Evidence/Artifact 1
Collaboration With Area Business and Higher-Education Professionals
Communication/Collaboration with Ben Bromley, Editor/Writer (columnist) from the Baraboo News Republic. Here's the email exchange: http://goo.gl/shq7nn
Article he wrote after visiting and interviewing the class: "Dawn of a new era: Students now can use handheld gadgets in Baraboo classrooms": http://goo.gl/Hl60Kh
Here's the Columnist Analysis Assignment given to my students: http://goo.gl/nzhNbJ
This artifact documents professional growth in the area of reaching out to area professionals who use writing professionally. The “Columnist Analysis Assignment” had been one passed down to me from previous teachers of the same course and it focused on analysis of the writing styles and choices of syndicated, national columnists. The community of Baraboo has a small daily newspaper, so I was able to contact the editor and columnist, Mr. Ben Bromley, and he was able to spend a day talking with my students. This shows professional growth on my end because I was able to take a previously established project and was able to connect it locally to an area resident who many students knew or were at least familiar with. By communicating with members of the community outside of the school setting and by being adaptable as a professional, I provided an engaging, real-life learning experience for my students.
In addition to this being a documentation of professional growth, it also documents clear student learning on the part of my students. In the first portion of the hour, Mr. Bromley interviewed the students for a story he was writing ("Dawn of a new era: Students now can use handheld gadgets in Baraboo classrooms"). This was an excellent opportunity for my students to grow by seeing journalism in action. After the article was published, we read it together and analyzed how his questioning led to the final product. For the second portion of the hour, my students were able to discuss the process of column writing with Mr. Bromley. This was beneficial to stdent learning because much of what they had learned about the rhetorical choices of columnists prior to this interview was through third party interviews or speculation. They were able to see Mr. Bromley's process as it moved from the idea phase through drafting and, finally, to publication. If a student did not understand a concept, he or she simply asked for clarification and Mr. Bromley was happy to clarify. In the end, students, in part due to this opportunity in the classroom, displayed a deep understanding of columnist writing and the stylistic and rhetorical choices made by these columnists. The students demonstrated their learning in a synthesis essay at the end of the unit.
Evidence/Artifact 2
Attendance of Workshops Pertaining to Written Communication and Professional Writing
MATC Workshop Confirmation Email: http://goo.gl/Emkuhn
College Board AP Conference Details: http://goo.gl/fh3NSx / College Board AP Conference Notes: http://goo.gl/XeRH3u
Google Summit Participant Details: http://goo.gl/FZ1a4l / 2012 Google Midwest Summit Notes: http://goo.gl/GWyyX8
Socratic Seminar Flyer: http://goo.gl/9ZxG0F
This artifact clearly documents professional growth. My conversations with higher education faculty at the Madison Area Technical College workshop allowed me to have a deeper understanding of areas where typical high school students are arriving in higher education with deficiencies in writing. Because of these conversations, I implemented more stringent spelling, punctuation, and grammar activities as well as more frequent communication analysis opportunities for students. Nonfiction articles were read on a weekly basis, and students were required to have analytical conversations where they extended their understanding to their own experiences and to the greater world around them. This directly stemmed from my attendance at the MATC conference.
My attendance at the AP Conference really helped me learn strategies for teaching about the role rhetoric plays in the world today. Strategies were shared from dozens of veteran teachers from other districts, and I was able to create an engaging, rigorous course for my advanced students. Student learning was undoubtedly impacted by these newly learned strategies as evidenced by an 81% AP exam passing rate and the extremely high average of 3.6 out of a possible 5 for all students who took this grueling exam.
Finally, having the opportunity to attend the 2012 Midwest Google Summit was perhaps the conference that had the strongest impact on my professional growth. Since attending, I’ve become a leading educator with regard to implementation of technology in the classroom. I have become a Google Qualified Individual, passing a series of six exams, have turned my classroom into a paperless environment, and have become a valuable resource to my colleagues, who seek me out to assist them as they implement technology into their lessons as well. This conference also helped me see how some of my adopted, antiquated lessons could be adapted to become more modern, relevant, and engaging for my students. Clearly, student learning is enhanced when has those three traits, and it will serve them well as they proceed into their educational and professional futures that will undoubtedly require a need for advanced knowledge of technology.
Evidence/Artifact 3
Sharing Adapted Strageties With Other Educators
Kelly Gallagher's "Article of the Week": http://goo.gl/XB2cf2
My adapted online "Silent Discussion" (complete with rubric): http://goo.gl/TZxau7
Then, sharing this new "Silent Discussion" technique with other teachers: Mr. Bill Schliewe Webpage: http://goo.gl/Qr17WY / Baraboo Tech Academy Commenting Presentation: http://goo.gl/xcQcx4 / Prentice School District Resource Page: http://goo.gl/ZZAkDn
This artifact shows professional growth because I was able to take a hard-copy assignment given by Kelly Gallagher (a man whom I have never personally met) to his students and adapt it to cater to the 21st century learning needs of my students. While I’m relying on the framework created by other well-respected education professionals, I’m adapting it to fit my needs, to fit my resources, to fit the contemporary world, and to fit my students. When I first began as a teacher, I may have been too insecure in my ability to change a lesson like this and approach it from a different direction. That said, as I became more comfortable with the use of technology in the classroom and as the district provided me with consistent access to this technology, I realized that my students could willingly handle trying new things if they were rooted in technology. The adaptation of Kelly Gallagher’s “Article of the Week” to my own “Article of the Week ‘Silent Discussions’” had an immediate, positive impact on the my abilities as an instructor and on the learning of my students. The lesson provides students with challenges in nonfiction reading and in other areas such as online etiquette and sentence clarity. Professionally, the skills demonstrated in this activity are incredibly relevant and are also easily assessed. This also shows continued professional growth because I am learning to cope with the challenges that a language arts teacher encounters with regard to pairing relevance and efficiency in student assessment. Finally, this also shows immense professional growth because, as an initial educator, I often felt as though I was taking a lot from my veteran colleagues without always contributing as much as I would like. Many colleagues--even many from different content areas--adapted my silent discussion lesson to fit their needs. Being able to contribute to the professional community in a positive way is a clear sign of professional growth. I am now looked to as a leader in my new district and was immediately asked to share my unique approaches with the incorporation of educational technology by offering workshops to colleagues. This has been a wonderful experience in professional growth for me.