The teacher works with learners to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, encouraging positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
Artifact #1- Book Resource Guide
In this assignment, we had to find different books that could be mentor texts to students of the future age we would like to teach. Each different book we choose, then had to have a description of the book, the readability of the book, how it relates to equity, and then how we would use the book in the classroom. We had to do this around all the six books we choose, then make a video of ourselves choosing the best book that would be helpful for the classroom. This assignment works hand and hand with this standard because having all these mentor texts in the classroom creates an environment for the students that allows them to learn about different equity topics in a fun and engaging way. This assignment helps me as a future teacher to have books on difficult topics that I can then teach my students by reading picture books. This assignment also had me think of how I would teach a lesson around the book so it ties into the active engagement and social interaction of students around the books as well. The books in this assignment can be taught in an individual way if a student is confused by something going on at home like diversity or not having food at home, but also could be used in a collaborative way for whole-class instruction. One of the books I wrote about in this assignment was about different types of families and I could use this as a whole class activity by having my students make a family tree, bring in pictures, or simply just write about someone they love in case they don’t have someone at home.
This assignment has helped me expand my knowledge to becoming a future teacher by learning about all these different books that I could easily have in my classroom. All these picture books are about very important and difficult topics that are hard to teach in the classroom. Having these books though students can read them on their own or I can teach them myself. Having these books in my future classrooms creates a welcoming environment and shows my students that I care. This assignment has greatly improved my practice as becoming a teacher since I had no idea some of these topics could be put into picture books! Now I want all the books I can find on equity topics in my classroom!
Artifact #2- Program Observation and description
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4mzfm7QE8AO69ZYU4IphyqF44_t7ZPgW1BvcQQUzyM/edit
My artifact for this standard is my program description, observation, and checklist from fieldwork this semester. My fieldwork placement was in the Middle school of Kennebunks in the transitional learning program. For this assignment, I wrote about two different observations of what I have seen in the classroom. During these observations, I took a step back and took note of what was happening. In my first observation, I observed a novel study block. Where a small group of students discussed the book they were all reading. My second observation was an assessment of reading and writing. Along with these observation reports I designed a checklist of all the methods and content I have learned this year in class and wrote where I saw them in my fieldwork setting and a general definition or indicators of the method. Lastly, there was an overview description of the program and class that I was placed in. My program description was given to me since the head teacher of the program wrote it herself for the Traditional learning classrooms. This assignment corresponds with this standard since I was put in a new learning environment and had many takeaways about how a special education classroom can transition into life skills. The physical classroom environment was different from general education and how it can be created to benefit all types of learners. This assignment had me writing about many types of methods of teaching and learning that can cause active engagement in students and positive learning environments.
This assignment has helped me expand my knowledge in becoming a future teacher by learning all the different types of teaching styles that can be used in any type of classroom. All these methods I had to take into context how I saw them being used in my fieldwork and my own general understanding of the methods. This assignment has helped me expand my understanding of learning environments by allowing me to step back and observe the class and take notes on what is going on. These observations will help me in the future and help me teach different areas of subjects.
