EVIDENCE #1: Collaborative meeting for a student with teachers, parents and the student after school.

DESCRIPTION: When I started at Edmunds Middle School as the French teacher, there were some behavioral challenges to manage to be able to focus on learning overall. Nonetheless, one student had come to the attention of other teachers as well. I reached out to his team teachers and the school psychologist for input and any helpful background information and strategies. This led to a meeting of several of his teachers, myself included, his parents and him to discuss the issues and brain storm strategies to support him in self regulating to be able to focus in class.

ANALYSIS/DESCRIPTION:

As I started my French teaching position at Edmunds during the 3rd quarter, I had some catching up to do to get to know my students. I asked Senora Wright, my mentor teacher for any notes/files regarding IEP Plans and 504's. She shared access to these with me and I checked in with the guidance councilor, special educators, nurse and other teachers regarding several students I had concerns about and wanted some background on. The nurse, in particular, had helpful information. Regarding one student who was extremely tired in class, she let me know I could send her to her room to take a nap. It turned out this student was up all night at home helping to care for the newborn of an older sister, which was expected of her by her family. In turn, I was able to provide accommodations for learning tasks such as more time and less material, thanks to the input of the nurse.

I also communicated concerns, questions, observations to other teachers on my students'education support teams. Students were organized by teams and remained with that team throughout their middle school academic experience for social and academic support and cohesion.

Jim Kelly, a science teacher, was particularly helpful and supportive. A collaborative meeting was arranged to meet with the student, his parents and several teachers. This led to all of us implementing a plan suggested by Mr. Kelly, which resulted in more positive learning outcomes in my French class. Strategies were reviewed with the student and if he was allowed to get up and move around, or leave the room for a few moments to regulate himself, he was better able to focus. I believe behavioral challenges coming from students are more often than not, the result of unmet needs elsewhere in terms of social supports, mental health, or any number of outside factors. It was important to have this team meeting with the youth and his parents to address the challenging behaviors so learning could be at the forefront. This student ended up doing very well in French and better able to manage his own behavior.

This evidence reflects that I plan instruction by collaborating with colleagues, specialists, community resources, families and learners to meet individual learning needs because I am proactive in reaching out to others to learn about and best support my students. In the future I hope to work in a school setting that values education of the whole student and which integrates supportive behavioral tools to meet mental health needs of learners.

EVIDENCE #2: Collaborative foreign language teacher meeting of middle school teachers in the Burlington School District

DESCRIPTION: This meeting was initiated by Sarah Wright, Spanish teacher at Edmunds Middle School. This took place while I was the French teacher at Edmunds Middle School in 2017. Senora Wright suggested it as a way for the middle school foreign language teachers in the district to come together and share information regarding curriculum, instructional practice, arts integration in foreign language learning and more.

ANALYSIS/DESCRIPTION: This was a very helpful meeting to share resources, discuss instructional practice and hone learning objectives for our students. It was attended by myself, Sarah and Baptist, who was the French teacher at Hunt Middle School at the time. The Burlington School District had recently pared down its foreign language teachers at the middle school level so we were also discussing what the following year would look like for foreign language instruction being offered. For this current academic year, between the two middle schools in the district, there were 2 French teachers and 1 Spanish teacher. The Spanish teacher traveled between the two schools each day, while each had their own French teacher.

We also talked about the provisional teaching license process that I was hoping to secure and had been awaiting the district's superintendent to move forward with. We had very positive relationships and often shared materials and ideas, as I saw Sarah daily and she was my mentor teacher. Sarah had been working at the school a number of years, she was a plethora of information for both the functioning of the school as well as foreign language learning objectives.

Baptist, who I knew from the francophone community of the area, shared content and ideas via email. I also reached out to a Burlington High School French teacher, Catherine Tetu, to ascertain what content I should be covering with my 8th grade French II students to prepare them for 9th grade.

In sum, this meeting was a great opportunity for me to learn more regarding teaching strategies, behavioral tools and content. I was also looking for if there were common curricula and learning objectives for the world language students, but there had been much turnover recently in foreign language instructors so this was to be a future goal. This shows my meeting this standard by working with and meeting with both World Language teacher colleagues and others for the betterment of my students. In the future, I think it would be beneficial for students if there much collaboration among the world language teachers of a district and I would definitely participate in that. I know now that there is a big shift underway to proficiency based learning that grading and assessment procedures are in flux and vary district by district. Thus, when I obtain a teaching position, in the near future, I will inquire as to how they are dealing with this transformation. I have been in touch with Allison Litten, a French teacher at Marion Cross School in Norwich, Vermont. She is the 2019 2019 VFLA Teacher of the Year and I look forward to a phone conversation next week to learn more.

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