EDUC 450
Welcome to my EDUC450 Standards Portfolio! Below you'll find my work from my semester at Thompson Valley High School in Loveland, CO
"Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students." - CEP Teacher Candidate Quality Standards
"Teachers demonstrate professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership." - CEP Teacher Candidate Quality Standards
"Teachers demonstrate mastery of and pedagogical expertise in the content they teach." - CEP Teacher Candidate Quality Standards
"Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction and create an environment that facilitates learning for their students." - CEP Teacher Candidate Quality Standards
My self-evaluation and reflection of my competency in the Professional Dispositions.
Introduction
Hi! My name is Claire Douglas and this Fall 2024 semester, I was a classroom aid in an AP Literature course at Thompson Valley High School that helped me prepare to be an English Language Arts teacher. One of my biggest goals as an educator is to help instill confidence in literacy for my students. My teaching philosophy (which is linked here, and I encourage you to read!) asserts that every student has a voice: that voice is powerful and innate, and its power can be harnessed through developing certain critical skills that I endeavor to teach. As an individual who grew up in an environment where I constantly had to defend my identity and existence, my ability to use my voice was my only saving grace. A large part of why I want to be a teacher of literacy is because of my own experiences and empathy: I want no child to go through what I went through, but if they must, I want them to have tools to rise above and be successful in spite of hard circumstances. Some of my strengths are proficiency in the content area I endeavor to teach, relationship-building with students, and a commitment to inclusivity, respect, and honoring diversity. This is my third practicum as a CSU student and my final before I student teach full-time this upcoming Spring 2025 semester.
Standard 1
Teachers demonstrate mastery of and pedagogical expertise in the content they teach.
Element a: Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with the Colorado Academic Standards, and their district’s organized plan of instruction. ​
For this element, I’ve decided to showcase my lesson plan for Hamlet and the standards I adhered to when making it. I organized and planned the lesson with the skills (standards) that I wanted students to engage in first and worked backwards. In doing so, I was able to ascertain students’ proficiency in respectful class discussions, using text evidence to present an idea or argument, and reading critically into a text. Working with the standards assures that students work towards and master certain elements within disciplines that are necessary for literacy.
Element b: Teachers develop and implement lessons that connect to a variety of content areas/disciplines and emphasize literacy and mathematical practices.
Element c: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of the content, central concepts, inquiry, appropriate evidence-based instructional practices, and specialized characteristics of the disciplines being taught.
This artifact shows an interdisciplinary assignment that I collaborated on with my peers Marie (math education) and Rylie (agricultural education) on the life journey of a plant. This demonstrates the final element in that I was able to produce English-specific assessments, instruction, and criteria for success that works closely with other subjects while still promoting a common goal of literacy in multiple disciplines.
I believe that I am bordering on mastery from proficiency in the content I teach. As a student, I do very well in English Language Arts and I find that translates well to teaching it. In the classroom I aided this semester, I found it quite easy to jump into whatever lesson my mentor teacher was giving and to assist students whenever helpful or necessary. My mentor teacher had good enough faith in me to call on me at times to help further explain a topic or idea and even give my input in class discussions. I learned a lot from him this semester, and though I’ve only had the opportunity to teach this subject I feel I am so well-versed in a limited amount of times, I recognize that there is much growth in store for me. Much of this pedagogical expertise will come as I teach more and more and I am excited to further learn how to teach English as I head towards student teaching.
Standard 2
Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students.
Element a: Teachers foster a predictable learning environment characterized by acceptable student behavior and efficient use of time in which each student has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults and peers. EXPECTATION SHEET?
This expectations sheet exhibits this element in that it’s a guideline for students on how best to interact in my classroom. It’s of the utmost importance that students come into my class not only respecting me, but each other and themselves, and this sheet is an endeavor to try and assert the practices that will best assure our mutual learning and care for each other as we learn.
Element b: Teachers demonstrate an awareness of, a commitment to, and a respect for multiple aspects of diversity, while working toward common goals as a community of learners. FEMINIST LENS HANDOUT
This handout is from my lesson plan on Hamlet. In this lesson, we used a feminist lens to look critically at the interactions between Hamlet and Ophelia in Act 3, Scene 1 of the famous Shakespeare play. In introducing students to critical literacy lenses, we are able to have students consider viewpoints that they may have never thought of before and consider identities that much of the time are left out of what most consider the literary canon.
Element c: Teachers engage students as individuals, including those with diverse needs and interests, across a range of ability levels by adapting their teaching for the benefit of all students.
Element d: Teachers work collaboratively with the families and/or significant adults for the benefit of students.
I would say I am still developing in this standard, as a huge goal of mine is to make sure that students are comfortable and feel safe within my classroom but I have not had much experience in leading my own classroom with my own classroom norms as of yet. Making sure my classroom environment and the ways that I teach are safe and inclusive is my top priority, especially as I grew up in classrooms that did not prioritize my comfortability and safety and I can say from first-hand experience how detrimental that can be to one’s ability to learn.
Standard 3
Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction and create an environment that facilitates learning for their students.
Element a: Teachers demonstrate knowledge about the ways in which learning takes place, including the levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students.
Element b: Teachers use formal and informal methods to assess student learning, provide feedback, and use results to inform planning and instruction. ASSESSMENT
For this element, I’ve included a mock assessment I created for this course to demonstrate my abilities in how to assess students in a variety of ways. Through different manners of questioning and the implementation of different skills, I am able to garner how well students understood the text and be able to use this data to inform my future assessments (whether that’s to use one kind of questioning over another or to examine what works best with my specific students).
Element c: Teachers integrate and utilize appropriate available technology to engage students in authentic learning experiences.
Element d: Teachers establish and communicate high expectations and use processes to support the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
Element e: Teachers provide students with opportunities to work in teams and develop leadership. LESSON PLAN 1
This lesson plan had students work collaboratively on imagining what a sequel might look like for The Great Gatsby. By allowing students to work together, my fellow student teacher MJ and I saw how students were able to discuss and present their ideas, compromise, and create final products that showcased the abilities of all the students who worked together on them.
Element f: Teachers model and promote effective communication.
I believe I am still developing in this standard as I haven’t had enough in-class experience to profess proficiency. I have done well and to the best of my abilities with every opportunity to deliver instruction and to facilitate a classroom, but these opportunities, at the time of writing this, have been few and far between. After my second lesson plan (see Standard 1 Artifact 1) I got feedback from my mentor teacher that gave me a lot of hope for my future in accomplishing these standards as I was told that the lesson was wildly successful and student engagement was at an all-time high for his class. I believe these elements are skills that I will become much more confident in as I continue on my path during student teaching and in postgrad.
Standard 4
Teachers demonstrate professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.
Element a: Teachers demonstrate high standards for professional conduct. MTV STRATEGY ON TEACHER INFLUENCERS
I’ve included a presentation my fellow preservice teacher Mayra and I made to introduce to our student teacher peers using a teaching strategy called “Compass Points.” The content we discussed using the compass points was about teacher social media influencers and navigating public social media posting as educators. I’m of the firm understanding that to be a teacher means to operate in such a manner that what is accessible about me on the internet should not be inappropriate or cause concern for a person in a position where they work with children. Professionalism is incredibly important in this day and age when so many people who are trusted to work with children don’t value that trust and implicate themselves and hurt minors, and I vow to use my position for good and not betray the trust of those who believe in me.
Element b: Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals.
Element c: Teachers link professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.
Element d: Teachers demonstrate leadership in the school, the community, and the teaching profession. CO CURRICULAR?
This is a reflection on the activities that I engaged in as a member of the Thompson Valley High School community. Being a part of the school beyond just the working school day is critical to building relationships and showing students that you care about them as people just as much as you care about their learning.
For this standard, I’d say that I am proficient in being professional. I recognize the importance of acting responsibly in schools and after hours as a person who is in a position where they work with children. It is quite an adjustment to go from college student and the behaviors allowed in attending college classes on campus to preservice teacher and the behaviors befitting a person in a high school campus who is not a student, but I’m getting better at it every day and soon it will become like second nature.
Professional Teaching Dispositions
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Reflection:
I would say that I am proficient, overall, in teaching dispositions as I make an effort to be at every meeting, engage to the fullest extent, complete every assignment and have seen these efforts met with success. I hesitate to say accomplished, though I perform my very best at every opportunity, as I am still insecure and anxious about my future in teaching and feel there is so much more I have to learn and that much of it comes with real experiences in the classroom that I have yet to have. I do feel as if I am on a steady track to becoming accomplished in this next semester of student teaching. Two areas I believe I am very comfortable with are initiative and dependability and effective communication. I am very self-motivated and creative and these attributes lend themselves well to teaching. I would also argue that I am an incredibly effective communicator from my years of competitive public speaking and endeavors in interpersonal communication through my leadership positions as a diversity, equity, and inclusion advocate and my experiences in various practicums during the course of my education instruction. I hope to feel more confident in the commitment to profession disposition during my student teaching semester as recently I have started to have doubts as to my choice in becoming an educator. This is for a variety of reasons, ranging from the political to the personal, but at the heart of it I know how important literacy is and I know that I have the abilities to share this gift with others who desperately need it.