- Content Knowledge
- Human Development and Learning
- Diversity
- Planning for Instruction
- Learning Environment
- Instructional Delivery
- Communication
- Assessment
- Collaborative Relationships
- Reflection and Professional Growth
- Professional Conduct
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.
As a teacher I know that it is important to relay accurate information to my students. In order to teach an effective lesson, I need to know what I am talking about. During my student teaching experience, there were times when I researched information in order to plan an in-depth lesson. During February, I developed an integrated unit around President’s Day. During this unit we discussed George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution, the White House and George W. Bush. The students enjoyed the lessons and learned a lot. I decided to continue the unit longer than expected since the children were so engaged in the lesson.
Click Here to view my integrated unit
Click Here to view more photos
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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.
I know that all students are unique individuals. Each student comes into my class with his or her own ability and preferred style of learning. It is my responsibility to provide students with a positive learning environment that allows each student to realize his or her maximum potential as a student and a person. In order to meet the needs of all students, I differentiate instruction and consider my students abilities and interests when planning lessons. Each day in kindergarten we rotate groups of six students in four different centers. During this time we work on computers, practice math, writing and complete art projects. By grouping my students according to ability, I can work intensely with a group of students and focus on each student’s individual needs. One center that we do several days a week is wipe off boards. While working with wipe off boards, I help students to improve handwriting, form new words, practice writing sight words, reviewing addition, and working on phonemic awareness, as well as other activities. Each group on any given day is usually completing a different task. I base the activities for wipe off boards by observing student performance during the week.
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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 people to understand and appreciate diversity. In my classroom, this is a topic we discuss several times a week. In order to help my students understand diversity, I created a multicultural lesson. I read a book to the class called The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf. In this story, the crayons in the box have a hard time getting along because they all look different. As a class, we discussed differences in people and how to get along. Since I have young learners, I had the students role play a scenario so they could truly understand the lesson. All students were given a colored card; however, I told the students that only the ones with a certain color could play with me. After the role playing, we discussed the students’ feelings and other people’s feelings.
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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.
Each week of my student teaching semester I planned standards based lessons. These lesson plans included a list of district goals, materials that I would need, anticipatory set and closure as well as differentiated instruction. I use my plans as a basis for instruction. I always had my lesson plans completed a week in advance with all materials ready to go. Since I taught in kindergarten, I know that planning and preparation are essential. I have to be prepared and ready to teach each lesson ahead of time, or my students will lose interest. When planning lessons, I also consider the various needs of my students. I realize that some students might struggle or some might finish early. In order to diffuse these situations before they arise, I always have extra material on hand. Careful planning is essential to be an effective teacher.
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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.
A positive learning environment is conducive to learning. In order to create a positive learning environment that fosters students learning, I collaborated with my mentor teacher to develop a classroom management plan. All students follow the I-Care rules at Starke School. In the classroom, we have a chart with students’ names written on tags. If a student chooses to misbehave, their name tag gets moved and he or she receives a time out. If a students name remains at the top all day, he or she receives a stamp on the right hand. This plan has proven to be highly effective in the classroom. Parents have also expressed their appreciation of the new system because at a glance they are able to see what kind of day their child had.
Classroom Management Plan
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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.
At school, I believe that it is important to use a variety of instruction while teaching. I especially find this true in the younger grades of school, like kindergarten. Young students have a short attention span; therefore, I plan engaging lessons in a variety of settings. Some days I will read to the students and sometimes students read to each other. I use small group instruction, as well as, whole group instruction. I also create lessons that include visual and auditory delivery. I know this is important because some students learn better by seeing the task completed. In kindergarten, we also complete various kinesthetic activities. Young children learn best through pretend play and role playing.
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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.Communication is essential as a teacher. I need to be able to collaborate with teachers and faculty, as well as parents. Establishing a positive relationship with parents at the beginning of the school year is crucial to parent-teacher communication. When a teacher corresponds with parents at home at the beginning of the year, it sends a message to the parents that this teacher is open to communication and cares about the child. Not only should parents send home newsletters and other correspondence, but the teacher should also be involved in family activities at the school, such as family reading night.
Before the school year began, I made it a personal goal to know the families of all my students. On the first day of school and through open house, I was able to meet the families of each of my students. I have also been able to talk with parents during family reading night, the fall festival and other events hosted by Starke School. I am grateful that I took the time to chat with the families and get to know them. I feel that by doing this I was able to establish a rapport with parents. With this rapport I feel I am able to talk to parents about their child’s progress while they have confidence in my abilities. I also invite parents to help out in our classroom. We have two parents who volunteer on a regular basis and others who come in sporadically. I also keep in touch with parents on a regular basis through newsletters and notes about classroom activities.
Letter to Parents
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Assessment
The teacher understands various formal and informal assessment strategies and uses them to support continuous development of all students.There is not one way to assess students. In order to fully understand a student’s ability, a teacher must be able to use multiple assessments. Some of these assessments might include observation, testing, anecdotal records and students’ daily work. In kindergarten we use all of these types of assessments.
By using a variety of assessments, I am able to better understand my students’ needs. I use observation the most in my classroom. I watch students as they complete their daily worksheets, listen as they respond at circle time and watch how they interact with one another. We also pull some students during class time to ask them to count, and complete other assessments that we keep on file. Four times during the year, we also test our students in the area of literacy. We use this information to plan and form our student literacy teams. In order to make sure all students are able to perform the objectives of the “I can do it” sheet, we do a baseline test and an end of the year test of the components on the “I can do it” sheets.
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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.Teaching in a school is not a one person job. To be an effective teacher one must be able to create genuine collaborative relationships with colleagues. By working with other teachers I am able to gain new resources and ideas.
At Starke School, I work with a group of truly collaborative professionals. I am able to go to any staff member if I need something. Teachers have also come to me to borrow professional resources and complete activities I have created. I am able to interact with other staff during our weekly school luncheons. Each day I work with my mentor teacher to create lessons and plan activities. We have a great open relationship where I am able to learn new ideas and sharpen my teaching abilities.
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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.To be a more effective teacher, one must be flexible and reflective. By reflecting, a teacher can think about both positive and negative aspects of a lesson. After careful consideration is made, the teacher can then make appropriate changes to ensure the next lesson is more successful. Without reflection, teachers may be completing the same lessons over and not reaching the students.
During my student teaching career, I have gained a lot of valuable information. Some of this has come from my own experiences in the classrooms and other information has come from my supervisors. Regardless, I always consider feedback from my teacher useful in planning my lessons and classroom environment. At one point in the semester, I was not pleased with my classroom environment. I talked with my liaison and with the information from his evaluation, I was able to make significant positive changes in the classroom.
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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.An effective teacher is not only one who can teach, but also one that is a professional. In order to gain respect from the students, colleagues and parents, a teacher must be a professional. During my student teaching semester, I was evaluated by my mentor teacher and liaison on my mannerisms, dress and interactions with other people. I use my evaluations to reflect and think about how i can improve myself as a professional teacher. If I expect my students to take me seriously, I must present myself in a serious manner, while being caring at the same time.
