Professional Commitment and Responsibility - The teacher is a reflective practitioner who demonstrates a commitment to professional standards and is continuously engaged in purposeful mastery of the art and science of teaching.
Standard nine of the Idaho Core Teaching Standards deals with professional commitment and responsibility. I selected my response to Among School Children by Tracy Kidder. This paper is a reflective piece about my experiences leading up to becoming a school teacher. It covers my progression from tutor, to teacher's assistant, to swim coach and the challenges and victories I experienced on the way. I reflected on the ways in which I approached how a taught and how I changed as I grew and learned more about teaching and the learning process and how it all was related to the experiences taking place in Among School Children. This falls into standard nine because it deals with my personal reflection on my own teaching and how I can continue to grow and illuminated the importance of reflecting on my teaching so I may continue to be the best teacher I can be. Through this I am showing a commitment to my profession and striving to master the art and science of teaching.
The second artifact is a reflection half way through my experience teaching art for the 21st century program. This reflection had me posing many questions about how I can make my teaching better, especially in classroom management and skill level. Skill level posed a problem for me because I had to teach a mixture of elementary and middle school students the same lesson. In terms of classroom management, I feel due to my age and that I was just the art teacher students lacked some respect for me and it was hard to get their full attention some days. I placed this reflection in standard nine because it shows that I am trying to stay engaged in my own education as I teach, and improve upon myself to try and commit myself to my profession.
The third artifact is my diversity in schools case study. I placed it in standard nine because it demonstrates my desire to learn not only about how to become a teacher, but also learn about my students. By completing this project I learned the importance and impact diversity can have in a classroom. As a teacher it is important for me to be reflective, and learn as much as I can in order to be an effective teacher. Becoming a teacher is a professional commitment and it comes with huge responsibilities. These artifacts all remind me of that commitment to the students and that I am responsible for them.