep walking to Franklin Field. Then I'll wait for a long time. Then I'll walk a tiny bit more, and for some reason that time I'll get to hear lots of cheers and applause.

I guess if people clapped every time I walked, it would lose its meaning. So that's why graduation is special.

Also this: come tomorrow, I won't just be "Jesse Gottschalk;" I'll be "Jesse Gottschalk, M.S.Ed.," or as I'll demand people refer to me, "Jesse Gottschalk, Master of Science."

And yeah, I'll be done with grad school, although as I've said before, I've basically been done for weeks now. My last day of student teaching was three weeks ago; my final portfolio was done a couple days later. We had one final seminar ten days ago, which was actually pretty nice: our professor brought in cookies for us, and gave us pretty much the entire time to share our portfolios and classroom takeover experiences with one another. That was pretty awesome -- I have a lot of respect for my classmates, so I was excited to hear more about what they had done.

The real conclusion of our program was on Monday, when they threw us a nice dinner together with some of our faculty and all of our Penn Mentors.

My final portfolio

Curious what a Master's Portfolio for the Teacher Ed Program could look like? I've decided to go ahead and post mine here, to give an example. Note that we get a lot of flexibility and leeway, so I know for a fact that others' portfolios looked totally different. But here's my example.

The assignment, basically is: take an inquiry question (some fundamental question about the practice of teaching), and apply as much evidence as possible from your year of student teaching/grad school to construct a response.

Here's what I came up with: http://teacherjg.weebly.com/final-portfolio-differentiation.html

As a bonus, you can click around and see my Term III and Term IV assignments, which I blogged about previously:

Term III
Term IV

What does the future hold, Mr. Gottschalk?

As of my second-to-last day of blogging, 5/16, I can officially say...well, I still don't know what I'm doing next year. That's not really unusual or surprising, lots of schools are just getting their hiring processes going. I do have one job prospect that I'm really crossing my fingers for -- it's a school I'd love to work at, and I've had two interviews and a demo lesson, as well as a number of email exchanges. I hope to hear back in the next week, maybe I'll tack on an extra blog post to celebrate if I get that job.

That's assuming I can still edit this blog after I graduate -- though, since it's run through my Google Account, I don't see how they could stop me. I could go on posting forever, and they probably couldn't do anything about it if they wanted to (the sinister "they," in this case, applying to the Admissions Department, a group with whom I have nothing but positive relationships, but that's beside the point).

In any event, that's where I stand on the big question -- Where will I teach next year? -- to which I sadly must respond with uncertainty. In no particular order, here are some answers to other questions that no one in particular is asking:


What will I teach next year?

My certification is in PreK-4. My student teaching was in Kindergarten and 3rd grade, and I'd be really happy with either of those or anything in between. To be completely honest, however, I'd have to say that at the moment I'm more excited about Kindergarten.

A word to prospective and future members of the elementary program: consider Kindergarten.

Endgame

Aftermath. Graduation is Saturday, but really it's all over except the formalities.

Not even a lot of those, really. On Monday, our program has its farewell dinner, some sort of heartwarming affair where we eat with our faculty and our mentors all say nice things about us. On Friday there's another optional dinner, where our program celebrates alumni who have finished five years of teaching. I'm still awaiting feedback on my final portfolio, though I know it was "accepted" without need for revision. My certification paperwork is pending.

On the "completed" list, alongside my portfolio you can add student teaching, classes, and fixing my flat tire which apparently had a nail in it.

So am I celebrating yet? I guess you could call it that. I went for a hike in the Wissahickon (one of my favorite parts of Philly, a pretty massive forested area, with plenty of paths, that's big and secluded enough that you can actually forget that you're still well inside the city limits), along with some classmates. I've had nights of porches and parties, I'm reading and cooking more, and I'm doing my laundry before I run out of clean clothes.

At the same time...I don't exactly feel like I'm out of the woods yet. Three significant obligations remain, regardless of the TEP-sized hole in my schedule.

So, Jesse, what DID you teach?

My last blog post was on the extensive, thorough, and thoughtful curricular plans which I then completely disregarded.

But what did I teach instead?

Poetry. And Weather. Yes.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I changed my plans in response to what the rest of the Kindergarten grade group was planning at the time I would be teaching. And frankly, I got really excited about a unit on weather and poetry (I was also doing shapes for math, but that was less exciting to me). My first idea, upon considering the topics, was to focus on observation -- leading up to spending time outside, "observing like a scientist" and "observing like a poet."

And, because I was the teacher, I went ahead and did it.

Along the way, we did lots of other things. We made wind gauges, and a cloud in a jar, and a big phony thermometer. We wrote poems about nature, emotions, and ourselves. We read lots of poems and books, we made cotton ball clouds and cut paper collages, and we got to spend time outside on several days. It was pretty great.

So about that Term IV...

Term IV was a strange beast. Basically covering the first two months of the spring semester, the Term IV assignment was about creating a multidisciplinary two-week lesson plan. The assignment was due in early March, not long before members of my class began taking over their classes for two weeks at a time. Not a coincidence, to be sure, and a great opportunity to really put a lot of focused effort into planning for our takeovers.

So why did I end up setting aside my Term IV curriculum from the moment I turned it in, and writing an entirely new plan?

Some honest talk, pros and cons, about Term IV below.

Beginning the recap...

Well, I'm actually reaching the point where some things are wrapping up. I'm finishing work on my portfolio, which means I'm nearly done with grad school. I'm finished with my full takeover weeks in my student teaching classroom, so that's another huge project off my shoulders. The job search is...still ongoing, and probably will be for a while. Still, of the three biggest things I've been working on, having two out of three basically done is a petty big deal.

So, over the remaining couple weeks of the program, while I might have some new developments come up to write about, it's time to flip the switch and begin the recaps. That's especially necessary now since I haven't blogged in a couple weeks, so you readers don't know much, for instance, about my Term IV assignment, or about my student teaching takeover, or about what it's like applying for jobs in Philly (though it would be nice to be able to hold off on that one until I, you know, get one...).

I'm officially signing off on May 16th, which means I have just a little over three weeks left here. Got questions you want me to answer online, or topics you'd like me to cover in that time? Email me at gojesse@gse.upenn.edu.

Oh, and happy Earth Day!