Kayla Fitzgerald's Professional Portfolio
Content Knowledge
Human Development and Learning
Diversity
Planning for Instruction
Learning Environment
Instructional Delivery
Communication
Assessment
Collaborative Relationships
Reflection and Professional Growth
Professional Conduct
Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, methods of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) and creates learning experiences that make the content meaningful to students.Students need a safe, exciting environment in order to learn. I believe the teacher's classroom management will determine if the classroom is safe, and the excitement comes when students are involved in their learning process. When students are actively engaged, they will actually remember the teacher's instruction. I did many hands-on activities. My students were learning about bridges. They did their own research, created their own toothpick bridges, and presented their information to the rest of the class. I beleive they will remember this activity and the type of bridge they made for years to come.
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Human Development and Learning
The teacher understands how individuals grow, develop, and learn and provides learning opportunities that support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.Intellectual, social, and personal development of all students is extremely improtant. I am a huge advocate of teaching students to be an all-around good citizen. I not only want my students to become intelligent people, but I also want them to be polite, caring people. In order for my students to get an all-around education, I incorporated many group activities for my students to learn. During the geometry unit for math we built 3-D images. The students cut out nets of the figures, construct the images, and create any design the group decides on. While they are working on their task, they are also working as a team to make decisions, work together, and make sure everyone is contributing thier share. Here is a picture of how two of the groups completed this task. One is a town; the other is a castle.
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Diversity
The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
In my phases 3 & 4, I developed a multicultural lesson plan. This lesson was designed to teach students about individuals who have physical disabilities. The students were able to get a "taste" of what it would be like to have a physical disability. I brought in a wheelchair, walking cane, blindfolds, and earplugs. Every student in the time period of three days was able to participate, if they wanted to. The students played everyday games such as tic-tac-toe, checkers, uno, etc., they read and heard books aloud, and they also had to write two journal entries. One allowed them to talk about their personal experience and the other allowed them to talk about their experience with the others in the classroom. I have never felt so emotional about presenting a unit to the class. I could feel the students enjoying the activities, and I know from their journal writings that this unit made a difference in their lives. Here is a picture of two students who participated the first day.
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Planning for Instruction
The teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals.Planning lessons include a lot more than just writing some words in a box. Planning involves standards, research, understanding, activies, diversity of learners, and the actual implementation. During my student teaching experience, I presented many activities that dealt with students and their real-life situations. During the United States Government unit, the students had to argue their side on a real-life situation, create Bill of Rights posters, and be involved in a simulation election. Planning with a mentor was extremely relaxing and reassuring. Each day I would reflect on the lessons I presented. Here is a picture of the Bill of Rights posters.
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Learning Environment
The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.Group work is almost an everyday experience in my fifth grade class. I believe that all of my students deserve a chance to work with other students to learn from each other. Students will get the chance to teach others, learn from others, and also fit into a role that they may never have had the chance to without the group. Some students sit in the back of the room and are extremely quiet, but when they are put into a position to shine, they shine bright! During a sensory box activity, students had the opportunity to show what they know, or actually what they thought they knew. Students had to reach their hands into a box to guess what was actually in the box. Students had to use their other senses, previous knowledge, and predict and describe what the object was. Here is a picture of my students completing the activity.
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Instructional Delivery
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.Every student learns their best in different ways. That is why I designed lesson plans to enhance my students' mulitple intelligences. It is important that teachers reach out to every student. My fifth grade math class was actually a connections class. These students could comprehend a new concept in a matter of two days. I wanted to throw something new at them. For one week, we explored fractions using many different resources. We explored fraction strips, marker board reviews, and explanation problems individually and as partners. Click here to view my lesson plan for that week. This is a picture of my students using the marker boards.
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Communication
The teacher uses knowledge of effective written, verbal, nonverbal, and visual communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.
In my fifth grade class, I had the high ability math group and the low ability reading group. For my science and social studies groups though, I had a mixture of everything. It was my goal to teach my lessons with this in mind. I needed to make sure that I could reach every student. During my rock and mineral lab I made sure to reach every student. We had a hands-on lab where the students tested rock and mineral properties. Students also reviewed playing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" They also had the chance to listen to a video clip from United Streaming about rocks and minerals. We made our own crystals during a lab. The students made birthstone posters. They also had the chance to write out the rock cycle and properties of minerals. I believe that every student had the opportunity to learn the way the prefer. They had hands-on activities, group work, visual learning, listening activities, and presentations. Click here to see the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" review game. Here are some pictures of the lab.
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Assessment
The teacher understands various formal and informal assessment strategies and uses them to support the continuous development of all students.
Assessing student learning allows the teacher to keep track of the progress of students on an individual basis and as a whole class. There are state and district forms of assessment, such as the Illinois Standard Assessment Test (ISAT), and alternative forms of assessment, such as checklists and rubrics for students to follow. The below picture shows the District 108 I Can Do It Fifth Grade Standards for reading and writing. My lesson plans follow these district standards, and my students are aware of these standards and meeting these standards.
I tried to use many different forms of assessment in my classroom. I am a huge fan of rubrics. Click here to see the rubric I created for the bridge project.
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Collaborative Relationships
The teacher understands the role of the community in education and develops and maintains collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support student learning and well-being.Establishing and maintaining a collaborative relationship with everyone involved in the students' lives creates a pedestal for the student to learn and prosper. When everyone is supportive, everyone feels that they have accomplished something as a team. That's when everything runs smoothly. I sent out a monthly newsletter to the parents. I had daily contact with a few of the parents by signing assingment notebooks. Parents were never hesitent about sending me notes from home. I would always respond quickly. I attended many out of school functions. I volunteered at the young author's convention. I also helped out at the fifth grade girls' field trip to the Holt Health Center. A few of my students were singing at a local hockey game that I attented to watch them sing. I feel that I made many connections throughout the Pekin district. Since I reached out, I have gained many resources that helped my students achieve. Here is a picture of the students at the hockey game. The other picture is me at the Young Author's Convention with the students from my class, who participated.
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Reflection and Professional Growth
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates how choices and actions affect students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community and actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally.Reflection is one of the most important aspects of teaching. An effective teacher must strive to become the best they can be. The way to accomplish this is to reflect on what was taught and the effectiveness of the lesson. My mentor teacher and I would reflect daily on the lessons I presented. My mentor teacher, Ryan Clark, would give me advice, constructive critisism, and ideas to incorporate next time. My teacher and I would work together to improve my teaching techniques. From my daily, weekly, and monthly assessments I was able to improve my teaching skills and become a better educator. Here is a picture of my mentor teacher, Ryan, and I reflecting after a day of work.
Professional Conduct
The teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being.
A professional needs to be a responsible, considerate, and responsive person. They must conduct a relationship with other professionals, students, and parents. Teachers are the role models of many people. Teachers are always being watched, and they need to be above the high standards that are held. I believe that I created a positive repritoire for myself. I worked well with many people in the building, the parents outside of the building, and the students throughout the school. Here is a picture of me volunteering my time at the Young Author's Conference. I escorted parents throughout the building and passed out refreshments after the program.
