Learning
Standards Addressed:
INTASC Standard 1 - Discipline Knowledge and Understanding
INTASC Standard 2 - Understanding Student Development
INTASC Standard 9 - Reflective Practice
INTASC Standard 2 - Understanding Student Development
INTASC Standard 9 - Reflective Practice
Artifact 1 - Fire Up Conference
Midway through student teaching, the student teachers from around the West Michigan area were invited to a Student Teaching Conference at Aquinas College called Fire Up. This conference consisted of teachers, principals, and other education-related presenters sharing their ideas on a wide range of topics including classroom management, increasing engagement, and creating authentic learning opportunities for students (to name a few). The Fire Up conference was a great form of Professional Development that was aimed at helping PSTs grow in their careers. Below is a summary of the five sessions that I attended and some brief notes and take-aways from each session.
Artifact 2 - Lesson Observation Reflection
During student teaching, Pre-service Teachers such as myself are observed quite frequently. Each secondary PST is observed five times over the course of the semester by a College of Education field supervisor and also another three times by a content area supervisor. This particular lesson was a lesson that I taught in Algebra. My content area supervisor observed me and took some very detailed notes about a variety of aspects of my teaching (such as engagement level, classroom management, questioning techniques, etc.). After the observation, we engaged in a cognitive coaching session where we discussed my lesson and any areas of concern. After the lesson and the coaching session, I wrote a reflection of the lesson and our conversation afterwards. The notes from the observation are included below as well as the reflection I wrote afterwards.
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Reflection
INTASC Standard 1 (Discipline Knowledge and Understanding) involves the teacher demonstrating knowledge of their content and pedagogy as well as engaging students in learning through engaging lessons. The Fire Up conference was a great Professional Development opportunity to learn about what other educators in West Michigan are doing to engage their students and make learning fun. A couple of the sessions I attended at the Fire Up conference discussed how to make learning authentic for students by connecting with the community and by creating authentic learning opportunities for students. The Fire Up conference helped me learn new techniques for engaging students in engaging lessons, which is the main point of this standard. For my second Artifact, the main focus of my content area observation was on engagement and how I am implementing engaging lessons into my teaching so students are more interested in the learning. The observation notes and the reflection at the end show that I am attempting to increase engagement by identifying what types of activities I am doing in my classroom that are engaging and then reflecting upon those experiences to see how I can improve in the future.
INTASC Standard 2 (Understanding Student Development) requires the teacher to understand how students learn and develop as well as provide them learning opportunities that help support their development. The first artifact supports this standard because at the Fire Up conference, I attended a couple different sessions that talked about providing students with learning opportunities that support their development and understanding of the content as well as life-long skills. After attending these sessions, I used the information to think about how I could possibly alter my own teaching to provide students with more rich learning opportunities so they could get the most out of their education. I made some adjustments according to what I had learned during the conference. Artifact 2 supports this standard in that during my observation, I had my supervisor observe what kinds of activities I was doing as to check to make sure I was giving students appropriate and engaging learning opportunities that supported their learning and development. After the lesson, I looked at these observations and reflected upon them to see what I needed to change for future lessons.
INTASC Standard 9 (Reflective Practice) is about the teacher being a reflective practitioner who evaluates his/her own actions and actively seeks to grow professionally. For Artifact 2, I told my supervisor what I wanted him to observe about my teaching so we could talk about it after the observation. After we had debriefed and talked about it, I reflected on my lesson and about our conversation. I made sure to use what we had talked about to reflect upon what I was doing effectively and what I was not doing effectively and helped brainstorm ideas for improving my own teaching. As far as actively seeking professional growth, that is where the Fire Up conference comes in. I attended the conference in hopes that I would gain some new insights into how to become a better teacher. I came away from the conference with a newly-equipped toolkit of activities and ideas for how I could improve my own teaching and provide my students with the best education possible.
INTASC Standard 2 (Understanding Student Development) requires the teacher to understand how students learn and develop as well as provide them learning opportunities that help support their development. The first artifact supports this standard because at the Fire Up conference, I attended a couple different sessions that talked about providing students with learning opportunities that support their development and understanding of the content as well as life-long skills. After attending these sessions, I used the information to think about how I could possibly alter my own teaching to provide students with more rich learning opportunities so they could get the most out of their education. I made some adjustments according to what I had learned during the conference. Artifact 2 supports this standard in that during my observation, I had my supervisor observe what kinds of activities I was doing as to check to make sure I was giving students appropriate and engaging learning opportunities that supported their learning and development. After the lesson, I looked at these observations and reflected upon them to see what I needed to change for future lessons.
INTASC Standard 9 (Reflective Practice) is about the teacher being a reflective practitioner who evaluates his/her own actions and actively seeks to grow professionally. For Artifact 2, I told my supervisor what I wanted him to observe about my teaching so we could talk about it after the observation. After we had debriefed and talked about it, I reflected on my lesson and about our conversation. I made sure to use what we had talked about to reflect upon what I was doing effectively and what I was not doing effectively and helped brainstorm ideas for improving my own teaching. As far as actively seeking professional growth, that is where the Fire Up conference comes in. I attended the conference in hopes that I would gain some new insights into how to become a better teacher. I came away from the conference with a newly-equipped toolkit of activities and ideas for how I could improve my own teaching and provide my students with the best education possible.