Evidence 1. Collaborative Teaching Project, Lesson 1This lesson was implemented for a class of EL students, all at various proficiency levels. I planned and co-taught with another student from the graduate school. We discussed our plans with teachers at the high school where we implemented our lesson who work with EL Students. They gave us guidance on writing the Model Performance Indicators for the lesson and determining what would qualify as showing understanding for students at various EL proficiency levels: beginner, lower intermediate, intermediate, and upper intermediate. This particular lesson was designed to teach about prime and composite numbers as a preview to simplifying radical expressions.
This relates to Standard 10 because it shows that I seek appropriate opportunities to collaborate with colleagues to ensure learner growth. My partner and I met with teachers who specialized in educating English learners to receive feedback on writing model performance indicators based on the WIDA levels of each student. This shows I relate to colleagues and others in an ethical and professional manner. In addition, working with teachers at the high school throughout this project shows that I support community partnerships and use community resources to enhance learning. This project required me to work closely with the multiple teachers within the building, including the main class instructor, other mathematics teachers, and EL teachers. This shows that I maintain effective working relationships with other teachers. This project brought about many challenges for myself, since I was the only person directly working on the lessons who had a mathematics background. I had to work with my partner and the other teachers who helped us with the lesson to explain the mathematics concepts before we began writing the lesson. I also led the majority of the whole class discussions while implementing this lesson since my partner was not as comfortable with the material. This again shows that even when there are challenges, I maintain effective working relationships with other teachers. Since I took the lead on the mathematics content we covered in the lesson, I was responsible for what and how the students learned the material. This shows that I seek appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning. This evidence is important to me because it really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was teaching students that I could not communicate with in the same way that I was used to. I relied on hand motions and pictures the majority of the lesson. I also had not co-taught a lesson before this point and it was challenging to handle on the spot changes to the lesson. I had to work on communicating with my colleague on these changes without disrupting the class. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience working with EL students and feel much more prepared for future situations like this. |
Evidence 2. Parent CommunicationThis evidence is a series of communication I had with a parent about their child in an advanced Algebra I class. The class was finishing up a unit on factoring and would be taking a Quest (more points than a quiz, but less than a test) in the following class period. I received the note from the parent on our class review day and then communicated with the parent through email over the weekend. The parent was asking for their child to come in outside of class to receive more help with the material and we worked out a time before the class took the Quest for them to come in.
This relates to Standard 10 because it shows that I seek opportunities to collaborate with learners and families to ensure learner growth. Up until this point, my cooperating teacher had taken the lead with communicating with parents. I asked if I could take the lead with this particular situation and my cooperating teacher agreed. Also, the dates in the note and first email show that I responded to this parent the same day I received the note. This shows that I respond promptly to parental concerns. I also was flexible in the type of communication I used with the parent because sending another note back would have taken more time than an email. This shows that I use multiple modes of communication to provide information to parents. The main concern for this parent was that their child did not understand the material and needed more help before an assessment. I offered multiple times that I could meet with the student, knowing that not all families are able to arrange their schedules to allow students to come into school early or stay afterwards. This is why I specifically stated that I would work with the student during enrichment, which is a free period during the day intended for students to receive help with their work. This shows that I am sensitive to the social and cultural background of students and parents and that I take responsibility for student learning. I did not share the note with any other student and was discreet in calling this student in for enrichment in the following school day. This shows that I maintain confidentiality appropriate to my teaching assignment. This evidence is important to me because this was the first parent communication that I took the lead on instead of my cooperating teacher. This early in my placement, it was nice to build that relationship with the parent and establish my role in the classroom. My cooperating teacher read over the emails I sent ahead of time and was pleased with what I wrote. This particular student came in for extra help before the Quest and did extremely well, which was very encouraging! I was pleased to have been able to help and I think that my understanding of the situation built my relationship with the student as well. |
Evidence 3. Introduction to Online Learning VideoThis following evidence is a video I made along with other teachers at my field placement. This was the initial video students saw on Google Classroom. Our goal was to leave them with some encouragement and an idea of what the new learning format would look like. Since all the teachers, including myself, were working together to make instructional videos and lesson materials, we explained to the students that even if the voice in the video was not their teacher, that was okay. Throughout the online learning process, I took the lead in communicating with students, writing lesson plans, and determining what material they would be learning for the remainder of the year.
This relates to Standard 10 because this shows another powerful online platform that I used to communicate with students and parents. Instructional videos, all posted on Google classroom, was the main method I used for online learning to introduce new material. Google classroom is also where all of my students and parents first went to contact me about questions or concerns that they had. This particular video was a way for our team of teachers to encourage our students and explain how their classes would now be formatted. This shows that I initiate communication with parents or guardians concerning student progress or problems in a timely manner and use multiple modes of communication to provide information to parents. As explained in the video, all of the teachers would be working together to make instructional videos and answering student questions. The videos I made were used by many other teachers for their own classes. Learning how to make the videos was very time consuming and required a lot of trial and error. I did not own the proper technology to make the videos, and had to borrow from roommates and family members. Learning how to navigate new technology while still planning for the specific concepts I wanted to highlight in each video was a challenge. I also had to be mindful of my voice inflection and using the highlighter tools wisely to draw students’ attention to important areas on my screen. Technological issues like audio not matching with the video and timing video recordings around when the Navy jets fly over my house made creating videos a very unique experience! In addition, my activity on Edpuzzle, a site we use to monitor which students have watched the videos, prompted an opportunity for the entire school I was placed at to get unlimited storage space within the site. This shows that I maintain effective working relationships with other teachers, seek appropriate leadership roles, and seek opportunities to advance the profession. One goal of the video was to encourage students to continue to participate in lessons and communicate with one another. We wanted to make sure that they knew that the class community they had become accustomed to was not going to disappear now that we were going online. We allowed students to message one another within our Google classroom site and encouraged them to help one another with assignments. This shows that I promote the value of understanding and celebrating school and community cultures. This evidence is important to me because even though switching to online learning was uncharted territory, I was still viewed as a valuable member of the teaching team at my school. It was fun to work with other teachers more closely and build working relationships with them. My knowledge of various technological resources gave me the opportunity to teach other teachers how to make videos and lesson materials as well. It was a challenging and stressful transition, but I was happy to be a part of it and have my ideas heard. |
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