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.
Artifact AEDU 380 General Methods
My Classroom Website - My classroom website designed to showcase the learning environment of my class and provide information for students, parents, and guardians.
Rationale, Standard Connection, Self-Evaluation
This artifact is a website I have created for my classroom in my AEDU380 General Methods course in Spring 2018. This website provides beneficial information for students in my class and parents of my students. My website allows for students and parents to learn more about myself as the teacher, my view of diversity in the classroom, rules and expectations, school information and my teaching style. These areas of information are only a few of the pages included on my classroom website.
The reason for creating my classroom website, is to show my knowledge of the Illinois Teaching Standard 4. On my classroom website I include a Classroom rules and expectations page which states how I plan to manage my classroom, rules for my students, and a parent letter about my expectations. By adding this page to my website I have met the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards knowledge Indicator 4A that states, the competent teacher "understands principles of and strategies for effective classroom and behavior management". Knowledge Indicator 4E states, the competent teacher "knows how to assess the instructional environment to determine how best to meet a student’s individual needs". In my classroom I will implement the four main ways of learning which are, visual, auditory, verbal, and kinesthetic, which is listed under my instructional styles and strategies. Making sure to incorporate a variety of learning strategies in lessons and assessments offer support for students to grow. On the home page of my website, I have included a small picture of what my classroom layout will look like. I also include a procedures page on my website, procedures are important to have because they improve the overall learning environment of the students. They set the tone for organization and efficiency in the classroom. By including these two pages on my website I meet Performance Indicator 4M which states, the competent teacher "organizes, allocates, and manages time, materials, technology, and physical space to provide active and equitable engagement of students in productive learning activities".
Creating this website has given me more knowledge of how to manage a classroom. In the time of creating my website, I have developed rules and expectations for my students, rewards and consequences to my rules, and procedures for the classroom to set a positive tone throughout the year. I have also discussed how I plan to instruct my classroom whether that be through formative assessments or instructional strategies. As a teacher I have learned about the amount of work that goes into creating, planning and setting up a classroom along with how to effectively manage a classroom.
Artifact ASPED 324 Teaching Students with High Incidence Disabilities
Social story - I created a social story that is designed to help students to learn why we do lockdown drills at school
Rationale, Standard Connection, Self-Evaluation
In Spring of 2020, I completed the course ASPED 324, Teaching Students with High Incidence Disabilities. One of the requirements of this course was to complete a social story to help a student deal with the expectation of a lockdown drill at school. The purpose of this assignment was to gain experience in implementing social stories and utilizing information the student already knows to help them better understand a lockdown drill. Social stories help students understand what is expected of them and create a positive environment for the student to learn these expectations.
This artifact shows my competence in meeting the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards knowledge indicator 4G which states, the competent teacher "knows strategies to implement behavior management and behavior intervention planning to ensure a safe and productive learning environment". When creating a social story, it is important to understand the individual student(s) the social story is being created for. The social story I created is a crucial part of instruction to this individual student being unable to regulate themselves, understand the lockdown drill situation and expresses various emotions related to the topic.
I enjoyed creating and recording this artifact. The student I created this social story for benefits from items being read; video recording the social story was a great way to implement easy access to the social story as well as an opportunity for self-study. Developing this social story enhanced my skills in developing more social stories for future students on various topics, I feel confident in my ability to develop new social stories for based on individual needs and situations.