Slide 1: Hi my name is Kiersten Lamke, I am a current first year, third grade teacher. I am seeking a master’s in elementary education to allow me to continue my path in education in hopes of landing a position in which I can view, edit and write education policy.
Slide 2: Looking at the course descriptions, we can see that this program is broken down into 14 courses. 13 in which are worth 3 credits and the last course, is 8 weeks long and consists of your student teaching. Totaling 47 credits, this program will not only prepare you for the necessary coursework and knowledge to pass your licensure exams but also teaching strategies, assessments, collaboration and how to create engaging lesson plans.
Slide 3: In the state of Maryland your teaching certification and licensure consist of 3 things. You must obtain a bachelor’s degree or higher followed by a state approved licensure program. Passing the Praxis is another part of obtaining a teaching certificate, you can either take one test that includes all subtests or take each subtest individually. After 5 years, you need to get your license renewed.
Slide 4: Maintaining high expectations is a crucial part of teaching. On the next couple of slides we will look deeper into how we can maintain these high expectations in the following 5 categories: Communication, Technology, Code of Ethics, Professional standard practices, and laws and policies.
Slide 5: Effective communication is going to drive success within my career. Being able to respond to parents in a timely and professional manner will build a working relationship that will benefit the student. I will do this by being in constant communication with my parents through Class dojo or conferences. Alongside the community, I must have the ability to build and maintain healthy working relationships with my colleagues. This includes asking for help, sharing ideas and problem solving. The center of this job is our students. Having honest, clear and respectful communication with students will build a relationship that will let the student flourish and give you an insight into how your students work. Effective use of technology is another important part in maintaining high expectations. Today’s world is surrounded by technology, social media has a huge presence in society. In order to keep my professional and personal life separate, I will make sure my accounts are private and I am not accepting friend requests from my students. Technology has also opened a new branch of education as it provides us with more resources like online interventions. Using these in intervention in everyday lessons will pinpoint exactly what each student needs to work on. The code of ethics is broken into 5 different principles: Responsibility to the Profession, Responsibility for Professional Competence, Responsibility to Students, Responsibility to the School Community, and Responsible and Ethical Use of Technology. In order to maintain high expectations, I will read the code of ethics every once in a while to ensure I am upholding my end of the stick.
Slide 6: Professional Standards practice allows me as a teacher to maintain high expectations following these will help me stay professional and build working relationships with teachers, students and parents. These hold me accountable to produce the best possible quality work. Ultimately this will have a positive impact on my students’ education. Law and policy in the field of education has been very transformational. Over the years there have been many changes and there continues to be changes yearly. Keeping up to date with all of the changes can be a handful but I plan to use my master’s in Public Administration to guide me. At minimum, I will provide all students with equal access, equal education, and foster a safe, healthy, family classroom. A place my students can come to learn and flourish without having the stress of not being equal. If my students need more material I will fight for them. If there are other problems I can help them with I will be there for them.
Slide 7: Looking at different philosophies of teaching, I most align with the progressivism theory. Here, we are able to provide students with tools that have them testing and evaluating ideas all while they collaborate with their peers. As an educator, my core values and beliefs are to provide students with a safe and happy room, opportunities to experiment and question, give students the tools they need to learn, and make them know how important they are. Group work is huge for me because I believe it is important for students to know how to work together but it also gives my students a chance to teach/learn from one another. They can see that one of their peers is on the same level they are and they see they can do an assignment or meet a certain standard. My kids do small groups everyday, they have group work and an independent assignment which allows me to monitor their progress so if they are struggling on something specific I can adjust my teaching for them. From there I am able to monitor and assess their progress to see where they need some more practice.
Slide 8: Being confident in your ability is an important part of teaching. I will constantly be working to improve my skills but I want to make sure I target the weaker areas in my teaching. Areas in which I would like to focus are Learner development, learning differences, and learning environments. These areas will allow me to adapt lessons to more specifically fit the needs of each student based on things like reading and math levels. This can be done by looking over their scores on corresponding assignments to see what each group’s target standard will be.
Slide 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.” (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2011). In order to continue to grow as a teacher, we need to constantly be involved in professional development. While we have built in PD day, Prince George County Public schools provide tons of opportunities for teachers to take additional training for free. There are plenty of in house methods as well, I enjoy going on learning walks especially as a new teacher as I am able to see what methods other teachers are using to help their students grow. I have gone and observed all 5 subjects across all grade levels. In addition to all of this, I have asked other classroom teachers to come observe me informally. After I sit down and discuss what they saw and think I could do better. After making changes I like to invite them back to my classroom again to see how I added in their recommendations.
Slide 10: Throughout this year, I have been really working on learning how to differentiate assignments and lessons to fit the needs of my students. What does it mean to differentiate? Differentiate in the classroom means to make changes that work towards benefiting a student or group of students’ individual needs. Differentiating can be done in 4 different ways:
“Content – what the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information;
Process – activities in which the student engages in order to make sense of or master the content;
Products – culminating projects that ask the student to rehearse, apply, and extend what he or she has learned in a unit; and
Learning environment – the way the classroom works and feels.” (Tomlinson, 2000)
I have been focusing on the content, process, and products of differentiating. At times it can be very daunting because I feel as if what I am doing is too easy or too hard for the group. In reading, I have been utilizing small groups. My small groups may look something like this, if I am teaching a lesson on making inferences, my very well below and well below groups may have a picture of a certain emotion and three emotions to pick from. My below or yellow band kids may have a short passage with sentence frames and a word box of emotions. From there they will read the passage and infer the emotion the character is feeling. Lastly, my on-grade level or above grade level would just have the passage and they would have to come up with their own sentences and inferences. In doing this, all students are able to learn the third grade standard or skill but on a level that best suits their educational needs. Overall I would love to find more resources to use for ideas on differentiated lessons and work. This can be done through professional developments, collaboration for reading specialists and other teachers and staff in the building.
