"Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be."
InTASC Standard:
Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
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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 (InTASC, 2013).
Brief Description of Evidence:
During my spring semester of 2020 in my EDUC 230-The Exceptional Child course, I had the opportunity to collaboratively work with my group to create a Toolbox. Some of these activities in the toolbox were 10 strategies of having a conversion either with parents of students, a google slide presentation for teachers to use about 13 categories of special education eligibility in Indiana (this falls more for teachers in SPED), a Google slide presentation about ABI (Acquired Brain Injuries) which gives teachers and extra knowledge, a google slide presentation about a Film Festival for teachers who want to become SPED teachers or just have extra knowledge about the topic. I filled this toolbox with different resources and activities that we can implement in our future classrooms.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Throughout the process of creating this toolbox with my fellow classmates, I learned how important it is to use a variety of tools, resources, and activities to use as part of my professional learning and implement them in my future classroom. I learned to evaluate the resources and activities I created with my fellow classmates to put into my toolbox by their quality, accuracy, and effectiveness. I learned that not all the activities here have something to do with education or a class. It is just various subjects that I as a future teacher need to know to help my students at a personal level and maybe see why he/she is struggling in my class if that were the case. I learned how students with specific disabilities require specific needs. I learned that I can adapt all the activities and resources I put together in my toolbox to meet the needs of my future learners. I have learned the importance of Carol Dweck’s “Power of Yet” Theory (Street, 2021) because by creating this toolbox I’m saving information for what I have not experienced yet and still be open for more professional growth.
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the InTASC Standard:
I have demonstrated my competence in standard 9 - Professional Learning and Ethical Practice by putting together a toolbox that provided quality resources and activities for my future classroom. This toolbox demonstrates my competence because it provides resources for teachers to engage in ongoing professional learning by incrementing my knowledge about different topics that might help my future students with their specific needs. I was able to showcase my ability to use each activity as evidence to continually evaluate them by their quality, accuracy, and effectiveness and incorporate them into my toolbox. By knowing how to use the different resources in my toolbox, as a future teacher, I can adapt my teaching and classroom practices to meet the needs of my future students even though I feel like figuring out the best strategies to use to meet the needs of my students will be an ongoing educational experience for me, as there is always something new to learn with each student that I will come in contact with each year.