How New Jersey Educator Paul Nolan Tackled the edTPA, Advises New Teachers

Paul Nolan left his job as a teacher to enter into the business world. Years later, he left the business world to return to his roots. He had been yearning to go back and found an opportunity through a full-time substitute teaching position… and Rutgers Alternate Route.

“It was a tough decision to leave teaching many years ago, but I said if the opportunity presented itself, I would do it. And it did,” said Nolan, who holds a master’s degree in history from Rutgers and currently teaches social studies in New Jersey. 

Going through the Alternate Route program helped Nolan close the gaps between what he knew at the beginning of his teaching career and how pedagogy has evolved in his absence. 

According to Nolan, “the Alternate Route program was just what I needed.”

He cited how technological advancements over the years have forced him to re-evaluate the relationship between teachers and students - and said Alternate Route’s guidance helped him prepare for modern student-teacher relationships.

“When I first taught, I was the teacher, I knew everything,” Nolan said. “Now, you walk into a classroom and they all have devices - they have all the information at their fingertips. The big difference is how you connect with the students. I benefited from the various perspectives Alternate Route showed me to connect with students, because I’m not omnipotent.”

How to connect in modern classrooms wasn’t the only thing Rutgers Alternate Route program helped him tackle. He also leaned on the program’s resources when it came time to complete the edTPA.

How Alternate Route prepped Nolan for the edTPA

Nolan faced many challenges when he decided to get his teaching license, however, there was a new, unfamiliar challenge: the edTPA.

In 2017, the New Jersey Department of Education mandated that pre-service educators complete the assessment, which consists of recorded lessons and written commentary, before they receive their teaching license. The objective is for new teachers to show they understand the research behind how they plan and strategize in the classroom. 

Through the Rutgers Alternate Route program, Nolan received the training necessary to inform his teaching and help him complete the edTPA. He specifically raved about Alternate Route instructor Dr. Tammy Jenkins - or Dr. J, as she is affectionately called by her students. 

“The exercises she put us through were a great blend. A lot of work but a terrific blend,” he said. “The practicality of theory and application made you excited to put it into practice the next day in class.”  

That hard work is what helps Alternate Route candidates prepare for the edTPA, which Nolan describes as “daunting.”

“It makes you sweat. There’s a lot you have to think about, and a lot you have to execute in a certain way.”

What made Nolan sweat the most wasn’t the work itself, but uploading it. The final step in the edTPA process is left in the hands of technology - something that is not always reliable and can cause anxiety for edTPA completers, who are working with large files. 

“It really is a challenge because of how much you have to know, and it's pretty clear at what level you have to know the information, the execution and the actual uploading,” he said.

Reflecting on his edTPA experience, Nolan was particularly proud of the effort he put into the lesson-planning portion of the edTPA. For his plans, he sought feedback from Rutgers instructors, including Dr. J. The extra steps Nolan took paid off, but not without some healthy questioning. 

“Would I do it again? The answer would be ‘Yes,’ but when I was going through it, I was like ‘Why am I doing this? I don’t have to do this,’” he said. “Looking back, though, I survived it and the experience made me a better teacher.”

How Nolan is paying his edTPA experience forward

Currently, Nolan is working with a Rutgers Alternate Route candidate on their edTPA journey, providing mentorship and insight as they work through the state-mandated requirement. 

“He’s starting to sweat,” Nolan said. “This is when it starts to get real.”

During January and February, candidates are making sure their lesson plans and practice assessments are drawn up. They’re right in the middle of the process, which is where the edTPA can begin to feel daunting. One tip Nolan offers is to prioritize lesson plans.

“You get those lesson plans right, the rest will fall into place.”

Using his own experience, Nolan is helping his candidate with information he wished he knew when he was working on the edTPA. One thing he says candidates can do early is study the rubrics sooner and more thoroughly than is required. He also is a fan of the chunk-it method, or “taking a chunk of the edTPA and focusing on that.”

One strategy Nolan is currently working on with his mentee is hitting the writing sweet spot. With all the information available for teachers to pull from, it can be easy to write more than what’s necessary for the assessment. Currently, Nolan is advising his candidate on how to pull back from writing too much.

“Don’t try to put every educational theory, every educational guru in your assessments - pick what you’re really using,” Nolan said. “Use sparingly and strategically - don’t try to throw in 27 different theories.”

That’s because the edTPA assessment is not how much a pre-service educator knows, it’s how that educator strategically uses that information in their instruction. 

“The edTPA wants to know what aspects of the training you’re actually applying - that’s what you want to tie together.”

If you’re considering following your dream of teaching, Rutgers Alternate Route can offer you the support and training you need to succeed. Be sure to follow Rutgers Alternate Route on Twitter and sign up for Alternate Route’s monthly newsletter for more information and stories from the field of education.