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.
To give my third grade class hands-on opportunities to develop map skills, I, along with a group of fellow PDS interns, developed a series of stations with interactive activities centering around maps and the community of Pekin. In the picture above, the students were navigating toy cars on a large floor map of Pekin, applying their knowledge of cardinal directions and using a map key. This learning experience connected to real life (driving a car and following directions to get around) and made the content meaningful to the students.
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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.
My class combined with a kindergarten class for an egg drop. Each third-grader was paired with a kindergarten partner, and, together, they had to create a structure from packing materials (styrofoam, cardboard, plastic bags, etc.) that would hold and protect an egg when dropped from the roof of the school. This activity promoted social interaction between students of different ages and provided a wonderful opportunity to use problem-solving and critical thinking skills. As you can see above, some students had some more problem-solving left to do!
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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.
During the integrated unit on Scotland I taught to my third-graders, we spent a day learning about the Loch Ness Monster (one of the highlights of the unit for the students!). To give each individual an opportunity to learn about "Nessie," I incorporated different learning modalities into my lesson. I read a fictional story about the Loch Ness Monster to the students; then they read a non-fiction selection from their reader together. This provided opportunities for both visual and auditory learners to process the information. Visual learners also benefited from a video clip the class watched. At the end of the lesson, the students wrote sticky notes listing reasons they thought the Loch Ness Monster was real or not real. Putting the sticky notes on the chart we made allowed kinesthetic learners to get up and move, and visual learners could see which column had more notes (evidence of how the majority of the class felt about the existence of Nessie). For the auditory learners, the class then shared aloud what they wrote on the notes.
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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.
As an intern, I regularly planned my lessons according to a certain format, showed above, which included assessments, modifications for diverse learners, and objectives based on state and district standards. I referred to these standards regularly to ensure that my lessons would be appropriate for the age of my students and fit in with the third grade curriculum goals. This helped me to reflect on and justify the purpose of the lessons I planned and taught.
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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.
During my Scotland unit, I grouped the students into "clans." We learned about traditional Scottish clans, and each group made their own clan tartan, crest, coat of arms, and banner. This was a team-building activity. The clans worked together for points for on-task behavior throughout the unit, and the clan with the most points at the end earned an extra recess as a reward.
To motivate the students and encourage them to invest and take pride in their work, I posted examples of their assignments throughout the unit on a bulletin board for the rest of the school to see.
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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.
Shown above is a math/science activity I did with my students. The students' objective was to find out which brand of bubblegum was best for blowing bubbles. They started by making a prediction. Then each group of students got a different brand of gum to chew; their goal was to blow as many bubbles as they could. We ended the experiment by collecting, averaging, and graphing the data. During this process, we discussed why the results could be skewed (i.e. some students are better at blowing bubbles than others). The students had to use their critical thinking skills to contribute to the discussion. They enjoyed this activity because it was fun, hands-on, involved different ways of recording data, and, of course, because they got to chew gum at school!
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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.
As a teacher, using and teaching effective communication in all forms is important to me. For a collaborative assignment to sum up our Scotland unit, my students created a Scotland alphabet book. I came up with a person, place, or "thing" for each letter of the alphabet and created a website with a few links for each object so that the students could find information easily on the internet. Each student was responsibile for researching, writing a paragraph, and drawing a picture for one or two letters. When all of the letter pages were done, I bound them into a book, and we read the book as a whole class, allowing each student to read the pages he or she created. This was a way for each student to communicate, through words and pictures, what he or she learned about that aspect of Scotland to the rest of the class.
I also maintain regular communication with parents through monthly newsletters and notes home. In my newsletters, I summarize what the students have been learning in my classroom and highlight upcoming events. Below is a picture of the March newsletter I created during my student teaching.
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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.
I use a variety of assessments in my classroom. During my student teaching, I rarely used tests and quizzes to assess my students. Instead, I incorporated projects, writing assignments, journal entries, Venn diagrams, and KWL charts into my curriculum, in addition to the more standard forms of assessment required by the district, such as CARS and AIMSWeb reading assessments.
The pictures above show a KWL chart created to assess a map skills unit I taught and the chart my mentor and I used to keep track of the students' progress in learning the district's third grade science and social studies facts, which was tracked through weekly bonus quizzes. Both of these charts were hanging on the walls of my classroom so that the students could see their own progress.
Below is a student painting her relief map. All of the students created relief maps of the United States to wrap up our unit on maps and geography. The project served as an assessment of the students' knowledge of noteable landforms in the U.S. (including the Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, and Everglades) and the parts of a map.
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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 community to support student learning and well-being.
During my year in District 108 as an intern, I was embraced as a part of the staff and, as a result, I was able to develop collaborative relationships with the teachers, administrators, and resource personnel. I worked especially closely with my mentor, shown above, and the other teachers in my grade level.
I also developed relationships with the parents of my students through opportunities such as Meet the Teacher Night, Open House, parent/teacher conferences, holiday parties, and other events, including my school's Spring Festival, patriotic play, chorus concert, and the district Young Authors Celebration.
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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.
Reflection was a big part of my experience in the PDS program. During Phase I and II, I was required to complete regular formal reflections on various experiences I had in the classroom. During my student teaching, I reflected more informally on my lessons and regular assessments from my mentor and supervisor. Above is a copy of a formal assessment from my supervisor.
As an intern, I also took advantage of many opportunities for professional development, including attending and presenting at the 2007 Illinois Reading Council Conference in Springfield. Below is a picture of me with my display at the conference.
Professional Conduct
The teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being.
Even as an intern, I was expected to conduct myself as a professional, and I upheld these expectations through my dress, language, and behavior. I knew that, as a student teacher, I was a leader and role model for my students, and I wanted their families and them to see me as a professional.
I demonstrated my leadership, involvement, and commitment to my students not only in the classroom, but outside of the school day as well. One after-school event I attended was the district Young Authors Celebration, at which I volunteered to support the winners in my classroom and the district as a whole. The picture above shows me serving refreshments at the banquet with two other interns.
