Characteristic 3 - We believe that the novice teacher should recognize that teaching is a professional, moral, and ethical enterprise, should understand moral issues and ethical practices in educational environments, and should have developed ethical frameworks which facilitate effective teaching.
This particular characteristic, one of ethical and moral enterprise, was initially difficult for me reflect on. However, I had not realized how regularly teachers, including myself, implement this into their classroom. Throughout the semester I have been teaching the young adult fiction novel, Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry. This story focuses on an African-American family during the 1930s. The children are treated poorly by their community, teachers, and peers. While teaching this piece of literature I have made it a point to remind the students that everyone is equal. We should treat everyone with respect, regardless of race, culture, religion, gender, etc. The students have participated in class discussions in which they discuss the issues of segregation and racism in the United States. For an artifact for my portfolio, I would include a lesson plan from this novel in which the students discussed the moral and ethical issues and completed an activity related to the discussion and the issues in the novel.
Characteristic 2 - We believe that the novice teacher should be an effective communicator.
I truly believe that communication plays one of the most major roles in the education system. In order to manage a classroom successfully and effectively, it is important the parents, students, and teachers are in constant communication with each other. Often times, parents only hear from teachers (and vice versa) when there is a problem. There is rarely communication for any positive reason. In my classroom I plan to set up a journal for the students which they fill out each week. They can reflect on what they've learned, pick out what they liked/did not like, or ask any questions about something they were unsure of. It would also be nice to set up a student-centered blog for similar purposes. As a pre-service teacher I have already sent out a welcome letter to the parents of my students to introduce myself and provide them with a way of communicating with me. I communicate with my host teacher regularly and discuss lesson ideas and teaching strategies with fellow Benedum participants on a weekly basis. For my portfolio I could include excerpts from the student journals (with their permission). This would include both the student comments and my responses and/or questions to them.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI think that you could have expounded more on your basic understanding of this characteristic. That said, I think that your explanation on how you used this artifact, reflects your own ethical and moral obligations in teaching practices. To enhance this artifact, you could include a lesson plan and maybe student reflection on the discussion activities in which they participated.
On CNT # 2, your narrative does state some of the facets of communication. I am glad that you did mention all the players in your communication (fellow teachers, students, and parents). The welcome letter to parents is a good choice for this CNT. However, this alone would not be enough, I would suggest that you include a parent-teacher communication log that will show how you communicate over time. The student blog or journal would be another good artifact.
I agree with your points. I believe when you involve students in evaluations and making assignments, it portrays many of the aspects of a novice teacher. I strongly agree with the one about ethical and moral values as well.
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