TEACHER QUALITY STANDARD II Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students
A very important skill that I learned while student teaching is the importance of reading the room. To establish an inclusive and respectful environment for all learners, a teacher must know their students. This means that one should frequently assess their students in order to understand what the student needs. For Quality Standard 2, I rate myself as proficient because I consistently met the needs of my students through the act of assessing my students.
ELEMENT A: Teachers demonstrate knowledge about the ways in which learning takes place, including the levels of intellectual, physical, social and emotional development of their students.
During the time of sate standardize testing for students at Eaglecrest, I participated in a staff development day. We learned about the importance of brain breaks and how much time a teacher should lecture vs the time the student should work. The high school provided multiple articles regarding the importance of student work and brain breaks for us to read.
ELEMENT B: Teachers use formal and informal methods to assess student learning, provide feedback and use results to inform planning and instruction.
In this activity students were asked to create a coil vase. Throughout the assignment, I used formative and summative assessments to gauge where the students were at. Below is an example of one of the rubrics I gave the students for their vessel.
ELEMENT C: Teachers integrate and utilize appropriate available technology to engage students in authentic learning experiences.
In order to integrate and utilize appropriate technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, I created lessons and shared them through my YouTube channel. This was a great way to share authentic learning experiences out side of the typical classroom envoirnment.
ELEMENT D: Teachers establish and communicate high expectations and use processes to support the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
For the aluminum foil doll lesson I provided over zoom, students were asked to make 4 tears in a square piece of foil and follow my steps to create a doll. I found that the best way to teach the lesson was through the method of : 1. I show an example of what the project will look like, 2. I do show the steps of the project and the students follow after with the art making. Through this activity, students were able to problem solve since I was not physically there to help them in person.
ELEMENT E: Teachers provide students with opportunities to work in teams and develop leadership.
Collaboration is a really great way of working in teams and what better way to do so then to create exquisite corpse drawings? For my drawing and painting 2 class, the students were asked to create a head, body, and legs for a warm activity. This was a great way for students to pass work from one person to another and work as a group to create a work of art.
ELEMENT F: Teachers model and promote effective communication.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I really had to get creative with providing effective communication. Knowing that the lessons I create probably won't get to everyone, I decided to utilize social media and websites to share the information with students and parents. By creating an Instagram account for the school, I was able to provide families with another way to access information.