9.+Professional+Practice

< Back to table of contents //**9.**// **PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE PRINCIPLE** //**:**// //The teacher candidate is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally, including staying up to date with research, theories and best practices in his/her field and participating in their professional communities.// //**9.1. Candidates are committed to continue to learn and improve their practice throughout their teaching career.**// Learning about the necessity of reflection after teaching lessons, I constantly reflected on my own practices so that I could continuously improve my teaching. Teaching is a profession where one is constantly learning, finding ways to engage students, building off previous ideas, developing innovative strategies and assessments, and overall working to improve their practice. I have been committed to this mindset throughout my time as a teacher and will continue to do so throughout my career. Beginning early on at Warner, our classes encouraged us to think of pluses and arrows from our teaching experiences in camp and STARS. In doing so, I was able to look back on what I thought went really well during a lesson, and what other things I need to work on to ensure they can improve and go better the next time around. Blogging during STARS helped me refer back to these strengths and weaknesses of my teaching and clearly focus on areas of need (9.1.a).  The teacher community is a community of learners, supporting each other to share ideas of ways to best reach students and improve our effective instructional strategies. By having our own individual blogs, we were able to encourage others to read them and give us advice or share a helpful hint they had, as well as give us a space to return the favor and comment on others’ blogs. In order to do the best that we can do for our students, it is imperative that we are constantly striving to be better ourselves, to give students opportunities they rarely receive, and being able to realize that the way we implemented something can always be tweaked and improved for the next time.  When trying to decide where I wanted to teach and trying to network and observe various teaching practices, I got in touch with my former 8th grade science teacher who is now the Science and Technology Specialist for the RI Department of Education. I spent an hour with him on the phone discussing urban education and the improvements seen in Providence, RI and how those came about. I figured that having such a connection could offer me the chance to have a resource that could answer any questions I ever had about teaching and would be someone who could support and help give me ideas and improve my practice. After speaking with him he put me in touch with two chemistry teachers, one at Central Falls school and one at Mount Pleasant, whose classes I had the opportunity to observe. I constantly wanted to be exposed to different styles of teaching to foster new ideas and get a sense of how I wanted to teach that would fit my personality and allow for a thoughtful teaching practice of my own. In addition to doing observations of teachers in RI, I also took the opportunity to observe a couple of other teachers at East High School. I was given the class schedule of every science teacher in the school and found time to visit two of them, a middle school teacher and a physics teacher. Being able to reflect on their practice and observe what I did or did not like, helped me form my own impressions of what I saw as effective teaching, aiding me in ideas about the teaching practice and guiding me to have visions of the teacher I wanted to be and different strategies I could use.  In July 2009 I also attended a professional development session at the University of Buffalo given by the Concord Consortium on the use of technology in the science classroom. I was interested in going to this workshop, believing that it would enhance my knowledge of technology and expose me to new resources that I would be able to use. Becoming aware of these resources available online, I was able to broaden my understanding of the technological resources available to us as teachers to help us instruct and improve our practice. To share this information, I also posted a step-by step guide on my blog explaining how to sign up on the site they provided us with and start using their programs in the classroom (9.1.b).  Part of my commitment to improving my practices in the classroom includes trying to learn how to incorporate more authentic assessments into my instruction so that my students have the opportunity to better showcase what they learned. In my ED 405 class, some other cohort members and I collaborated to develop a sample authentic assessment that we thought demonstrated a well thought out assessment that catered towards all students’ learning preferences, allowing us to practice our creativity and construction of such thoughtful products that could one day be used in the classroom (9.1.c). Additionally, in ED 404, two peers and I did a project on the extent to which racism is knowingly or subconsciously practiced in schools, and developed a Racism Professional Development for parents and teachers to work to expose teachers and parents to the issue of racism in schools as well as work toward eliminating that problem (9.1.d). Also, in EDU 486, a peer and I presented a mini-professional development session to the rest of our class on a form of technology that we believed would be useful to our practice as science teachers. We presented on VoiceThread, I website online that allows people to communicate through phone, text, voice recording, video recording and images (9.1.e). In doing this presentation, we were able to learn about new methods of instruction and assessment that might be useful to us, as well as sharing it with others who might be able to use it too.  In Kim’s fall seminar, we also were instructed to choose 3 questions from the Haberman test that had confused us or triggered questions. Throughout the semester, we individually kept a google document with our own three questions that we reflected on weekly until we came to a conclusion about the best answer. We were able to reflect on these questions as a result of our readings and experiences, which helped us learn more about education, theories behind it, and help improve our teaching practices supported by these Haberman philosophies (9.1.f). In addition, as required by the state I attended the SAVE and Child Abuse workshops to educate me as a professional teacher and inform me about my responsibilities as an educator. //**9.2. Candidates are able t****o reflect on their practices, constructively use critiques of their practice, and**// //**draw from theories and research results, in order to make necessary adjustments to enhance student learning. **//  After every time I worked with students, Warner encouraged me to do pluses and arrows of how it went and what could use improvement. Taking that a step further, for every lesson plan I wrote and implemented, I wrote a reflection, thinking back to how I created an effective learning community, what I learned about myself and the students, and what the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson were. Taking the time to reflect on my practices, gave me time to clearly evaluate how my teaching was able to reach the students, what I might be able to do differently, and what I liked and should keep in mind to do next time. I submitted my lesson plans early as well in order to receive feedback from my supervisors and mentors that were very helpful and made me consider different ways to approach situations before carrying out the lesson. I often was able to get valuable feedback from those who observed me as well. My supervisor set a goal for me to slow the pace at which I talked, to provide more wait time after posing a question, and to change the volume of my voice at different points to make the lesson more exciting and portray more enthusiasm. I worked on this throughout my placements by keeping these three reminders for myself on top of my lesson plan: to speak slowly, provide wait time, and to change volume. Throughout my placements, my supervisor and I saw much improvement which was observed through reading his narratives after he came in and watched me teach.  After every lesson at East High my CT gave me feedback and we talked about what I thought went well and what I thought I needed to work on. We were able to share our excitement about activities that went really well and the students seemed to enjoy and learn a lot from like the Element matching game, and then discuss how I needed to work on my classroom management by getting more strict and putting more authority in my voice when students spoke out of turn or were not following directions. I kept trying new strategies such as giving certain students leadership roles that would keep them focused, getting more serious with the class when I needed to in order for them to take me seriously, as well as moving seats around to create a more workable environment for everyone. Throughout my eight weeks my CT and I saw a significant improvement with my classroom management skills and how I was able to keep students engaged and focused. I also realized that there were times where students just did not seem as interested as they could be. I knew that I needed to get them more engaged by making it more relevant to them and their lives. When teaching about ions, we talked about different ions that were inside our own bodies and why they were important, and for my innovative unit on acids and bases, the essential question asked how acids and bases are involved in our everyday lives, again focusing on their lives as something they could always relate it back to in order to better engage them and help them learn (9.2.a).  Another one of my observations by my inclusion supervisor, informed me that not many of my students had been engaged and some looked as though they were completely off track and did not know what they were supposed to be doing. As a result, I was determined to change this. With this feedback, I put more planning time into my lesson in order to be sure there was time for me to demonstrate and model different parts of the lab, provide instructions for students verbally, visually, and again through modeling, and also put a checklist up on a board for students to keep track of what they needed to accomplish by the end of today. Having strongly considered my supervisor’s feedback, I was able to rethink my practice in the classroom, and come up with much more sufficient strategies that allowed for more structure in the classroom that the students appreciated very much, as shown by their focus and completion and understanding of the assignment, compared to the lesson before. In order to improve my innovative unit before implementing it in the classroom, I took part in peer evaluations in EDU 448 which gave me the chance to get feedback from my peers to help improve my approach to the unit, and my ideas for lessons and assessments. Hearing additional opinions was very important to me and I took them into consideration as I worked to make my innovative unit better for when it came time to implement. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In ED 446 we worked collaboratively in teams to solve a challenge we had faced in school with either other students or teachers. We discussed a problem one might have faced with a student with autism who would act out whenever a certain girl left the classroom. As a class, we developed strategies and ideas we could use when placed in this situation so that it could benefit the students involved. In one of my UTL seminars, we presented our own problem of practice where we were looking for advice and feedback on how to solve an issue with a student (9.2.b). My problem of practice dealt with a student who had a behavioral problem and ADHD in the 6th grade class that I observed. Ultimately, my peers and I came up with the ideas to give him leadership roles in the classroom lessons and have him self-reflect everyday on his behavior. Taking these opportunities in my classes to reflect on challenges we had had, gave us time to work together to decide on solutions that we might be able to use to improve our practice as teachers when faced with similar situations. Even on the concise Warner Lesson Plans we started using toward the end of the year, there was a section where we were to anticipate possible challenges we might have during a lesson and how to deal with them. Being thoughtful to problems that might occur, enabled us to improve our practices in preventative ways rather than trying to have to deal with behavior challenges or misunderstandings after they happened. This way, we were often ready for the challenges and had already thought up effective ways to deal with them so that these adjustments could enhance student learning. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We were each observed once during STARS, after which we met with our observer and generated three pluses and three arrows. These arrows were later problems that we focused on during our Series of Three lessons during our first placement (9.2.c). I reflected on my STARS’ lesson realizing that I needed to provide more wait time, more opportunities for students to effectively collaborate, and dedicate more time to activities so students could go more in depth with them. Focusing on these three arrows, I was able to form lessons where I was able to critique my practice and make it so that better student learning could occur. Once I had implemented by series of three, I was able to look back, see how I had reached those three goals, and then was able to share them in class through a poster session. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//**9.3. Candidates recognize the key role played by professional organizations and the importance of participating in these learning communities; this includes knowing and using relevant standards generated by these organizations (including professional ethics standards).**// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Professional organizations offer teachers the chance to improve their own learning and give them access to people, ideas and resources they would not have otherwise. I believe that participating in learning communities is incredibly beneficial for every teacher. Even our small-scale blogging communities were helpful to me, allowing me to reflect and also build off of others’ experiences and generate new ideas from what they had talked about. Also, I joined the Chemistry and 5-8 Science teacher ListServs of New York (9.3.a). The emails were able to provide me with a lot of unique ideas, gave me the chance to read some controversial discussions surrounding the Regents, and exposed me to networks and a vast teacher community that I could use to my own advantage if I have any questions. I have also recognized the importance of NSTA and the opportunities they have that would help me grow as a professional. Once I begin teaching and can afford to join the NSTA, I will do so. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I learned more about the key roles that professional organizations play by researching the different grants that are offered by some of them. In order ask for money as a teacher to enable us with opportunities to do more activities or trips with our students that require transportation or equipment, it was essential that we learned how to apply for grants. In EDU 486, I worked with two peers to write a grant proposal asking for Vernier Probeware and Laptops from Toshiba America Foundation that would be used to carry out a fictional unit that involved beach investigations (9.3.b).

|| ED 404 Racism PD || || Ions Lesson Plan and Acids and Bases Innovative Unit Plan || || Series of Three Lesson Plan || || EDU 486 Grant Proposal ||
 * Evidence # || Embedded or Linked Object || Description ||
 * 9.1.a || [] || My Blog Page ||
 * 9.1.b || [] || UB Concord Consortium Blog Entry ||
 * 9.1.c || [[file:20100628-ED405Part3-MSaunders.doc]] || ED 405 Authentic Assessment ||
 * 9.1.d || [[file:20090806-EDU442PowerPoint-MSaunders.ppt]]
 * 9.1.e || [] || EDU 486 VoiceThread Blog Post ||
 * 9.1.f || [[file:Haberman_Reflections_MSaunders.pdf]] || EDF 416 Haberman reflections ||
 * 9.2.a || [[file:20100319-EastHighLPObs2.IonIsotope-MSaunders.doc]]
 * 9.2.b || [[file:UTLdescripreviewanaly.pdf]] || UTL Descriptive Review Analysis ||
 * 9.2.c || [[file:20091207-Seriesof3Lessons-MSaunders.doc]]
 * 9.3.a || [] || SUNY Oneonta Listservs ||
 * 9.3.b || [[file:grantRubric.pdf]]

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