All future teachers in Wisconsin must create a portfolio. In that portfolio, we have to demonstrate that we've met the criteria and understand the teaching standards put forth by the state and the university. We demonstrate that knowledge by providing artifacts. Artifacts can include papers, lesson plans, experiences, or test scores that we have achieved throughout our education. We must provide one artifact per state standard with accompanying reflections describing why said artifacts exhibit comprehension and proper application of those standards. There are ten state standards: content, development, diversity, instructional strategies, environment, communication, instructional planning, assessment, reflection, and collaboration. The University of Wisconsin- Platteville has sixteen Knowledge, Skill, and Disposition standards we must also demonstrate.
Did you get all that? That's my fancy, smart-sounding technical writing, which I've been known to get carried away with. I know you've all had teachers whom you thought, who the heck gave them a license to teach? Well, nowadays schools do their best to weed out those said teachers. It take an incredible amount of work to become a teacher (which is why I am working on the super-senior college plan), and hopefully, the students will reap the benefits. Today, having vast knowledge of a subject area doesn't mean you can teach. You have to know how to create an environment that is most conducive to the students needs so that learning can occur. Basically, you teach students first, subject second.
Here is just a sample of an artifact alignment. I have to complete eight more of these and get them approved by the School of Education before I can get my license. Reflection plays a very important role in teaching. We always have to look back at our experiences as teachers so we can improve our lessons and presentations for the next student. The artifact is about a nine page paper I wrote two years ago in my Human Growth and Development class. Unfortunately, my scanner and I are having differing opinions about proper functions at the moment, so I can't show you the actual paper with my professor's notes. I will brag though and tell you that he gave me an A on it. That wasn't really big news to me at first because I have never gotten anything lower than a B- and any of my college papers. However, I later learned that he rarely gives those out...so, yes I am pretty darn proud of it...
Title of Artifact/Experience:
Human Growth and Development Paper
Date of Experience:
September 2010 – December 2010
Description:
This
nine page case study paper was written as an assignment for the course Human
Growth and Development which I completed in the fall semester of 2010. The objective of the assignment was to
observe and reflect on a group of students’ physical, intellectual, emotional,
and social development. I observed a
Biology, Drawing, and Literature class in a medium sized high school in Spring
Green, Wisconsin. The number of students
in each class ranged from about fifteen to twenty-five sophomores and
juniors. This artifact consists of the
original copy of the case study paper with the instructor’s comments and my
final grade.
Alignment:
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment:
This experience
best aligns with Standard 2: The teacher understands how
children with broad ranges of ability learn and provides instruction that
supports their intellectual, social, and personal development.
I believe this experience best
aligns with Standard 2 because the course and the act of reflecting as I wrote
the paper helped me understand the developmental stages that students of
certain ages go through and how those situations affect their education. Writing this paper as well as taking the
course had a profound effect on the way I look at teaching as well as assessing
a student’s achievement. As an educator,
I must always be aware of these development stages that can be poignant as well
as challenging times for a student. An
example of an important aspect of emotional and social development that had
been discussed in class was Erick Erikson’s concept of identity. It wasn’t until I observed and then reflected
on what I had seen that I came to fully understand the impact the ‘identiry
verses role confusion,’ the fifth stage of Erickson’s pursuit of identity
achievement, has on not only a student’s education, but how a teacher handles
the classroom.
Adolescents
are very concerned about how they are being perceived by their peers. This became evident to me while observing the
Literature class. Students were asked to
participate in a class discussion about a piece of literature and demonstrate
the use of formal operational thought.
The students were very wary to voice their own opinions in front their
fellow classmates because they are still unsure of their identity and it is
hard to be confident in voicing you own opinions when you yourself are still
unsure of who you are and where you fit in amongst your peers. As a future teacher, I must be aware of this
personal dilemma and adapt my instruction accordingly to create a
comfortable, accepting atmosphere that will encourage the students’ confidence
and help boost their self-esteem
.
Knowledge, Skill, and Disposition Statement
Alignment:
I believe this experience best aligns with KSD1.b.-
:the candidate displays knowledge of the typical developmental characteristics,
learning styles, skills, interests, developmental background, and cultural
heritages of students and is always aware of the broad ranges and variety
present for each of these student characteristic and lifestyles.
The experience of learning about
human development best aligns with this statement because I learned an
incredible amount of variables and factors influence and shape the personality
and lifestyle of an individual. I also
learned that no one individual develops the same way or comes away from the
same experiences with the same interpretation as another person would. Factors such as socioeconomic status,
heredity, environment, and cultural background play a huge role in the application
of a student’s education. No one child
learns the same way, and I believe that is the most important challenge a
teacher will face throughout his or her career.
Not only must a teacher keep up with evolving information and education
standards, he or she must also keep up with changing times and adapting
mind-sets of students who are experiencing different situations and events than
those of their grandparents and the same teaching methods may no longer be as effective.
When
new information is introduced to a student’s schema, the structure in which a
person mentally categorizes and cognitively assesses information, he or she will
categorize it differently than another student if the factors in their life are
on opposite ends of the spectrum. An
only child from an upper-middle class household with both parents actively
involved in their education will assimilate information differently and perhaps
perform better academically than a student living below the poverty line with
five other siblings and a single parent who works the night shift. Because of this, a teacher must take the time
to learn about his or her students and their unique and differing learning
styles. This experience allowed me to
understand the complexity of these factors.
This experience also aligns with:
KSD3.e:
Demonstrates flexibility and responsiveness
Personal Reflection
What
I learned from this teaching/learning experience:
I learned an invaluable
amount of information from this experience that I will refer to frequently
during my career. Not only did it teach
me about what my future students will be experiencing, it taught me about
myself and helped me understand some of my own personal experiences in my own
physical, emotional, intellectual, and social development. The course and the act of writing this paper taught
me about the vast amount of factors that play into these important and natural
developments that all humans go through.
What
I learned about myself as a prospective educator:
As a future
educator, I learned that I must be flexible, understanding, authoritative,
patient, and willing to learn new things myself from the world around me as
well as my students. Since I myself was
once as student going through the same developmental process, I realized from
this experience that I must always be aware of the stages of development. I learned that students are at times
challenging beings that adults don’t always take the time to see things from
their perspective. When I was a student,
there was nothing I feared more than being embarrassed in front of my peers
because I myself was struggling to find my identity amongst them. As a teacher, I will encourage my students to
grow and develop together in a comfortable environment.
My sister took this picture on New Year's Day. I realized while drawing it that the grass was actually greener in January than it was in July, thank you drought. This is my favorite view of the farm and I have drawn and taken my own pictures of it many times, but my sister truly captured the beauty of the valley with this photo and people are always in awe of the unique colors. Everyone thinks that it is a print of a painting, so I took off our wall and got to work. The contours of the hills and valley is always a challenge for me because you lose the depth of those hills in a photo. Luckily, I just had to look out the window for the real reference. As I said before, my drawing was considered for the top prize at the fair and I will certainly work with more oil pastels after this success. However, the more exciting news is about the original picture. My sister entered it in a photo contest through Associated Milk Producers, Inc (AMPI), the company we sell our milk to, and won! It will be featured in the Sept/Oct issue of their magazine. Congrats Kirsten!
