The competent teacher is an ethical and reflective practitioner who exhibits professionalism; provides leadership in the learning community; and advocates for students, parents or guardians, and the profession.
Artifact 1
This letter to parents was written as part of my Curriculum Integrated Unit Plan that I created for my EDUC335 class. The requirement for this part of the project was to write and address a letter to the parents of our hypothetical students, informing them of the upcoming unit and what their students would be learning. The letter also informed them of what projects their students would be doing and a rough estimate of when.
Standard 9L states that the competent teacher "communicates with families, responds to concerns, and contributes to enhanced family participation in student education." The letter I wrote informs parents and guardians of what their students will be doing in the classroom, what they will be learning about, and the projects they will be completing as part of the unit. The last line of the letter also lets parents and guardians know that if they have any concerns about the subject matter, their students, or anything else related to the class and the unit, they should inform me so that we can work together to ensure that their students are able to succeed and feel secure in their learning environment.
This is the first time that I ever wrote a letter to parents telling them about what was going on in the classroom. It's by no means perfect and I of course have much on which to improve. I think that if I had to do this project again, and in the case of future letters to parents that I will write as a teacher, I would be more explicit in my explanations of what the plans were for the class and the unit. For this project, I had also created a calender planning out the lessons and projects for the unit; I think that in the future, it would be a good idea to send said calender along with the letter so there is less room for misunderstandings and confusion.
Artifact 2
LGBTQA+ Youth in School Informal Paper
The above presentation was created for my Teaching in Middle Grades course in the fall of my senior year of college. The informal paper was a summary of my presentation made for the professor of the course. The assignment was to choose an issue faced by middle school students and research our chosen issue as well as possible solutions.
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 9F states that the competent teacher "understands the roles of an advocate, the process of advocacy, and its place in combating or promoting certain school district practices affecting students." The point of this project was to be an advocate for middle school students and explore issues they face and possible solutions or assistance that teachers and schools can offer them. I chose LGBTQA+ students because I know that they face a lot of mental health issues, especially in middle school, due to homophobia and transphobia. This is one group that is always on my mind; I want to make sure that students from this community always feel safe and seen in my classroom because all too often they don't feel safe or seen out in the world or even at home.
I learned that LGBTQA+ youth are one of the groups most at risk of suicide and that schools have been criticized because of the victimization of LGBTQA+ youth that has been happening for years with little improvement. I also learned that LGBTQA+ students are more likely than other groups to skip school because they don't feel safe at school. Another thing I learned was that the classes LGBTQA+ students are most likely to skip are PE and Health courses because of verbal harassment and ignoring of transgender and genderqueer students' specific needs. I also learned that efforts for change and support cannot be on an individual level; they have to be a concerted, school-wide effort, or else they are more likely to make things worse.