Reflection: My Field Experience At Laster High School

I approach collaboration as a team player, and I believe students need more than one person to guide them to their full educational potential. Also, active and prepared participation of weekly PLC meetings with the teachers of my special education students to plan collaborative curriculum have increased results in math and reading substantially. Participating in co-teaching furthers my repertoire of knowledge to assist my students. I have learned a vast amount from sharing and consulting with colleagues regarding students, observing mentoring teachers, and planning activities to ensure growth in students.

The leadership team discussed specific outcomes that they want accomplish, taking into consideration the issues they want to address. After careful deliberation, they decided that they wanted to create a process of implementation with a feedback loop in which teachers and staff discuss each lesson. Documentation would be written down of what worked and what did not work and modifications could be done for the upcoming lessons. This could be accomplished by setting time for staff to meet and discuss lesson implementation, areas of strength and weakness. After discussion the staff would discuss and change the lesson plans to meet the needs of classroom. By crating this process of implementation staff can course correct

Section II. Teaching Practice Question 1: The Washington County School District organizational strategies in place for teachers has increased academic student growth in my classes. Throughout the year, I participate in professional development activities that enhance my teaching skills and increase student learning. I collaborate with data analysis and colleagues to disaggregate student data, correctly identify the lowest benchmarks that students scored based on FSA performance and Washington County School District Progress Monitoring Program (three assessments from the previous year). For this reason, we develop an "Order of Instruction" for content areas based on data from various student measures that have been assimilated throughout the school year. In like manner, I meet with vertical/grade level teams during preplanning to gather resources and organize materials by units, critique online resources to incorporate new technology into daily lesson objectives. Prior to students entering my classroom on the first day, I locate my class roster in FOCUS, print out all student IEP 's and 504 's and incorporate that information into my data notebook. As a team, we meet weekly to design lesson plans, create informal/formal assessments, and collaborate with another to ensure that standards-based instruction is being implemented in our classroom. After students start the new school year and complete their baseline assessments, I meet with colleagues, data analysis and Washington

Collaborative efforts have created more cross-curricular focus throughout the school. When teachers know what each other are teaching, they can support each other in their own curriculum.

I am a highly-driven, organized individual who is goal orientated, which has led me to succeed in the school environment. Throughout my six years of experience in the educational field, I have had the opportunities to work with children, parents, and co-workers to meet to need of all students in a fast pace environment. This has allowed me to gain excellent interpersonal skills. I am able to communicate efficiently and effectively in all areas. I am also extremely organized. These essential skills have allowed me to organized students’ data to better served the needs of all students. These essential skills help me achieve in my prior experience. I am able to schedule and plan quickly and competently. The last skill I hold that I believe is one of my greatest strengths is being able to collaborate with ease. I believe this is a crucial skill for a teacher, because it allows the implementation of rigorous and relevant curriculum.

Introduction: Mr. Nichols thanked everyone for attending. He explained why the subcommittee was developed; the goal is to have a workable plan ready for the fall. Mrs. Everly thanked Mr. Nichols for his leadership on the Board, and by bringing this conversation to the table, we can only get better. At the administrator meeting last week with Mrs. Joseph, administrators talked about the communication issues within the discipline process that need to be worked out; there is a need to tighten up communication between the office and teacher. Mr. Nichols noted that central office administrators have already been working very hard on this subject, but he thinks it is important for administrators to receive input from teachers and parents.

Teacher Collaboration measures the degree to which teachers engage in constructive dialogue that furthers the educational vision of the school.

In my classroom, I demonstrate collaboration by attending the Kinder PLC meeting every Tuesday. These meetings help the grade level teachers to collaborate. For example, to come up with ideas on how to teach a specific concept, talk about any updates, student assistance team (SAT) , and data analysis. I demonstrate collaboration by working with my colleagues to come up with writing prompts and writing rubrics. By doing this we make sure the expectations in each classroom are the same.

As a student at Illinois Valley Community College I have been involved in many organizations and groups. During my first year at IVCC I was invited to join Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society as well as was named to the IVCC Presidential Honors list. Recently I was recognized at IVCC’s annual student academic honors banquet where I was recognized for having honor roll for two consecutive semesters while being enrolled fulltime. I was selected for several scholarships during my two years at this community college which has helped support my education as well take a burden off my family’s finances. Leadership positions that I have fulfilled is a student ambassador at Illinois Valley Community College. Every week I volunteer my time by working the front desk for an hour on Tuesdays.

During this collaborative unit and programming planning I found having a partner to be very beneficial. Coordinating times to talk and text was key to this project due to me and my partner living out of town and working full time as teachers, but we have learned a great deal from this project. Two heads are better than one due to us being able to bounce ideas off of one another that sparked so many wonderful ideas. At times we found ourselves getting ahead of ourselves but had one another to help refocus us on our state standards for our target grade level. By working as a team I knew that we were both invested in these lessons and had the same goal in mind therefore knew that the time spent creating these lessons was going to be effectively

3. Foster a culture of collaboration among teachers through reflective dialogue and by encouraging personal commitment to create a collective end.

Research Design: The study conducted used a hierarchical linear modeling (Y. Goddard, R. Goddard, & Tschannen, 2007, p. 877). The study was a group design that was conducted 2 months prior to when a mandatory state assessment would be taken by the students in which the results of this study were compared to that state assessment. In addition, teachers were presented with a paper questionnaire with questions regarding teacher collaboration during faculty meetings (Y. Goddard, R. Goddard, & Tschannen, 2007, p. 884-886). Some factors that were impacted this study was the different ways the

“Teamwork fuels group spirit, develops process skills that help teachers interact in more productive ways, and fosters a more intellectual atmosphere.” (Maeroff, 1993).

Collaboration between teachers is a key component to professional development that will lead to higher student achievement. There is a need for schools to set up time for teachers to be able to collaborate together. This allows for teachers to help each other, matchup content, teach each other new and best practices, troubleshoot student issues just to name a few of the areas that collaboration time can help foster within a school. The key is to build time for teachers to be able to collaborate during the school day or week. This collaboration time needs to be between grade levels, departments, and cross curricular when needed. For many schools this is an afterthought to the school schedule or a fleeting thought after the master schedule is completed. A principal needs to keep an open mind to any strategy that will enable the teachers to be able to collaborate for the good of the students and the school.

Educators in secondary education public schools have adopted new methods in the delivery of instruction as a response to the increase in the number of students per classroom, the increase in ethnic diversity among students, and the inclusion of special education students in general education classrooms. These methods include collaborative teaching practices that incorporate a joint effort among educators to ensure that students gain a more productive and effective learning experience while in school. Not only would collaborative practices be ideal for student-centered teaching, but it would also be beneficial to educators as a collaborative experience may give teachers insight into alternative lesson planning approaches, offer opportunities for teachers to try new co-teaching techniques, and allow teachers in different content areas to share knowledge. However, collaborative practices may also become problematic if educators have incompatible personalities, are unable to develop clear communication, or lack administrative support. Through interviews with a special education English teacher, a Spanish language arts teacher, and the principal at the Bronx High School for Medical Science, an analysis of this school’s implementation of collaborative teaching was conducted to identify central aspects that promote successful collaborative experiences for educators.