Artifact: “Who are you?” Survey

Performance: 1(a) Regularly assesses individual and group performance in order to design and modify instruction to meet learners; needs in each area of development and scaffolds the next level of development.

Essential Knowledge: 1(d) Understands how learning occurs - how learners construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop disciplined thinking processes - and knows how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning.

Critical Dispositions: 1(h) Respects learner’s differing strengths and needs and is committed to using this information to further each learner’s development.

1(i) Is committed to using learners’ strengths as a basis for growth, and their misconceptions as opportunities for learning. 

Description: At the beginning of the semester I created a Google Form Survey that I asked all of my students to complete. The survey asked the students questions about their hopes and dreams, future plans, experiences in math, and the way they learned best. The goal was to understand each student better as an individual and try to meet individual needs in a group setting. 

Rationale: Using a survey that asked students open ended questions I encouraged students to open up and share who they were as an individual. Coming into a school half way into the school year meant that learning patterns and experiences had occurred and in order to move forward I needed to know where the students had been. The survey showed my students that I took an interest in their lives inside and outside of school and that I wanted to support their future dreams and goals. The responses from this survey shaped my instruction both in design and assessment because learner preferences and needs were gathered from the data. Highlighting the area of math anxiety and negative math experiences helped me to remove misconceptions about math ability in my students and allowed me to encourage them to set and achieve higher academic goals and move forward with a positive outlook on the math classroom. 

Artifact: Civil Rights Professional Day

Performance: 1(c) Collaborates with families, communities, colleagues and other professionals to promote learner growth and development.

Essential Knowledge: 1(e) Understands that each learner’s cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development influences learning and knows how to make instructional decisions that build on learners’ strengths and needs.
1(f) Identifies readiness for learning and understands how development in any one area may affect performance in others. 
1(g) Understands the role of language and culture in learning and knows how to modify instruction to make language comprehensible and instruction relevant, accessible, and challenging.
Critical Dispositions: 1(j) Takes responsibility for promoting learner’s growth and development.
1(k) Values the input and contribution of families, colleagues, and other professionals in understanding and supporting each learner’s development. 

Description: On March 21, 2016 myself and all other student teachers gathered on the UMF campus to participate in a Civil Rights and Trauma Training Professional Development Day. This six hour event had two different speakers in roughly two three hour blocks speak to us on the matters of incorporating civil rights knowledge and activities in the classroom and understanding trauma experiences in children. 

Rationale: Attending this professional development training directly impacted my current student teaching placement as Franklin County holds top spots in both poverty and child abuse categories in the state of Maine. The opportunity to learn from two professionals in the fields of civil rights issues and trauma exposed children allowed me to learn how I could look for early intervention signs and think about my students in a different light. Trauma and civil rights issues can negatively impact cognitive growth in children and these emotional issues can overwhelm children and families and rightly so overshadow the academic experience. Attending collaborative events like this professional day allow me to begin to build a collection of skills to address those possible cognitive hurdles and adapt my instruction to meet the needs of those students. Taking responsibility for the growth of all of my students regardless of their individual circumstances is essential for me to building strong relationships with my students and meeting all of their individual needs.