This showcase is created to display some of the skills I have been able to master as I completed my master's program. Throughout my time working toward my degree, I have come across a few themes in my work. They include technology, assessment, and behavior. In terms of technology, I was able to become a leader and see what it takes to get technology in the classroom. I was also able to create a professional development based around the use of technology. In terms of assessment, I mastered how to assess assessments, create authentic formative assessments, use assessments to shape learning progressions, and break down student assessments and dissect their work. As part of the theme of behavior, I excelled in the aspect of figuring out behavior problems for a student and working to help with that as well as creating a classroom management plan to create the best learning environment for my students.
Technology
While technology in the classroom is a great thing, there are going to be some bumps along the way. InCEP 815: Technology and Leadership, I created a memo to stakeholders at a school I was leading about an a one-to-one initiative. In order to create this memo, I had to fully understand what it takes to get a school up and running with this initiative. By looking at the pros and cons of it, I truly understood what it would take to get a one-to-one initiative started in a school.
I created a professional development session for teachers at my school based around using technology. This was the first time I had ever done something like this, and in order to do so, I really had to have a good grasp on the technology that I would be presenting about. I was able to create my professional development session around the use of technology to help with reading strategies.
I was fortunate to have been able to create a rubric for assessing assessments. This rubric made me realize all that needs to go into an assessment to make it a good one. There are a lot of components to creating a great assessment and I now know what they are. This rubric is something I can use going forward to assess assessments that I create in order to bring out the best in my students and truly see their understanding of content.
Creating an assessment isn’t always the easiest, but it is something I have mastered. When looking at formative assessments, there can be quite a few moving parts. In order to create a great formative assessment, there needs to be an instruction plan so that I would be able to teach the students what would be needed for the assessment. There is also needs to be clear instructions and ways to give proper feedback to the students for their work on the assessment.
In TE 846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners, I worked one-on-one with a student who was struggling in reading. What this helped me master was creating lessons based on assessments. By analyzing pretest data, I can see what type of instruction is needed moving forward to meet a student's needs. Additionally, the use of a posttest allows for me to see if my lessons work, or if there needs to be some reteaching or adjustments made on future lessons.
When giving assessments to students, it is important to be able to understand and explain to students why they got the score they did. A skill that I mastered was being able to go through an entire assessment and break it down in order to explain why an assessment was scored a certain way. This helps when giving feedback to students and also parents as well.
When a student is having a behavior problem, it is important to try and figure why they are having the problem. Coming up with possible reasons for the behavior is crucial because it gives different options in terms of how to test them out and see what works and doesn’t. By looking into the different hypotheses, it can help solve behavior problems and help set the student up for success in the classroom.
There is no better way to stop misbehavior in the classroom than to prevent it. That is what happens when you have a good classroom management plan. To create a great climate and culture in your classroom, that starts with classroom management. There are many different parts to having good management in the class, and I have mastered five, which you can read about in my plan.