• 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 all students.

  Every student is different.  Some learn better through oral teaching, while others need a kinesthetic activity.  In both schools where I taught, there were students with IEPs that needed modifications to their teaching in order to succeed.  In some cases, the student just needed to sit in the front of the classroom, while others needed a shorter assignment to help them focus on the content and not be overwhelmed with the quantity. In the fourth grade, one student was a little below average in reading and writing skills.  My mentor and I decided that we would determine her spelling grade based on the first twenty words, because they are the more common words that every fourth grader should be able to spell. 

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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.

  Since I have not taught for thirty years like my fourth grade mentor, I did much research and studying of the material I was going to teach before each lesson.  One science chapter I taught the fourth graders was on the solar system.  I had written an integrated unit on the solar system, and I used many of the lessons with the students.  One of the lessons was the study of gravity.  The students brainstormed how they would feel if they weighed a lot more or less on certain planets compared to here on Earth.  Each student weighed themselves and used a calculator and simple math, that I explained to them, to find how much they weighed on Jupiter and Pluto.  The kids were amazed at how they would weigh more than their parents on Jupiter and about half as much of their Earth weight on Pluto.  By using science facts and simple mathematics the students were able to learn about the science term of gravity with a fun fact about themselves.

 

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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.

  At the beginning of the school year, I had a fourth grade student who looked like he was lost from the lesson that my mentor teacher was teaching.  I approached his desk and pointed to where we were in the book and he began to cry.  He told me that he was not following along because he cannot read.  I discussed this situation with my mentor and this student became one of five students to go to a reading specialist during the class reading block.

  Having been in the Professional Development School, I was not in the fourth grade classroom all year.  When I came back to the fourth grade classroom in January, this student was one who approached me with a card telling me how much he missed me.  Receiving a legible and grammatically correct card, showed me the progress he had made since the beginning of the year.  He had obtained the help that he needed to succeed during his fourth grade year which demonstrates how each and every child will be impacted in a unique way.  I strongly believe that reading and writing fall hand in hand, and with his struggles in reading, I was extremely impressed with the writing in the note.

   

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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.

  In the junior high, I taught a seventh grade class that had many students in it with discipline problems.  I kept the classroom very structured with problem solving, taking notes, and giving them assignments.  With a test coming up over one chapter, I decided to try a bingo game with the students in hopes that they would use it as a chapter review and behave better.  Surprisingly, the students were very good.  I also had candy as prizes for getting a bingo which made the students more likely to participate.

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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.

  Right from the start, I had to be sure the students knew how much I would tolerate.  As soon as someone talked without permission or did something inappropriate I either gave them a stern warning or a room detention.  I wanted them to know that I would not tolerate disrespectful behavior.  One day my mentor went down to the office during a game I was playing with the eighth graders.  One student refused to play the game and put her head down on the desk.  Since the game was not going to play a role in her grade, I decided to let her sit there as long as she did not disrupt the other students.  Later that afternoon, I had a seventh grader that was laughing as I was going through the homework.  I warned him two times to stop interrupting my class.  When he still did not stop, I gave him a room detention.  Since that day, that entire class knows that I mean business when I threaten detentions.

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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.

  One lesson I taught in the fourth grade classroom was on customary units of measurement of capacity.  I found that many of my students liked to do art activities.  To incorporate art, the students made “Mr. Gallon.”  Using five small sheets of construction paper, the students folded, labeled and cut the paper to represent one gallon, four quarts, eight pints, and sixteen cups.  This activity shows how I taught useful knowledge through a hands-on art activity.  I also modeled for the students as we did the activity.

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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.

  At the beginning of my student teaching at the junior high, I had time to make a banner of geometry formulas for perimeter, area, surface area, and volume.  The state tests were coming up and the students did not have all of the formulas memorized.  The posters have remained up in the classroom for the students to refer to for the rest of the year.  I was a little worried about the students forgetting they were there or not being able to see them, but I have seen them looking at the posters multiple times and many of the students have complemented me on how neat they look.

    

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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.

  In the fourth grade, one assessment that my mentor and I used in social studies was an extra credit assignment of the students' choice.  They had just finished a unit on mountains and volcanoes, so the assignment was to construct and label a volcano or mountain range.  By doing the assignment they could raise their lowest social studies test score to a B.  It did not matter how complex the volcano or mountain range was as long as they labeled the parts of each that were studied in the chapters.  This showed that it did not matter how much time or money went into the project.  One student brought in a simple paper bag that was stuffed with newspapers, closed at the top and colored to look like an erupting volcano, while a couple other students used modeling clay and formed volcanoes and mountains.  All of the students who completed the assignment were able to change their lowest test grade to a B.

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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.

  My mentor and I kept in contact with the parents of our fourth graders through weekly Friday reports.  This report was a brief overview of the upcoming week.  It provided the parents with information on upcoming tests and content that was being covered in science or social studies.  The parents were made aware of this report at the beginning of the year.  The report not only helped the parents, but it also helped my mentor and me to know that we informed the parents.  The report placed more responsibility on the parents and students to complete assignments and prepare for tests.

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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.

  As a part of the Pekin School District, I had the opportunity to attend an entire day conference put on by the two intermediate schools.  During the conference, I attended sessions on social studies, algebra, and poetry.  As a result of the conference, I took some of the information on poetry and used it in the completion of a poetry unit in the fourth grade.  I had difficulty helping the students understand some aspects of poetry, but by using some of the information from the conference, the students seemed to better grasp the concepts. 

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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 a student in a professional development school, I had the opportunity to participate in professional meetings at both the intermediate and junior high levels.  The meetings that were most effective to me were the At Risk Committee meetings at Edison Junior High.  I was able to sit down with all of the teachers on my team and discuss the At Risk students on our team.  From our collaboration, I have learned how different students act for different teachers.  These students also act differently from the morning to the afternoon hours.  As a team, we all share the approaches we had taken with the students and tried to find middle ground where we could best facilitate our learners.  As a college senior, I feel that I brought a young fresh approach to the meetings and shared my ideas with the other team members.

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