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The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.
Southeast USA Unit Plan
Southeast USA Unit Plan
I created a geography unit plan to be implemented by myself and two other paraprofessionals. The unit included a notes section, videos to watch, a map to complete, and a study on the Everglades. The paraprofessionals and I had to communicate about concepts that were difficult, how much material we got through each day, and what we should add to or skip in the unit. This unit was designed for a 7th grade student who reads and comprehends at a 3rd grade level.
Illinois Teaching Standard 8 Knowledge Indicator 8F says that a competent teacher "understands the importance of participating on collaborative and problem-solving teams to create effective academic and behavioral interventions for all students." Sometimes I was not the one to teach a lesson to this student. Sometimes a paraprofessional worked with the student. The paraprofessionals and teacher need to work together to see what level a student is at and decide when to move on to a new topic. Performance Indicator 8N says that a competent teacher "uses effective co-planning and co-teaching techniques to deliver instruction to each student." I co-planned with my cooperating teacher and paraprofessionals to create this unit.
I learned that planning with the people who you are going to be implementing the plans with is super helpful because then everyone is aware of what to do. I also loved hearing the ideas from different people. Communication about what material was covered is important for the whole group to be aware of so that we know when to move on to the next part of the unit.
Critter Barn Book.docxCritter Barn Book
Critter Barn Book
I collaborated with three classmates, my professor, and Dr. Pete Post from the Critter Barn in Zeeland, MI to create a book to foster inclusion of students with disabilities. The Critter Barn is a farm that fosters inclusion between students with and without disabilities. It has programs where these students can work together and has adaptive learning equipment for students with disabilities. The goal of this book is to help kids without disabilities to understand the differences of kids who do have disabilities. The book is written in first-person perspective and is divided into single-page stories of what it is like to have a certain disability. To write these stories, my classmates and I researched the disabilities and reached out to individuals with these disabilities to ask them what it is like to have their disabilities. This disabilities highlighted in this book include Asperger Syndrome, ASD, bipolar disorder, blindness, cerebral palsy, deafness, dwarfism, dyslexia, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, PKU, quadriplegia, Rhett Syndrome, and Tourette Syndrome.
A competent teacher "understands the roles and the importance of including students with disabilities, as appropriate, and all team members in planning individualized education programs (i.e, IEP, IFSP, Section 504 plan) for students with disabilities" (Standard 8, Knowledge Indicators, 8I). I have met this indicator because my collaboration project with the Critter Barn planned for ways to include students with disabilities in farm activities and learning opportunities. My colleague, Dr. Pete Post, is a formal special education teacher and a professional in his work with adapting the Critter Barn so that it meets the physical, emotional, and academic needs of students with disabilities. The Standard 8 Performance Indicator 8K says that a competent teacher "participates in collaborative decision-making and problem-solving with colleagues and other professionals to achieve success for all students." My team and I met this indicator when we needed to decide how to format the book and how to get it printed. As a team we made the decision on things like font, table of contents, cover page, and credits page. We researched printing options and decided to with Trinity's mail and print center.
Collaboration is not always easy, but I learned to listen to everyone's opinion and ideas. Everyone deserves to be heard. Some people on my team were very proactive and energetic about the project, while others were more reserved and took a cautious approach. Having people on the team with different work ethics, ideas, and personalities was a good balance it helped us to see a variety of different paths we could take in adapting the Critter Barn. I also learned that it is better to over-communicate than under-communicate. For example, it is better to repeat yourself multiple times than to not communicate at all. It really helps a team work together if everyone is on the same page and working according to the agreed-upon plan.
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