Reflection

The domain of Professionalism is where I believe I have made the most growth during both my seven years in my district and my graduate work at Kutztown University.  I began my career with the belief that some teachers would share in my theories on how to best educate children and those who didn’t, would be at most receptive and at least tolerant of these ideas.  My principal has always been an enormous supporter of mine and she has always allowed me enormous freedom to explore various educational methods and to grow as a professional.  Unfortunately, my ideas, no matter how well researched and supported, were not always embraced by my peers.  As a result, I spent the first years of my career working alone.  I shared my ideas with a small circle of peers and as an unintended result, I learned very little from my professional community.  The courses at Kutztown provided me with all the inspiration I needed to seek out new knowledge and I believed I was perfectly content.  This all changed three years ago when I was assigned a wonderful but challenging group of students.  While I knew how best to educate them, I was somewhat ill-prepared to create the type of classroom environment that would allow them to learn at the rate that I had become accustomed to.  My laidback approach, centered primarily upon the premise that if you showed a child you cared for and respected them, they would automatically return that caring and respect, wasn’t working.  At the beginning of October I found myself still struggling with classroom routines regarding group work, Daily Five independent work, and classroom discussions.  At around that time I struck up a friendship with an Autistic Support teacher in the building.  It was her first year and I can only assume she felt as isolated as I did.  The fact that she was working towards a degree as a behavior analyst only added to my good fortune.  We spent countless hours discussing behavior and she helped me develop strategies for reaching my struggling group of students.  I began to realize that the only way I could continue to grow as a teacher was to communicate effectively with my peers.  Since that time, my interactions with this particular teacher and other teachers in the building have allowed me to productively reflect on my teaching, grow and develop as a professional, and help make the Marlborough Elementary a better place for all students.  The artifact that I attached for this domain is a modified lesson plan from a social skills book.  I wanted to include it in this portfolio because it represents so much more than just a bunch of sentences organized into objectives, procedures, and assessments.

We began the process of developing this social skills unit because we shared two students who were diagnosed with Autism.  We were looking for ways to help them acclimate socially within the regular education classroom.  While reflecting on my entire group of students, we discovered that many of them shared social deficiencies that are common in the Autistic student population.  We recognized a need to develop common vocabulary and use this vocabulary to teach students how to act in various classroom situations.  The mini-lessons were kept deliberately short and to the point so that they could be used again and again throughout the year whenever needed.  The lessons focused on skills of how to act when faced with a problem, how to listen with an entire body, the importance of keeping hands to self and the idea that certain things can be thought but not said.  I have modified these lessons from year to year, but I continue to use them with every class that enters my doors in September.  I am proud of these lessons and eternally grateful to the Autistic Support teacher who helped me grow so much as a professional.  

Professionalism pertains to many of the assignments that I completed throughout the graduate program.  However, the assignment that required me to examine what practices I would put into place as a supervisor exposed me to the other side of education.  Prior to this course and assignment, I was only aware of a world where I had a supervisor to report to, or even in some instances, fear.  By creating my own supervisory platform, I was able to step into the role of a supervisor of an educational setting, and explain the types of practices I would want as part of a consistent routine in my building.

The four principles that I believe are the core of effective supervision are: a professional climate of trust, collegial relationships, visibility/observation and reflection, starting with me as the supervisor, but present at every level.  As I completed this assignment it provided me with the opportunity to shift my perspective and understand all exactly how complicated being a supervisor of an educational setting can be.  In truth, I do not know if this is an avenue that I would be successful at, however it is an area I want to explore more.  I believe the four components that I identified are probably the areas of supervision that I would excel in, and I would be less successful in the areas that are more concrete and confrontational in nature.  Regardless, the assignment helped me to appreciate precisely how complicated the role of a supervisor truly is, and that I can still put many of these principles into practice in my own classroom and daily interactions within my building, whether I am a supervisor or not.

To maintain a profession role in schools is complicated to say the least.  Many of the strategies and practices that are used in the classroom with student learners can be utilized on a larger scale in an administrative role.  There are many facets that make an effective supervisor, but the four principles that I deem to be fundamental are: a professional climate of trust, collegial relationships, visibility/observation and reflection at every level.  These principles are interconnected and all rely on relationships.  All humans want to be valued, and these principles foster that desire.  When an individual feels important and appreciated, that individual motivated to do well in whatever realm he/she exists.  Implementing these principles would be no easy task and would be time consuming; however the benefits would be endless.  The most significant goal attained would be instilling this same sentiment of respect, value, achievement and belonging to the students of the learning community.  Ethics and advocacy are instrumental to domain 4 and this assignment helped me to gain a better understanding of the teaching profession from an administrative perspective.