My Self Evaluation
A1: I have taken a great deal of time to understand each student’s background knowledge and experiences by looking through their files, the assignments I have given, and through daily interactions with them.
Each day I talk with five students individually about their personal academic goals and achievements. We evaluate where they are, where they would like to go, and how to get there. This one on one interaction with the students lets them know that I am aware and concerned with their individual needs.
A2: I feel I plan lessons that are engaging and “kid friendly.” As I begin my instruction, I try to get students to understand why reaching my objective will be of benefit to them. My goal is to lead them into asking their own questions so that through my lessons, they can search for their own answers. I feel this is the best way to retain the information they are learning.
As I design my lessons, I first determined my desired learning objectives. My next step is to figure out why the information is relevant to the students and make sure I can help them gain a desire to achieve this objective. Then I develop a set of activities that will help them attain and retain the information. Finally I give them an opportunity to put the information to practical use.
An example of this would be the unit I developed on persuasive essays. The enduring understanding I wanted my students to leave with was that the ability to write is powerful. My individual learning objectives included the ability to follow the writing process through to a finished essay, but in addition, I wanted them to understand why learning to do this is important.
We began by brainstorming injustice, and then developed a set of steps we would need to complete to address the injustice as a class. The assignment required students to get their finished essay into the hands of someone with the power to make a change. They were completely engaged in the process, and I hope they came out of the lesson with the understanding that we have the power to make a difference in the world.
A3: I believe in scaffolding new information as I gradually release the responsibility to the students. A specific example of this is the way I have taught the phases of the moon by having them chart the moon phases, and let them make guesses as to why they see the various phases. Then I let them work with globes, lamps, and golf balls to manipulate their hypothesis. I then led them to the book to clarify their theories. Finally, I have them teaching the information to each other by creating and presenting a PowerPoint presentation of the newly mastered information. I try to follow this same type of procedure in all areas of study.
A4: I try to engage students through a variety of methods, materials, and resources to meet the goals from the state core. I believe “hands on exploration” gets students asking their own questions, which gives them a reason to care about the answers. I try to give students something concrete to work with to develop their understanding.
I also try to allow for social learning if at all possible. I believe students help each other learn and grow. 6th grade students are such social creatures to begin with; I like to use that to my advantage as well as theirs. By working in groups, it lets students share their individual strengths, and learn to draw on the strengths of others.
Finally, I believe that very little learning is taking place if students aren’t engaged in the process. For this reason I have designed many game type activities like Sorry, Monopoly, Bingo, and Jeopardy to engage students. I think that by making learning fun and enjoyable, students will develop a love of learning in general.
A5: I use a variety of evaluation strategies that range from journaling what or why, to drawing a picture, to creating a presentation, to helping your neighbor, to quizzes and tests. My classroom is very student centered, which gives me the time to walk around the room from student to student and determine who understands what. I have a clipboard of specific goals for each lesson, and as I talk to individual students, I can quickly evaluate if they are where they need to be – and help them one on one if they are not.
B1: I believe that fair is the place you take your pig for judging. I think I maintain an environment that promotes fairness by helping students realize that we all have individual strengths and needs. I expect every student to work to the best of his ability, and I expect each student to help those around them work to their best ability.
I’ve given a great deal of thought to the injustice of all students learning the exact same thing in the exact same way. In an attempt to meet individual needs, I structured my spelling unit in a way I am particularly proud of. I had each student take a pretest on the list of words designated by the district. If a student missed more than 10 out of those 20 words, he chose 10 of those words to concentrate on for the week. If a student missed less than 10 words, they had to come up with a total of 10 they could NOT spell. I did this by providing each student with a list of commonly misspelled words, and they paired with a partner to go through the list until they found 10 words they couldn’t spell. That was their individual spelling list for the week. The assessment for spelling was given on Fridays by their partner. The advantage of this system was a level playing field where each student learned to spell 10 new words each week. That is the kind of “fair” I strive to achieve in my classroom.
When I call on students for answers, I draw a Popsicle stick with student names on them to avoid calling on the student with their hand always in the air. If a student doesn’t know the answer, he is welcome to “phone a friend” for some help. An intelligent person realizes what they don’t know, and instead of saying “I don’t know,” can say, “I don’t know, but I know how to find out.”
B2: I talk with each student individually each week. I absolutely love this time! I talk with five students one-on-one each day about their goals and their feelings about our class. I feel that by letting them know I care about them, and what they are learning, and let them know that their opinions really matter, they are willing to work harder. I truly want my students to be successful, and I hope they know. I think they do.
B3: I think I communicate challenging learning expectations to the students by understanding their individual abilities. I have made many accommodations to meet individual needs, but I also feel it is important to expect as much of each student as they are able to give. I have individual conferences with the students where, together, we determine what they are capable of and what will be expected of them.
In math, for example, some students work every other problem, some work a more challenging set of problems on the same topic, and some are designing their own problems. I expect each student to give each activity their best effort. All students need to explain the concept in regular words, math words, pictures, and problems in their math journals.
B4: I let the students help develop our class rules – or expectations of behavior. So far I have found they help each other stay in control. I expect students to come into our classroom respectfully. To me that doesn’t mean silently, and we’ve taken the time to discuss the difference. One of the rules we took from TRIBES is respectful listening, which helps behavior when I am in front as well as when students are working in groups or presenting. I think by showing students respect, they will be respectful in return.
B5: I just set the classroom up in a different desk configuration that forms a U where everyone can see the overhead easily, and are separated into desks of 4 or 5 students. Another advantage of this seating arrangement is it allows us to meet in community circle without moving the desks out.
I have also found that background music at various times during the day provide a nice change and a more comfortable feeling. The classroom I was teaching in also had a couch that made a comfortable place to relax and read or have partner discussions.
Students have created “study guide bulletins” that hang around the room. I think that by having students make their own posters to help each other they pay more attention to them. It also shows that we value the knowledge of each other.
The final item that comes to mind is the daily schedule on the white board. I think this gives students control. It gives them the opportunity to prepare for what is coming up next. I found this crucial for one student in particular who was working on developing functional skills. It seemed to put him at ease to know what was going on when.
C1: I always tell the students what I am trying to achieve and why it will benefit them to understand this information. When students come into my classroom, they see an outline on the board of the subjects and objectives for the day. I take 5 minutes at the beginning of the day to preview my objectives, and at the end of the day, we have a community circle where we look through each activity and review the goals of the lessons and if the students feel like they have the ability to use this new information outside of the classroom. I am constantly having students look at where they are, where they want to be, and how to get there.
C2: I think I make the content comprehensible to students by giving them hands on concrete articles to manipulate before I ever give them theory. I have the advantage of having a 6th grade daughter of my own. Often I try my lessons out on her to “look into the future” and anticipate what students will find confusing.
I always determine what previous knowledge my students need to obtain a new objective. I begin my instruction by making a connection to something the students are already familiar with, and then build on that information to reach my new objective.
C3: I still need work on this one. I have to admit I don’t push them very hard in this area. I do feel, however, that by having them come up with their own theories and philosophies before we attach the theory, they are pushing themselves.
C4: After each test, I chart what each student didn’t understand so I can meet their individual needs to master information they didn’t quite get. I am in the process of developing individual math lessons to reinforce weak areas.
C5: This is also a challenge for me. I am starting to get a good idea of what takes how long, but whenever I try something new, I find out what a poor guesser I am.
Teacher Professionalism
D1:I reflect daily as to what went well, and what I will change the next time I teach something. I keep a card file as well that contains my lesson plan along with my reflection of that lesson.
D2: I feel very capable – especially with the support of my STE if I have questions. I feel like I try out many of my own ideas each week. A specific example this week was my new spelling lesson – where each student takes the test out of the book, but then I paired students up to give each other individual tests until they came up with 10 words they couldn’t spell. I gave them a new way to study for them that allowed them a great deal of personal choice, and then they gave each other their tests on Friday. It was very successful.
D3: I try to visit with another teacher besides my STE at least once each day. I have made wonderful friends and am very grateful for all the help and advice they have given me. You can really tell the teachers who care about the students because they really want to share their great ideas.
D4: I communicate by phone, email, Tuesday notes, and my website with parents daily. I also ran the SEP conference for the 3rd term on my own.