Standard 4 | Teaching Portfolio

Quality Standard 4: Teachers demonstrate professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.

Standards Reflection

I would rate myself as proficient for this standard. I believe that I am a true professional while I am at school and embody many principles of ethical conduct and reflection. I wanted to carry myself in the most professional manner as I was student teaching so that a) my students would see me as a legitimate educator and b) other staff in the building would recognize me as someone who takes this job very seriously. The one area of this standard that I believe that I have a lot more room to grow in is leadership, simply because I did not really experience any leadership opportunities in student teaching. Leadership has such a huge tie to my professional goals; I would love to someday be a department head and sponsor many different activities, specifically a speech and debate team. With time, I am confident that I will eventually fall into the accomplished category for this standard.

Element A: Teachers demonstrate high standards for professional conduct.

Artifact: Paraprofessional Email Correspondence

Rationale: This artifact is an example of one of the many instances of professional email correspondence I had with the staff of Thompson Valley. In this specific example I sent the key for a quiz to the paraprofessional that was in one of my class periods assisting multiple students. I always made sure to utilize professional diction and tone when emailing other staff members in the building. This also functions as an example of my consistent prioritization of the needs of my students on IEPS and 504 plans.

Element B: Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals.

Artifact: Lesson Plan Reflection

Rationale: One of my biggest professional goals is to grow as an educator, specifically in the success of my lessons and how well I am able to engage my students. A huge component of that growth comes from me reflecting on past lessons, which is what this artifact is. After completing lessons, I always attempt to look back on what went well along with where I could improve.

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Element C: Teachers are able to respond to a complex, dynamic environment.

Artifact: Remote Learning Group Work

Rationale: This artifact is an example of an activity I did with my psychology students when they were fully remote. One of the biggest challenges with COVID-19 and remote learning (the very definition of a complex, dynamic environment) was how to effectively engage students with the course materials in ways other than lecture. This activity put students into breakout rooms where they were able to work together to develop an idea for a psychological experiment. From home, students were able to work together and learn about the scientific method via this assignment.

Element D: Teachers demonstrate leadership in the school, the community, and the teaching profession.

Artifact: In school substituting

Rationale: There were many days in student teaching that there was an unexpected absence of one of the other teachers in the building and I was always more than happy to fill in whenever I could. This is an example of displaying leadership in the teaching profession by displaying how I consistently wanted to lend a hand to others in the building.