Standard #9: Professional Commitment and Responsibility
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community), and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community), and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
Being a self-reflecting teacher means continually evaluating the effectiveness of lessons, choices, and interactions with students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community. It is important to self-reflect in order to grow and figure out what works and what does not works to be as effective and efficient as possible. Teacher reflection is essential for designing and implementing effective instruction for every student in your class. This is important for all students, but especially students with a learning disability because they need your support and best practice the most. A reflective practitioner also means seeking opportunities to grow professionally. Being a teacher means actively seeking current information and research on how to educate the variety of students in your class and how to support them in the best way possible.
The artifacts that I chose to demonstrate Standard #9 are a variety of book clubs, professional development opportunities, and practices I have enacted in my teaching in order to use the most up to date best practices in education. Being a reflective learner has always been important to me. I have sought out many opportunities at my time at Rider to strengthen my teaching strategies and become a better educator. Attending the Interactive Modeling book club gave me a deeper understanding of the importance of explicit modeling during instruction. The professional development opportunities at Rider University gave me more information about Literacy, Data, SGO’s, Assessment, Mini-Lessons, etc. During my student teaching, I was able to attend a Professional Development day in the West Windsor Plainsboro School District. At this PD, I attended a session about the “Daily 5”. Daily 5 is a framework for structuring choice literacy time so that students can develop habits for reading, writing, and working independently. After attending the session, my cooperating teacher and I implemented this into the Word Study period. When students had completed their Independent Word Work for the day, they went up to the Smartboard and moved their name to the choice they were making for the rest of the period. Students quickly loved Daily 5 and were eager to do it each day. The Professional Development day offered a new learning technique that we were able to try and effectively use in the classroom.
Reflection is a key component of teaching and allows me to evaluate the appropriateness and the effectiveness of instructional choices and practices for building on student strengths and meeting individual needs. After each lesson plan, I make a note, write a reflection, and have discussions with professionals around me to improve my practice and continue doing what is working and plan more effective practices to try in the future.
The artifacts above demonstrate my growth as a teacher because I am always looking to grow and develop into a stronger teacher. I have taken as many opportunities as I can to be around a variety of professionals to learn from them and improve my practice. From these experiences and my reflective practice, I have learned a lot about myself as a teacher and methods that support student learning. I have also learned that there is much room for improvement and the importance of continually seeking professional development opportunities and deeply reflecting on my teaching.
The artifacts that I chose to demonstrate Standard #9 are a variety of book clubs, professional development opportunities, and practices I have enacted in my teaching in order to use the most up to date best practices in education. Being a reflective learner has always been important to me. I have sought out many opportunities at my time at Rider to strengthen my teaching strategies and become a better educator. Attending the Interactive Modeling book club gave me a deeper understanding of the importance of explicit modeling during instruction. The professional development opportunities at Rider University gave me more information about Literacy, Data, SGO’s, Assessment, Mini-Lessons, etc. During my student teaching, I was able to attend a Professional Development day in the West Windsor Plainsboro School District. At this PD, I attended a session about the “Daily 5”. Daily 5 is a framework for structuring choice literacy time so that students can develop habits for reading, writing, and working independently. After attending the session, my cooperating teacher and I implemented this into the Word Study period. When students had completed their Independent Word Work for the day, they went up to the Smartboard and moved their name to the choice they were making for the rest of the period. Students quickly loved Daily 5 and were eager to do it each day. The Professional Development day offered a new learning technique that we were able to try and effectively use in the classroom.
Reflection is a key component of teaching and allows me to evaluate the appropriateness and the effectiveness of instructional choices and practices for building on student strengths and meeting individual needs. After each lesson plan, I make a note, write a reflection, and have discussions with professionals around me to improve my practice and continue doing what is working and plan more effective practices to try in the future.
The artifacts above demonstrate my growth as a teacher because I am always looking to grow and develop into a stronger teacher. I have taken as many opportunities as I can to be around a variety of professionals to learn from them and improve my practice. From these experiences and my reflective practice, I have learned a lot about myself as a teacher and methods that support student learning. I have also learned that there is much room for improvement and the importance of continually seeking professional development opportunities and deeply reflecting on my teaching.