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.
What teacher can teach about a topic he or she knows little to nothing about? There is not one. In order to teach students about a content area or topic, the teacher must first be knowledgeable him or herself. Those who are not already knowledgeable must find a way to become knowledgeable. To a student, the teacher is the expert and the student is the apprentice; therefore, if the expert does not know the answers to a question how can the apprentice? Teachers must know what they are teaching well enough to answer questions and explain well enough to clear confusion. Anytime someone is learning something new, he or she will have confusion and questions, and without someone above him or her having the answers he or she will continue on with confusion and questions thus being unable to truly learn.
[Back to top]
Human Development and LearningThe teacher understands how individuals grow, develop, and learn and provides learning opportunities that support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.
There are numerous ways a teacher can demonstrate knowledge of individual student’s skills and knowledge. Teachers demonstrate knowledge of individual student’s skills and knowledge through the use of discussions with the whole class and with small groups, pretests and posttests, formal and informal assessments, and many other ways. With the understanding and knowledge of the student’s skills a teacher can adjust and completely change lessons if needed or the teacher can continue to teach in the manner he or she began if that method proves to be working.
[Back to top]
DiversityThe teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
As any teacher can attest, students’ ability to learn is as diverse as the students themselves; therefore teachers need to be able to develop learning goals and activities which include all these diversities. In order to develop these learning goals and activities, teachers need to get to know the students in their classrooms on a personal and educational level. Using different activities like bio-bags, interest surveys, and multiple intelligence tests are a great way to start to get to know the students in a classroom.
[Back to top]
Planning for InstructionThe teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals.
What are students expected to learn in each grade? Parents, teachers, and administrators are continually asking or being asked this question. How do teachers know when they have taught what is expected of them? How do students and parents know they are learning what needs to be learned to understand the next step? Instructional goals, also known as standards, were created to answer these very questions. Standards were created to explain and define what each student would be expected to learn and be held accountable for at each stage in his or her educational career.[Back to top]
Learning EnvironmentThe teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interactions, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
Ask any teacher what the hardest part of teaching is, and most will say the hardest part of teaching is creating and following a behavior management plan which is most beneficial to learning and considered fair among those who have to follow the plan. Students do not like having a classroom full of rules and regulations forced on them from the minute they walk in to the minute they leave. However, a teacher who can create a behavior management plan that is beneficial to her teaching, the students learning, and that the students are willing to adhere to is a teacher who knows how to maintain order and success in the classroom. Over the course of the year I have gained a deeper understanding of just how important a strong behavioral management plan must be to create a positive environment for student learning, but how flexible it must be as well.
[Back to top]
Instructional DeliveryThe teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
There have been numerous strides in technologies and instructional resources over the years. With each new stride comes exciting and engaging new ways to teach in the classroom. Teachers are continually being faced with a faster and more tactile group of students who learn by doing. We are no longer a lecture and notes generation of teaching and learning, but more of a hands on, actively engaged generation of teaching and learning. With these new technologies and resources at our fingertips come new challenges and new opportunities to reach students on a new and more personal way.[Back to top]
CommunicationThe teacher uses knowledge of effective written, verbal, nonverbal, and visual communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.
An important quality for a successful teacher to possess is the quality of effective communication. Teachers need to be able to communicate with their peers, students, and parents each and every day through the use of written, verbal, and nonverbal communication tools. I have observed both the benefits of having effective communication and the trouble of having ineffective communication. During my student teaching I have been able to practice my communication skills through written, verbal, and nonverbal communication with peers, students, and parents.
Having parents involved in the classroom is a key component in any successful classroom environment. Who better knows a classroom full of students than the parents and family members who have raised them from birth? Who knows what interests these students and encourages these students better than the people they spent most of their lives with? As a teacher, the goal is to utilize these parents and family members as highly qualified specialists and precision tools to create the most successful classroom possible.
[Back to top]
AssessmentThe teacher understands various formal and informal assessment strategies and uses them to support the continuous development of all students.
No two snowflakes falling from the sky are exactly the same. They do not form the same, look the same, fall the same, or land in the same place. Students in school are our snowflakes. No two students were created in the same way or same lifestyle. No two students grew up with the same experiences or abilities, and no two students are going to learn everything in the exact same way. Why then, as teachers, do we try to teach them all the same? We should not even try to teach them all the exact same, but instead utilize multiple teaching methods and thus multiple assessment strategies.
[Back to top]
Collaborative RelationshipsThe 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.
Any businessman or woman can tell you the keys to being successful are communication and collaboration with fellow peers and colleagues. The same idea of success occurs in a school building among the teachers and other school staff members. No great teacher was born a great teacher; however, became one through the communication and collaboration with his or her peers. I have observed first hand, how beneficial and encouraging communication and collaboration can help the staff and the students within a school and a district. As a classroom teacher, I will be expected to teach and reach many different students on many different learning abilities; therefore, if I have any chance of being beneficial to any and all my students, I am going to have to use communication and collaboration with my fellow peers to learn how to be the best teacher I can to my students.
[Back to top]
Reflection and Professional GrowthThe 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.
The most influential and effective professionals in any field of work, especially teaching, are those who continually and purposefully reflect on themselves and their career. The only way a person can improve who he or she has become, is to reflect on how he or she got to where he or she is now and then reflect on what can be done differently. After reflection on these things, changes are made according to what was learned through the reflections and lives are touched and changed. Accepting encouragement and reflection from others is also a great way to determine what can be changed for the better or kept for success.
[Back to top]
Professional ConductThe teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards or professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being.
The teacher’s role in society is to create life-long learners out of each and every child who enters the classroom each day. In order to create life-long learners, teachers must be life-long learners themselves. They must first create in themselves a constant passion to continually grow and learn, before expecting and creating the same in someone else. Whether a teacher attends classes, conferences, or joins a professional organization is not the question, but what the teacher is learning and using from those classes, conferences, or professional organizations is important. As a student teacher, and soon to be first time teacher, these different growth tools are even more important in order to make sure I am growing and learning to be the most successful and influential life-long learner I can be for my future students.
Ask any teacher in any grade, what the number one way to get students excited about learning is and the same answer will be given every time. A teacher who is interested and excited about learning will automatically create interest and excitement in his or her students for learning. Teachers who do not care or are disconnected from the topic they are teaching will produce students who do not care or are disconnected from the topic they are learning. Thus the students are not going to gain knowledge or retain knowledge about the topic being learned. Enthusiasm is contagious and leads to a chain reaction of learning, retaining, and opening the world of opportunities for students. Students only need someone to start the chain reaction and show some enthusiasm in them and what they are learning.
