Professional growth and reflection are both the main components of INTASC nine. This principle means to me that I look for opportunities to learn new information about teaching and that I take into consideration suggestions that have been given to me by other professionals who have observed me. More specifically on professional development days I should be looking for seminars that will help me better myself as a teacher. A seminar may help me find something to try out in a classroom that I had never thought of before, therefore being very beneficial to not only me but to my students as well. I feel like as a teacher reflecting on what happened during a lesson is important so that the teacher can be modifications to the lesson or write down any changes that may have occurred. In my classroom, I would try out new suggestions that I had received from an observation, and I would try out new techniques I learned in a professional development seminar. Growing professionally will have a positive impact on my students. New technology and teaching techniques will bring my lessons to a whole new level. It may also allow my students to experience a new way of learning that they could enjoy. If I was stuck on how I could make a lesson more fun and interesting I would not hesitate to ask a veteran colleague for their opinion because after all they have probably taught the lesson more than I have. If you are not willing to change your routine then your students learning could be affected by this, which is why INTASC nine is important.
Artifact A is an evaluation from my middle school mentor from my first rotation of student teaching. This artifact is accompanied by two lesson plans; one that was planned prior to my evaluation and the second from my high school rotation which occurred after my evaluation. An area that I could improve on is taking more risks while planning my lessons. The evaluation talks about how my mentor hopes that I take more risks when planning my own lessons and is more creative in the future. The first lesson plan is a plan from my middle school rotation. There is not much group work occurring, and it is more teacher directed. The second lesson plan is from my high school rotation. While planning this lesson I took into account what my evaluation from the middle school said and I attempted to be more creative and risky. This artifact shows my proficiency in this principle because I have taken into consideration suggestions from my mentor and attempt to plan more creatively when possible. While planning I began to plan more student centered activities and less direct teaching. This involved more group work with my students. It also involved the students finding the information more on their own as oppose to me giving them the information through notes. There are still short notes in the lesson plans; however the students are now doing more to find the information on their own. This artifact has had a positive impact on student achievement because the creativeness and fun that I have while planning the lesson, I saw in my students while the lesson was being implemented. The students seem to enjoy the lessons more because they are out of their seats and working together to achieve the goals. This was evident while observing my students complete the tasks that were given to them. This artifact demonstrates the “planning” aspect of the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle because in order to be risky and creative I first need to prepare a good lesson that is controlled, but still gets the information across to them. The students should enjoy the learning process and I have noticed a change between the middle school the and high school since I have started to take more risks in my lesson plans.
Artifact B is an agenda from the first professional development day of the school year. This was my first day of student teaching in Harford County. The agenda shows the different sessions that various teachers would attend throughout the day. One session that was extremely beneficial to me was a session called “Going for the Gold: Using Interactive Technology”. At this session, a person from the Promethean Company gave different tips and tricks to using the interactive whiteboards. He discussed a website called www.prometheanplanet.com which is a free website for teachers to go and find ideas and tech support for their interactive whiteboards. I have not used this website yet due to my lack of knowledge with the whiteboards; however I plan to use the resource later on when I can learn more about the whiteboard itself. Although while looking at the website it makes me believe that it will be a useful tool when I have my own classroom and whiteboard. The other beneficial part was the introduction of acti-votes. I had never seen this piece of technology before although I had seen something similar on Towson’s campus. The instructor of the course showed us how to use the acti-votes and how to analyze the information that was gathered from the students. This artifact is accompanied by a lesson plan that shows how I was able to incorporate the acti-votes into the classroom. This artifact shows my proficiency in this principle because I was able to learn about a new piece of technology and incorporate them into my lessons when possible. I could not always use the acti-votes because there were not enough in the middle school for each classroom to have a set, therefore when planning if I wanted to use them I had to check the availability of the class sets. This artifact will have a positive impact on student achievement because with this technology students can receive immediate feedback on their answers. This artifact demonstrates the “planning” and “teaching” aspect of the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle because in order to use the technology I must plan in advance when I want to use it and how I want to incorporate into the classroom. Also when teaching I must be able to explain the technology to my students and then make sure that while teaching this is beneficial to the students or not.
Artifact A is an evaluation from my middle school mentor from my first rotation of student teaching. This artifact is accompanied by two lesson plans; one that was planned prior to my evaluation and the second from my high school rotation which occurred after my evaluation. An area that I could improve on is taking more risks while planning my lessons. The evaluation talks about how my mentor hopes that I take more risks when planning my own lessons and is more creative in the future. The first lesson plan is a plan from my middle school rotation. There is not much group work occurring, and it is more teacher directed. The second lesson plan is from my high school rotation. While planning this lesson I took into account what my evaluation from the middle school said and I attempted to be more creative and risky. This artifact shows my proficiency in this principle because I have taken into consideration suggestions from my mentor and attempt to plan more creatively when possible. While planning I began to plan more student centered activities and less direct teaching. This involved more group work with my students. It also involved the students finding the information more on their own as oppose to me giving them the information through notes. There are still short notes in the lesson plans; however the students are now doing more to find the information on their own. This artifact has had a positive impact on student achievement because the creativeness and fun that I have while planning the lesson, I saw in my students while the lesson was being implemented. The students seem to enjoy the lessons more because they are out of their seats and working together to achieve the goals. This was evident while observing my students complete the tasks that were given to them. This artifact demonstrates the “planning” aspect of the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle because in order to be risky and creative I first need to prepare a good lesson that is controlled, but still gets the information across to them. The students should enjoy the learning process and I have noticed a change between the middle school the and high school since I have started to take more risks in my lesson plans.
Artifact B is an agenda from the first professional development day of the school year. This was my first day of student teaching in Harford County. The agenda shows the different sessions that various teachers would attend throughout the day. One session that was extremely beneficial to me was a session called “Going for the Gold: Using Interactive Technology”. At this session, a person from the Promethean Company gave different tips and tricks to using the interactive whiteboards. He discussed a website called www.prometheanplanet.com which is a free website for teachers to go and find ideas and tech support for their interactive whiteboards. I have not used this website yet due to my lack of knowledge with the whiteboards; however I plan to use the resource later on when I can learn more about the whiteboard itself. Although while looking at the website it makes me believe that it will be a useful tool when I have my own classroom and whiteboard. The other beneficial part was the introduction of acti-votes. I had never seen this piece of technology before although I had seen something similar on Towson’s campus. The instructor of the course showed us how to use the acti-votes and how to analyze the information that was gathered from the students. This artifact is accompanied by a lesson plan that shows how I was able to incorporate the acti-votes into the classroom. This artifact shows my proficiency in this principle because I was able to learn about a new piece of technology and incorporate them into my lessons when possible. I could not always use the acti-votes because there were not enough in the middle school for each classroom to have a set, therefore when planning if I wanted to use them I had to check the availability of the class sets. This artifact will have a positive impact on student achievement because with this technology students can receive immediate feedback on their answers. This artifact demonstrates the “planning” and “teaching” aspect of the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle because in order to use the technology I must plan in advance when I want to use it and how I want to incorporate into the classroom. Also when teaching I must be able to explain the technology to my students and then make sure that while teaching this is beneficial to the students or not.