EDUC 450: INSTRUCTION 2--STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENT
This page addresses how I met the teacher quality standards for this particular course.
About Me
I received my BFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2014. I will receive a teaching license in art education from Colorado State University and a Waldorf teaching license from the Sophia Institute in 2018. As an artist, my specializations include strong technical drawing skills, working symbolically with composition, promoting social advocacy, using art as a therapeutic tool, and understanding color from a theoretical and psychological standpoint. As an art educator, I like to use art as a tool to not only develop students to become professional artists, but to also promote self-empowerment and confidence for every student in a holistic sense (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual). I have strong values in contemplative-based education and transformational leadership. Outside of volunteer student teaching opportunities in the arts, I have a lot of experience volunteering with low-income, multicultural communities (such as the Sun Valley Youth Center in Denver, CO) and special education communities, specifically with children on the autism spectrum (The Joshua School in Denver, CO). I really enjoy working with students with cultural diversity and learning differences, and I value understanding them from an emotional and soul level to support their success in the classroom.
What makes me unique as a teacher is that I value creating lesson plants that give my students some sort of leadership skill that they can use in any discipline. This could involve writing prompts that push students to deeply analyze art, creating lessons that involve some aspect of teamwork or collaboration, and encouraging students to make work that involves some sort of social justice/self-expression topic (such as bullying and gender equality). I value that students come out of my class empowered as people, regardless of whether they pursue a career as an artist. My goal is to create lessons that push students to exhibit leadership (creatively and socially) in accordance with the fifth teacher quality standard: demonstrating leadership. I'm hoping that I can do this in an elementary, middle, and high school setting.
What makes me unique as a teacher is that I value creating lesson plants that give my students some sort of leadership skill that they can use in any discipline. This could involve writing prompts that push students to deeply analyze art, creating lessons that involve some aspect of teamwork or collaboration, and encouraging students to make work that involves some sort of social justice/self-expression topic (such as bullying and gender equality). I value that students come out of my class empowered as people, regardless of whether they pursue a career as an artist. My goal is to create lessons that push students to exhibit leadership (creatively and socially) in accordance with the fifth teacher quality standard: demonstrating leadership. I'm hoping that I can do this in an elementary, middle, and high school setting.
About EDUC 450
This class gave me the opportunity to become the teaching assistant for Melissa Robinson's Metals 1 and Sculpture 1 classes at Thompson Valley High School. I taught two lessons that involved critically analyzing art in a writing prompt and demonstrating materials and techniques. I also helped students with technical and conceptual questions with their projects. The other half of my commitment involved being an AVID tutor to a freshman level class. My role involved facilitating peer tutoring sessions and doing binder checks based on the AVID organizational standards. During our lecture time, we discussed classroom management strategies, activities that made students' thinking visible, and how to create strong assessment tools. Projects in an art classroom make student thinking a visual experience, but having strategies to practice with will definitely help if I want students to do written reflections on professional work or when they give feedback to their peers. Classroom management focused on the love and logic approach, which I resonated with. It is very difficult to teach students anything until you understand their needs and interests as a human being. I plan to keep these things in mind as I reflect on how I met the standards.
Standard 1: Demonstrates mastery of and pedagogical expertise in content
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For both of the lessons that I taught this semester, I created assignments using "Connect, Expand, Challenge" and "The 4C's." The goal was that students were able to critically analyze the work of professional jewelers and sculptors, applying what they learned towards their work. After I collected the first lesson's written responses, I noticed that students who wrote more than one sentence were able to demonstrate a deeper level of thinking. I applied that observation towards my expectations for the second lesson, asking students to write at least 2-3 sentences for each question. Though some of the students were resistant about doing so much writing in an art class, the quality of the responses increased.
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The data analysis is the culminating evidence that I satisfied this standard. It signified that I was able to differentiate the results from the first lesson and push students to think critically with the second lesson. Using the Student Work Analysis Protocol helped me to determine what the students' strengths and misconceptions were. It taught me that learning could be accommodated no matter what their comprehension level is.
Overall reflection: These documents determine that demonstrating mastery of pedagogical expertise goes beyond meeting the Colorado Academic Standards. I felt that I was able to address students' misconceptions and employ instructional strategies to deepen their thinking. Moving forward, I would like to find a way to help students generate their own questions for analyzing art.
Overall reflection: These documents determine that demonstrating mastery of pedagogical expertise goes beyond meeting the Colorado Academic Standards. I felt that I was able to address students' misconceptions and employ instructional strategies to deepen their thinking. Moving forward, I would like to find a way to help students generate their own questions for analyzing art.
Standard 2: Establishes a safe, inclusive and respectable learning environment for a diverse population of students
One of my AVID students was in the school play and asked me frequently if I would be interested going to the show. When I attended the play, I also saw a few of Melissa's Metals 1 students. Running into them at the performance made me realize that my presence mattered, that my involvement with the arts beyond the classroom honored their hard work and dedication. They were grateful and excited to see me there.
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About a month later, TVHS hosted a drunk driving simulation that had a strong emotional impact on the students. Though my peers and I offered suggestions for what students could do if they felt unsafe in a drunk driving situation, they discussed the topic by opening up about dealing with parents that had alcohol and drug issues. This was a shocking experience for me to be part of. This was my reflection on the experience.
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Following the conversation about driving under the influence, I attended "Cultivating Community After Tragedy," a lecture panel hosted by Dr. Heidi Fredricksen. The theme of the conversation was about how school communities responded to tragedies such as disease, car accidents, suicide, and mass shootings. I asked questions about how teachers could support students if the parents had alcohol addictions. This was my reflection from the event.
Overall Reflection: I chose this document to support that I had met this standard because I was willing to go to a lecture to see how I could be more informed about responding proactively to tragedy and supporting students that didn't have a voice with parents dealing with personal challenges. As a leader in the school community, it is absolutely important that I make sure students feel safe. As an art teacher, I learned that the arts are so crucial for making students feel safe because it gives them a chance to reflect on the human experience, process their feelings, express themselves in an authentic way, and provide some normalcy to their daily routine. Moving forward, I would like to take these insights and use them to advocate for art education.
Overall Reflection: I chose this document to support that I had met this standard because I was willing to go to a lecture to see how I could be more informed about responding proactively to tragedy and supporting students that didn't have a voice with parents dealing with personal challenges. As a leader in the school community, it is absolutely important that I make sure students feel safe. As an art teacher, I learned that the arts are so crucial for making students feel safe because it gives them a chance to reflect on the human experience, process their feelings, express themselves in an authentic way, and provide some normalcy to their daily routine. Moving forward, I would like to take these insights and use them to advocate for art education.
Standard 3: Plans and delivers effective instruction and creates an environment that facilitates learning for students
At the beginning of the semester, I was asked to give a ten minute lesson on something that I was an expert in using a strategy from the book Making Thinking Visible. I used the strategy "Color, Symbol, Imagery" to teach my peers how they could create their own leadership philosophy as an educator. This was a creative way for my classmates to implement knowledge about leadership going into the first few days of their practicum work.
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Assessment Project: Ag Issues link: https://create.piktochart.com/output/29641003-ag-issues-educ-450
In this assignment, I was asked to create a cross-curricular lesson with two classmates in agriculture and English education. In order to deliver effective instruction, we made sure that we had clear learning targets so that students had clear expectations about the work they were expected to do. Our summative assessment (see rubric) had students write an article for an agriculture magazine on a specific agriculture issue, with a propaganda poster illustration to compliment their work.
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My classroom management plan was the best example I had from this semester that demonstrated my ability to plan and deliver effective instruction. I believe that I am not able to deliver effective instruction unless I have defined my expectations clearly when it comes to work ethic and appropriate behavior. At this time, I care about incorporating leadership skills that would be relevant to the age of the students I'm working with (such as professional job skills for high school and community awareness for middle school). I also value interviewing students on the way they like to be treated in the classroom. Giving them a voice in this manner means that the students and I are able to co-create a learning environment, rather than setting myself up as the sole authority figure.
Overall reflection: With a strong management plan, lesson plan, and assessment that incorporates leadership skills into the arts, I believe that I can create an empowering learning environment that builds students' confidence to take initiative in whatever career they are passionate about. Moving forward, I would like to investigate how students can create their own leadership roles and responsibilities as they move into advanced classes. It would be cool to teach them how to advocate for their own learning needs by assessing themselves.
Overall reflection: With a strong management plan, lesson plan, and assessment that incorporates leadership skills into the arts, I believe that I can create an empowering learning environment that builds students' confidence to take initiative in whatever career they are passionate about. Moving forward, I would like to investigate how students can create their own leadership roles and responsibilities as they move into advanced classes. It would be cool to teach them how to advocate for their own learning needs by assessing themselves.
Standard 4: Reflect on professional practice
During my first weekly reflection, I wrote about my thoughts regarding Melissa's classroom management style and how it impacted the way students engaged with the projects. I had concerns and curiosities about the way she chose to organize her classroom, and I used the reflection to connect my feelings with my values as a teacher.
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During my time working with Melissa, I frequently asked her questions regarding her classroom management style. Though my goal was to pick her brain and learn from the experience, Melissa expressed her concerns that my questions were coming off a little too judgmental and undermined her authority in front of the students. After hearing her feelings on the situation, I apologized and suggested that we norm. This is the list of norms that we agreed upon as we continued to work with each other.
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I wrote this weekly reflection following our norming process and specifically discussed how this somewhat challenging experience gave me an opportunity to practice conflict resolution skills and use norming.
Overall reflection: I definitely feel that my greatest strength as a new teacher is my ability to reflect on my experiences and take responsibilities for my actions. I know that I will make mistakes, but I have no intention to undermine my mentor teacher's classroom culture or make anyone feel unwelcome in the classroom. Luckily, my prior leadership training taught me how to be humble and take responsibility for my actions, and I was able to problem-solve ways that Melissa and I could work more effectively as a team. We agreed that if we had normed on the first day of my practicum, we probably wouldn't have experienced a conflict of interest with classroom management values. At this time, I am grateful that I have a journaling process where I can focus on improving myself as a teacher. Moving forward, I would like to be able to teach skills like norming and conflict resolution to my students and coworkers, using my prior experiences as evidence for what I learned.
Overall reflection: I definitely feel that my greatest strength as a new teacher is my ability to reflect on my experiences and take responsibilities for my actions. I know that I will make mistakes, but I have no intention to undermine my mentor teacher's classroom culture or make anyone feel unwelcome in the classroom. Luckily, my prior leadership training taught me how to be humble and take responsibility for my actions, and I was able to problem-solve ways that Melissa and I could work more effectively as a team. We agreed that if we had normed on the first day of my practicum, we probably wouldn't have experienced a conflict of interest with classroom management values. At this time, I am grateful that I have a journaling process where I can focus on improving myself as a teacher. Moving forward, I would like to be able to teach skills like norming and conflict resolution to my students and coworkers, using my prior experiences as evidence for what I learned.
Standard 5: Demonstrates leadership
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I included both of these reflections as evidence that I demonstrated leadership this semester. Both these events involved faculty discussions around keeping students safe when physical threats are involved (such as a school shooting). Rather than quietly listening and taking notes, I raised my hand a few times and asked questions about things I could do as a substitute teacher and as a first year teacher to keep students safe in case something serious were to happen. I felt that this demonstrated leadership because I wanted to make sure that I was able to practice the things that we discussed during the meeting. Asking clarifying questions and critical thinking questions enables me to think deeply about the situation and let other people in the community know that I care about getting involved. This is the best way that I can show my passion for demonstrating leadership as a PDS student.
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Overall reflection: I've included my resume as evidence that I have met the standard for demonstrating leadership. Under the professional development tab, I mentioned that I have two forms of transformational leadership training for educators (one from Naropa University and one from PassageWorks). These trainings have not only impacted the way that I create lessons and establish my classroom management norms, but they've also defined who I am as a person. I carry myself everyday knowing that I am in a leadership role and my actions have a direct impact on the community I serve. It also allows me to know how to communicate with other teachers and administrators for important advocacy initiatives, whether that's for supporting the arts or advocating for social/cultural responsiveness. Moving forward, I would like to focus on cultural responsiveness so that I can be more sensitive to the student population I work with and respond to trauma in an effective way. I would rather be a service leader than a sage on the stage.
Teaching Dispositions
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Two dispositional areas I'm most comfortable with:
Collegiality and responsiveness: I definitely feel that one of my strengths as a teacher is being able to take constructive criticism and apply it to the classroom setting I work in. I consider myself a contemplative person, and I like being able to reflect on how I could apply any sort of feedback I receive into my next day of teaching. This semester in particular pushed my ability to compromise and negotiate with Melissa and her student teacher, Sam. Though it's taken some practice, I'm willing to practice compromise and negotiation (particularly with norming) if it means that everyone in the team I work with feels emotionally honored.
Desire to improve own performance: Even though I know I will make a fair number of learning mistakes during my student teaching and my first year as an employed teacher, I believe that the only way that I can grow is by reflecting on my teaching practice. Whether that is through journaling about my teaching experiences or talking with a mentor, I am excited to learn new approaches to teaching and apply them to my own professional performance. I'm also passionate about attending lectures and workshops outside of teaching, particularly in leadership. This is the best way that I have control of growing as a teacher and holding myself accountable for my actions.
One dispositional area to focus on:
Tact and judgment: I think I made some mistakes asking Melissa questions about her lessons and classroom management style that were said out of curiosity but accidentally demeaned the classroom culture that she cared about creating. We both agreed that we could've avoided these issues had we normed about her expectations and my role as her teaching assistant on the first day I started working with her. Norming would make it a lot easier for me co-teach with a mentor teacher while also being sensitive to his/her feelings and opinions. I also feel like I can improve on this area by practicing cultural responsiveness, particularly when it comes to the students' challenging home lives. With that said, it's hard to learn those things when shadowing a classroom twice a week.
Other thoughts:
Moving forward, I would really appreciate receiving some more training on cultural responsiveness. The few times I've learned about it in the education program, I've found it to be the most rewarding and effective information that I've used to become a better teacher. I also think that it would help me improve my tact and judgment as an educator. I absolutely believe that cultural responsiveness will impact the way I create lesson plans, establish behavioral expectations, and work respectfully with a mentor teacher or co-teacher.
Collegiality and responsiveness: I definitely feel that one of my strengths as a teacher is being able to take constructive criticism and apply it to the classroom setting I work in. I consider myself a contemplative person, and I like being able to reflect on how I could apply any sort of feedback I receive into my next day of teaching. This semester in particular pushed my ability to compromise and negotiate with Melissa and her student teacher, Sam. Though it's taken some practice, I'm willing to practice compromise and negotiation (particularly with norming) if it means that everyone in the team I work with feels emotionally honored.
Desire to improve own performance: Even though I know I will make a fair number of learning mistakes during my student teaching and my first year as an employed teacher, I believe that the only way that I can grow is by reflecting on my teaching practice. Whether that is through journaling about my teaching experiences or talking with a mentor, I am excited to learn new approaches to teaching and apply them to my own professional performance. I'm also passionate about attending lectures and workshops outside of teaching, particularly in leadership. This is the best way that I have control of growing as a teacher and holding myself accountable for my actions.
One dispositional area to focus on:
Tact and judgment: I think I made some mistakes asking Melissa questions about her lessons and classroom management style that were said out of curiosity but accidentally demeaned the classroom culture that she cared about creating. We both agreed that we could've avoided these issues had we normed about her expectations and my role as her teaching assistant on the first day I started working with her. Norming would make it a lot easier for me co-teach with a mentor teacher while also being sensitive to his/her feelings and opinions. I also feel like I can improve on this area by practicing cultural responsiveness, particularly when it comes to the students' challenging home lives. With that said, it's hard to learn those things when shadowing a classroom twice a week.
Other thoughts:
Moving forward, I would really appreciate receiving some more training on cultural responsiveness. The few times I've learned about it in the education program, I've found it to be the most rewarding and effective information that I've used to become a better teacher. I also think that it would help me improve my tact and judgment as an educator. I absolutely believe that cultural responsiveness will impact the way I create lesson plans, establish behavioral expectations, and work respectfully with a mentor teacher or co-teacher.