Standards:
#1 - Learner Development: The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
#2 - Learning Differences: The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
#3 - Learning Environments: The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
Reflective Statements:
Learner Development: I’ve had to accommodate and implement this standard daily during my Student Teaching Internship. Many of the students in the classes I’ve been a part of have 504 or IEP plans, or they have skipped/stayed back a grade. Although each grade is less than 15 people, I would estimate that students who fall into this category are around 40%. In my 5th-grade classroom, I made a Class Profile where I interviewed my mentor teacher on the differing academic, social, and emotional needs/experiences each of my students possessed. Through this, I learned how to challenge each student appropriately for their abilities, while still being able to teach an overarching lesson on a topic or unit. For example, with my Unit Plan on Persuasive Writing, I made graphic organizers for my students to follow along with to learn how to write smooth paragraph conventions, the difference between reasoning & evidence, and the parts of addressing an envelope to send their persuasive letters in. For the students who needed extra help in literacy concepts (via their IEP that I discussed and documented with my mentor teacher in the Class Profile), I added extra word banks and inserted steps that their peers would initially figure out on their own. This allowed them to understand the same overarching concept, with additional supports for their success.
In my reflective journal, the week that I assigned this standard to was heavily focused on the social & emotional aspect of this standard. This was the week we were informed that Secretary of the United States Department of Interior, Doug Burgum (who oversees the National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Water & Land Preservation, and also sites within the United States that are suitable for natural resource extraction) would be visiting the school to learn about the Wabanaki Language course(s), STEAM Lab, and Native Studies course; which all of my students participate in. In the days leading up to it, the Secret Service and Tribal Police conducted a walkthrough of the school with the Principal, learning about different exits and generally becoming familiar with the school's layout. With the current executive administration, this was worrisome for virtually everyone in the building due to two key concerns: 1) the short notice and 2) the fact that this is a tribal school with students who may have lineage on record belonging to tribes within the North American continent, but not necessarily in the United States (ie. Mexico, Canada, American Samoa).
I was walking with three of my girls in my classroom when the Secret Service arrived, and they were a bit confused as to who they were and what they were doing there. I explained to them when we returned to the classroom that they are essentially the people who keep federal officials, such as the president & vice president, safe when they travel to new places. When we returned to the classroom with their peers, one of the girls I was explaining the SS to yelled in an inflammatory manner, “There are secret agents in the building!!!!!” insinuating that there were people who were not safe in the school. This student has a history of stretching the truth for inflammatory reactions, and the students she said it to are notorious for being easy to rile up/scare, so I had to diffuse the situation immediately. This led to me correcting her in front of her peers and explaining how the manner in which she delivered that information was not only untrue, but could genuinely scare her peers out of rumor. Had this been another one of her peers, who didn’t exhibit this behavior regularly, I would have reacted differently. However, this correction was appropriate for the situation, students’ social/emotional capabilities & development, and for the comfort & emotional regulation of their peers.
Learning Differences: I feel this is the standard I’ve had to exhibit the most mindfully throughout my time as a student teacher. Working in a tribal school and community, being culturally sensitive is a must. During my takeover week, I had a student who had been a repeated behavioral challenge for my mentor teacher challenge me in the same way during a lesson. To accommodate this, I gave her the option to choose a standing desk for alleviating sensory needs. Upon this change, she began to roll it around the classroom, becoming a larger distraction to her peers during instruction than she had been in her seat. This then led to me saying to her, “This is a pattern for you. What you are doing right now is distracting instruction for peer attention, and it isn’t appreciated or respectful to me, or your peers who want to learn.” The next day, the student’s parents contacted my mentor teacher and admin about this comment, in an email full of loaded language, personal attacks, and questioning of my capability to educate. The student had gone home to say they felt embarrassed and singled out negatively. I wasn’t phased by this, though, because during the prior weeks I have been in the room with my mentor teacher, I have seen emails from this same parent with similar, often harsher, and more accusatory language. I had a meeting with my mentor teacher and the principal, where I explained what had happened in the lesson the day prior, and everything was resolved smoothly. I’d show this as an example of how, sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t always respond exactly how the student would have preferred. I definitely tried to do this with the alternative seating and enacting supports from this student’s 504 behavior plan. I gave this student many chances to meet high standards through an inclusive learning environment, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out as you would have hoped or intended.
I practice this standard with other students regularly as well; it just looks different, as the standard focuses on understanding student needs through diverse cultures and individual differences. For the student mentioned above, I gave them marginally more chances to correct behavior and a still body, as a large chunk of my instructional time was focused on classroom management just for this student, whereas for other students, I would use equal time focusing on participation and checking for understanding. The alternative seating arrangement was also something I wouldn’t have done for some other students, as they do not have the same sensory needs.
Learning Environments: Collaborating with other educators has been vital in my success at accommodating student needs and ensuring academic & social success. For my Classroom Learning Environment Project, I interviewed not only my mentor teacher, but the teacher in the grade below me as well, to see how they individually performed last year, if any major life events happened to them, and if they know anything about my students' personal lives that myself/mentor teacher would know. I also spoke with the teachers of their siblings to see if there are any traits the students have that might be hereditary/familial (ie, autism, autoimmune disease, social/emotional coping skills, and overall dynamics between the siblings), which surprisingly brought me more information than I initially thought.
I also had to show this on a field trip I went on with the students. We went up to near Katahdin for a day to nordic ski on some outdoor trails. I was put with the advanced group, because there were enough staff members present to be with the large section of beginner students. Around 2 miles into our outing, one of the girls in our group got very fatigued and wanted to join the beginner groups. This would have been totally fine, had we not been 2 miles away from them. So, the one other IIS staff member and I had to collaborate to make a plan. I was going to continue with the rest of my group, while he was going to go back with the student to find the beginner groups. This was fine until the other students in my group started getting tired after another ½ mile. To be honest, I was too. But because I was the leader, I had to help self-motivate the students by setting realistic goals. What I mean by this is that I made frequent break checkpoints to help with self motivation, and if they got snippy/rude with each other, I’d redirect them by asking questions about the plants & features around us. This really worked better than I ever thought, because it helped them forget they were tired after another ½ mile, to which we were only a mile or so away from the lodge & lunch.
I’ve worked in outdoor leadership before, so I’m no stranger to these strategies for group collaboration & self-motivation. However, implementing this with students, I also see regularly in the classroom, humanized me to my students a bit more as well. They got to see me fall, and we were able to have more personal conversations, both of which helped soften the wall between us of educator & mentor. When returning to the classroom later that week, my students frequently brought up things we discussed on the trip during downtime & mealtimes, and I found that I had formed a deeper connection with them.