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.
In order to teach content to students, teachers must understand the skills and information they are sharing. My area of strength has been math because I have had a lot of experience with math content in my ISU courses, which have prepared me for a math endorsement. I have used my past experiences to find ways to make math relate to students’ lives while also covering the standards. For example, I gave my students a problem solving activity in which they created an advertisement about which pizza deal would be better by comparing the diameters and areas.
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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.
Teachers must pay attention to the social problems seen within the classroom and find ways to address them. My mentor and I included a lot of partner and group activities during the day. We noticed that some students were consistently being left out of groups. This became a pattern and these students were becoming upset, so I found a way to bring up the issue to the whole class. I read The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric to the class and discussed how it would feel to be left out like the main character was. It sparked a great discussion about issues students had noticed in our classroom and suggestions to fix the problems. The lesson ended with all students placing a marble in a jar then trying to take out their exact marble, which represented a hurtful comment they made about a classmate. All students could relate to the feeling and it seemed to make a difference in the behavior problems we had been facing.
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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.
I believe one of my biggest strengths during my clinical experiences and student teaching was getting to know my students on an individual basis. I noticed right away that not all of my students placed the same amount of importance on their schoolwork and their learning. I had some students who were reluctant to participate in certain types of activities or became frustrated easily with certain concepts. I tried to address this by working with struggling students one-on-one or in small groups throughout each week. My kindergarten mentor teacher and I often split our class into groups or centers to focus on different skills with students at different levels. The picture above shows "buddy reading" with two of my students who read at very different levels. This was effective because the higher achieving student was able to act as the teacher and the lower achieving student was given extra practice and attention.
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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.
I created an integrated unit that met instructional goals in all subject areas. I have implemented most of these lessons in my classroom this semester. Because my unit was created around the theme of mysteries, students were automatically intrigued by most lessons. Mystery novels are many of my students’ favorite type of book to read. This topic allowed me to incorporate important skills, such as making predictions and inferences and drawing conclusions, into all subject areas. Students were excited to read mystery novels, write mysteries using objects from a mystery envelope, and complete a set of stations that creatively covered many state standards.
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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.
Holding a class meeting once a week has helped establish a learning environment in which students feel safe discussing any concerns or suggestions. This meeting is directed by our elected class president and vice president. It includes discussing issues that have been submitted to our issue bin. If a student submits an issue, he or she must take ownership by signing his or her name as well as suggest a possible solution to the problem. A positive form of communication during the meeting is an encouragement circle in which students share compliments and observations about our student of the week. Class discussions allow students to share ideas and problem solve.
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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.
I have been very fortunate because I spent time in both a sixth grade classroom and a kindergarten classroom containing a SMART Board. This wonderful piece of technology has allowed me to enhance student learning in a variety of ways. The SMART Board itself engages students because they are so excited to participate in class when they are allowed to touch it or write on it. Most students in my sixth grade class are visual learners, so I use this technology to their advantage by writing directions or solving problems on the board for all to see. The SMART Board has also allowed me to plan interactive activities with my class. An example of this in sixth grade is using manipulative dice when studying probability. My kindergarteners also enjoyed interactive SMART Board activities to practice the alphabet and spelling, such as circling a letter, arranging words to form a sentence, or playing educational computer games. While technology is a very effective part of my classroom instruction, I have also incorporated many other best practices, such as hands-on learning, inquiry-based activities, jigsaws, stations, and projects.
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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.
Communication, whether it is verbal, nonverbal, or written, is always occurring within a school and between the school, the community, and the families of the students. It is important that staff members do so in order to share ideas, ask for advice, and work together to achieve the common goal of educating all students. Teachers must model proper forms of communication for their students. Part of their job is to teach children to communicate their ideas and feelings, as well as problem solve. One way I accomplished this while student teaching was by working with another PDS intern to set up a pen pal program between my sixth graders and her second graders. My students analyzed spelling strategies, sentence variety, and punctuation use when reading the letters they received. We even were able to meet our little buddies!
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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 have had many opportunities to practice making and using assessments throughout my student teaching experience. Most assessments are informal checks for understanding during instruction. Some informal assessment techniques I have used this year include asking students to stand up or give me a thumbs-up if they understand a certain concept, observing body language and facial expressions, and walking around the classroom as students work on their assignments to listen to their thoughts, look at their answers, and clarify any questions or misunderstandings. While informal assessments are used to help guide instruction throughout the day, formal assessments are necessary to prove that students have mastered a concept or skill. I have used and created a variety of formal assessments, such as homework assignments, projects, presentations, and tests.
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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 began my clinical experience before the school year even began; therefore I was able to meet the students and families at "Meet the Teacher Night" in August. This helped set the tone for the year because I was able to get a feel for how involved my students’ parents would be in their learning. I am fortunate to have a class in which all students have at least one parent who truly wants their child to reach their full potential and is willing to be involved in the educational process. I have gained experience communicating with parents and families via newsletters, notes home, email, phone calls, and conferences. I have also had the opportunity to get to know some parents by talking with them at school functions and fieldtrips and inviting them to see my students’ presentations. While the majority of my experiences dealing with parents have been related to positive behaviors and accomplishments, I have also been part of conversations discussing poor behavior choices and areas of needed improvement. Through my observations and experiences communicating with families, I have learned that it is important to be positive about students’ abilities and areas needing improvement, thus demonstrating to families that I truly care about their children and I want to help each student reach his or her full potential.
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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 one of my strongest skills is reflection. Teaching is still very new to me since I am only at the beginning of my career. Because of this, every lesson that I plan becomes as much a new learning experience for me as it is for my students. I reflected daily with my mentor about my lessons and what changes I would make before repeating the lesson in the future. I presented a literacy lesson about Sector 7, a book with no words, at the Illinois Reading Conference. I discussed parts of the lesson that I would adjust when presenting it. Attending this conference also gave me the opportunity to grow as a professional because I attended sessions in which I gained many new ideas and activities to incorporate into my 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.
Teachers are role models for children; therefore, teachers must be professional both at work and in the community. I have worked hard this year to transition from a college student to a professional adult in my appearance and demeanor. One of the hardest transitions for me to make at the beginning of my PDS experience was acting friendly toward students without acting like their friend. This program has helped all of the interns become leaders, while still being people that students trust and care about. I have worked with the other interns on several occasions throughout the year, including group social studies and science teach-ins. The picture above shows us working together to represent our program professionally by creating an interesting setting for fifth graders learning about the Oregon Trail.
