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.  

 I believe that knowing the content information is the behind the scenes important thing with instruction.  This is done in preparation for the lessons and instruction for the class.  When I plan my lessons I like to be prepared. The more that I search for resources to use for the instruction, the more knowledge that I gain of the content information.  When I research for my lessons, I feel more comfortable with the lesson and the instruction.  I feel confident to answer other questions that students may have and I feel that I can assist students that have difficulty.   To be more specific, I have had to research for science lessons that include things that I may not know enough about to answer questions that students may have.  Also,  lessons on social studies and things like women's history month, I need to research about those specific things in order to present the most accurate information to my students.

Artifacts Attached

Attached is a lesson for science on the solar system, where I had to use several different media for research to include in my lesson as well as for my knowledge for instruction.  This shows that I had to understand the content area that needed more practice and that I went and found sufficient practice activities that will help the students with that particular skill.

Click here to view the Science Lesson.

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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.

 I believe that knowing the students should be done on a personal level and an academic level.  I really learned a good tool to keep track of students’ progress and struggles throughout the year.  My mentor teacher uses binders to graph the students’ progress in each of the content areas.  The students graph assessment scores in their data folders and my mentor teacher and I check them to make sure that the data was recorded correctly.  This gives the teacher a quick reference to check up on individual students to see how they are doing with the weekly assessments in math, spelling, social studies, science, and reading.   This is also a good tool to use in parent-teacher conferences.  This helps the student to feel involved as well as the teacher to be able to communicate and prove the student’s progress.  Also in this data folder is their behavioral chart that marks if they had any difficulties in that aspect.  The students fill out forms if they are warned twice and that way the parents can see what is being done to help their student improve in that area.  Knowing your students academically will make the educator’s job flow more smoothly because they will know what the next step should be.

Artifacts Attached

Attached is a photo of the data folders that the students use to fill in to record their weekly data.  The dates are also included on the sheets so that the students know how to correctly record data in order.

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Diversity
The teacher understands how students differe in thier approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.   

   This is something that I have learned so much about this year and will continue to learn about throughout my career.  I have used assessments in the classroom to help me discover what the students need from me to be successful.  The assessments that I implemented guided how I needed to instruct the students.  Assessments helped me to determine what skills students need to practice more or what concepts students are having difficulty with.  Those that need more practice cannot be ignored.  Teachers cannot just move on to the next topic.  We need to address those that need more help as well as challenge those that already understand the skill or concept.  This is where differentiated instruction comes into play.  Sometimes I would make several small groups in order to make the activities different according to what the students needed.  Other times, I would review each day as well as continue in small steps.  In that situation, my lesson plans would contain two or more activities or parts.

Artifacts Attached

Attached is a week long lesson plan for math.  In that lesson plan is a lesson for differentiated math projects.  The students are put into groups based on the skills that they need to work on.  The skill that each child needs to work on was chosen based on assessment results from the test taken the day before. 

Click here to view the Math Lesson Plan
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Planning for Instruction
The teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon kowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals.  

I have made sure to plan out all my lessons with standards or I Can Do It’s throughout this whole year.  The I Can Do It’s are the state standards more simplified so that the students can understand them too.  I like including them in my lesson plans because then I know what I have done and what I need to know and the students are right there with me.  I am an organized and prepared person.  When I create lesson plans, I tend to make a rough draft before I type them out.  I would sketch out the week in short hand and then I would go into each content area and type the lessons out in detail for the week.  That helped me to see what I had down and what I wanted to change or add to in order to make it better suited for the kids.   I choose the objectives that I teach from the I Can Do It check lists.  I check off the items that I have taught already and feel that the class has a good grip on and then when I start teaching the lesson I make sure that the students know what they need to learn.  Before the parent-teacher conferences the students go through the I Can Do It check lists and put a check next to the things that have been covered that they need to work on and a plus next to the items that they understand and can do well. 

Artifacts Attached

Attached are my thorough lesson plans after the rough draft full week plans.  Also, attached is my sketched out week plans for every content area. These show the planning that I use to create the lesson plans. These show the planning that I use to create the lesson plans.

Click here to see my sketched out week plans

Click here to view my  thorough lesson plans
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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 postive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.   

 I have found that classroom management is one aspect of the classroom and educating that is constantly changing and improving.  Teachers sometimes need to change their procedures and routines so that the students can be successful.  All students are unique and classroom management needs to adapt to the students in the class.  I found that reinforcing the current classroom procedures seems to help remind the students of how they are supposed to do particular things.  The things that have procedures in the second grade classroom are sitting by the rocking chair, ordering lunch, walking down the hall, sharpening pencils, getting a drink, washing their hands, etc.  Most of these things have been introduced at the beginning of the year.  As Harry Wong stated at his seminar about Classroom Management, these procedures need to be rehearsed and reinforced.  As a future educator, I believe that even though we may introduce the procedure or routine, the students may need reminding.  Every morning, I or my mentor teacher posts the morning procedures for the students to follow.  Another part of classroom management is behavior management.  In the classroom that I am in, there was already a behavior chart in place where if the students misbehaved, they had to move their name down and to participate in the consequences.  Since I was not the classroom teacher, this did not always work for me.  I decided to try to implement something of my own through discussions with my mentor teacher.  I came up with a Goody Bag system where they could earn tickets for good behavior and following classroom procedures.  If they earn so many tickets they can get an award for their good behavior.  I found this to work with those students who did not seem to be so successful with the other system.  This just goes to show that classroom teachers need to be constantly thinking about how they can change and improve their systems that they have in their classroom.  This aspect is constantly changing with every new class of students. 

Artifacts Attached

Attached are photos of the behavior management systems that have been implemented in the classroom as well as the morning procedures that are listed for the students to read.  These show what is being used in the classroom to help it run smoothly and to keep it organized and functioning at its best.

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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.  

This has been something that I have been working on as a student teacher.  Sometimes I concentrate too much on making sure that I present the information right in my lessons that I forget that I need to show that I am motivated and excited about what I am teaching.  When I make sure to be enthusiastic the students want to participate more and get involved in the discussions.  I find that I get much more positive feedback from my students during my instruction.  This lets me know that they are engaged and focused on the content at hand.  I also find that it is easier to communicate with the students because they are more cooperative when I am giving off a positive attitude and feedback as well.  Teachers that are excited about learning and teaching the lesson at hand usually help the students to see why they should be excited too.  Students may also be drawn in more and pay more attention.  For example, when I am reading a book aloud to the students, more pay attention when I am being enthusiastic and expressive while reading.  The students get “hooked” and are intrigued by the book more so that if I just read it without any excitement. 

Artifacts Attached
Attached is an evaluation from my mentor teaching in regard to improving enthusiasm and getting the students more engaged in the lesson at hand.  Also attached is an evaluation from my liaison that shows that I have improved with my enthusiasm in delivering my lesson to the class.  Both show that I am still learning and that I am improving the use of my own enthusiasm in my lessons and instruction.

Click here to view my Phase I Evaluation
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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.   

 I believe that continuing to keep communication going between the teacher and the parents/guardians is essential to classroom success.  I send home a newsletter every week.  This is for the parents/guardians to read and find out about upcoming events and activities in the classroom.  I include such things as bake sale days, days for gym that students may need to bring in their gym shoes, and special event days that students may need something extra.  I also include such things as the new spelling list, new topics for study like math or science, and new stories out of their reading books.  Letting the parents know about what their students are learning, gives them a chance to communicate with their children.  Parents can also practice those spelling words with their children to get a jumpstart on the next week.  I think that a lot of the parents from the second grade class appreciate the information that is sent home.  I also sent home a friendly note to the parents and guardians to let them know that I was back in the classroom.  I think that sending home notes like that helps keep a positive relationship between myself and the parents.  I told them that I was back in the classroom and that I was excited to start the next half of the school year.  I also explained that I was beginning my student teaching phase and that it meant that I would be teaching more that I had before.  I left information for communication so that parents could get in contact with me if they needed to.  I think that parents appreciate being given the contact information in case they have a question or need to get ahold of the classroom teacher. 

Artifacts Attached

Attached are a note home to the parents and guardians letting them know that I was back in the classroom and beginning my student teaching phase and a weekly newsletter that included information about the upcoming week.   Both of these were sent home to keep the parents and guardians informed about the events that are occurring in the classroom.  Also, the notes that go home may ask something of the parents/guardians as far as volunteering for classroom parties or donating items for classroom activities.  

Click here to see the Newsletter

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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 learned much about varying my strategies for instruction and for assessment.  In the classroom that I am student teaching, my mentor teacher used a lot of timed tests and other quizzes.  I made sure to continue to make use of those types of assessments so that there was still structure within the regular routine.  I also added in projects and informal assessment of classroom participation in an activity.  The type of projects that I put into the lesson plans for assessment were math projects.  The students took a test and then from the results of the test, I separated the students into small groups to work on skills that they need to practice a bit more.  The students could pick from a predetermined list of:  game, skit, newsletter, product, lesson to be taught to the class, etc.  The small groups would select one thing and then plan it out so that it included the skill that they needed to work on.  Students would also turn in assignments so that I could assess if they would be able to complete the activity in the future or if they understood the content area information.  Varying my assessment strategies yielded more thorough results for me to analyze and help guide my instruction.

Artifacts Attached

Attached are two lesson plans that have different assessment strategies used.  These strategies are appropriate for the lesson created and they allow for those students who may not do well with the first strategy.  The subject area is spelling and on some days, the assessment is participation in the classroom.  Other assessments are the students turning in the assignment or taking a test or pre-test.

Click here to view Spelling Lesson Plan

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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 love that I can work in close vicinity with other professionals as well as fellow student teachers.  This gives me the opportunity to collaborate and discuss issues or ideas for instruction.  I really like that I can talk to the other student teachers about ideas for the classroom and lesson plans.  We can share materials and resources.  We can also pass around successful activities and ideas that may be helpful in the classroom for the other.  I also like that I can take those quiet times, during lunch break or planning time when the students are in gym or music, to talk to my mentor teacher.   She has been an educator for about eighteen years and I always run my lesson plans and activity ideas past her before I teach them.  Also, I can talk to her after I teach a lesson to get constructive feedback about ways that I can improve.  I find that a lot of the time she can see things about my instruction that I would not normally notice when I’m teaching.  She points those things out to me and then gives me suggestions on how to improve them.  In addition to things that I need to improve, I can talk to her and we can together come up with ideas on how to teach a certain topic.  For example, the second graders in this class are learning about using the calendar and reading it.  I have done a few activities and looked online, but am running out of ideas and do not know the resources that she may have available.   We had scheduled a time to sit down and go over ideas on how to make learning about the calendar more fun and engaging for the whole class. 

Artifacts Attached

Attached is one example of an activity that I collaborated with my mentor teacher to create as well as photos of times when I was discussing approaches of lesson plans and activities with my mentor teacher during the lunch break.  The plan times and lunch break are nice quiet times to talk to other professionals in the building to get feedback about ideas or advice on how to change things or new ideas for activities. 

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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.

As an intern and student teacher, we are encouraged to reflect on our lesson plans and the experiences we have in the classroom.  I have reflective conversations with my mentor teacher daily as to how the day in the classroom went and what are the things that I need to do the next day that might help things improve and go better.  Not all reflection was about something that needed to change or be made better.  Some reflection was a simple as writing myself a note that a procedure or mini lesson worked in the classroom and the students were successful.  Recently, I tried a new approach with a few of the students on behavioral management.  I watched it in action for a couple days and then reflected on the effectiveness of this approach.  I found that for two of the students, it worked really well and it was a good reminder for them to behave as asked.  From my reflection, I determined that I wanted to continue the use of this approach with the two students that it worked with.  With the third student, it was not as successful and I decided, upon reflection, to give it a couple more days and if it still did not prove successful, that I would reflect upon the behavior of that student and come up with something else that might work.

Artifacts Attached

Attached is a reflection sheet from which my mentor teacher and I had discussions about questions that I had been having or things that I needed to work on.  Also on these sheets were things that had been going well that I felt my mentor teacher needed to know.

Click here to view evaluation
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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.

This is the part that I have been developing since I started the Professional Development Program.  This is something that a teacher develops during their whole career.  All the experiences that I have gone through in learning about this esteemed profession add to my beliefs about education.  Although this philosophy of mine changes quite often, I believe that it is solid in one thing.  The main idea that I believe about education is that the students come first.  That is part of the framework of my philosophy.  I am not a certified educator yet and even when I am, my philosophy will still be flexible and change based on new information that I learn.  My philosophy is influenced  a lot by the philosophy that my Professional Development School promotes.  That is the Fish Philosophy and I believe that a teacher needs to be there for their class, have fun  and play with their students, choose their attitude at the start of each day, and  make their day.  These types of things are things to remember for me as a teacher.  Another  person that has influenced my philosophy is Harry Wong's theories on procedures and instruction of these procedures.  I believe that some of those things need to be implemented as soon as the beginning of the school year and continued throughout.  So, overall, a lot of what I have been exposed to as far as theories or other things like the Danielson framework help shape my philosophy and help me to develop my plan as to what type of teacher I want to be.

Artifacts Attached

Attached is my Final Reflective Essay that I wrote this year that includes some of my beliefs about teaching and the education profession.  Also attached are some reflections that show some of the things that I have learned about teaching and the classroom environment.

Click here to view Reflection on Classroom Environment
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