Knowledge of Subject Matter - The teacher understands the central concepts tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines taught and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.
Standard one of the Idaho core teacher standards is knowledge of subject matter. For this standard I have included personal artifacts that demonstrate my knowledge of my content areas. My primary content area is art. The art artifacts I have for this standard are a collection of my work in a variety of mediums, a paper I wrote after exploring the art studios around Portland, as well as a critique of my art by a teacher. the paper I have selected demonstrates my knowledge of art, as well as my ability to critique it in a meaningful way. I feel art should be graded on improvement not on skill level. People create and do art for all different reasons, and I think teaching art should be fun and non-judgmental. My critique shows what others have thought of me as an artist and student. My art shows my understanding of a variety of techniques, that I have the tools to create art, and that I can provide students with the opportunity to create a variety of artwork, ultimately providing them with learning experiences that are meaningful to them.
To show my content knowledge in math I included three exams I have taken from different math classes. My first is a test I completed in my statistics math class..The next two are College Algebra and Geometry and Probability for teachers exams that I have completed. Majority of my grades are A's and I truly enjoy doing math work. These artifacts show that I put an effort into my studies and try to learn as much math as I can. I love doing math and it usually comes easy to me. I feel I can truly teach math to students with enthusiasm, hoping that my excitement passes from me to them.
The third endorsement I will be getting is in Anthropology and Sociology. I included two papers and a blue book of an exam I took. The first piece is a paper I wrote in my anthropology course on culture and cuisine. Having a degree in Anthropology I feel it is important to include some of my work from this field. This paper is a summary of the book Fast Food Nation and several ideas about how Americans can eat better based on my studies of other culture's diets. This paper shows not only my knowledge about the book by Schlosser, but my knowledge of anthropology and studying other cultures. The second and third artifacts are written examples of different cultures I have studied in anthropology. The first is a paper about how important place and culture can be to people. It deals with three different cultures and their connection to their landscape. The second is an examine I completed on Mesoamerican culture. They all show that I have the tools needed to be an anthropologist, and that I can use my knowledge of the subject matter and make it meaningful for students by comparing something like Mesoamerican cuisine to modern fast food consumption as well as view different cultures through an ethnographic lens.