Competency 12

             The teacher is a reflective practitioner who knows how to promote his or her own professional growth and can work cooperatively with other professionals in the system to create a school culture that enhances learning and encourages positive change.

         While the majority of educators place a great deal of pride in their teacher certification through successful completion of education classes, most acknowledge on the job training as the main source for substantive insight and understanding of their field.

It is only in the doing and repose that follows that one can sit and reflect on one’s strengths and weaknesses. The desire to improve and better serve one’s students leads to both formal and informal inquiry. Such inquiry, especially informal inquiry, is often carried out on-site during lunch or after hours. Instructors wishing to both broaden and deepen their knowledge base begin with those around them who have similar goals. These pockets of educator inquiry often seek out on site master teachers from whom they can improve the quality of their own instruction through observation and discussion.

Schools dedicated to the success of their educators often pair beginning teachers with mentors. Teaching organizations such as Teach for America also promote collaboration through various interschool monthly professional and social events. The opportunity for the exchange of ideas brings grade levels and schools and districts up to the highest common denominator. In research done by…

Apply. Link to main iteachilearn.com website.

Reflect. Evidence of my willingness to promote collaboration and professional growth is exhibited through the work I have done on my website I teach I learn.com. The construction and maintenance of the site has led to discussions with educators in New Zealand, it has also helped me to hold myself up to a higher standard. The site gets about 500 hits per week, that’s a fair amount of teachers looking at my papers and lesson plans. The site has also led to collaboration with top educators in the field of second language acquisition. While the site is not what it will be it is plays a key role in my professional development and sense of self-efficacy.

Competency 13

             The teacher knows how to foster strong school-home relationships that support student achievement of desired learning outcomes.

           Collect and Learn. In the book “Improving Parental Involvement”, Gary Hornby states that it is his belief that teachers often know what activities might improve student involvement but are unsure how to initiate the necessary action. Teachers understand that parent involvement strategies such as School Concerts, Fairs, grade level barbeques, community speakers, field trips, parent / child sports days, and school plays can be effective measures in the struggle to increase parental involvement and pride in the school.

            Hornby goes on to site a study (Turnbull and Turnbull 1986) that elicited their preferences in the frequency and type of home-school communication. It was found that parents preferred frequent and informal contact (69% written correspondence, 51% parent-teacher discussions / interviews, 45% telephone calls, and 19% home visits).

This information underscores the importance of offering a number of contact options including those with the capacity for both parties to meet on some shared middle ground. Hornby points to school productions and outings as excellent in that they are positively centered around the student and establish initial contact upon which subsequent dialogue can be based.

To ensure the success of informal events, organizers can offer: transportation and or childcare assistance, parent-volunteer-lead tours of the school, food and drink, scheduled time for mingling, personal invitations, and a means for parents to give formal or informal feedback about the event.

While the text gives guidelines on many forms of communication it neglects mention of the Internet in its many forms as a viable interactive parent-teacher option. From simple group e-mailings of school happenings and individual electronic correspondence to teacher-parent chat rooms, to secure-server student grade books and progress reports, to even web cam parent days –there is an abundance of viable parent-teacher opportunities for parent teacher communication.

Apply. I will write a TIE-grant to create community support for my school through the empowerment of the student's families.

Status

• Initial meeting with principal was positive.

• Talked with two educators about the possibility of working on the project.

• Signed up for two grant writing workshops.

• more as it develops...

Reflect. In reading and reflecting on the dynamics of parent-teacher involvement I have decided to research the possibility of writing a TIE grant proposal for submission in the annual call for proposals in the state of Texas or perhaps another corporate grant. The money would go for computers for parents who have multiple children in the school. The parent would lease the computer from the school at a cost of $2 per week. Parents and teachers would communicate via e-mail twice a week and take part in monthly parent-teacher chat rooms as well as on-site computer classes. After two to three year’s successful completion of the program- families would have the option to buy the computer with the help of community businesses in the event that the price of the computer would be a financial hardship for the family. There could also be a tantalizing second language-learning component to this study through the use of ESL websites as well as the use of free web-based text translators. This is obviously the brainstorming period of the process and some things may be changed…

Competency 14

             The teacher understands how the school relates to the larger community and knows strategies for making interactions between school and community mutually supportive and beneficial.

            Collect and Learn. At the heart of successful school-community relationships lies the family-school relationship says Claire Smrekar in her book entitled “The Impact of School Choice and Community”.

            Smrekar points to the possibility of organizing parents and their social networks into an economically and culturally diverse school community. Such organization would provide an abundance of resources for the school while affording the community an opportunity to support the academic and civic growth of its future leaders.

            The idea of community involvement, in the opinion of the author, is not a matter of soliciting money or resources from businesses located within the same zip code. Instead it is a restructuring of the social circles of families who have a vested interest in the success of the school. A restructuring with a platform of improved school / community ties.

            Other viable ideas focused on bringing the community together with its youth are outlined in “Experience-Based Learning: How to make the Community Your Classroom” edited by Marcia Douglas.

            The text outlines several different ways to involve the community in student projects and dialogue. According to the text, student growth will come in seven areas due to participation in experience based learning programs. Students will: learn about life, learn how to learn, learn about careers, learn about themselves, learn to be responsible, learn about others, and learn by doing.

            As a member of a project team, students see how knowledge gained in the classroom translates into success after school. This is a powerful and often missing component a school’s on-campus curriculum. The pressures of student achievement on standardized tests have reduced the frequency and scope of the community’s involvement with its school age children.

            In the book, “Dumbing Us Down” two time New York State educator of the year John Gatto writes of the need for children to expose themselves to diverse experiences and people in order to learn from them and about themselves.

Apply. I will write a TIE-grant to create community support for my school through the empowerment of the student's families.

Status

• Initial meeting with principal was positive.

• Talked with two educators about the possibility of working on the project.

• Signed up for two grant writing workshops.

• more as it develops...

            Reflect. I chose to reiterate my idea of a grant proposal for the purchase of computers to begin what Smrekar calls social networks and school communities. I believe that the use of parent-teacher / family-family chat rooms and e-mail correspondence would diminish the cultural and economic boundaries which hinder more same-school family relationships. It would also solve the two biggest obstacles families / communities have with school participation, time and the feeling of being overwhelmed by tasks or duties that require one to travel.

Competency 15

             The teacher understands the requirements, expectations and constraints associated with teaching in Texas, and can apply this understanding in a variety of contexts.

           Collect and Learn. From PDAS and the EXCET to TAAS and the TEKS, a teacher in Texas has his or her share of constraints and expectations. And while competency 15 is not limited to the aforementioned acronyms, they comprise a substantial portion of what it means to teach in Texas.

            The EXCET a criterion-referenced test designed to insure a minimum level of mastery in education in general as well as one’s area of specialization. Ironically many individuals who have classroom experience due to critical shortages in various educational areas have a particularly difficult time in passing the EXCET. This is due mainly to the discrepancy between what realistically might happen in a given situation and what should ideally transpire.

            PDAS is the on-going re-assessment of teacher proficiency. While holding the potential for interator error, it is the states best method for measuring instructor preparedness and capacity.

            The TAAS, while much maligned by parents, teachers and students across the state, has played a role in the positive qualitative and quantitative changes for students in the state’s socio-economically depressed and culturally diverse regions.

            The TEKS are the instructional objectives the Texas Education Agency believes essential for the production of good citizens and academically capable adults.

    Apply. A link to the TEA website as well as to my Technology 2000 Lesson Plans which reflect the use of the TEA's on-line resources. 

      Reflect. In as much as the Texas Education Agency is the bureaucratical heart of what it means to teach in the state, it is only fitting that their website directly or indirectly offer avenues for the proper procedures involved in becoming a model Texas Teacher.