Standard 4 - Learning Environment – The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal-setting.
Take a couple of minutes to explore my classroom website!
Standard 4 Artifact: Class Website
In my General Methods couse, AEDU380, I created this classroom website to improve upon my technology skills. This website displays both my creativity as well as my educational use of technology. In my website I discuss how I wish for my future classroom to function as well as my desire for strong parent-teacher communication. My website contains information for parents/guardians regarding my overall goals for the year, how my classroom is set up and why I chose to set it up the way that I did, how I will handle both postivie and negative behaviors, academic and social growth I hope to find with their child, and so much more. A classroom website is a great resource for teachers to use in order to bridge the gap between parents/guardians and teachers and allows us to work together.
This particular artifact aligns with Standard 4 of the Illinois Professional Teaching standards. My website meets the requirements of this standard through the various pages I created. A perfect example of this are the two pages where I discuss the classroom rules and expectations for my students as well as the rewards and consequences that I will implement. These pages correspond with performance indicator 4A, "understand principles of and strategies for effective classroom and behavior management”, because it explains to parents my why I created each rule, how I will choose to enforce them, and how I believe it will better my classroom environment thus helping their child, my students, grow in every aspect. My page regarding my Instruction Style and Strategies also corresponds with performance indicator 4C, “understand how to help students work cooperatively and productively in groups”, because it is where I define my personal teaching styles and why I think that they will result in optimum student growth. My Instruction Style and Strategies also aligns with performance indicator 4E, “knows how to assess the instructional environment to determine how best to meet a student’s individual needs”, because it also explains my believes on assessments and using them to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each student and which of my forms of teaching are beneficial or need adjustment.
Through creating this class website I was able to learn a new, creative way to use technology in my future classroom to help enhance parent-teacher communication. I strongly believe that in order to find the most growth in students parents and teachers need to work as a team. This website clearly defines my desires for the classroom and how I will work to obtain them and therefore allows the parents and I to be on the same page. This website was also a way for me learn more about myself as a future teacher. Through the creation of each place I was given the opportunity to organize my plans as a future educator. A classroom website will be a great resource that I plan to use in my future classroom.
This artifact is a social story that I made for a student during my Fall 2022 student teaching placement. This particular student was displaying target behavior on the school bus. This behavior was something we were all focused on supporting as it was becoming unsafe for the student and those on the bus. While there were already bus safety social stories in the classroom, I found it best to make it personal to the student by adding visual pictures of him following safe bus behavior. He enjoys pictures of himself and is highly motivated by 1:1 attention from adults so he became very engaged during the reading and often brought it to us during the scheduled reading times (after getting off the bus and while in the bus seat to go home).
The social story that I created aligns with performance indicator 4K which states that a teacher "uses strategies to create a smoothly functioning learning community in which students assume responsibility for themselves and one another, participate in decision-making, work collaboratively and independently, use appropriate technology, and engage in purposeful learning activities". The strategy of creating a social story allowed for this student to begin to take responsibility and control of his behaviors and see that he can engage in desired behavior. Social stories help to prepare students for what to expect or what is expected of them in a particular environment or setting. Visual cues followed by positive and concrete language is a beneficial way to translate what is being expressed in a picture and aide in understanding what is expected during difficult or new situations.
Creating this social story and making it more personal taught me how to key in on a target behavior and personalize it. While some students may benefit from a generic social story, this student in particular did not. Once I modified and individualized it, we did begin to see a shift in target behavior. Another extremely positive outcome from the social story was the student's developing responsibility and awareness of both actions and consequences.
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