Quality Standard 4:
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Teachers demonstrate professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.
Student teaching has truly helped me feel more confident in my leadership role as a teacher. Ethical conduct is always at the forefront of my values, and seeing successful role model teachers has given me more ideas of how to present myself to my class, my fellow teachers, and admin. Through reflection in this portfolio, journal entries, and assessing my own lessons, I feel my proficiency improving, although I still do have room for improvement. I feel I am proficient.
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• Element a: Teachers demonstrate high standards for professional conduct.
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Evidence:
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Reasoning Statement:
One of the ways I felt most connected to improving my professional conduct, was through staff meetings. At my elementary placement, part of my job expectations were attending weekly whole-staff meetings, weekly specials department meetings, and staying in frequent correspondence with my department. This group included art, music, Spanish, media, and physical education. We would work together during whole-staff meetings, and problem solve collaboratively since we see all students from K to 5th, every single week.
I selected an artifact that just shows one single aspect of our work as a department. I was able to work with my peers to draft and refine a consistent rubric of participation that all students could be held to. This work took a few weeks of ensuring that the rubric works for the vary different needs of a language classroom all the way to the gym.
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• Element b: Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals.
Evidence:
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Reasoning Statement:
Being able to hang students' work in an art show is something very important to me. I knew as soon as the option came up, that I would make it a priority. This event allowed me to work with other district art teachers, department heads, and build a stronger relationship with the students and their families. A few days before hanging, I was able to choose student work for our allotted display boards. With my elementary placement mentor's help I scanned the artworks, logged the titles and student names, and matted then mounted the artworks.
There were so many amazing students represented in this district art show, and I was honored to help make it all look so professional. I was able to hang the board from my previous middle school placement, and was proud to see artwork from students I had worked with my first 8 weeks of student teaching. I also attended the opening night celebrations, and congratulated students and their families. I knew that through the process of hanging work in the Poudre district art show, I was achieving the professional goals I had set for myself.
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• Element c: Teachers respond to a complex, dynamic environment.
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Evidence:
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Reasoning Statement
In October of 2023, I was able to plan and follow through with a field trip for 30 8th grade students from Webber Middle School, to attend CSU's Art Fest open house. For one day, CSU cancels all art classes and opens all of the studios for events, sales, workshops and demonstrations. With the support of my mentor teacher, Chelsea Ruiz, we planned for permission slips, lunches, transportation for students with special needs and mobility devices, Para-professionals to accompany the ILS students, additional staff support for the field trip, and securing a space for us to meet within the visual arts building. The previous year, my art education class opened our classroom for prospective students, high schoolers and freshmen art majors, so I already had an idea of how the studios and demos work, and what kind of workshops the students might be able to participate in.
We ran into issues with being sent a bus that wasn't handicap accessible, but with the support of a para, we were able to lift the student's wheelchair onto the bus and secure the student safely in a standard bus seat. We were able to call to get an appropriate bus for the return trip. We also had the challenge of breaking off into smaller groups, so as not to overwhelm any studio workshops or small spaces. I took my group of students to make plaster casts of our thumbs in the sculpture studio, then to see the painting demo and painting grad student studios, and finally to look through some of the galleries. Other groups participated in a printmaking workshop and saw other demos. We did many different activities in the art ed room, and the students enjoyed lunch in our courtyard before returning to Webber. Their response to the field trip was overwhelmingly thrilled, and I was so proud of how well they acted in a new and open environment, and I loved seeing how they were picturing themselves as college art students
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• Element d: Teachers demonstrate leadership in the school, the community, and the teaching profession
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Evidence:
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Reasoning Statement:
This artifact is a copy of a document containing all the note taking I did during various meetings at Riffenburgh Elementary. I wanted to establish that I was not just a student teacher, but that I cared about the development of my current students, as well as connections to my fellow teaching peers. Some meetings were required for staff, but many of them were additional small department meetings and professional development meetings.
I tried to note any new ways of thinking introduced during whole-staff meetings. Many of the most interesting recurring concepts were upholding the IB PYP principals for all students, creating and editing highly successful rubrics, how to question students more effectively, and “kid talk” meetings for students that might not yet be on the radar for MTSS or behavioral teams.
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