Outside of the Classroom While I was at Clarke-Central High School, I participated in professional development activities that allowed me to become

a part of the community at Clarke Central High School. I also relied on literature from my courses at the University of Georgia and my own collection to stay grounded in my philosophy. By engaging in professional development and by reading additional literature, I was able to strengthen myself as a teacher. If a person does not engage with other materials or other people while teaching they may lose sight of their goals. It is important to maintain a balance of work in the classroom and development outside of the classroom. While I was at Clarke Central, I believe I was able to maintain a balance of work in the classroom, while also furthering my practice outside of the classroom. While I was at Clarke Central, I attended all the department meetings and I attended meetings with the instructional coach at least once a week.These meetings, while hosted inside the school, allowed me to become apart of the community. I was able to meet other teachers, and I was able to learn about how a school runs besides how I taught in my own classroom. The instructional coach explained ways that I could better reach my students and meet their goals. The meetings with the instructional coach exposed me to the world of data and how students are continually monitored. Also, before school started I attended a pre-planing event that focused on how to achieve higher AP scores. While I did not teach many AP classes, it exposed me to another element that I may need to focus on later. I also helped with the campus garden on the campus of Clarke-Central. Helping out the campus garden allowed me to get to know my students outside of the classroom and positively affected my teaching

because I knew the students better. Along with attending meetings and helping with the community garden, I also helped my cooperating teacher with the tennis team. I attending some practices to better see how a teacher can both be an effective teacher as well as an effective coach. I could see how being a coach could create better bonds with students, which could lead to better student engagement. Besides my work with students outside the classroom I also made references throughout student teaching that helped me stay grounded and inform me of ways to better my practice. The reading that has helped me the most would be, The Guide on the Stage: In Defense of Good Lecturing in the History Classroom. (Stacy, 2009) This reading informed me of how to better myself as a lecture and point me to ways that I could improve myself. This is a work that I can see myself continue to reference in the future. Another work that I believe will have a big affect my practice is, A shock to thought: Curatorial judgment and the public exhibition of difficult knowledge, by Roger Simon (2011). I have had a hard time finding out the best way to include difficult knowledge in my class, but this work shined some light on the topic and some different ways that difficult knowledge can be presented. My work with other teachers and reading relevant literature helped me throughout student teaching. If it were not for additional reading material or interaction with others in the teaching community, I do not think I would have been able to teach at the level that I did.