C. The Student Teacher and the Curriculum
· What are some of the student’s strengths?
I know my field quite well. I consider myself to be a life long/life breadth learner. Even though it has been years since I was formally enrolled in a Master’s program, I have kept up to date. I have a real passion/addiction to learning which serves me well in many ways. I find the process of creating and planning lessons deeply enriching. I like imagining how the students will respond. I’m comfortable enough in my field that I can also take risks because I believe in my ability to find connections and I believe in my commitment to help students make connections to their real lives. A love of discovery and exploration drives my own love of learning so I look for ways to engage my students’ inherent curiosity and creativity. I believe that learners become more capable when they are given choices in every place possible.
· What growth has occurred in this area?
I understand more about how to build the structures necessary to make exploration safe for children. I am learning how to give them freedom in ways that they find meaningful while providing enough organization and structure that they don’t feel like they are hanging in the wind.
· What further growth is necessary?
I’m committed to learning more about co-operative learning environments. During the recent symposium, I attending a workshop on brain friendly co-operative learning strategies and I’m hooked. I began trying co-operative learning without a strong theoretical background. I felt driven more by my ethics than knowledge. I jumped in and discovered new ways to incorporate structure in meaningful and well-thought out ways.
· What examples support these judgments?
I taught two blocks of English 11 and two blocks of English 12 for 2 ½ weeks. During this stint, I created one unit around Utopia and Dystopian ideas as they were reading Brave New World. I also created a doubled unit plan for the two English 12 classes in which I gave the students the option of following my lesson plan or developing their own ways to demonstrate their understanding of short stories as a genre and their use of allegory, symbolism, and irony. I encouraged the English 12 students to choose peer and self evaluation strategies and we collaborated on establishing the evaluation criteria. I also encouraged them to approach these projects with as much creativity, thought and integrity as they could muster. Much of their work will be featured on my website. I am also including my SA’s and my own ratings on the Profiles of Teaching Competency as further support.
Profiles of Teaching Competency
The Teacher, The Kids and the “Stuff:” Classroom Life
They know what they are doing in the classroom and it makes sense.
January 16th 2008
1 How do I really know at this point? I'm basically so inexperienced I can't tell for sure. I'm reasonably certain that I have the basic skills necessary but I see this as an area of huge potential development.
February 25th, 2008
2 My growing awareness of IRP's/PLO's and I've learned so many tools for connecting them to the Big Ideas. I see that I am making connections between the human and curricular elements of teaching.
SA’s Rating April 3, 2008
5 No Comments
They are knowledgeable in their fields.
January 16th 2008
4 I feel confident in my area of knowledge and my ability to understand different modes of inquiry.
February 25th, 2008
4 I get to experience myself as competent in my filed regularly. I have enough knowledge of my field to know that no one knows it all and I don't deed to pretend that I do. I can be honest about what I know and leave the door open for continued learning.
SA’s Rating April 3, 2008
5 No Comments
They use evaluation to promote learning.
January 16th 2008
1 I understand that evaluation is subjective (even on seemingly objective tests). I don't know much about non-traditional evaluation methods; I am hungering to learn more.
February 25th, 2008
2 Carolyn and Vandy's presentations on evaluation and assessment excite me. I think I'm beginning to understand how to make evaluation more useful to students. I'm excited to put these new strategies into practice.
SA’s Rating April 3, 2008
5 No Comments
The classroom is a vital, alive and zestful place.
January 16th 2008
3 My ideology follows this path and I very much hope this is true about my classrooms to be.
February 25th, 2008
3 Not much movement here. I really want more practice with organizing a classroom in various ways to see just how I can create this kind of environment more and more. I know that getting the students to own their class is absolutely essential. I want to try.
SA’s Rating April 3, 2008
5 No Comments
The teaching materials used are varied, imaginative and relevant.
January 16th 2008
2 I plan to use as much material generated by my students as possible; under those circumstances, the materials will be varied, imaginative and relevant because they will be generated by the students who are varied, imaginative and relevant.
February 25th, 2008
2 I want more practice! How can I develop this skill (outside my imagination anyway) further when I have so little 'face' time with real students?
SA’s Rating April 3, 2008
5 Great use of video for “The Lottery!”
These teachers unify their groups.
January 16th 2008
0 I connect with individuals, put out feelers, observe, notice, etc. I can't say that I have much practice facilitating for a group of people who may not want to be where they are. I'm uncertain of how to unify individuals under those circumstances.
February 25th, 2008
1 I have begun to think about how to accomplish this task. I'm designing my lessons with peer evaluation in mind and getting my students to work cooperatively but I haven't actually had the opportunity to try this new skill out yet.
SA’s Rating April 3, 2008
5 Students were eager to share their projects for “The Lottery!”
INDICATORS OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE
C. The Student Teacher and the Curriculum
28. Can the Student Teacher develop curriculum materials that are appropriate to educational goals and the principles of learning?
Yes. I was really impressed with the projects on dystopian societies.
29. Are the Student Teacher’s lessons lively and imaginative?
Yes.
30. Does the Student Teacher engage the students in “minds-on” and “hands-on” ways?
Yes.
31. Does the Student Teacher promote thinking and challenge the students intellectually?
Yes.
32. Are the Student Teacher’s lessons relevant to the needs and interests of the students?
Yes. She is constantly asking how the lessons relate to students’ lives.
33. Is the Student Teacher sensitive to issues of social equity and cultural diversity?
Yes.
34. Does the Student Teacher focus on the “big ideas” rather than trivialities?
Yes.
35. Is the Student Teacher able to put sound ideas into practice in organized ways?
Yes.
36. Is the Student Teacher able to use evaluation practices that promote learning?
Yes. Again, I was impressed with her peer evaluation of student projects.
37. Are the Student Teacher’s evaluative practices authentic to the learning goals?
Yes. Students in collaboration with the ST determined their own evaluation criteria.
38. Does the Student Teacher promote self-evaluation and self-assessment?
Yes. She is constantly asking for feedback.
39. Is the Student Teacher able to flexibly recreate, reinvent and discard practices they find to be inappropriate and/or ineffective?
Yes.
40. Does the Student Teacher have a knowledge of the subject matter that allows them to communicate knowledge clearly to students?
Absolutely!
· Action Plan
I am enrolled in three curriculum development courses for my 404 semester. I hope to learn more about effective curriculum design so that I have a number of styles and approaches from which to select. I also intend to develop my website more fully so that it becomes a curriculum resource. I would also like to locate some more English oriented curriculum resources.
0 comments:
Post a Comment