Standard 1 | Profeportfolio

Quality Standard One

Teachers demonstrate mastery of an pedagogical expertise in the content they teach.

The elementary teacher is an expert in literacy and mathematics and is knowledgeable in all other content that he or she teaches (e.g., science, social studies, arts, physical education, or world languages).

The secondary teacher has knowledge of literacy and mathematics and is an expert in his or her content endorsement area(s).

Standard || Reflection

Element A: Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with the Colorado Academic Standards, their District's organized plan of instruction, and the individual needs of their students.

Element B: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of the content, central concepts, disciplinary inquiry, appropriate evidence-based instructional practiced and specialized characteristics of the disciplines being taught.

Element C: Teachers develop and implement lessons that connect to a variety of content areas/disciplines and emphasize literacy and mathematical practices.

Reasoning Statement: In the district's usage of Tangerine by Edward Bloor, 7th grade students were learning about a variety of novel topics, such as characters. In this process, to help students understand the differences between characters in the novel, this interactive notebook piece helped them learn traits, dialogue and more. Using this assignment helped meet student needs based on their understanding of characterization, their want of hands-on learning, and also met the district's common assessment needs of students understanding other characters besides the main character Paul. (Content was adapted to fit text.)

Reasoning Statement: In this short review game, students are able to answer questions based on their knowledge of the book while also getting out of their seats and learning in a non-traditional style. This review game also stimulated other pieces of their brains but in an academic way. By writing these questions, it gives me a basic understanding of how much students know, and what we may need to focus on before they went to complete their common assessment.

Reasoning Statement: In this lesson, I was wrapping up our tolerance unit for 8th grade. Through this lesson, students were able to hit history and english content areas, as well as read, annotate and discuss with groups based on what they read. Being able to use these different types of disciplines shows how things connect together in real life, and how literary practices, such as discussions and readings, helps us remember what has happened.

Standard Reflection

When looking at my growth as a teacher, I realize that there are a variety of different ways for students to learn subjects that are within my content area. For example, bringing in different content areas during a lesson shows a real world application that students appreciate and want throughout their learning. In Tangerine, students are able to make connections with the main character as he is also a 7th grader. Bringing these connections into the classroom helps students have better discussions and a better grasp on concepts that may have confused them before. Also, by hitting different styles of learning such as visual, auditory and hands on, I am catering to a variety of students in one lesson. I am also hitting different preferences with students because I am using so many different modalities of teaching. For students who love drawing, they are able to draw. For students who have a lower reading level, they are able to listen to the text. For students who prefer to share their ideas, they are able to work in groups and make those connections and inferences together. Through these different type of lessons, I feel as though I am able to complete a lot of different standards and hit the quality of education students are needing without making it so complex that students are lost in information.

Based on this, as I continue growing as an educator, I am hoping to continue to use different styles of teaching that work best with that group of students. While it will always change from year to year, I am always hoping that I can cater to student needs, while also hitting content areas around them and making those real world connections that they want and need. One thing that I want to work on is how I can connect even more real world resources, from different content areas, into English and show students that what they are learning in school will be so beneficial for them once they graduate high school.