Standard 8 - Collaborative Relationships

This image represents an obstacle I faced in my student teaching placement.  A student in one of my classes had just moved to the U.S. from Ukraine and spoke limited English.  I had the opportunity to meet his mother through open house and parent-teacher conferences.  She did not speak any English, which presented me with a challenge to communicate with her and keep her involved in her son's education throughout the semester.  Parent collaboration is something I believe should be fostered in each students' educational growth and is important to continually address.  In this situation, I utilized google translate to communicate with the mother and keep her informed on her son's development.  

This demonstrates the ability to effectively communicate with parents/guardians and continually collaborate with them to provide the best learning experience for their child.  (8D) "understands the benefits, barriers, and techniques involved in parent and family collaborations."

Throughout my student teaching placement, I had the opportunity to observe co-taught classrooms and be included in co-teaching activities which led to additional one-on-one support for our students.  Through this student teaching semester, I was able to incorporate all 5 models of co-teaching, and effectively utilize these strategies to provide students who may need additional support or more challenging activities the opportunity to learn at the pace they felt comfortable yet challenged.  Co-teaching is an effective strategy to differentiate a lesson and properly address each student's individual needs in the learning process. 

This strategy demonstrates the ability to effectively implement co-taught lessons and highlights the benefits of a co-taught classroom.  (8G) "understands the various models of co-teaching and the procedures for implementing them across the curriculum.