Section Three: Teacher Candidate Artifacts

I will begin this section with a brief introduction of the importance of the content and

materials that you will view in this section. Each artifact will be titled and include a rationale

explaining the assignment, the curriculum and professional standards used, as well as

connections to theorists, best teaching practices and experts in the field of education. The

artifacts that you are about to view will prove that I am competent at planning, instructing and

assessing students at the elementary level. I believe that my lessons have been planned with

cautious thought and creativity and will engage students to the full extent. This will be evident

in my lesson plans that I have completed for each student teaching placement for literacy and

math. While planning my instruction, I took the students ethnicity, religion, sexuality and

background knowledge into consideration. The lessons provided have also been modified to

include instruction for students with disabilities, as well as IEP’s. I have provided evidence of

the use of technology in both of my lessons provided. I have included my Fieldwork Reflection

as an artifact as I believe it gives strong evidence to of self-reflection on my progress in my

placement. In this section, I will include a connection to theorists and my student placement.

Before I introduce the artifacts that will make up this portfolio, I would like to provide an

overview of the standards that I will use to connect my artifacts. The first set of standards is the

Interstate New Teacher Assessment Support Consortium Standards (INSTAC). The INSTAC

standards are a well-developed model of core teaching standards that define what teachers should

know and be able to ensure that every K-12 student reaches the goal of being ready to enter

further education ( Hawaii.edu).

The next set of standards is the NYS Code of Ethics for educators. The purpose of these

standards is to state a public statement that educators will follow that set out clear expectations
and principles to help guide practice and inspire professional excellence (highered). These

standards are broken down into 5 main principles.

The next set of standards were introduced for those who will be certified to teach in

Ontario, Canada. The Ontario Teacher Ethical Standards are standards that represent a vision of

professional practice. Members of the Ontario College of Teachers, in their position of trust,

demonstrate responsibility with students, parents, guardians, colleagues, educational partners,

other professionals, the environment and the public ( OCT, 2018).

The Ontario Teacher Ethical Standards are put in place to (1) to inspire members to

reflect and uphold the honor and dignity of the teaching profession, (2) to identify the ethical

responsibilities and commitments in the teaching profession, (3) to guide ethical decisions and

actions in the teaching profession and (4) to promote public trust and confidence in the teaching

profession. These standards are broken down into four categories, which include, (1) Care, (2)

Respect, (3) Trust and (4) Integrity. The definition of each standard will be included as the

standards are being used throughout this section (OCT, 2018).

This section will also include curriculum standards that will be used to connect the

curriculum with my artifacts. I will use both the P-12 New York Common Core Learning

Standards, NYS learning Standards and the Ontario Curriculum. The purpose of these standards

is to set out learning objectives that the students are expected to learn in each grade, pertaining to

language arts, math, social studies, science/history/geography and physical education.

This section will also include the Medaille College Department of Education Claims, the

CAEP Standards, International Society for Technology Education (iste), International Literacy
Standards (ILA) and finally the Council for Exceptional Children ( CEC) These standards are

important and will be defined as they are used throughout this section.

For this section, I have included 8 artifacts of my best work throughout the semester. The

first artifact that I have included is a unit plan that I created in my student placement. This unit

plan was created for grade 4/5 students in literacy. I have included this artifact as it shows my

abilities to plan, instruct and assess students using Common Core State Standards and the

Ontario Curriculum.

The second artifact that I have included is a lesson plan that I created for my Grade 2

students in Mathematics. This lesson also show my abilities to plan, instruct and assess students

using Common Core Standards and the Ontario Curriculum.

The third artifact that I have included is an assessment that was created for students in my

first placement. In the lesson prior to the assessment, I taught the students to use different

strategies to find two numbers that equals a number. Students were asked to use manipulative,

including base ten blocks, number lines and a hundred chart. By completing this assessment with

students, I showed the ability to have students use critical thinking skills while they were hard at

work finding numbers.

The fourth artifact that I have included is a reflection that I wrote at the end of my first

second placement. This artifact is important to include as it acts as a self-reflection of my

experience in the classroom. I had the opportunity to work one on one with students with

disabilities, as well as students with an IEP.

 The fifth artifact that I have included is an assignment that I created in my EDL650

course. This assignment gave me hands on experience with a student at the grade 5 level. I had

the opportunity to assess the literacy needs of the student using running records and leveled text.

The sixth artifact that I have included in my portfolio is a website that I am currently

creating in my EDU693 class. This assignment will be a great accomplishment and I cannot wait

to use these skills in the classroom. This assignment will prove my mastery at technology which

I will use to engage students and communicate with parents. I feel very strongly that education

of a child cannot happen without the assistance of parents/guardians. Being a parent myself, I

understand how difficult it can be to stay up to date with my child’s classroom. By introducing a

website for communication, I think that parents/guardians will enjoy using a website to learn of

the fun things going on in their child’s class. Parents and guardians will be able to view the

website at their own leisure, whether it be on their lunch break or late at night. I feel that it will

be a great tool to help students be a part of their child’s learning.

The next artifact that I have chosen for my portfolio is a Cyber Safety presentation that

will be embedded in my website. This tool, I hope will be very informative to parents and

students as we progress further into the era of technology. It is a scary world out there and I

believe that parents and students should be educated with information of how to keep their

children safe online.

The last artifact that I would like to include is my SMARTBOARD presentation. The

SMARTBOARD is a tool that is included in almost every classroom. This assignment allowed

use to explore the different functions of the SMARTBOARD and create engaging lessons for our

students.
 Conclusion

I would like to conclude this section of my Elementary Portfolio Project. This section

gave me the opportunity to provide a brief description of both the Curriculum standards and

professional standards that I used to connect my artifacts. Please view the chart attached to help

pinpoint each standard and artifact.