8.  Collaborative Relationships

The artifact that I chose to represent the standard was a co-taught lesson plan with a paraprofessional. The lesson plan discussed women in the great migration in the 1920s and was my first co-taught lessons with a paraprofessional at Palos South middle school as one of my very first lessons to the class. This is my first time co-teaching, with a paraprofessional in the classroom. I was given a lot of insight as to what a paraprofessional dies and how much of an impact he, or she can have in my classroom. The lesson plan is broken down to assist students with IEPs and 504 plans. This was something that I and the paraprofessional had worked on prior to the lesson in order to make sure that each student's needs have been met according to the plan. The artifact was produced in order to share with my cooperating teacher in order to ensure that the needs of the students with these plans have been correctly followed.

The artifact demonstrates my ability to work with all school personnel to develop learning climates for the school that encourage unity, support a sense of shared purpose, show trust in one another, and value individuals” (8J). This artifact is extremely important, because it demonstrates the ability to communicate with paraprofessionals and other instructors in order to ensure student success in the classroom. The artifact allowed me to see the inner workings of these plans, and how they are implemented and followed with a school setting. My ability to communicate with my paraprofessional demonstrates the standard and emphasizes the importance and communication with paraprofessionals and other instructors in your classroom.

Something that was learned from this artifact is the importance of ongoing communication with other staff members in your classroom. By setting the communication bar. high, I have realized that in order to truly ensure the needs of the student is being met. Constant communication must be had. The plans in place can at times be overwhelming for one person, so communication with that paraprofessional or co-teacher is important to ensure that no student has fallen through the cracks. As I begin. to enter my own classroom in the not too distant future, this is something that I will look to place great emphasis on, to ensure that my students with IEP or 504 plans are still receiving the best quality of education. Paraprofessionals and coach teachers might have the ability to see some thing that you didn’t catch or propose new ideas to best assist the student. This constant stream of communication is something that I will look to carry-on in my classroom.

  The next artifact that I chose to meet, the standard, is a parent teacher conference record sheet that I had utilized when I had attended parent teacher conferences at Palos South middle school. This is something that we have been required to fill out as we had been discussing the student to the parent or guardian. The sheet shows areas of improvement, areas where the student is succeeding. and allows us to give overall comments to the parent or guardian. This has been my first time attending a parent teacher conference as an educator and it was a little unfamiliar to me. I kind of took the back row of this, but after a couple of meetings, I took the initiative as the forefront instructor. The artifact was produced to allow parents or guardians to see the areas in which their student needed improvement, or areas in which the student had been succeeding in. The parent and guardian were allowed to take the sheet home and it served as a way to start a conversation as well as jot any information needed to be communicated to the parent or guardian.

The importance of the artifact is that it shows a “professional relationship with parents and guardians that result in fair and equitable treatment of each student to support growth and learning” (8P). The artifact does this by allowing me as the educator to have clear and distinct talking points to bring them to the parent. From there, I have been able to open up a line of communication with them and dive a little bit deeper than the questions that the sheet had been explaining. This allowed me to not only develop a relationship with the students parent or guardian, but allowed me to better understand the needs of my student by communicating with the person that sees them the most. This artifact meets the  standard by promoting student growth, as well as supporting the students onto different levels, one with the parent or guardian, and one with myself.

The artifact to me demonstrates again the importance of communication with her. Or guardian, in order to better understand your student and promote growth within the classroom. It does this, by demonstrating the communication with a parent or guardian did occur, and that talking points were had regarding concerns or overall praise to the student. It also gave parents or guardians the opportunity to raise concerns that I might not have been aware of and allowed them to have any questions or concerns they might’ve had answered. Overall, the artifact allowed me to really see how simple communication with a parent or guardian can be, but also reaffirmed the great importance that this has. Parent teacher conferences are extremely important and I will make sure I reach out to parents prior to the date to set up a line of communication with them. When I am an instructor it allows me to better understand my students as well as the parent or guardian’s concerns. I will look to make us a top priority within my own classroom to better prepare myself and my students with any challenges that might come up.