Bridging Theory into Practice

Standard #1: Learner Development. The teacher understands how learners grow and develop,
recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the
cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements
developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.

The artifact I chose for this standard is an activity created that demonstrates the students' needs
for hands on participation. This artifact is a poster that my students used for their debate in class.
For this lesson, the class was broken up into six groups and each group was given an argument
(there were three debates). The three debate topics were taken from the non-fiction texts that my
students had read and analyzed throughout their non-fiction unit. This lesson was designed for
students to connect argument writing to argument speaking, so the debate followed the same
guidelines as the guidelines used for their introductory paragraphs for argument writing: Thesis,
two reasons, evidence, and counterclaim. Each group had to come up with their argument for the
side of the debate they were given, and then each debate happened in class, and then the rest of
the class would anonymously decide who won the debate, and then we would discuss each
debate together. By turning their arguments into a debate, students were able to understand the
importance of including evidence to support any claim that they make and because they were
orally presenting, they could hear how an argument should sound, rather than just writing their
arguments. This lesson definitely challenged my students, because several of them were
uncomfortable with the idea of presenting an argument to the class, but because they were given
guidelines and specific instructions, this helped their confidence because they were able to
collaboratively work together to build their arguments before presenting.
Standard #2: Learning Differences. The teacher uses understanding of individual differences
and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each
learner to meet high standards.

The artifact I chose for this standard is a student work sample that demonstrates the result of
problem solving and critical thinking. For our non-fiction unit, students had to read an article and
answer critical thinking questions for their homework each night. The critical thinking questions
helped students practice analyzing a text and generalizing and inferencing based on the material
they have read. The questions are both multiple-choice and open-ended questions that challenge
students to come up with the main idea of the passage, key vocabulary words, and important
facts about the article. The open-ended questions are for students to practice answering open-
ended questions using the format we have been practicing in class: restate question as an answer,
answer the question, provide evidence, and connect evidence to your answer. This type of
homework assignment helps each learner to meet high standards because close reading and
critical analysis are enforced by the questions that are provided. Analysis is a higher level
thinking skills as well as connecting class work to real-life, and students are able to share their
answers with the rest of the class or in small groups, where they can discuss the evidence that
they pulled from the text to support their answers. Prior to completing their homework, students
watched a short video about archeologists, which appeals to the needs of auditory and visual
learners. With every topic, students are engaged with multimodal texts and various online
sources, which help each student comprehend the information, especially for those students who
have trouble processing information solely through reading. These questions on the homework
also help those students struggling with reading for comprehension, because these questions give
students a purpose for reading and enable them to go back in a text and pull out important
information.
Standard #3: Learning Environments. The teacher works with others to create environments
that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction,
active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

The artifact I chose for this standard is an anecdotal record that documents a discipline problem
or concern, the steps that were taken to improve it. My students took part in a writing club,
where they each had a partner in the class and they chose a book together to read over the course
of a couple of weeks which promoted social interaction between partners in the classroom.
Along with reading, students would meet in class with their partner three times over the course
of reading, and had to have completed the assigned work for each meeting prior to meeting with
their partner. Each student was given a packet that included different sections for students to fill
out prior to each meeting, and students were told the importance of being prepared for their
meeting and being a reliable partner. If students did not come prepared for their in class
meetings, they would receive a zero and also be hurting their partner because their partner could
not answer the questions that are assigned at the meeting or be able to engage in partner
discussion about the book. For the first meeting, several students did not come with their packet
filled out in preparation for their meeting, so they received a zero. Rather than just receiving a
zero, I wanted to come up with an assignment that would enable students to reflect on the
consequences of not being prepared or being a good partner, and do something that would ensure
that they would come to the next two book club meetings prepared and ready with their packets
completed. I decided to have these students write an essay, with the question: What makes a
person reliable? Do you consider yourself a reliable person? Why or why not? Provide evidence
fromy our own experiences. Students identified where they struggle when it comes to being
reliable and could reflect on their contributions in the classroom and in life in general. I believe
that this essay assignment helped students to self-motivate themselves, because they realized that
it was their responsibility to be prepared for every meeting and realized that they did not want to
let their partner down. For the rest of the book club, these students were prepared for the rest of
their meetings, and I was happy to see they chose to be reliable in the future.
Standard #4: Content Knowledge. The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of
inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that
make the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.

The artifact I chose for this standard is a portion of teaching unit for the unit taught on the novel,
Freak the Mighty. This portion of the unit was a lesson about Freytags Pyramid that would
eventually be included in the final project for the unit, which was for students to create a cereal
box in their teams that reflected the important aspects of the Freak the Mighty novel. Freytags
pyramid includes exposition, conflict, rising actions, climax, falling actions, and resolution of a
story. Freytags Pyramid is important for students because these components are used and found
in every single story that students will read whether it be a short story or a novel. Conflict and
resolution as well as the rising/falling actions and climax are central concepts in Language Arts,
so this was the perfect opportunity to implement this pyramid and enable students to practice
strategies for identifying these components in a text. Students expanded on the ideas of Freytags
Pyramid when they created their cereal box projects for the end of the unit. Their cereal boxes
had to include Freytags Pyramid for the Freak the Mighty novel as well as an in-depth
character analysis for five major characters in the novel. Not only did students learn what each
part of Freytags Pyramid is, but they applied their knowledge of this concept to the novel they
were reading in class and then implemented their instruction into a meaningful analysis of the
novel, through an engaging and creative cereal box project.
Standard #5: Application of Content. The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use
differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative
problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.

The artifact I chose for this standard is a documentation of the use of media resources that
connect learning to the outside world. The assignment was for students to choose a current event
that they researched online or found in the newspaper, and then for students to follow the
guidelines to write a current event essay on the article they chose. This assignment connected
students to the outside world and helped them to think critically about national and global issues.
Students connected writing skills with analysis of an important event impacting the world, and
then shared their essay with the rest of the class by reading their essay aloud and sharing their
differing perspectives on important issues. For their essay, students had to provide a summary of
the event, an analysis of how the event impacts the world, and then their own opinion about the
event and their attitude towards the event and the article. Students also had to pose a question in
their essay, which enabled them to think critically about the event and practice taking the event
and expanding on the ideas they read. Students posed questions and possibilities about how to
solve the problems they read about in their articles, and had a clear purpose for writing each of
their paragraphs. Students grappled with real-world issues, while practicing the conventional
standards of reading and writing, to summarize and analyze an important event.
Standard #6: Assessment. The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to
engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teachers and
learners decision making.
The artifacts I chose for this standard are my Philosophy of Education, related to assessment, and
a teacher-developed graphic organizer and rubric checklist that I created for students, that reflects
my assessment philosophy. Overall, my philosophy of assessment centers around my belief that
assessment needs to be used as a building tool, where students are able to build on each of their
assignments and go back and look at what they did wrong, in order to improve their initial
assignment. Students were given graphic organizers that prepared them for how they would be
graded for their Freak the Mighty novel cereal box project, so they could organize their thoughts
and make sure that they included everything they needed to. The project itself received a group
grade, however, each student received an individual grade for his or her completed and accurate
graphic organizer. Then this organizer was made into a rubric that was used to grade each
project. Students were given back their graded graphic organizers before their final grade was
given to them, and the checklists were clearly broken up, so that students could see exactly
where they were losing points and what they were missing. I feel that these kinds of checklist
organizers give students the opportunity to self-reflect, and rather than just receiving a letter
grade, students can review their assignment using the rubric to see how each students organizer
correlates to the rubric, and rework their essays, to be handed in for a final grade. This allows
students to build on their writing and closely review their own work, being able to see where
they need to improve, and identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
Standard #7: Planning for Instruction. The teacher plans instruction that supports every student
in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum,
cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community
context.
The artifact I chose for this standard is a teacher-made material and example of re-teaching. This
artifact includes the templates I created for students to use during their rough draft writing of
their argument essays on whether or not balloons should be banned. Students read two articles,
each with differing viewpoints on the argument, and then chose which side they agreed with and
wanted to write their essay about. This was the first complete, five-paragraph essay that students
were asked to write, so I wanted to provide them with guidelines for what each paragraph should
contain, so that they could break up each paragraph into introduction, two body paragraphs,
counterclaim paragraph, and conclusion. Each of these templates an example of re-teaching,
because students had practiced writing a solid introduction paragraph before, as well as citing
evidence to support reasons, and have written a counterclaim before; however, this time they had
to put each of these paragraphs together on one topic to create one cohesive argument essay,
including a concluding paragraph, which extended from their practice with concluding sentences.
These templates took a lot of planning and reworking, to make sure that students could
effectively use these templates to construct each of their paragraphs. Writing a complete, five-
paragraph argument essay is a rigorous learning goal that challenges students to meet the needs
of various Language Arts skills, and these rough-draft templates proved very helpful because
students were able to take each paragraph in strides and meet each of the needs required for each
paragraph. Once their rough drafts were completed, revised, and typed, students switched essays
with a partner for peer-editing. I made a color-chart where each part of each paragraph
corresponded with a color, and as students read their peers essays, they would highlight each
part of the essay with the required color. Once students switched back papers, they were able to
read the comments made my their peer editor, and were also able to clearly see what they were
missing, because they could self-check whether or not each of their paragraphs had every color
highlighted, and then fill in any of the missing parts for their final essays. I also took the criteria
on these templates and created the grading rubric that was used to grade each students paper, so
that they could see how their rough draft guidelines translate right over to their final paper.
Standard #8: Instructional Strategies. The teacher understands and uses a variety of
instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and
their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

The artifact I chose for this standard is evidence of multimedia projects. This artifact is from our
lesson about advertisements, when students learned about facts, warrants, and claims. I decided
to include this lesson in our argument writing unit, because students watched and analyzed
different commercials and written advertisements to find the facts, warrants, and claims of each
advertisement, and learned how advertisers use argument strategies to get their message across to
an audience. Students connected their own argument writing to the arguments of advertisements
and saw how advertisements use facts and evidence to argue for their product. Students were
then randomly put into groups and asked to create their own advertisement for a product
approved by me. Students were able to create a commercial or print advertisement, so they were
able to use different media outlets to do research about their product and then create their
advertisement. This activity enabled students to be creative, while developing a deeper
understanding of how to argue effectively and the different strategies used in argument
writing/advertising. Students were able to apply their understanding of facts, warrants, and
claims in a meaningful way, because they had a goal of promoting and arguing for their product,
and when they shared their self-made commercials, or hand-made/computer-made
advertisements, students in other groups as well as myself and my cooperating teacher, were able
to observe whether each group used facts and warrants to effectively argue their claim. The
artifact shown in the picture is just one example of a groups project, while several groups chose
to create a print advertisement using online resources and many chose to create commercial
video advertisements that were watched in class.
Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice. The teacher engages in ongoing
professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the
effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the
community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.

The artifact I chose for this standard is a collection of reflective journal entries related to specific
lessons I taught during the course of student teaching. Following each lesson that my advisor
observed, we had a very meaningful conversation about how the lesson went, where we
unpacked the lesson and discussed my strengths and areas for improvement, and then I wrote a
reflection on each of my lessons. I felt that discussing each lesson with my advisor following the
lesson was extremely helpful and has made a huge impact on my ongoing professional
development. I was really able to self-reflect and evaluate how this lesson affected my students
and what I can change to make the lesson better. I learned so many valuable teaching strategies
from these reflective discussions that I believe I have really implemented in the lessons that
followed. Some of the strategies I learned were the following: Ask the same questions
throughout the lesson to multiple students, so that I can gage more students understanding of the
same concept before moving on, rather than just getting the answer from one student; Sometimes
it is better to teach the lesson first, and then introduce the academic hat (the literary skills or
concepts) that the students just learned, so that they practice the skill first before putting a name
to it; It is okay to refrain from giving students all of the information right away. Sometimes it is
best to introduce the lesson, and then let students work in groups to try to unpack the material.
Along the way, students will run into problems, which is when they will ask questions. This is
my opportunity to stop students from working, and have a teachable moment, where I address
the students questions and we discuss the answers together. I feel that I am always reflecting on
my teaching and my students responses to my teaching, and I will continue writing in a
reflective journal as I begin my first year of teaching following graduation.

Reflective Journal Entries:

Lesson Plan: 1
Subject and Topic: Language Arts/ The Remarkable Leech
Grade Level: 6th Grade
Date of lesson: January 31, 2017
There were definitely many things that I felt went right in this lesson. The use of the
KWL chart continues to be extremely effective for my students for understanding a non-
fiction text. By chunking their knowledge into, Know, Want to learn, and Learned, they
were able to activate prior knowledge before reading or watching the film, were able to
pose questions that they hoped would be answered, and take notes and listen actively, in
order to discuss what they learned. Since we ran out of time to work on the group posters, I
hope to get an even closer look into what my students understanding a main ideas and
supporting evidence. I believe that when I broke down the reading, and asked my students
to tell me what the important things are we need to look for and take note of while reading,
they were able to identify supporting details/facts, the main idea, vocabulary words, and
meanings of illustrations, were all important when comprehending a non-fiction text.
Asking my students to make inferences throughout the lesson, based on the Title The
Remarkable Leech, and to also make inferences about why leeches grow three times their
body size when they attach to human skin, based on what they learned and saw from the
short film. They were able to tell me that by identifying the word, REMARKABLE, in the
title, they can infer that the author of this specific story will have a positive opinion about
leeches and their purposes. They were also able to tell me that the reason for the growth of
a leech, is that they become filled with blood as they feed. They were able to support their
claims with evidence to support their answers. I thought the short film was a great hook,
because since my students are young and in sixth grade, I feel this video captured their
attention and got them excited to learn more about leeches. Throughout the lesson, my
students were successfully able to identify the main idea, supporting details/facts/evidence,
and vocabulary when we discussed each header of the passage. I definitely think the KWL
chart, Post-it notes, and Read for Real are extremely effective for my students when they
are reading non-fiction text and I will continue to use these tools in future lessons. I know
that the KWL and Post-it notes were effective, because as I looked over their KWL charts
and Post-it notes, I could see all of the notes they had taken, and many of them shared their
answers that they put on the KWL chart. Also, I observed my students taking notes
throughout the read-aloud, and when I asked a question about a certain passage, my
students were able to give an accurate answer and support their answers with evidence
from the text or film.
I always want my students to understand and apply the difference between a thesis
statement and an opinion or fact. In order to do so, I asked them throughout the reading,
What would be a strong thesis statement for this section? I want them to constantly be
practicing the Applications of generalization and inference, by stopping after each section,
to ask my students to use the evidence theyre reading, to come up with the main idea of the
section; then to take that main idea, and turn it into a thesis statement! What could you
argue using evidence you found in the text or film? For now, I really want to stick with the
KWL, post-it notes, and read-aloud, system that we have been using thus far; however, I
definitely think that as my students become more comfortable using these Language Arts
skills and concepts (inference, generalization, main idea/thesis, supporting details,
vocabulary) when they reading, I will able to branch out and use different forms of
organization for the students as well as allowing them to do more individual reading and
synthesis. I want to continue reinforcing these L.A. skills, so that they become second
nature to my students whenever they are reading, and that eventually, they will always be
looking for these concepts or the opportunity to use these skills, in any reading that they do
without being told to do so or being activated by others to do so; rather, they will activate
these skills and concepts on their own.

Lesson Plan: 2
Subject and Topic: Language Arts/ Argument through Advertisement
Grade Level: 6th Grade
Date of lesson: February 15, 2017

I feel that my Fact, Warrant, Claim lesson was very successful, and I am very
excited that my students were able to understand these concepts, especially what a warrant
is and how it is different from a fact, which was my main concern going into the lesson. I
feel that this lesson taught me most to be confident in allowing my students to facilitate the
lesson and to be confident in my lesson. I feel that the lesson went very smoothly and I was
able to keep the lesson moving in the right direction, while still having the students be the
facilitators and allowing them to ask and answer plenty of questions on their own. I also felt
as though my students had a very strong grasp on being able to revisit their prior
knowledge of advertising that we had been working on in previous days, and were able to
make connections to the new material in order to better understand the concepts.
I feel that the biggest change from the first lesson that I did on my own and this
lesson now, was my classroom management and my teacher voice. I feel that I have
definitely found my teacher voice, and this has been the biggest confidence booster for
me as well as the reason I feel my students were able to take over the lesson more this time.
I definitely paid attention to the feedback I received for my first observation, which was
mostly about surveying the room and keeping the right proximity between my students
and I in order to keep my students engaged and focused. This time, I felt like I was able to
walk around the room the entire lesson and call on mostly every student at least once
during the lesson, giving those students who dont raise their hand often, the same chance
to participate in the lesson as well as gaging if every student was paying attention and on
task.
I think the biggest thing I took away from this lesson is to always be prepared for
technology not to work when it is time to do a lesson that involves technology, which in this
case, was a PowerPoint that included a YouTube link of a video advertisement. When it
took the video more time to load than I had anticipated, Mrs. Ridolfi stepped in to ask the
students some review questions to keep the lesson on task and keep the down time at a
minimum. I learned that I should always have review questions or a back-up activity
planned, in case there is a technical malfunction.
Overall, I felt very confident in this lesson and I also feel like the PowerPoint I
created was well put together and very effective. I felt that the decisions I made regarding
the PowerPoint paid off very well and I learned that how I present the information on the
PowerPoint to the students is just as important as the information itself. For instance, I
decided to present the question or heading of a slide first, without any definition or
information, and ask my students to first make inferences or activate prior knowledge to
see if they can come up with the answers on their own and head us in the right direction.
Then, I put the grammatical definitions or important information I wanted them to write
down on their worksheets, onto the overhead projector screen, so they could copy down the
answers, only after they had time to have a class discussion about the possible answers and
make their own assumptions about the answers first.

Lesson Plan: 3
Subject and Topic: Language Arts / Argument Essay (Tone/Mood)
Grade Level: 7th
Date of lesson: March 2, 2017
I was very proud of the way my seventh grade students handled today's lesson about
mood and tone and I am very excited to read their introduction paragraphs in class
tomorrow and see if they followed the directions of the checklist as well as their ability to
use tone to focus their essay on giving off a certain type of feeling. I feel that for the past
couple of essay assignments, some students lost points simply when it came to following
directions or they were missing some parts that they needed in each paragraph. I am
looking forward to seeing how the new checklist that Mrs. Ridolfi and I created will help
them with their writing and organization.
I feel that I learned a lot from this lesson and the biggest thing was time management.
I definitely am going to take what I learned and apply it to my future lessons. I am going to
write the times on the board and on my lesson plans for each piece of the lesson so I can
pace myself and stay on track in order to have the lesson completed without being rushed
at the end. I also learned that it is okay to take out a part of the lesson if it will not affect
the overall lesson.
I feel that as a student teacher and someone who is still in the process of the early
stages of teaching, time management is something that new teachers can struggle with early
on and even find themselves sometimes letting the time slip away from them even when
they are seasoned teachers. I feel that writing the times down next to my lesson as well as
on the board will not only provide me with a reminder to keep the lesson on track, but will
also be a visual for the students to see how long we will spend on each piece of the lesson as
well as how long it is expected for them to be able to complete each task.
This lesson helped me to continue feeling confident as a teacher because I feel that my
students really care for me as much as I care for them. I feel that we have established a
really strong and comfortable relationship with each other and the classroom environment
is a positive and safe space to learn and share ideas in. I feel that this relationship can be
funny and playful at times, but my students also respect me and see me as another
authority figure in the classroom just as they see Mrs. Ridolfi. I feel that as we continue this
relationship moving forward, my students will be become more and more confident in their
writing abilities which will ultimately lead to them mastering these necessary skills for
writing.

Lesson Plan 4:
Subject and Topic: Language Arts / Freak the Mighty novel
Grade Level: 7th
Date of lesson: April 5, 2017
I am very proud of this lesson because I created it myself and put everything
together for it. I really believe that this lesson is a reflection of the kind of teacher that I
want to be. I think that this lesson has helped me to learn more about gradually releasing
responsibility to my students. I think as a new teacher, I am nervous that I will leave my
students out to dry and not give them all the information they need to succeed. However,
Ive learned that it is imperative for students to be able to sometimes try things without
having all of the answers, because then they will be able to see if they understand the task
or content at hand. I also think that by letting my students attempt an activity without all
of the information, they will come up with questions as they progress through the activity
and these will be great stopping and teaching points.
 I feel that I am continuing to do well when it comes to student-centered facilitation
of the lesson, by engaging my students and getting them to actively participate in the lesson.
I havent had this class in groups or teams before this unit, so I think this lesson helped
me to understand how I can maximize the usefulness of students working in groups. I feel
more comfortable now being able to throw out a task or activity to my students, and let
them grapple with the questions and ideas within their groups, so that they are getting that
active small group engagement with one another. I am very excited to see where the rest of
this lesson takes us and to see the final projects that my students come up with.

Lesson Plan: 5
Subject and Topic: Language Arts / Blazon Poetry
Grade Level: 6th Grade
Date of lesson: April 11, 2017
I feel that working in a classroom with students who have disabilities is definitely a
challenge, but I am really enjoying my experience so far. I feel that my biggest challenge is
making sure that each of my students is staying engaged and understands the lesson, and I
learned that the best way to do that is to ask questions. As a new teacher, I feel that one of
my biggest challenges that I face within myself is accepting that it is okay and actually very
helpful for students when you repeat a question over and over to each student. It may seem
repetitive and it may take some time from the lesson, but it is critical for learning whether
my students are engaged and understand the lesson. My students are extremely high
functioning and I learned so many new things from them every day. I think it is extremely
important that I continue to ask questions throughout the lesson to my students
individually, because although one student might be engaged and know the answer, that
doesnt always mean that the other seven students in the class are engaged and know the
answer.
I enjoyed this lesson specifically because my students had to write a poem about
themselves, so I could see what characteristics they use to describe themselves. This gave
me more insight into who my students are and how they see themselves and the world
around them. I could learn more about the kind of people my students are and what
characteristics they are proud of in themselves. I learned that many of them really enjoy
writing poetry, which makes me happy because poetry is something I have always loved
reading and writing.

Lesson Plan: 6
Subject and Topic: Mood and Tone in Poetry
Grade Level: 7th Grade/Special Education
Date of lesson: April 26, 2017
I was very pleased with how this lesson went and I feel that I was able to combine
the things I learned from the previous two observations into this lesson. The first thing I
really wanted to focus on was getting more students involved and even though I always like
to ask a lot of questions throughout the lesson, I wanted to focus on getting more students
answers to the same questions to make sure that they had an understanding, rather than
just asking one student and moving on. I feel like this helped my students to be more
prepared because they knew there was more participation coming from the class at each
turn of the lesson, so they were ready and paying attention because they knew they might
be called on. I felt that I was able to really get a lot more answers from each student and
keep repeating the questions and answers. I feel like I still have to work on some pacing,
and just I definitely am working on getting past that constant notion in my mind that every
single student will understand every single part of the lesson every time. Not all students
will understand everything the first time it is taught, but that is okay. Ive learned that it is
okay to move on and keep the lesson moving, and go back to revisit the concepts at a later
time.
I love the movie trailers that I used for this lesson and I will use them in future
lessons, because I feel that as we discussed, this was when my students were most engaged.
In the future, I want to keep working on moving through the whole lesson and then going
back to revisit the areas that kids were having confusion. The other thing I focused on that
we discussed in observation 4 is that I dont always have to give all of the information right
away. I really felt that going through the poem first and practicing and using the skills
before putting the tone and mood label on the strategy was very successful for this lesson.
This lesson was more of a discovery lesson and the students felt like they already knew the
strategy because we had practiced it already before introducing the name of the strategy. I
really feel that this played out very well because the students were doing something they
werent even aware of, and then were given the recognition that they had being doing this
strategy all along. I will revisit the movie trailers when we continue this lesson, so that my
students can really see what different elements make up the mood and tone of a work.
Standard #10: Leadership and Collaboration. The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and
opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families,
colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to
advance the profession.

The artifact I chose for this standard is a letter to parents prior to parent/teacher conferences that
I participated in. This artifact includes a letter to parents/guardians addressing the upcoming
conferences that were held on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Also included, was whether or not a
conference was requested at this time from each childs parent/guardian. My cooperating teacher
based our decision on the academic status of each of our students as well as their behavior status
in our classroom, to determine whether or not we felt each student needed a conference, although
every parent/guardian was given the opportunity to conference, whether we found it necessary or
not. Attached to the letter was a poem called Your Best that we had our students read in class
and then complete the following three sentences: I am proud of myself for: / I need to work on: /
My goal for the final marking period is:. Students filled in these three questions during class, and
then there parents were able to read their childs answers. Also, a copy of each students
Individual Student Report from Power School was sent home attached to the letter, so that
parents could see their childs grade for the third marking period and their grades for each
individual assignment that was given throughout the third marking period. I feel that this letter
sent home was very helpful leading up to the parent/teacher conferences because it allowed my
cooperating teacher and me to be prepared for each conference and have evidence to support any
questions parents might have. Also, parents were able to see exactly what their child has been
doing in our class and their strengths and areas for improvement. Throughout my student
teaching experience, I have had a continued relationship with the parents of my students, meeting
with parents on several different occasions and sending home emails and reminders, as well as
comments on students assignments through Power School. My relationship with parents has
really helped me to establish the need for constant parent/teacher communication in my
classroom, and attending parent/teacher conferences was a valuable experience that taught me
how to address students strengths and areas for improvement with parents/guardians.