Quality Standard IVTeachers demonstrate professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.
As a teacher, it's very important to maintain a high level of professionalism in, and outside of the classroom. One way I demonstrated professionalism was by wearing appropriate attire. Being a young teacher myself, I found it most appropriate to dress up a little more than the average teacher, to set myself apart from the students; meaning that I would wear business pants and nice shirts most days. To demonstrate professional leadership, I co-taught a professional staff development day for the other teachers at the school. For these reasons, I believe that I am proficient for standard 4.
ELEMENT A: Teachers demonstrate high standards for professional conduct.
The artifact below is the recommendation letter that I received from my mentor teacher. In this letter, she testifies my professional conduct and the experience she had with working with me.
ELEMENT B: Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals.
One of my professional goals is to attend as many professional development days offered as I can. In the CAEA Mid-Winter Conference held at Arapahoe Community College, I had the opportunity to take a class hosted by Christian Dore, a European painter who transforms doodling shapes into masterworks of art. In this class, Christian taught me to take risks and use colors that I never thought about using. He also taught me how to transform shapes that I typically draw into a large, compositionally sound paintings. This method of painting is none that I've ever approached before and I most definitely will be using what he taught me in my future classroom. This was also a humbling experience for me because it took me out of my comfort zone and back into the feeling of the unknown as a student. For me, it helped me not only gain technical skill and approach to painting, but also the feeling of what my students experience on an everyday basis. The artifact below shows the painting I made.
ELEMENT C: Teachers respond to a complex, dynamic environment.
For a teacher to respond to a complex and dynamic environment, they must know their students and be prepared for the obstacles the students might face. The artifact I used for this element shows the differentiation section of my lesson plan where I prepare for the diverse learning abilities of my students for my oil painting project.
ELEMENT D: Teachers demonstrate leadership in the school, the community, and the teaching profession.
One of the highlights of my student teaching experience happened when I was asked by the student body president to be a "Judge" with 2 other teachers in the pep assembly. This experience was absolutely incredible because I was able to demonstrate leadership to the entire student body as well as the parents and families that came. The image below shows me during the pep assembly.