Core Proposition #5
Artifacts
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A) You collaborate with other in the school to improve student learning.
B) You are a leader and actively know how to seek and build partnerships with community and groups and businesses. C) You work with other professionals on instructional policy, curriculum development and staff development. D) You can evaluate school progress and the allocation of resources in order to meet state and local education objectives. E) You know how to work collaboratively with parents/guardians to engage them productively in the work of the school. |
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assessment_analysis.pdf | |
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professional_development.pdf | |
File Size: | 1258 kb |
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t-wolve_mentoring_program.pdf | |
File Size: | 284 kb |
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reportcardcomparison.docx | |
File Size: | 19 kb |
File Type: | docx |
reflective writing
Being able to engage yourself in the world evolving education around you can help shape you as a successful educator. As an educator you have to continually develop your skills and abilities be to a great educator and to make sure you are giving your students the best education possible. When you are an educator, it is very important to be apart of a learning community because they will be able to provide you with useful information and sometimes just be a sounding board for some ideas or thoughts that you have. Core Proposition 5 insists on educators becoming part of a learning community. Each school and district provides an opportunity for teachers to apart of different PLC (Professional Learning Communities). This provides a chance for teachers to be able to meet with colleagues who may share their same situation when it comes to their subject being taught in the school. There are also many other learning communities that are provided outside of the school that it would be vital for educators to research so that they can find the right one for them.
Core Proposition 5 to me was a little difficult. Seeing has most of the interaction I have is face to face with my colleagues, I had to find some artifacts that would be able to display some of the ways that I, as an educator, have become a part of a learning community that is geared toward giving our students the best education possible.
Element 1: The teacher collaborates with others to improve student learning.
August 2015 will culminate my 5th year as an educator. Before I came to my current school, I was at another campus where I was the Elective Department head. Although we all had a lot on our plate, we made time to meet every Thursday during our lunch period because didn't all have a common planning period off. During this we would talk about everything from student behavior, any information that the teachers should be aware and ways to improve student learning in our school. Coming to my current campus I was sure how I was going to be able to be apart of improving student learning, besides just being a class room teacher. The T-Wolves Mentoring program gave me just what I need it. This program pairs a student and a teacher together and that teacher serves as a mentor to the student. The students are put into the program based on various things. Grades, behavior, home life, engagement levels in the classroom. I have taken on a student who is graduating this year. We meet once a week for at least an hour to talk about college, scholarship opportunities, finishing up all of his credits in order to graduate and various other things that may be on his mind. I also try to make sure I encourage him to keep up the good work so that he knows that at least one person is in his corner. For our retesting week, I made him a testing bag that included snacks, pencils, water, gum and things to keep him focused on his test. I know many of our students don't get that kind of encouragement at home. The look on his face was priceless, you would have thought it was Christmas for him. As an educator, those are the moments that we look and work for, the moment where a student says thank you, not just thank you for being my teacher but thank you for always being in my corner. I feel like the mentor program has given me a chance to help improve student learning and morale.
Element 2: The teacher is a leader and actively knows how to seek and build partnerships and community businesses.
Being involved in the local community is an important task for educators should be doing. I have found that the more an educator can be involved in the community, the more the community will be ready to provide assistance when necessary. There are many ways that an educator can get involved in the community. I try to contact all of the businesses around our school just in case we need to partner with them. Within our school feeder pattern, I have also gotten in contact with teachers at those campus to ensure that their students are aware of the great things that we have available at our school. My goals coming into this new school were already outlined for me. I was finishing my Masters degree and was dedicating most of my time to being a teacher and a graduate student at the same time. One way that I have been in contact with our community is pairing with an organization called Rock It for Life and it focuses on the anti-bullying problem at our school. The Anti-bullying photo serves as my artifact for this element. My students were invited to be dancers in the Anti-Bullying rally that was help at our local community center. I thought that this would not only be great exposure for my students but it would also be great to be able to reach out to our community at this point. Banks and Banks (2009) suggest that culture is conceptualized as a dynamic and complex process of construction; it's invisible and implicit characteristics are emphasized.This holds true for educators because you have to be aware of the culture that your school is surrounded by. Your job is to try to bring that culture from the outside of the school to the inside of the school.
Element 3: The teacher works with other professionals on instructional policy, curriculum development, and staff development.
During the first week of being a new teacher, I was able to be involved in professional developments that were geared toward Dance. Before going into this, I had taught dance in private studios but had never really taught dance for a school district, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. The artifact that I have attached is our Professional Development Agenda from our district wide Day of Dance. This day is geared toward letting the students take master dance classes from some of the best up and coming choreographers. It also provides a chance for teachers to take class and learn how to introduce concepts to their students in different ways. The agenda outlined what we would be doing for the day as well as what things we would be learning. I think as an educator, especially a dance teacher, it's great to get back in the studio and dance, not teach, but dance remember what it feels like to be a student all over again so that you can see from your students' perspectives. We also got information on some of the district wide test that our students would be having and the requirements for them. With our district we had create SLO (Student Learning Objective), this is like a road map to what we want our students to learn and how we plan to achieve it.
Element 4: The teacher can evaluate school progress and the allocation of resources in order to meet state and local education objectives.
Evaluating a school can play a vital role in enrollment and government funding. As an educator, I need to be able to evaluate the schools progress instead of relying completely on information that is provided to me by colleagues. One of the things that was provided to me during out PLC was the Assessment Analysis, even though we are Electives we have to be able to figure out how to look at the students and their skills in our class to assess where we should go next. It was broken up into several different parts and the last part was a six week lesson plan, this will allow us as educators to be able to plan what they are going to be teaching and how they are going to meet district goals in the six weeks they have to teach this lesson. It also provides a space for you to give examples of what you would do for whole group instruction and small group instruction.
During our Test, Assessments and Measurements course, we were given an assignment to do a report card comparison for two schools. We were provided information about the school's demographics and state assessment scores. The Report Card Comparison provides the information on what I found out about both schools and how I was able to assess the the information that I was given. Every school has a building report card which helps identify areas of the concern that the given schools need.
Koretz (2008) suggest that testing has enormous impact on the practice of education, and it looms large in the minds of countless families as they decide where to live and whether to use public schools. The administration at the school try to provide every resource that they think their staff may need, but depending on the budget, you may not get the resources that you need. Evaluating a school on its progress and ability to meet state and local education objectives is best completed through spending time in that school and communicating with students, parents, educators, and administrators, but I think the best thing you can do is to ask veteran teachers and get their insight on the school and progress of the students.
Element 5: The teacher knows how to work collaboratively with parents to engage them productively in the work of the school.
I believe that parents/guardians are a great resource to have. They can be one of the main motivators of how students perform in school. Educators should strive to incorporate with parents as much as possible. The more educators can involve parents the better the communication between the two will be. There will be no discord when it comes to the students behavior in class because all parties will be on the same page. The majority of my communication with parents is either face to face, telephone or via email. Periodically throughout the school year, I send home the Dance Company Letter, it allows parents to see the upcoming events that we have coming up and what the students are learning in class as well. The school district also provides a website, GradeSpeed for parents to be able to check their students progress in class. Whenever I communicate with parents, I make it a note to at least say one positive thing about their child if the initial call wasn't made for that. We have to be on the same page when it comes to our students education which is why we have to make sure that the lines of communication are open on both ends. With there being so much focus on test scores, we have to make sure we are relaying all information to our parents and helping our students make sure they are getting the best education.
Core Proposition 5 to me was a little difficult. Seeing has most of the interaction I have is face to face with my colleagues, I had to find some artifacts that would be able to display some of the ways that I, as an educator, have become a part of a learning community that is geared toward giving our students the best education possible.
Element 1: The teacher collaborates with others to improve student learning.
August 2015 will culminate my 5th year as an educator. Before I came to my current school, I was at another campus where I was the Elective Department head. Although we all had a lot on our plate, we made time to meet every Thursday during our lunch period because didn't all have a common planning period off. During this we would talk about everything from student behavior, any information that the teachers should be aware and ways to improve student learning in our school. Coming to my current campus I was sure how I was going to be able to be apart of improving student learning, besides just being a class room teacher. The T-Wolves Mentoring program gave me just what I need it. This program pairs a student and a teacher together and that teacher serves as a mentor to the student. The students are put into the program based on various things. Grades, behavior, home life, engagement levels in the classroom. I have taken on a student who is graduating this year. We meet once a week for at least an hour to talk about college, scholarship opportunities, finishing up all of his credits in order to graduate and various other things that may be on his mind. I also try to make sure I encourage him to keep up the good work so that he knows that at least one person is in his corner. For our retesting week, I made him a testing bag that included snacks, pencils, water, gum and things to keep him focused on his test. I know many of our students don't get that kind of encouragement at home. The look on his face was priceless, you would have thought it was Christmas for him. As an educator, those are the moments that we look and work for, the moment where a student says thank you, not just thank you for being my teacher but thank you for always being in my corner. I feel like the mentor program has given me a chance to help improve student learning and morale.
Element 2: The teacher is a leader and actively knows how to seek and build partnerships and community businesses.
Being involved in the local community is an important task for educators should be doing. I have found that the more an educator can be involved in the community, the more the community will be ready to provide assistance when necessary. There are many ways that an educator can get involved in the community. I try to contact all of the businesses around our school just in case we need to partner with them. Within our school feeder pattern, I have also gotten in contact with teachers at those campus to ensure that their students are aware of the great things that we have available at our school. My goals coming into this new school were already outlined for me. I was finishing my Masters degree and was dedicating most of my time to being a teacher and a graduate student at the same time. One way that I have been in contact with our community is pairing with an organization called Rock It for Life and it focuses on the anti-bullying problem at our school. The Anti-bullying photo serves as my artifact for this element. My students were invited to be dancers in the Anti-Bullying rally that was help at our local community center. I thought that this would not only be great exposure for my students but it would also be great to be able to reach out to our community at this point. Banks and Banks (2009) suggest that culture is conceptualized as a dynamic and complex process of construction; it's invisible and implicit characteristics are emphasized.This holds true for educators because you have to be aware of the culture that your school is surrounded by. Your job is to try to bring that culture from the outside of the school to the inside of the school.
Element 3: The teacher works with other professionals on instructional policy, curriculum development, and staff development.
During the first week of being a new teacher, I was able to be involved in professional developments that were geared toward Dance. Before going into this, I had taught dance in private studios but had never really taught dance for a school district, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. The artifact that I have attached is our Professional Development Agenda from our district wide Day of Dance. This day is geared toward letting the students take master dance classes from some of the best up and coming choreographers. It also provides a chance for teachers to take class and learn how to introduce concepts to their students in different ways. The agenda outlined what we would be doing for the day as well as what things we would be learning. I think as an educator, especially a dance teacher, it's great to get back in the studio and dance, not teach, but dance remember what it feels like to be a student all over again so that you can see from your students' perspectives. We also got information on some of the district wide test that our students would be having and the requirements for them. With our district we had create SLO (Student Learning Objective), this is like a road map to what we want our students to learn and how we plan to achieve it.
Element 4: The teacher can evaluate school progress and the allocation of resources in order to meet state and local education objectives.
Evaluating a school can play a vital role in enrollment and government funding. As an educator, I need to be able to evaluate the schools progress instead of relying completely on information that is provided to me by colleagues. One of the things that was provided to me during out PLC was the Assessment Analysis, even though we are Electives we have to be able to figure out how to look at the students and their skills in our class to assess where we should go next. It was broken up into several different parts and the last part was a six week lesson plan, this will allow us as educators to be able to plan what they are going to be teaching and how they are going to meet district goals in the six weeks they have to teach this lesson. It also provides a space for you to give examples of what you would do for whole group instruction and small group instruction.
During our Test, Assessments and Measurements course, we were given an assignment to do a report card comparison for two schools. We were provided information about the school's demographics and state assessment scores. The Report Card Comparison provides the information on what I found out about both schools and how I was able to assess the the information that I was given. Every school has a building report card which helps identify areas of the concern that the given schools need.
Koretz (2008) suggest that testing has enormous impact on the practice of education, and it looms large in the minds of countless families as they decide where to live and whether to use public schools. The administration at the school try to provide every resource that they think their staff may need, but depending on the budget, you may not get the resources that you need. Evaluating a school on its progress and ability to meet state and local education objectives is best completed through spending time in that school and communicating with students, parents, educators, and administrators, but I think the best thing you can do is to ask veteran teachers and get their insight on the school and progress of the students.
Element 5: The teacher knows how to work collaboratively with parents to engage them productively in the work of the school.
I believe that parents/guardians are a great resource to have. They can be one of the main motivators of how students perform in school. Educators should strive to incorporate with parents as much as possible. The more educators can involve parents the better the communication between the two will be. There will be no discord when it comes to the students behavior in class because all parties will be on the same page. The majority of my communication with parents is either face to face, telephone or via email. Periodically throughout the school year, I send home the Dance Company Letter, it allows parents to see the upcoming events that we have coming up and what the students are learning in class as well. The school district also provides a website, GradeSpeed for parents to be able to check their students progress in class. Whenever I communicate with parents, I make it a note to at least say one positive thing about their child if the initial call wasn't made for that. We have to be on the same page when it comes to our students education which is why we have to make sure that the lines of communication are open on both ends. With there being so much focus on test scores, we have to make sure we are relaying all information to our parents and helping our students make sure they are getting the best education.
Goal Setting
This year my main focus has been getting my Masters degree. I think with this journey being over shortly, it will allow me to be able to develop more ways to communicate with my parents. I would like to be able to do more than call or email, so I want to develop better ways to communicate with parents. I also want to immerse myself more into my community. I think that as an educator, being able to do this will help build my dance program and it will also help more students come to our school because they will know all of the exciting and great things we have to offer at our school.
Resources
Koretz, D. (2008). Measuring up what educational testing really tells us. Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press.
Harvard University Press.