Standard 2 | Teaching Portfolio

Quality Standard 2: Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students.

Standard Reflection: In this standard, I feel as though I can rate myself as accomplished. Safety and inclusivity have consistently been huge priorities to me and they are things that I made sure were always something my students knew were valued in my room. I have built strong relationships, made sure to prioritize the individual needs of each of my students, and made sure to bring in a wide variety of perspectives, many outside the dominant narrative. The population of students I worked with this semester was hugely diverse, so I wanted my classroom to always feel like somewhere they were safe. One goal that I have within this standard is to expand the sources I draw from when creating lessons and using media.

Element A: Teachers foster a predictable learning environment characterized by acceptable student behavior and efficient use of time in which each student has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults and peers.

Artifact: Psychology Weekly Learning Guide

Rational: The weekly learning guides that I made for each of my classes provides evidence of the predictable learning environment that I tried to create for all of my students. I always wanted my students to have a good idea as to what was coming in the next week. This was especially helpful for students who were absent due to quarantine, as they were able to see everything that was coming for both their truly asynchronous days along with days they were missing.

Element B: Teachers demonstrate an awareness of, a commitment to, and a respect for multiple aspects of diversity, while working toward common goals as a community of learners.

Artifact: Opening Questions Assignment

Rational: This artifact demonstrates my commitment to making sure my classroom feels like a community in which all of my students are valued and appreciated, and a big part of that means that I know the name they would like to use and the pronouns they would like to be referred by. I had many students let me know via this assignment that they use a different name or identity as a different gender than I might find on their legal documents, and this was great for me to know as I always want my students to feel as though those identities are respected in my room. I even had some students thank me for including questions regarding their pronouns and I feel as though this improved my relationship with several students right off the bat.

Element C: Teachers engage students as individuals, including those with diverse needs and interests, across a range of ability levels by adapting their teaching for the benefit of all students.

Artifact: Civics Final Project

Rational: This artifact illustrates the description of the final project for my Civics students, which was researching and presenting on a current events topic of their choice. This assignment gave students an opportunity reflect on what they actually care about in our world, and the level of depth of their research could be varied based on the individual needs of a student.

Element D: Teachers work with families and/or significant adults in the lives of their students.

Artifact: Parent Email

Rational: The artifact illustrates the contact I had with a student's parent regarding what she needed to do during a quarantine situation. This was a situation in where the parent reached out and I was able to communicate to the entire family what it they needed to complete while the student was gone.