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.To be extremely effective, teachers must also go beyond simply teaching the content, but they must also relate that content to the different disciplines as well as to the students’ lives. I will be more effective as a teacher when I have extensive knowledge of the content and the best practices in instructing the content. An example of these ideas is demonstrated in my social studies integrated unit.
Government Integrated Unit
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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.It is extremely important for a teacher to realize that his or her students will vary greatly in academic ability. This must be taken into consideration as I plan and prepare my lessons. Since not all students are at the same academic level, and students learn in a variety of ways, it was important that I created lessons that will challenge and relate to all students. In science we were able to do activities in which the students taught themselves using a variety of resources to help them along the way. An example of this was having the students do a jigsaw activity in which each group was able to teach the class about a different class of animals.
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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 extremely important that as a teacher I do not allow myself to proceed throughout the year leaving students behind. Part of my responsibility as a teacher is to make sure that I am helping all of my students to succeed, even those of lower ability levels. When students seem to be falling behind or are not up to speed with the rest of the class, it has been my responsibility to be persistent in helping these students to catch up. This has been evident when looking at some of the math facts scores in our classroom. There were students of varying abilities and at different levels in mastering their math facts. It was the responsibility of my mentor teacher and me to help these students to pass these tests and improve on the skills that they were struggling with. We provided extra activites and practice for the students that were struggling to sharpen their math skills.
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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.
Throughout my teacher preparation in the Professional Development School, I have been required to create extremely detailed, standards-based lessons for my student teaching instruction. Using this format has required to make me think thoroughly about every part of my lessons and make sure that they are aligned to the state and district standards. Each week I would submit my lesson plans to both my mentor teacher as well as my university supervisor for review before the lessons were to be taught. I was able to also take into account their feedback before I taught the lessons to make any adjustments that I saw to be necessary.
Example of Social Studies Lesson Plans
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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.No learning can take place in a classroom if the right environment and expectations are not set. It is up to me as the teacher to guide the students and use appropriate discipline strategies to create a positive environment for learning. Getting the class to understand the importance of routines and procedures, as well as the expectations that I had of them, from the very beginning of the year, was a key role in creating a positive learning environment. In our classroom, teamwork was an important concept discussed at the very beginning of the year. We were also sure to implement the school-wide RESPECT Code in our classroom by modeling its parts for the students so that they knew exactly what was expected of them both in the classroom, as well as throughout the school.
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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.Students learn in many different ways. In order for me to effectively reach all of my students, I must first realize that I need to teach to each of my students’ needs. By using a variety of strategies in my instruction, my students were able to learn the content in a way that was meaningful to them. An example of demonstrating knowledge of students’ skills would be utilizing centers as an instructional method in the classroom. Not only does this allow students to work with one another in a group setting, but this also allows you to teach to a variety of learning modalities all at the same time.
(an outline of the science centers)
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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.
Having excellent communication skills is one of the most important characteristics that I can have as a teacher. I need to have good communication with my co-workers, my students, as well as my students’ parents. Being able to both verbalize and listen to others is an essential part of teaching that can not be overlooked. There were several times throughout my student teaching experience in which I was expected to communicate effectively with others. I did this on a daily basis with my students in my instruction. I also communicated daily with my mentor teacher, as well as other staff members in the building, to grow in my teaching abilities and give and receive ideas that may help in my instruction. There was also communication between myself and the parents of my students. This was done to keep them updated on upcoming events and expectations, as well as to establish open lines of communication in case either of us were to need anything throughout the year.
Newsletter 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.Students should not be assessed in the same manner all of the time. I will use a variety of assessment strategies when assessing my students. Just as students learn using a variety of learning modalities, students also display their knowledge in different ways. For this reason, I need to allow all students to show what they know in ways that best suit each individual. One example of an alternate form of assessment is the biome brochures that we did in science. For this assessment, students were required to become experts on one of the biomes and create a brochure displaying information as well as images of there biome. This got away from a formal assessment tool, such as a test or quiz, and allowed the students to display their knowledge in a way that was more meaningful to them.
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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 believe that one of the most important things that a teacher does in his or her profession is to work collaboratively with other staff members and support personnel. I have had the opportunity this year to attend SILT (School Improvement Leadership Team) meetings. At these meetings, administrators, teachers, support staff, and community members meet and discuss important issues occurring in the school and school district. The members of this team often communicate and discuss solutions to ways in which we can make further improvements to our school. The participants at this meeting must communicate effectively and collaborate with one another to reach the best solutions for school issues and work towards a common goal.
(SILT meeting minutes)
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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.
I believe that it is extremely important that the number one priority in any classroom is the students and what is best for each of them. Throughout my student teaching experience this belief has been something that I have kept as a priority as I plan and instruct my lessons. I have found out that there will be many decisions that a teacher will have to make throughout the day that could directly affect his or her students. These decisions may involve things such as behavioral issues, a specific need of a student, or teaching methods being used in the teacher’s instruction. Throughout my student teaching experience, I have been constantly making decisions that I feel will be most beneficial for the students. I have continuously been reflective throughout my teaching and have been able to base my decisions based on what I have witnessed in my instruction and time 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.Learning does not end for a teacher at the end of his or her student teaching experience. Part of my professional responsibilities as a teacher is to continue to develop and learn strategies that will best help my students to learn in the classroom. It is important for teachers to continue to build on their content knowledge even as they have begun their work teaching in the classroom. During my student teaching experience, I have already started to further my knowledge in several content areas. One example of this would be my attendance at the Illinois Reading Conference. By attending this conference, I was able to participate in several literacy-based workshops. These workshops presented me with new strategies that can be utilized during our literacy blocks, including new strategies involving vocabulary, fun activities to build students’ writing skills, and interesting ideas to introduce students to poetry and making poetry enjoyable for students of all ages. At the reading conference, I also had the opportunity to present a literacy-based lesson that I have used in my own classroom, as well as see other lesson ideas that other teachers and student teachers have used that I may be able to utilize in the future.
