This page is where I will reflect and provide artifacts demonstrating my skills and abilities to communicate effectively in a variety of ways (written, oral, digital) using a variety of media (text, graphics, illustrations, tables, figures, charts, graphs, audio, video, etc.)
Below is an embedded slide deck that demonstrates how I communicated with my students parents, and admin what was happening within my classroom on a weekly basis. This slide deck contains a slide for every week throughout the entire 2020-2021 school year. I used this set of slides to communicate with my students what was expected of them to complete throughout the year. Each day of the week (Monday-Friday) contains information about their lessons, tasks, and activities that they would be expected to complete in class. Assignment materials that could not be accessed on Moodle (our LMS), would be hyperlinked directly onto the slides. This allowed all students equal access to the materials needed throughout the week whether they were out quarantined, out sick, or simply not at school that day. I originally started this at the beginning of the year due to Covid-19 and remote procedures. I ended up loving the organization it provided my students and it became an expectation that the first thing they do when they get to class is check the week at a glance. Students who were quarantine for 10+ days would be able to access the materials needed for class on a specific day and essentially those who were willing to do the work stayed on track due to the easy to read charts on each slide. This will be a tool that I continue to use throughout the future (even without the impending doom of a quarantine).
Communication Artifact #2:
During my 2nd year of teaching I was chosen by my Principal to have my classroom showcased by the Superintendent, Dr. Westfall, for my use of Technology integration in his series called "Here's the Thing..". I was one of the few teachers piloting Google Classroom in our Title I campus and Keller ISD as a whole. Even though we were no where near 1:1 on the campus, I knew how important it was to teach the kids 21st century skills.
Medical Terminology (1).pdfCommunication Artifact #3:
This year the CTE (Career and Technical Education) Department was tasked with holding a showcase for each of our taught courses and electives available in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year. I created a trifold brochure that fully communicated the course expectations, topics of study, and demonstrated the CTE brand for NISD. This brochure was approved by all campus and district level administration and was determined to be a great way to communicate information to the parents/community about the high-school credit elective, Medical Terminology.
Communication Artifact #4:
One way that librarians can set the tone for the school year is through the beginning of the year "Back to School" trainings and sessions set by the campus. I feel that it is important that the librarian help provide some professional development sessions to teachers over a number of topics. One professional development session for the middle school teachers that I feel would be beneficial at my campus is a reminder that SEL matters. Over the past couple of years, I have seen many teachers who have lost empathy for their middle school students and will battle and berate students over something as simple as a pencil and to me that is something that is not worth fighting. Our job is to prepare students for the world, but also to teach them, and provide them with the knowledge they need to succeed. As an adult, we need to remember that every student whether it is our most reserved and polite or our most trying and defiant has other things in their lives that affect them day to day.
My professional development lesson would focus on providing empathy to all students regardless of whether or not you know what they are going through. A poem that I read several years ago really relates to our diverse students and our lower socioeconomic students. We would begin with a read-aloud of the poem: 'Cause I Ain't Got A Pencil.
I would then have our teachers complete a think-pair-share and determine other situations throughout their day that they could try to be more accepting and lenient towards others. This opportunity would allow teachers to reflect on their own practices and determine a more understanding approach to students within our campus. We could all agree that the pencil problem can become a disaster for those who truly do just take advantage of it, but for the students who get caught in the crosshair who truly do struggle every morning just to get to school, we have to be more mindful of ways that we could approach these daily situations without making a student feel inadequate over a 25 cent pencil.
Once the opportunities to reflect and the discussions have been shared, I would remind teachers that it only takes one positive or one negative interaction to set off a chain of events. We see these kinds of things happen every single day all over the world.
I would close our SEL lesson with a video demonstrating one random act of kindness in motion.
Resources:
Dickerson, J. T. (2014.). 'Cause i ain't got a pencil. Protective Behaviours. https://www.protectivebehaviours.org/protective-behaviours-resources-training-room/poems/130-cause-i-aint-got-a-pencil.
YouTube. (2011). Kindness Boomerang - "One Day". YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU.
Communication Artifact #5:
A huge part of my focus for this year (2021-2022) is to focus on Transparency and Communication. I want my parents and students to have access to anything they may need to stay connected to my classroom. While we have a learning management system (Moodle) I have found that unless you really understand how the toggle and organization system works the communication that occurs through Moodle is lacking. For both of my Science and Medical Terminology courses I decided to build a Google Site to be a place for students and parents to access weekly updates and valuable resources from class. Below are the screenshots of the two courses. By clicking on the images below you will be able to gain access to the actual sites themselves. Due to the fact that Medical Terminology is a high-school credit elective the site contains some additional content that my on-level science courses do not need access to. Between the two sites there are up to 10 different easy to access sections. The sections available for students and parents include:
The Course Moodle Link
The Daily Slides (Opening/Mid/Closing format)
The Unit Pacing Guide/Dates
Class Resources and Presentations
Precision Exam Vocabulary and Info (Exclusive to the Med. Terminology course)
Lesson Plans
A Look Inside Our Classroom (Sharing student work and pictures from class)
Important Campus Info and Announcements
About Me
Contact Me Form/Email Link
Communication Artifact #6:
My 6th artifact is a multimedia presentation completed for the ETEC 579 course. This course had us work through creating a purpose statement, proposal brief, and the final presentation. Throughout this course we worked on communicating through the means of grant writing.
Please use the button below to see my Proposal Brief.