Standard 2: Student Learning
"A teacher must understand how students learn and develop and must provide learning opportunities that support a student's intellectual, social, and personal development."
All students develop differently and learn differently. An excellent teacher will provide learning opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners and support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.
All students develop differently and learn differently. An excellent teacher will provide learning opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners and support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.
Artifact Descriptions
One artifact I have chosen to represent Standard 2 is a copy of a four day learning segment lesson plan. The lesson plan includes the first four days of the geometry unit in a third grade classroom. I wrote the four lessons in the edTPA format lesson plan, and used these lessons when completing the edTPA. The learning segment covers concepts such as lines, line segments, intersecting and parallel lines, angles, and triangles. Another artifact I have chosen to represent this standard is my video tape analysis. The video tape analysis was an assignment that I completed after video taping myself teaching a lesson. This assignment was part of the tuning protocol project I completed in the fall of my senior year. This project helped better prepared us as students for the edTPA in the spring. The video tape analysis describes strengths and weaknesses I identified while watching the video clip.
Analysis |
Synthesis |
I first chose to display my geometry learning segment to address this standard because it shows my ability to provide learning opportunities to diverse learners. When planning this learning segment, I carefully planned differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all levels of where the students in my classroom were at. The use of self-assessment in this learning segment helped me better assess which students were struggling and where I could provide extra instruction. The learning segment includes whole group instruction, small group activity/ instruction, as well as individual work time.
The video-tape analysis artifact allowed me to critique my teaching ability as a developing teacher to better myself for future lessons. As I critiqued the lesson I taught, I was able to observe how the students reacted to me as well. This assignment helped me distinguish which learning opportunities I was readily providing to the students and doing well, and which learning opportunities may have been missed and I could improve upon. |
The geometry learning segment was a quality piece of work I completed during student teaching. I grew as an educator in my teaching technique, pacing, flexibility, and planning. The greatest take-away from creating and teaching this learning segment was learning how to effectively link the standards you are addressing to what you actually do in the classroom. I learned that the curriculum does not always match up to the state standards we are aiming to address, and because of that, we as teachers need to fill in the gaps. While creating this segment, I created activities from scratch to ensure all standards were being addressed during class.
While completing my video-tape analysis I received some crucial feedback from my professor. Although content is important, classroom management is key in helping our students succeed. My greatest strength was my lesson plan, I had a great lesson planned with all key components a lesson should have included. The area I most needed improvement in was to walk around the classroom as I taught. It is so easy for students to lose focus if a teacher is stationed in the front of the room. There also may be behaviors that the teacher could completely miss by staying put in the front of the room. My biggest take-away from this assignment was how to better my classroom management skills. |