Domain Four: Professionalism
Domain Four: Professionalism
Embedded Files
In being a culturally responsive educator, I reflect on my practices and make sure that they are effective, taking mentor feedback and student data into account as I continue planning for the future. This requires me to maintain accurate records of student progress, as I have done with data spreadsheets for each class and student. Additionally, I know there is always more to learn. In my desire to be the best educator I can be for my students, I have sought out and engaged in various professional development opportunities. I also incorporate myself into the communities that I work in, showing up for school events and leveraging my bilingual status to allow me to communicate directly with families and students alike. I believe that professionalism is the cornerstone of ensuring students know that they are respected and deserving of quality education.
For my capstone, I brought fishbowl and two-cent discussions to my classroom. I noticed that my students had very limited discussion skills at the start of the semester, and many were scared of sharing their own opinions with one another. I wondered if this could be improved by creating routine discussions with a participation structure that required all students to speak up at least twice and to respond to one another. In fishbowl discussions, students in a small group are speaking while everyone else is listening, and the group speaking rotates until all students have spoken. I saw significant improvement in my students who had most difficulty at the start, and believe that the structure and repetition of this practice were crucial for both building student abilities as well as a classroom community where it was okay to not know something and to ask others for their thoughts. This presentation is a journey through what the implementation of this practice looked like in my classroom this Spring semester, as well as the research I performed that surrounds this practice.
Professional Development
Professional Development
Barrón PD NCTE Presentation.mp4In the Fall semester of my MAT year, I presented a curriculum I developed outside of my classwork at the annual conference for the National Council of Teachers of English. The conference was titled ¡Sueños! Pursuing the Light!, and my presentation was called “Clap When You Diversify Your Reading List”. In it I explored Clap When You Land, by Elizabeth Acevedo, as a novel-in-verse and dual-perspective text that both highlights positive Latinx representation and is engaging and culturally relevant for modern ELA classrooms. It represents young women and their plights along lines of nationality, gender, sexuality, and family. It was an incredible opportunity, and in addition to presenting my own work and the work I did under my mentor, Dr. Laura Snyder, I also got to engage with teachers and other educators from across the country, learning about the things that they presented and new perspectives that I had not gotten the opportunity to hear prior to the conference.
Marie-Anne Barron - Clap When You Diversify Your Reading List.pdfCurriculum Evaluation
Curriculum Evaluation
Reflecting on the curriculum and evaluating it prior to my student teaching experience was incredibly helpful. It allowed me to gain a better understanding of what kinds of activities and skills were promoted in each unit, as well as overall throughout the year’s curriculum. In thinking about my relationship with StudySync, I think that I understand with greater detail the purpose of the curriculum and its intended trajectory for student learning. As schools across Rhode Island transition from local to standardized and evidence-based curriculum, they are asked to complete the impossible task of selecting a curriculum that reflects students’ needs as well as teachers’ goals for their classrooms. Will the material be appropriately rigorous? Can it be modified for students with IEPs and MLL-status? Does it promote equity in the classroom, or will extra teacher preparation be required to engage all students in the learning process? I liked reflecting on the different aspects of usability and getting familiar with what parts of the curriculum would be most beneficial to my students and which parts I would need to supplement.
Core Practices Presentation
Core Practices Presentation
Like the Instructional Design Toolbox, this presentation represents a practice that I believe is crucial to my mission as an educator. I believe that students deserve not only to have a voice, but to be able to use their own to share everything from their opinions on the best sneakers to what their thoughts are on school safety and policies that affect their well-being. When we create classroom routines that promote structured discussion, students learn that their voices matter and that they will not be dismissed for their age. In order to be a culturally responsive educator, I value all forms of knowledge, and oral histories are one of the oldest forms of knowing. By promoting discussion as much as writing or reading, I am empowering students to do well across disciplines and beyond our school walls, and they will leave armed with the abilities needed to defend themselves and others.
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