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 competent 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.

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  ~Clay P. Bedford

It is the teacher’s responsibility to have a thorough knowledge of the content in which they are teaching. Therefore the teacher must research the topic and come prepared. Students will gain a better understanding of a concept if the material is presented to them in a variety of ways either through visual, auditory, or hands on experiences. 

 

I believe that before I teach a lesson I need to first research it so that I am prepared. The better understanding I have for the subject, the better I can teach it to my students. In a lesson on waves I first researched waves and then created a lesson that allowed the students a variety of ways to learn. I created a PowerPoint of different pictures of waves so that we could identify the different types of waves, I drew diagrams on the board, I had a hands on activity where they created an ‘ocean in a bottle’ so they could see a wave right in front of them, I used students in a demonstration of lunar tides, I had a worksheet for them to fill out, and we had a class discussion where the students could brainstorm and ask questions about waves.

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Human Development and Learning

The competent teacher understands how individuals grow, develop, and learn and provides learning opportunities that support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.

I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma.  ~Eartha Kitt

A good teacher never stops learning. A teacher should always be looking for ways that they can enhance their knowledge and skill. There is a wide range of ways to grow as a teacher from continuing formal education in a form of a Masters to workshops and conferences.  The more knowledge a teacher has the better she can serve her students.

 

I was given the opportunity to go to the Illinois Reading Conference in Springfield. I was overwhelmed at all the resources available to teachers. There were so many different ideas to draw from that I could go and use in my classroom the next day. I really saw the value of attending conferences and workshops as a way to continue my education. I gained so many ideas for my current student teaching classroom that I have already used, and ideas for my future classroom. I also was inspired and energized to get back into the classroom and teach.

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Diversity

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

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth."  ~Dan Rather

I believe that students need a variety of ways to learn material so that they can enhance their critical thinking skills. Each student has their own learning style and it is important to try and reach each student in a way that suits them best. This can be done by creating a variety of activities that cater to different learning styles. I include hand on activities in my lessons so that visual learners will be able to actually see the concept being presented and kinesthetic learners will be able to manipulate the objects as they process the concept being presented.

       A lesson I taught on fractions used fraction hamburger pieces. Each student had their own hamburger of fraction pieces and they were able to manipulate the pieces as they learned about equivalent fractions. I saw the students really be able to get a firm grasp on what an equivalent fraction is. The hands on activity also grabbed their attention and engaged them in learning.

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Planning for Instruction

The competent teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.  ~Gail Godwin

Instructing students is an essential part of being a teacher. A lot of planning and preparation must take place in order for a lesson to be successful. The needs of each student need to be taken into consideration. A lesson needs to have a clear goal or purpose. In order for a lesson to be affective, it needs to engage the students so they are active participants in the learning process, and provide for a real life application so the students understand the value of it.

 

I align my lessons to the district’s learning standards, I Can Do It to give me that clear purpose. In a Language Arts lesson, I had the students create a story about the day in the life of a sock, demonstrating voice in their writing. The lesson was guided by the Language district standards of creating an expository writing with a variety of sentence types.

    
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Learning Environment

The competent 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.

He who fails to plan, is planning to fail.

~ Anonymous

From the first day of school, behavior expectations and procedures need to be set in place. Students need to know what is expected of them and what the consequences to their actions will be. Without these expectations and procedures students feel unsafe and therefore are not free to learn and grow. The behavior plan must also be consistently enforced. Although behavior plans and procedures need to be consistent, they also need to be flexible so that they can adapt to the different behavior needs of each student. It is also important that a classroom’s behavior expectations are aligned to the school wide behavior expectations.

 

During my student teaching, I have been in a classroom with a wide range of behavior issues. This has given me experience in implementing a wide range of behavior plans. I have realized how important it is to have a consistent behavior plan between the classroom plan and the school wide plan. At Wilson School we practice the SCORE code as our school wide behavior expectations. Misbehavior does not always occur in the classroom, so this allows for the student to have consistency from recess to art or music or for any other time they are not directly in the classroom.   I have continually worked to improve my classroom management skills. I have grown a lot in this area. I now have the confidence and skills to effectively maintain control of the classroom.

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Instructional Delivery

The competent teacher understandds and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and performance skills.

If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Attitudes are contagious. A teacher’s attitude sets the tone for the entire class. If the teacher shows enthusiasm for learning, that will spread to her students. A teacher’s enthusiasm can capture a student and engage him in the lesson. Students that are engaged are excited about learning and will be motivated and perform well on assignments.

 

I am always trying to come up with new and exciting ways to present material to the class. I was teaching a lesson on fractions and I was trying to teach the concept that what you do to the denominator you must do to the numerator. I noticed that not all students were engaged and that some were struggling, so I came up with the fraction dance. I had the entire class stand up and dance the ‘fraction’ dance or whatever you do to the bottom you do to the top. The students became engaged and the concept stayed with them, even months later.

 

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Communication

The competent teacher uses knowledge of effective written, verbal, non-verbal, and visual communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand."
~ Confucius

Communication is the key ingredient in creating collaborative relationships between colleagues, parents, and the community. Healthy communication helps build trust in these relationships so that all can work together as a team to benefit the student. Communication does not only benefit the student’s learning, but it also allows for teachers to be a great resource for each other as well as a support system for each other. Communication can take on many different forms: written, verbal, and nonverbal. A written form would be a weekly newsletter or writing a note to a parent in an assignment notebook. Verbal communication can be calling a parent or talking directly to your students. Nonverbal communication is your body language. Nonverbal communication is very important to the class atmosphere, a student can perceive their to be open and friendly or mean and standoffish based on the teacher’s body language.

 

This year I was blessed to be able to work with a team that guided me and supported me in my growth as a teacher. I communicated on a daily basis with my mentor teacher Mrs. Glick. I was able to go to her with any question or concern. I learned invaluable lessons from her. I also had the privilege to collaborate with other great staff members such as Mrs. Lugeanbeal next store, Miss Briney the intern next store, and Mrs. Stephens the literacy leader. I also was able to communicate with parents through weekly newsletters and writing notes in assignment notebooks. I also became very aware of how my body language could change an interaction with a student. I learned that getting down to a student’s level could dramatically change the atmosphere of the interaction.

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Assessment

The competent teacher understands various formal and informal assessment strategies and uses them to support the continuous development of all students.

What we want... is for students to get more interested in things, more involved in them, more engaged in wanting to know; to have projects that they can get excited about and work on over long periods of time, to be stimulated to find things out on their own."~ Howard Gardner

Assessment is an integral part of instruction. It allows teachers to keep track of each student’s individual growth as well as the entire class. It also allows the student to understand their progress. I believe that having set standards allows for teachers to have a clear understanding of what students need to achieve.

 

I align every lesson to the district standards. As ways for alternative assessment I use rubrics. Not every student can perform well on a standardized test. It is important to give them an opportunity to showcase their work by allowing them different ways to be assessed. As a form of alternative assessment, my students created a story of what happened to the settlement of Roanoke. I gave the students a checklist of the different things they needed to include in their story. I used this checklist to assess their stories.

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Collaborative Relationships

The competent teacher understands the role of the community in education and develops and maintains collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support students' learning and well-being.

Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and diligence."~ Abigail Adams

Building positive working relationships with other educational professionals shows the teacher’s dedication to the school as a whole. When positive working relationships are formed everyone benefits. The teachers and administrative staff benefit by showing the students that they are a united front giving the students the consistency that they need. The best resource a teacher has is another teacher. Having a positive working relationship allows teachers to gain different ideas for lessons, teaching strategies, and classroom management.

 

During student teaching I discovered the best resource I had was the other teachers in my building. I had the opportunity to collaborate with the literacy leader, Cathy Stephens as we planned for guided reading. She brought so many ideas, resources, and experience that I really gained a lot of insight into literacy development. My mentor teacher showed me by example how to build a positive working relationship as we did with the literacy leader. I got to see first hand how collaboration can benefit the students. With all three of us working together, we could come up with the best possible plan to reach each student.

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Reflection and Professional Growth

The competent teacher is a reflection practitioner who contunually evaluates how choices and actions affect students, parents, and other professionals, in the learning community and actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally.

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.  ~Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Reflection is a key ingredient in effective teaching. Reflection guides the decisions for the classroom. A teacher is constantly reflecting on how a lesson went or how she handled a classroom management issue. Looking back to analyze the decision made or action took will allow the teacher to learn and to grow and realistically look at the situation in order to improve it for the future.

I discovered that reflection can be one of my most important resources as a teacher. It guides my instruction and my classroom management. I am continually looking at a lesson and seeing ways to improve it for next time. It also helps me to make decisions on what to teach next. If the students do not seem to understand a concept I need to reflect and see what the best course of action would be. I value receiving feedback on my instruction. It allows me to reflect, not only on what I saw happen with a lesson, but it also shows me what someone else observed and it gives me ideas as to how to improve.

 

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Professional Conduct

The competent teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve students' learning and well-being.

There are a couple of teachers I have had without whose influence I would not be as happy with who I am."~ Mackenzie Astin

I believe that every student deserves a chance to succeed. Different strategies

need to be put in place to ensure that happens. Behavioral strategies, as well as instructional strategies, need to be flexible in order to adapt to each student’s needs. I believe that it is the teacher’s responsibility to continually look for strategies that will enable each student to succeed. If one doesn’t work, look for another one.

 

        This year I had a student who was struggling behaviorally as well as academically. My mentor teacher, Jordan, Jordan’s mom, and I worked on creating a specific behavior plan for him. We adapted to try and help him succeed. Jordan and I created a plan that if he went a certain time without getting suspended from school I would give him a reward. Since the time of that conversation Jordan has not gotten suspended and he is doing a great job academically and with his behavior. He also got his reward of eating ice cream with me during recess one day

 

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