A photo of Michelle and I on the last day of student teaching. She was both a person I collaborated with and worked with to advocate for ZS.

Working with colleagues, parents, and others in the community is an important piece of teaching. As we have learned by teaching CI, a norm is that "No one of us is as smart as all of us together." This is very true of working in a team. All pieces of that team working together facilitate a much more productive learning environment for all students to learn and grow.

Rising Stars Academy –

            In Florida, there is a small private school for students with disabilities, which I have been a part of since it’s birth nearly five years ago. The founder of the school, my aunt Roni Stockdale has worked tirelessly to put together a curriculum that the students can benefit from fully. Each chance I have gotten, whether it’s school vacation or summer vacation; I have travelled to Florida to help. Beginning when the school first opened, I was a consultant to my aunt on everything from educational issues to how to set-up each classroom. While on vacation in Florida countless times, most of my days were spent at school, teaching and tutoring the students in each and every subject. Last year, my aunt and I spent hours putting together an art curriculum that incorporated religious lessons, because the school is religiously based. This past summer, I spent a month teaching summer school. I worked with one other teacher to develop a curriculum that the students would enjoy, incorporating as much art as I could. I also spent well over 100 hours painting murals on the walls or the school.

Analyze –

            By working closely with others, who are generally outside the field of education, has given me a completely different perspective on how I go about teaching my students. In this situation, I worked most closely with Roni Stockdale, who has a degree in Psychology. I have learned a lot about the psychology of students, which has opened my eyes on how to teach students in respect to their development and emotions. Through working with Roni, I have learned how to talk to students, after seeing her model it several times. I have also learned that a collaborative relationship, give and take is extremely important. I have realized that you have to be willing to give a piece of yourself and what you know, in order to receive that person fully into your life.

            By working with Roni, we have been able to enhance the learning of her students because we both bring something different to the table. We offer the students a greater variety of learning tools, which benefit all different types of learners. Since we are two different people, with two different personalities, we also provide a united front to the students and give them a variety of people to come and talk to about situations that are concerning them.

            By collaborating, we have been effective in implementing a new art curriculum, a new tutoring system, and a network of students who can go to each other for help. Without the strengths of each other, we would not have been able to effectively implement so many new things at Rising Stars Academy.

Reflect—

            Because I will be moving to Florida within the year to accept a position at Rising Stars Academy, I will be using a lot of these same techniques to continue to work collaboratively with Roni and the other teachers at the school. By continuing to work in this collaborative relationship, and by establishing this same relationship with the other teachers, we will provide a safe haven for these students to come and feel welcome. Because there are so many different personalities and strengths within the staff at RSA, the students will feel like they can come to one of us for help or advice. Since we stand as a united front, and collaborate on many things from rule creating, to behavior management, and curriculum requirements, the students will be all on an equal playing-field that ensures that they are learning to their full potential.

Interning at UVM –

            During my Inquiry block of study, I was placed at a Burlington school and worked closely with another intern to plan science and social studies lesson to teach our fifth grade classes. Many hours were spent outside the classroom, planning lessons, gathering materials, developing assessments, and grading papers. We worked together to create a lesson in which the students would see first hand how erosion happened. We also worked together to create rubrics that were easily understood by the students, and allowed us to see their progress throughout the unit. We worked together to create a learning center on Geology to complete with our students. We concluded our unit on Geology with a hike up Snake Mountain with these students.

Analyze—

            After working with another student in the education program at UVM to plan lessons and execute them, I learned a variety of things. Coming from working collaboratively with someone outside the education field to working with someone taking the same classes as you and learning the same material, collaboration becomes much different. In this situation, you both come from the same background, so the things that you contribute to the relationship become more specific. After working with Roni and contributing my knowledge on education, lesson planning, and teaching, I knew that coming into this relationship would be more challenging. The contribution became more concentrated on things within the education field. In this relationship, I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were as a teacher. I brought creativity and organization, whereas my colleague brought a wide-range of content knowledge and assessment tools to the relationship.

            Because we brought different strengths to the collaboration, we were able to take over what we were good at, and leave those things that we knew weren’t our strongest to the other person. The most crucial things that I learned during this internship was communication. Because we were both working on different aspects of the same lessons, we had to be thorough on our reports to each other and we had to be clear on what the expectations were. Because we set these up from the very beginning, there were rarely times that we didn’t see eye-to-eye, or had difficulty understanding each other.

Student Teaching Internship –

            Throughout my student teaching internship, I worked alongside another intern in my Kindergarten classroom. Our mentor teachers were the best of friends, and did many things together in the classroom. When it came time for the other intern and myself to step into those shoes, it became quite difficult. Many times we did not see eye-to-eye on the things we were teaching. The planning steps for the collaborative lessons went of without a hitch, but when it came time to teaching these lessons, I took the back seat while the other intern would teach the lessons. Often times, I would walk away from the lessons feeling disheartened about working with someone else so closely, after doing it so well the previous year. Although this experience wasn’t completely positive, or what I had hoped it would be, I learned a lot about working in collaborative relationships and about myself.

            See attached letter from my mentor teacher explaining more specific events where I collaboratively with the other intern and other adults in the building.

Analyze—

            Through this relationship, I have learned how not to work in a collaborative team. I have learned that you need to speak up for yourself and not let others dominate who you are and how you are going to teach. I have learned that despite the differences that two people may have, they need to be put aside for the wellbeing of the students that you are teaching. In this situation, I believe that I did really well putting aside the personal stuff in order to use the best lessons for the students. Despite whose idea it was, who executed it, or who took credit for it, the students come first and as long as their were gaining knowledge out of it, none of the other stuff mattered.

            I learned that I am the kind of person who goes with the flow, until it is personally hurtful to me. I have never been someone to boast about what I do and make myself out to be perfect, but when you take the backseat to someone else’s teaching, there comes a point where I need to learn to put my foot down. When it comes to a point where the lessons that I have worked so hard to create are being credited to someone else, the relationship has to be realigned and checked.

            I have learned how critical communication is to a collaborative relationship. Perhaps in this situation the other intern didn’t know how much se was hurting my by taking credit for things that I had done and implemented in my classroom, but I am at fault because I didn’t speak up. Looking back, I wish that I had said something to her about it at the very beginning, but when it got to the breaking point, it was too late to set out expectations.

            I feel like the difference between this collaborative relationship and the one I had had the previous semester was the fact that the intern from my previous collaborative experience and I knew going into the semester that we would be working together a lot. Therefore, we were able to set guidelines and expectations from the very beginning. At this beginning of student teaching, I expected to be able to do my own thing, and collaborate only when necessary. If I had known that the expectation was a collaborative relationship from the beginning, then I think we could have set ground rules, expectations, and limitations from the beginning. If we had done this, then the lines of communication would have been more open and the tension and animosity between us wouldn’t have gotten so bad.

Reflect –

            In the future, I will be more prepared to work in collaborative relationships. I will expect that we will set guidelines from the very beginning and also expect that we should be blunt with each other, rather than sugar coating the truth. In future relationships, I hope that we can both use our strengths to create an environment that is best suited for our students. I will work hard to ensure that communication is important to both of us, and that we don’t get our signals crossed. I will work to make sure that each thing that we do together is for the benefit of our students and we can see what will work best for the students, despite what we might think of the lesson or activity. I will work to keep personal issues out of the classroom environment, as it would affect the community that we will have worked so diligently to create.

            Working as a team, I see my strengths as being a person that goes with the flow and is very open minded about the activities that are done in the classroom. I also think that my creativity is a strength and would be an asset to any team. A lot of people do not see situations and teaching as I do, and I think that having a creative hands-on approach would be a different point of view to offer any teaming situation.

            As I stated above, communication is a challenge for me in some situations. Because I am easy going and go with the flow, I believe that sometimes, my toes get stepped on because I don’t speak up for myself. I need to work on voicing my opinion and talking to my partners about what they expect of me and I need to let them know what I expect of them. In the future I will work at making the collaborative relationship a positive experience for everyone that is a part of; including most importantly, the students.

To Whom It May Concern:

During her internship Jess worked collaboratively with many teachers, para-educators and special educators.  Jess had to communicate and plan on a daily bases with two educators that worked on our team.  Sometimes it would be planning for whole group activities, one-on-one instruction or small groups.  Most memorable was Jess's collaboration with a special educator and para to plan a birdhouse lesson for the class.  She met with the teachers to design the lesson, worked with the child to do pre-teaching and then used the pre-teaching to have the child lead the lesson.  Each child was successful in this lesson thanks to this collaboration and thoughtful planning.  Jess also collaborated with our school art teacher to have the children make vases out of recycled materials.  She met with the art teacher, collected materials with her and attended art class on the days they were working on this project.  This was another successful collaboration during her internship.

Vasanthi Meyette

As stated in Webster’s dictionary, Advocacy is defined as “the act of pleading for, supporting, or recommending; active espousal.” This definition not only fits advocacy, but it fits teaching as well. Advocating for your students is just as, if not more important, than teaching them content. If you do not support your students, building a relationship of trust and respect, attempting to teach them will not work.

Throughout my education career, I have found many opportunities to advocate for my students. Below are brief synopses of events that I have taken part in to advocate for my students. Attached, you will find letters from teachers and students explaining the various ways that I have advocated from their students and for them.

Rising Stars Academy –

            Over the past five years, I have been actively involved in the community that is Rising Stars Academy. Throughout my years being a consultant for and teaching at Rising Stars Academy, I have advocated for the parents and the students who are part of the school. For graduation in 2009, I single-handedly organized the graduation ceremony, including awards, diplomas, location, decorations, invitations, food, and the program of events. I spent countless hours working with parents and the other teachers to ensure that the graduation ceremony would run smoothly. In previous years, I have spent my summer vacations and school vacations in Florida, working with the students on their work. During my vacation time, I spent most of my time in the school tutoring students who were having trouble in certain areas. I would communicate via e-mail with parents about the progress and next steps for their children.

            Attached you will find letters from students who have participated in the summer school program that I have run in the past. You will hear about my ELL teaching experience, the graduation ceremony I prepared, the murals I painted, and the art projects that I did with the students.

Student Teaching Experience –

            This semester, being in a school full-time, you get the opportunity to work with and develop more personal relationships with the parents and students. In order to facilitate communication with the parents, I set-up my own blog to keep them informed of things that were going on in the classroom. I would update the blog each day or every other day with pictures and narratives about the lessons I was teaching and the things I was planning next. In addition to this, I sent home letters to the parents, first to explain who I was, then later to introduce the themes for my solo-weeks and to ask for parent help. At the conclusion of my time in the classroom, I sent home a letter thanking parents for their help and support.

            During my student teaching, I also was an advocate in the classroom for a student on an IEP. This student ZS, is on an IEP for a hearing impairment as well as a cleft palette and a diagnosis on the Autism spectrum. During the semester, I worked with her interpreter to teach the others students in the class about ZS’s disability, along with some ASL. As I talked about in entry two, it is extremely important to embrace the diversity in the classroom and to show the students that differences are something to be embraced rather than feared. By advocating for ZS, and teaching the students some signs and giving them sign names, they were able to embrace ZS’s differences and accept her seamlessly into the learning environment.

            Another way that I advocated for the different abilities in my classroom was during my CI rotation. Each day after a skill builder or a rotation, we would engage in discussion about the multiple abilities in the classroom. This was an effective way to talk about differences and point out that they were all good, and gave us access to different ‘super powers’ as the kids would call them.

            After conducting my status survey, I created stations for my complex instruction rotation based upon the abilities of my low status students, in order to assign competency and show all the students that everyone can be good at something. By assigning competency to my low status students during the CI rotation, I was advocating for their place within the classroom community and gave them a chance to shine in front of their peers.

            As Cohen states, the status of students affects the way in which they learn. Therefore, I had to address the status of my low status students in order to promote their learning. By showing the class their strengths, and assigning competency, I was able to advocate for a positive change in their status.

Internship at a Vermont school –

            During my literacy block placement, I was placed in a school with very little resources and means by which to teach the students. During my time in this placement, I made my presence known a did a lot of work with and for the students outside the hour requirement. Each year, the teachers put on a ‘Fun Fair’ for the students to come with their families. I participated in the fair with my mentor teacher. This included the set-up, running a booth, and the takedown at the conclusion of the evening. During the fair students were able to sign up for a raffle to win a date with one of the teachers. I had my own basket and got to choose a student after that fair. I students that I chose loved drama so I brought her and her older sister, along with two girls that I babysit for, to a show at the Flynn called Hello Dolly! I picked all of the girls up at their houses, we went to dinner downtown and then we went to the show. The little girl who won told me that, “It was the most fun ever! She had never had anyone care about her this much to trust her in a grown-up show like that before.”

            During this placement, I also used technology to open the doors to the world around my students. Most of them, coming from poor families, have never been outside the state of Vermont. During a project, which had the students researching a state, I conducted a Skype interview with students in Florida, which showed the students more than what they are used to seeing. During this project, I also gave students access to the internet, which provided pictures, videos, and information that spanned across more than just Vermont. By giving the students access to these technologies, they were able to see more than just the immediate world around them; they were given access to the broader world.

            In other internships I have gone back after my hours requirements were met to teach lessons, hold reading groups, tutoring sessions after school, talent shows, and of course fifth grade graduation.

            In my student teaching placement, I have noticed many resources and programs around the school that could support students both during and after school. There is a Homework Club for students to participate in after school if they have trouble completing work at home or during school hours. The girls can also participate in Brownies and Girl Scouts, which takes place right after school in one of the art classrooms. Live Y’ers is a program where students go after school for educational childcare until their parents are finished working. They are given a snack, time to play, sometimes there are fieldtrips, and they are given time to work on homework or play educational games. Another opportunity for students is the abundance of sports programs that the school has to offer. Students can participate in French Club after school, which gives students in the elementary grades access to a foreign language at an early age.

Analyze—

            After working with a variety of students at different abilities and age levels, I have learned so much. I have seen what a large impact advocating for them has on their lives, especially those who do not come from good homes. I have learned that students come to treasure the relationships that they build with their teachers. These relationships allow the students to trust more deeply and care about their education more, because they know that you, as their teacher, are just as invested in them as they are. I have learned that advocating for families and students builds the level of trust in the relationship and allows students and parents to come to you more and value who you are as a teacher for their children and themselves.

            Because teachers are good role models for students, giving them exposure to you both in and out of school gives them the access to good role modeling in many facets of their lives. By being there and being involved in their lives, they look up to you, and are more likely to confide in you.

            Today there are so many things that affect the lives of our students. It is important that we as teachers understand those pressures, and are equipped to deal with them at any given time. During my student teaching placement, I was made aware of the most pressing issue for the students, and that was socio-economic status. I was made aware of this underlying issue during a in-service day conference I attended with my mentor teacher. We discussed the implications of teaching in a district with a wide gap of students coming from high-income families and those students coming from low-income families. For students, there is an insurmountable amount of tension between the groups and SES often defines who you are in school and whom you hang out with. Issues like this, along with a variety of others, including sexual harassment, appropriateness of speech in school, and discriminatory comments, are things that teachers should be well versed in dealing with because they are the issues that the students today are dealing with. As long as we keep up to date with these issues, we will be able to advocate for and help our students through these problems.

            I have thoroughly enjoyed each piece of participating with my students outside of school; but that’s not to say that there have been bumps and roadblocks along the way. I find the biggest challenge to be parents who are not receptive to your efforts. There were parents in one of my interning classroom who put up a fight to my involvement in the students lives. They were not appreciative of the tutoring services that I would provide to their students and they did not like how close the two of us had gotten. During one of our meetings after school, we were reading a book in the reading corner and filling out a worksheet on the events in the story. They mother came into the classroom accusing me of taking away time from her son and wanted him to go home with her. I tried to explain that we were working on schoolwork that he was having trouble with, but she didn’t understand how beneficial our meetings had become.

            I think that there will always be those parents who think that they can do better for their students than we as teachers can, and I am willing to accept that. But I also want to build trust with the parents enough to show them how advocating for them will be beneficial for them in the long run. I want to be someone that the parents come to with problems, questions, or solutions rather than someone who doesn’t see at the same level as them.

            I found that the classroom was the most beneficial resource when advocating for my students. Not only was I able to use it for mentoring and tutoring my students after school, but a lot of the other events that I participated in, lent themselves to tying back to what we were learning about in the classroom. Another helpful resource was the people that I worked with. Alongside my mentor teachers and Roni, I was able to explore new avenues advocating for students and learning the process of doing so. I got to see models in place for how I should get to know my students and useful tools to break down the barriers so that I could start building those trust relationships of my own. By learning from those teachers and adults, I was able to formulate my own practice for advocating for students.

            Advocating for students falls beyond what any teacher can do by himself or herself. Another resource that I used a lot, which I found to be quite useful, was the computer. During my placement at a Vermont school, while students were researching a state, I gave them pen pals from Florida. They asked questions, and got answers to so many puzzling questions that they had always wondered about. They got to Skype with these students and got to see where their classroom was, what their environment looked like, and how different states and classrooms can be. After using the pen pals, and the computer to show students how profound the world is, they had a much deeper view about the world and the differences that different places can have. Not only this, but the pen pals were set up in a way so that they could understand each other. My students were able to see that there was other students out there just like them. Almost abstractly, the students were able to connect the outside world with themselves through the use of pen pals in a different state. This gave each student a sense of self-worth and comfort, knowing that they were not alone.

Reflect—

            Educators play a large role in the promotion of the wellbeing of students. We are those cheerleaders, along with parents, rooting for the students to come out on top. Just as parents are sitting at the sidelines of every game, and at every practice, we as teachers are cheering from the sidelines during every lesson we teach, and every test they take. As I said above, students count on us to be role models for them. By getting to know them and building a special bond, we are giving them a sense of peace; a peace of knowing that there will always be someone there to cheer them on or pick them up after they’ve fallen. For a number of students, we are all they have. If we don’t care, it seems like no one will. We play a pivotal role in the creation of young minds because they look us to us and count on us for so much. After all, we are shaping their minds and teaching them the valuable lessons of life.

            One strength I have when it comes to advocating for my students is the fact that I am so easy-going and laid back. In short, I’m approachable. Students often feel comfortable coming to me with problems or seeking advice. I think that this makes it easier to start breaking down those barriers. Another strength is the fact that I have been through a lot of the things that students are dealing with so I can relate to them. If they know that you’ve been through it and can relate to what they are going through, they know that they have an ally.

            As I stated above, my biggest challenge will be to break down the barriers of those parents who are not willing to let us try.

To Whom It May Concern:

Having Jessica at our school has made a big difference. She is a very kind and caring person and I appreciate her. Jessica has done everything from working with the students to helping with graduation, one special project she taught for graduation was making twisty flowers for each table.

Thank you

Nicholas Gagliano

To Whom It May Concern:

Hello my name is Anna,

I came from Russia five years ago. My mom and dad couldn’t take care of me. They broke up when I was little. I have six brothers and one sister. Some if them are in the orphanage and I got put in the ten different orphanages so that I wouldn’t get adopted. My Russian dad also drank and did many other things. So I got adopted on April 25, 2005.  Today I will talk about my journey and how Ms. Jessica helped me learn English. We had fun doing work together. She made learning fun when I came to America. We did art that I could learn English.  When I felt sad, She made English even more fun.

Thank you so much for teaching me English.  

Anna Warren

To Whom It May Concern:

The first time I came to this school was during summer school. I met Jessica and she helped me paint a picture. She painted our school very beautifully. She helped me on my test during summer school. She helped put the desk together. She was the one who made this possible. I love when she helped me so much. She made the ice cream for us from scratch. It was very yummy. She helped us paint picture frames to put a picture of us and give it to our mothers. She taught me this new kind of game and how to play it. It was a fashion game and it was really fun to play.

I can’t wait until Jessica is my teacher again!!

Alexandria Faulkner

To Whom It May Concern:

Jessica, I appreciate you helping me with my workbooks. You make learning fun. Jessica is really nice and sweet. She is creative and makes great art projects! Our school is so much prettier because of your murals painted on our walls. I can’t wait for you to come down and my mom said she was going to have you do a wall in my room. I had a lot of fun paining the picture frames that hang in our “Hall of Fame.”

I can’t wait to see you again next year!

Love,

Sydney