PROFESSIONAL SEMESTER THREE: Final Report

Kirby Dietze
Administrator:

Intern Teacher: Mariah Besplug

Administrator Comments:
It has been a pleasure to have Mariah Besplug as an intern teacher in our school this semester. She became part of our
school team, in many ways, but specifically in Gr. 9, taking on the semestered Social Studies for 9B and both 9A and 9B for p.
6 and 7 ELA. She took on the assignment of teaching both quarter one Drama, culminating with a performance at out
Remembrance Day Ceremony and has also begun quarter two The Brain option although she wont be continuing after the
Christmas break. Extracurricularly, she volunteered to take on the coaching role for our Gr. 7 Girls Volleyball team and has
also assisted the High School Girls basketball coaches as well. And to top it off, her Professional Project this fall surveyed our
students and parents about their most valued extracurricular activities. Her preparedness, overall competency and exemplary
professionalism leads me to a full endorsement of her as a teacher ready for her first year of teaching.

In observing her teach I was excited to see her intention of making the content of Social Studies relevant to her students. She
intentionally engaged their previous understanding of the content, and then she created activities that kept students engaged.
She was also intentional with activities that allowed students to be moving around the classroom while engaging with content.
Students responded well to her attempts to keep them engaged, at times becoming over exuberant in their responses.
Mariahs ability to rein the students in and get back to her learning objectives developed over the semester, and is certainly a
strength she carries into future practice. Through all of those activities her high expectations of students learning and
achievement were obvious, and students were proud of the work they were doing in Social Studies or ELA. Classroom
routines were clearly in place every time I visited her classroom, whether I was there for a brief moment or an extended
observation, so established that neither transitions, nor students arriving late or needing to leave caused any interruption.

Both Mariahs unit and lesson planning and her assessment planning is also exemplary. She seems to have a good handle on
matching engaging activities with appropriate timing to reach the outcomes she has determined for her lessons. Her plans that
combined both ELA and Social Studies, a novel study about a youth in custody combined with the Judicial System unit was
masterful. We had a great professional conversation around her decision to include only the excellent descriptors for
students when she provided them the rubric for her poetry project. Her records were kept well, and she was able to comment
appropriately on student progress on the report cards.

In our discussions post observation, Mariah showed a mature ability to reflect on her classroom experiences and lesson
development. She was able to articulate intentional actions and responses when questioned about specific student behaviour,
that showed her excellent understanding of the student, the curriculum and her role as teacher. She was also able to articulate
how she might adjust what she had chosen to do in the future based on feedback from students during her lessons. This
maturity also showed during staff meeting discussions and within her Gr 9 Team, where she was able to offer opinions and
suggest possible solutions in a highly professional manner.

Mariahs seamless fit into our school team was amazing to witness. Not all PSIII students come with the quiet confidence and
the well developed skills Mariah had walking in the door. She has grown in experience over the last few months, and I wish
her growth on the same trajectory in her future ventures.

Administrator Signature Date

This page is to be returned to the UC to be included in the PS III Final Report.

University of Lethbridge: PS III Final Report (Revised: Nov 2017) 5