Anchor Standard 9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
Intasc Anchor Standard 9: The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.
Walk-throughs are a common occurrence at the school where I student taught. During this walk-through the administration observed students putting together a cumulative booklet of information collected by the students during the "Seed Plant Unit". Students were compiling their labs worksheets, exit tickets, notes, and diagrams into a booklet to show what they had learned about the life cycle of a seed plant. This activity helped me assess if my teaching had been understood by the students. It also is a way to summarize to the learners, families, peer staff, and administration what the unit was about and how the learners understood the larger concepts.
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During this walkthrough the Science Department head observed the 7th grade class presenting their Newton's Law Projects. This project asked students to pick one of the 3 Newton's Laws of Motion and present with a demonstration the Law of Motion that they chose. They received a step by step instruction guide with a rubric for what was expected for the mini-project. They had one day to prepare before the presentations and 10 minutes in class the day of presentations. During the walkthrough the Science department head also observed my instruction on the importance of this practice presentation to help them with their Invention/Innovation presentations that have to be double the time. This presentation had a maximum of 4 minutes, the Invention/Innovation presentation will have to be 6-8 minutes. I enjoyed the feedback I received from this walk through and am willing to work on improving my ability to wait until everyone in the classroom is paying attention before providing directions, beginning discussions, and providing instruction. Overall, I think these walk throughs are very important to teachers improving their professional learning. I also believe it is important to accept constructive criticism to improve your teaching capabilities and provide students with the best possible learning environments and opportunities.
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During my student teaching internship, I participated in a Smarter Balance Test administrating professional development workshop. I had concerns for students abilities to type (peck) at the keyboard and the difficulty in the questions and the fine motor skills required to use computers for this standardized test and to answer many of the questions. The students are taking a pilot version of the test to help test administrators learn the test and workout the kinks that may arise. I was very involved in all aspects of the professional development day and the teachers seemed pretty interested in my opinions on how I would handle homework/late work, grading, and my observations of other educators. They also had a lot of questions for me on assessments, since I was very involved in that aspect for the grants I worked with when I was at the University of Georgia. I truly feel that teaching is my calling and love that my days always feel accomplished and I feel so much joy and contentment in continually improving my own knowledge to help students achieve success. Through these professional development opportunities I learned that teachers are my people. I'm looking forward to my future in education. The walk-through sheet above and the professional development overview is evidence to support my understanding of Intasc Anchor Standard 9 a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, and p to show my ability to consistently evaluate my actions and choices on student learners and adapt my practices to meet the needs of each learner through differentiated instruction and assessment. It also supports my ability to create meaningful assessments for students to showcase their new knowledge in a creative outlet. This in turn helps student to feel successful and display this success to families, peers, and other educators.