Writing for the edTPA is not a small undertaking. It is a 50+ page portfolio that serves to analyze and justify a snapshot of all the hard work put into your student teaching. For a novice teacher, this can feel utterly overwhelming; having been through it, I can tell you it is. Asking a pre-service teacher to learn how to write and execute lesson plans, build a classroom community, and effectively wade through assessments and differentiating techniques all while filming, analyzing, and justifying their teaching methods is really tough. Additionally, if you are in a state where passing the edTPA is consequential to licensure, the fate of your career lies in the hands of this high-stakes assessment. But success is possible, and I am here to share important learnings from my experience that may hopefully help you to better tackle the edTPA.
…when I was student teaching my life felt overwhelming.
In full disclosure, when I was student teaching my life felt overwhelming. It had taken me eight long years to get to this point and, in some ways, I still couldn’t believe I was finally in a real classroom. For my student teaching placement, I lucked out with a wonderful group of 2nd graders and an amazing mentor teacher, but I was the first student teacher she had ever had. She left me alone in the classroom early and often and I found myself exhausted at the end of each day. On top of that, halfway through my practicum, my brother-in-law died in a motorcycle accident. It was a lot.
About two weeks before my practicum ended, I started to come up for air and realized that time was rapidly slipping away and my edTPA was looming. I wrote out the lesson plans for the learning segment, filmed every single lesson, gathered up any evidence or assessments I thought I might need, and essentially forgot about it.
It wasn’t until mid-July when I had interviewed for and accepted a teaching position that I even began to start working on my edTPA. Looking back, it was most definitely not the smartest decision I could have made, but in the process, I learned a lot about myself and how to approach the edTPA in a way that is manageable.
Manage your Time
One of the first and most important skills I learned was how to manage my time. Once I had accepted my new job, I had exactly 20 days to write my entire edTPA and a hard deadline that, if missed, would completely jeopardize my employment. On day 1 of 20, I wrote for about five hours and barely made a dent. In a moment of disbelief and panic, I realized if I was ever going to finish my edTPA, I was going to have to chunk my time as much as I could.
Throughout the 20 days, I spent anywhere between three to eight hours a day writing. When I would get stuck, I gave my writing (and myself) room to breathe. I quickly learned that the worst thing you can do is keep pushing when you’ve hit a wall. You get sloppy and end up with poor quality writing that you will need to go back and fix anyway.
Lean into your Support System
Next, I had a support system in place. I had two close friends who were also fellow teacher candidates working on their edTPA. I invited them to my house at least three times a week for work sessions. As the deadline began to close in on us, they started coming over every single day to work. The benefits of this partnership were two-fold, the chief benefit being that I had accountability partners. I knew I couldn’t make up excuses if people were showing up to my house every day. The second benefit of this support group was that I had people with educational knowledge and background to bounce my thoughts off of and read my work. A fresh pair of eyes can make a world of difference, especially with a project of this magnitude.
Take Advantage of Resources
Another learning from my edTPA experience was the importance of using all available resources. One of the toughest parts of writing the edTPA was trying to grasp what an ideal response to any given prompt might look like. There are many handbooks that come with the edTPA yet the Understanding Rubric Level Progressions was by far the most helpful. I would write a response and put it up against the rubric to see if I had hit all of the key components. This practice was the driving force behind my ability to stay on track. I was also able to get a hold of some exemplars from my college program and these helped immensely with finding my voice when writing my responses.
Believe in Yourself
Finally, in the end, what truly got me through the edTPA was belief in myself. I had to actively push aside self-doubts and hush the internal critic or I would have fallen apart. As cliche as it may sound, throughout those long and stressful 20 days, the only constant was my belief that I would pass. You must remind yourself, each day, you’ve got this, you will meet the deadline, and you will be successful. Coupling these beliefs with resources & a support system will put you in a better position to more effectively tackle the edTPA.
Pathway to Teaching
Themes of differentiation, networking, and organization are interwoven throughout Pathway to Teaching and aim to better prepare the soon-to-be teacher at each step. The strategies address a range of pressing topics for teacher candidates that include preparing for the edTPA™ – a nationwide teacher assessment – to providing classroom management techniques during student teaching to ideas on self-care. Pathway to Teaching also supports the aspiring teachers in finding their dream teaching job through strategies on building a professional network to preparing for that all-important job interview.
