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 disciplines and creates learning experiences that make the content meaningful to all students.

 

An effective teacher should gain their students interest and help students make connections between content areas and ideas.  During my student teaching experience, I created and implemented many theme-based units that integrated all subject areas.  These theme-based units allowed my students to be engaged in the learning and to make connections not only through multiple subject areas, but to their lives as well.

One theme-based unit we did this year was a unit on rainbows.  We found many ways to incorporate rainbows into each subject area.

She is making a rainbow to

practice writing her spelling words on.

He practiced writing his spelling

words by writing them in rainbow order.

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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.

 

As a teacher you need to be prepared to teach the information to the multiple intelligences.  This will allow each student with an opportunity to succeed.  In my classroom I had my students learn information through many different activities such as activities on the computer, centers, small and whole group instruction, as well as one on one and guided instruction.

 

These students are working on computers to

type sentences for their spelling words.  This

helps them not only to practice their spelling

words, but to practice their writing as well.

He is playing a bingo game.  Before the game,

the students wrote their spelling words and

months of the year in each space.  The

students really enjoyed this fun review activity.

Here I am working with a small group

of students during science centers.

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Diversity
The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.

 

It is important for educators to realize that each student is different and that they need to be prepared to meet the diverse needs of the learners in their classroom.  I often found myself needing to differentiate my lesson plans to meet the needs of my students.  I would do so by varying activities for specific students if needed.  At times I would also have my students work together so they could use their diverse ability levels to help each other. 

This is a number chart at one of my

student's desks.  She uses this to help

her add and subtract during math.

These students are working together to find

out how many blocks weigh one pound.

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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.

 

While planning for instruction it is important to make sure that the instruction is standards-based.  Before planning any of my lessons I would look at the Pekin “I Can Do It” standards for first grade.  These standards are aligned with the Illinois State Standards.  This would help me to make sure my students were meeting the goals that have been set for them.

These are the first grade "I Can Do It"

standards that I used to plan my lessons.

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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.

 

I believe that school should be a safe, fun, and positive place where students can come and be included and engaged in learning.  Student behavior should be appropriate and expectations should be clear while still allowing the students to be children and have fun.  A great way to make the learning environment positive and colorful is by displaying student work.  This will give each student a sense of belonging and a chance to show off their hard work. 

This is a picture of the classroom

management plan used in the classroom I

student taught in.  This played a big part

in the environment of the classroom.

 

This year we did a big unit on families and communities.  The pictures below are examples of student work that was displayed during this unit.  This work was left up during Open House.  The students really enjoyed being able to show off their hard work to the school and their families.

After reading "The Big Orange Splot"

we made our own dream houses.

We wrote and drew about what

we wanted to be when we grow up.

This was a project students did at

home with their families.  They made

a building for our own town of Pekin.

Students made faces of themselves using a

Family Glyph.  Then we made family trees

to show everyone who was in our family.

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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.

 

Realizing that my students have such varying abilities, I made sure to deliver my instruction in many different ways.  I felt it was important to catch my students’ attention and get them interested and engaged in the lesson right from the beginning. I found that activities that challenged my students to really think about the information or that was hands on, really excited and engaged them in the learning even more. 

Here we are practicing our math skills

as a class using Touchpoint Counting.

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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.

 

This past year has taught me a lot about the importance of communication in education.  It is important to keep the lines of communication open with everyone involved in the learning process.  That includes colleagues, students, parents, the community and so on.  In my classroom, we kept the communication lines open with parents through a weekly newsletter.  This would let the parents know about the past week, the upcoming week, homework or other information we felt they should know.

This is a picture of a weekly newsletter

that was sent home to parents.

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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.

 

Assessment is an important aspect of a teacher’s job.  I believe that a variety of materials and strategies should be used to assess student learning and that assessments should be administered throughout the school year and reflected on accordingly.  The information gained from assessments should then be used to guide classroom instruction.  I tried to use as many assessment materials and strategies as I could in my room.  Some ways I would assess student learning was by observing students during centers and group activities, looking at student work, spelling tests, monthly writing prompts, and one-on-one quizzing. 

These students are completing their daily time test.  We would do either a subtraction or addition time test daily to practice our skills.  I would also look at these to assess how well my students were able to quickly add and subtract math facts.

She is writing her monthly writing prompt

for April.  These monthly writing prompts

are a good way for students to practice

their writing and for me to assess how they

have imporoved over the school year.

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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.

 

I have learned that positive relationships with other teachers, educational support personnel and my university supervisor were essential to making my student teaching experience as great as it was.  I will carry this outlook with me to my future teaching experiences.  This experience has really taught me that everyone is there to work together to make the school a place for children to come and benefit from learning.  Being in a multi-age classroom, a major part of my student teaching experience was spent collaborating daily with my mentor, her co-teacher and her intern.  It was great to be able to bounce ideas off of each other!

Here my mentor, Kami, and I are

planning a math lesson together.

In this picture, Trina (the kindergarten

intern) and I are leading both of our classes

during calendar.  I guess once you teach

together for so long, you start to dress alike!

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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.

 

My experience has taught me the importance of being a reflective, flexible teacher.  Each day my mentor and I would discuss how the day went, areas I did well in and where I could improve.  This was a great way for me to discuss my feelings about an activity and what I would do differently next time.  I have learned that no matter how much planning and preparation you put into something, it may not go exactly as planned and that this is okay.  Each lesson is not only a learning experience for my students, but for me as well.  I plan to continually reflect on my teaching to help me continue growing and improving as an educator.  

After teaching a phonics lesson, I quickly

wrote down some ideas on what I felt needed

to be changed if I taught the lesson again.

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Professional Conduct
The teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being.

 

As an educator, I feel it is important to portray yourself as a professional inside and outside of the building you teach in.  You are a role model to your students and should be demonstrating appropriate behavior in all situations.  Some ways I chose to demonstrate professional conduct was by dressing in an appropriate manner, communicating with other teachers, students and parents professionally, and to think like a professional on a daily basis.  I feel that my professionalism showed and made a difference in the way I was viewed as a student teacher.

These students are picking up garbage for Earth Day.  This was a great way for me to model how important it is to care for our environment because we are all part of the community.

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