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 2020, in my EDUC 230 - The Exceptional Child class, I was given the opportunity to work on three simulated case conferences. There were several roles that we had the privilege to play. I was given the opportunity to play the part of a principal, a third grade teacher, and a BSU tutor. We were given different scenarios where we were to figure out what the possible needs of our students would be.
We chose scenario 3 for our case conference. This scenario was created for school use only and did not depict an actual student. Our third grade student, Victoria Rector, had a medical diagnosis of anxiety and was beginning to show signs of depression. This caused her mother to show concern with her daughter's education. Victoria has received support from a paraprofessional tutor during 20-minute sessions, working in small groups, three days weekly at the school since kindergarten. She has participated in the BSU tutoring twice weekly for one hour each of those two days, working with students in a 1-1 situation.
We chose scenario 3 for our case conference. This scenario was created for school use only and did not depict an actual student. Our third grade student, Victoria Rector, had a medical diagnosis of anxiety and was beginning to show signs of depression. This caused her mother to show concern with her daughter's education. Victoria has received support from a paraprofessional tutor during 20-minute sessions, working in small groups, three days weekly at the school since kindergarten. She has participated in the BSU tutoring twice weekly for one hour each of those two days, working with students in a 1-1 situation.
Analysis of What I LearnedWhile devising our plan on how to meet the challenge of creating a better learning opportunity for our student, I learned to play off of the strengths and weaknesses of the team. Playing the many roles that were available to me, I was able to get a grasp on what it would be like to work with not only the student with a learning exceptionality, but also with their parents/guardians, and other school personnel.
I was also able to glean off of the learning experiences of our peers that have worked with exceptional students as well. This made it easier for my team to come to the conclusion that our student, Victoria, after all of the interventions were unsuccessful to deem the next step of referring her for special education. How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the InTASC Standard |
Working with an amazing, yet diverse, group of people on three simulated case conferences, and tying in Joyce Epstein’s model for parental involvement, I believe I am competent in this standard because I was able to collaborate not only among my group members; but with the families of the fictional student we were evaluating. Using Epstein’s theory I was able to gather a better understanding of how important it is to know families’ backgrounds, cultures and goals for their children. Epstein felt that when parents, educators, and others in the community work together to support the students learning and development the student actually learns more.
By building that relationship with the parents and involving them in the decision-making process, we were able to come up with a productive plan that would help to ensure a positive outcome for the student. I was part of a fantastic team that pulled a variety of resources together very quickly. Because our student had reading issues, we gathered reading games, different apps to use, and an eight step process that allowed us to set mini goals for Victoria along her journey to better reading skills.
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.
I also feel I am competent in this standard because my past experience in education has allowed me to play a leadership role that helped to advance the future educators in our class in how to build healthy relationships with parents, and how to collaborate together, and to write and implement lesson plans that will help the child succeed.
By building that relationship with the parents and involving them in the decision-making process, we were able to come up with a productive plan that would help to ensure a positive outcome for the student. I was part of a fantastic team that pulled a variety of resources together very quickly. Because our student had reading issues, we gathered reading games, different apps to use, and an eight step process that allowed us to set mini goals for Victoria along her journey to better reading skills.
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.
I also feel I am competent in this standard because my past experience in education has allowed me to play a leadership role that helped to advance the future educators in our class in how to build healthy relationships with parents, and how to collaborate together, and to write and implement lesson plans that will help the child succeed.