9. Professionalism, Leadership, & Advocacy

This artifact has been created from the start of the student's school year: Class Dojo.  I have used Class Dojo from the start of my student teaching career in room 218 beginning January 10, 2023. This was produced to express the importance of communicating with parents important dates, information of events that were happening and most importantly communicating how their child is doing. This artifact contains the students that are in the classroom and allows the teacher to not only communicate with the parents but also give points to reward kindness, hard working positive work as well as allowing parents and students understand if the student is experiencing difficulties. Communication and collaboration are two key important ingredients in building a successful foundation for the student, families and the school. 

The importance of this artifact is for teachers to build relationships with the families and find ways to build inclusion as well. Something like Class Dojo is a great way to effectively communicate relevant information and ideas to parents and students. Specifically, I would communicate important events to the parents, send the parents school work their child did, as well as letting the parent know if the student was experiencing and difficulties but also positive moments within their day. I believe communication with the families are essential for great success for the student. The indicator 9L expresses the importance of communication with families and the participation within their child's learning and success of their education. Indicator 9L expresses "Communicates with families, responds to concerns and contributes to enhanced family participation in student education;" (9L) The indicator shows great connection as well as provides great evidence of information and communication between the families and the classroom teacher. 

I loved this artifact especially because it allowed parents who may not speak English and are able to use Class Dojo where it can translate for the parents in Arabic as well as many other languages.  This artifact also expresses importance to me in my field of education because I want all my parents to be involved in their child's education the best that they can. I believe it is important to create a positive and inviting environment of communication to create a successful learning path for the student.

This artifact has been used in the classroom of 218 for the entirety of the school year. My first day was on January 10th, 2023 and began exploring with Google Classroom 218.  I began using it as I started in room 218 specifically for uploading assignments for E-Learning as well as other activities such as quizzes for a novel that the entire school district was participating: Key Hunters Book.  This artifact contains a central hub of communication for the students to be able to access their school work and or other assignments from Special Area Classes that they receive.  I was fortunate to use my cooperating teacher's Google Classroom to explore and communicate with the students for their academics. 

The importance of this artifact is to not only have students understand and work closely with technology but to also communicate with their academics using Google Classroom.  Google Classroom is used as a main hub to communicate expectations as well as home during normal school days and E-Learning Days where assignments for all subjects are posted for the student. Assignments are uploaded with expectations and this allows the student to understand what is expected for that day of learning. I would communicate using Google Classroom, posting activities of which we were learning from the week in the class. The students would access their activities using their Chromebook. As expressed in indicator 9M, " Communicates relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents or guardians and peers, using a variety of technology and digital-age media and formats;" (9M). Students showed great communication, engagement and participation using Google Classroom for assignments. It also supported my parents with their child so they can see what was asked of the student to complete.  The indicator chosen for this artifact expressed great connection because the overall importance is communicating important information, tasks, assignments for the students with resources to be able to complete and be successful in the assignments provided.

The understanding and learning of Google Classroom is essential and engaging. I really enjoy how the students are able to access their school work via technology and how it also motivates the students. This has taught me also the importance of the parents being able to check in and see what we are doing as a class as well as for days such as E-Learning they are aware of expectations and assignments created. I definitely will be using Google Classroom with my future students and parents. Students work with technology in their daily learning and as their teacher I would want to find ways to engage them deeper in their learning.  Connecting with families, students and guardians in different ways, leads to and allows for positive learning of curriculum and technology.