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.
Above is an example of my second grade students conducting a science lab that went along with our discovery of the Salt Water habitat. This is only one of many opportunities my students had to practice 'hands on' learning.While providing opportunities for my students to explore in learning, I planned my instruction using the I Can Do Its depicted below. These are District 108's basis for instruction influenced by state standards.
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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.
While student teaching at C.B. Smith, I had the opportunity to see the benefits for children to work with their peers. To coincide with our habitat unit, we incorporated the story The Great Kapok Tree during our literacy time. A third grade classroom was also discussing this story, so our classes teamed up to perform a reader's theatre of The Great Kapok Tree. This was an excellent opportunity for my second graders to practice their reading skills with third graders. This activity also furthered the social development of my students.
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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.
Differentiation is important in a teacher's vocabulary. Each student will come into your classroom with different family background and life experiences as well as different levels of intelligence, levels of skills, and styles of learning. Being aware of these many differences is the first step to being sensitive to this assortment of learners entering the classroom. When creating tasks, I try to offer choices to my students so that they may feel challenged yet are able to work without frustration. The photo above depicts my students doing research for our habitat unit. Students were given a choice of which habitat they would like to research the most. With groups formed by choice, students were motivated by their interest in the habitat and were in groups with varying levels that enabled positive teamwork. With varying levels of ability, students were able to support each other in different ways.
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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 the curriculum goals.
As we reached 9/11 on our calendar, my mentor and I began to impliment Social Studies across our curriculum. We discussed patriotism and landmarks of the United States. Attached is a lesson plan that is an example that incorporates state standards, attention to student needs, and sensitivity to a community focus.
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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.The climate of the classroom is an issue that my mentor stressed with me before our school days began. She shared with me the importance of a safe learning environment where students are shown the value of teamwork. To begin our year, the students, my mentor, and I put in place a class promise. That promise helps to mold the interaction between our students for the better. Below is our classroom promise with our smiling faces.
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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.
My goal is to have each student be successful. When my instruction and tasks given are created with my students' diversity in mind, I am able to accomplish this. I have learned that if you do not provide opportunities for students to work at their different levels, some students do not feel challenged while others struggle to complete the task, leaving both levels of students frustrated.When beginning our habitat unit, students practiced a jigsaw style of learning. After conducting their research, they designed an informational 'Grafitti Board' that was used to teach the class about their habitat.
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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.
While conducting a Shrimp Lab, I needed to take time to communicate to this group with reminders of directions and ways to cooperate. Communication between my students and I is essential in effective instruction. Such communication can be in regards to behavior, emotional, or academics. Communication regarding a student's academics is important. A student needs communication about their academic standing and in a timely manner so that they may take responsibility for their education. A good rapport with students is built when you provide opportunities for personal communication. This is an area that factors into a student's positive emotional environment. Communication about behavior also effects a student's environment and will make them aware of behaviors they may not be aware of themselves.
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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.
Spideriffic Story Writing Lesson
Differentiated assessment coinsides with differentiated instruction. No matter a students age you effectively teach and assess your students when you have multiple forms in which a student can demonstrate their knowledge of a concept taught. This picture shows a small story-book that I created for the students to complete. We had been learning about spiders and had read stories about them during reading. There are so many other ways to assess beyond the traditional multiple choice test. Students will have greater pride in work they turn in when they are able to use their own thoughts and designs to demonstrate their knowledge. Although using multiple assessment strategies takes more thorough planning and preparation, it is something I try to incorporate in my classroom and is more rewarding for the students.
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Collaborative Relationships
The teacher understands the role if the community in education and develops and maintains collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support student learning and well-being.
During my internship, I have embraced the Charlotte Danielson philosophy of which collboration is a component. Positive professional relationships create a healthy and motivating work environment. This also provides great opportunities for professionals to learn from one another and improve their skills. As a teacher, I know that to lead by example is a strong way to influence my students. When children see their teacher working with other professionals with cooperation and good teamwork skills, they will have positive examples to emulate. I have found that collaboration is easy to bring into my planning and preparation. I am able to improve my ideas and create better ways to deliver instruction by collaborating with others. This picture depicts the other interns and I who have worked on several projects together .
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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.
Through the PDS program we were encouraged to attend the Illinois Reading Conference and present a lesson. This conference was such a wonderful experience. This event was the perfect opportunity for professional growth.
Using reflection to improve my instruction is an area I have great confidence in. Even during a lesson, I may find myself changing the instruction on the spot! When you are reflecting you take into account how your students are receiving the information, whether or not they enjoyed the material, and how their motivation/behavior during the lesson is or was. If many of my students become difficult to revert back to the task at hand, then I know that what I am doing is not working and I change gears as soon as I can. This link shows a lesson that I needed to change when my students struggled to grasp the concept I was teaching. Subtraction with Re-grouping Lesson
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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.
Having a good relationship with my students and their families is important to have as a teacher. By conducting yourself in a professional manner you reflect, not only your philosophy as an educator, but the education profession as well. As a teacher I must remember that many people will look to me as role-model and by maintaining professional conduct, I reflect the upstanding educational community.
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