Evidence

of Reflection and connection to Illinois Professional Teaching Standards

Standard 1 - Teaching Diverse Students The competent teacher understands the diverse
characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the
context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher
uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.
I have learned through my novice and student teaching how important it is to
teach to the needs of each child so that all children have the opportunity to reach their
fullest potential and grow and develop into life long learners. I have adapted my
instruction plans by taking into consideration the different type of learners I have in my
class, such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. For visual learners, I have included
pictures and posters to assist those who need to look at something in order to understand
the concept. For auditory learners, I have included videos, songs, and verbal directions in
my lessons so that they are able to listen and learn alongside their peers. For my
kinesthetic learners, I have incorporated movement into my lessons by using their bodies
to assist in a ten frame or graph in math, and using hand movements to demonstrate
understanding of specific concepts in reading, such as clap your hands when you hear a
rhyme or use your fingers to sound out a word. For my tactile learners, I have
incorporated physical items into my lessons, such as counting bears in math, play dough
for spelling out words, and clothing items to learn about the weather. Through my
experiences so far, I have learned to connect with each child and create a personal
relationship with them, allowing me to better understand their emotions and behavior in
class. By taking the time to learn about their families, home environment, and cultural
values, I have been able to better adapt my lessons and teaching style to create a safe and
supportive learning environment for them where they feel loved and respected.
Standard 4 - Learning Environment The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy
learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional wellbeing, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic
risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal setting.
During my teaching experiences, I have created a safe and nurturing environment by
welcoming my students and taking the time to learn about their personal lives. I ask about
their families, what they enjoy doing when they are not in school, and what they want to be
when they grow up. I love learning about each of my students and creating a personal
relationship with them that allows them to feel safe and loved, and allows me to be seen as a
positive role model in their lives. I support their different learning styles and behavior by first
acknowledging their feelings. Acknowledging the feelings of my students is something I am
continuing to work on and improve on daily. In the beginning, I had a difficult time
understanding why some of my students acted the way they did, but after getting to know
them and their personal lives, I was able to manage the class in a different, more beneficial
way. I have used many strategies in my student teaching that I observed or learned during my
other field experiences or classes I have previously taken at Bradley. I use a clip chart to
manage their behavior, I use positive reinforcement to encourage my students to try their best,
I enjoy read-alouds, hands-on activities, and lessons that incorporate something my children
are familiar with, such as using fake French fries to practice subtraction. In student teaching

especially, I have become accustomed to self-reflection after each day. I take a look back at
my day, and write about one good teaching moment I had, and one teaching moment that I
would do differently if I had the opportunity to re-do it. By doing this, I allow myself to see
the growth I am making towards the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year.
Standard 6 - Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication The competent teacher has
foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and oral communication within the content area
and recognizes and addresses student reading, writing, and oral communication needs to
facilitate the acquisition of content knowledge.
Reading, writing, and oral communication in my student teaching classroom is practiced
and performed daily in different lessons and activities. In the morning, the children are
allowed to read at the rug either by themselves or with partners. Throughout the day, I read
two to three read-alouds and discuss the main parts and sequence of the book. This allows my
students to not only listen to the story but comprehend what occurred in the story and re-tell
the story to me, including characters, setting, and main parts. During our Daily 5 centers, one
center is devoted to writing and drawing. At this center, students are required to write about
their favorite of the story that was read, and then draw a picture that supports their writing.
The writing allows them to practice their sentence structure, such as beginning with an
uppercase letter and ending with some form of punctuation. The drawing allows them to
show and support what they wrote about, especially when their writing is ineligible. During
my small group reading time, we focus on letter sounds, words, and reading short stories. I
use different strategies to engage my students, such as creating a letter out of play- dough after
I say the letter sound, using a phone or special finger to follow along with when reading, and
communicating with me about their understanding of what the word means by creating a
sentence with it. I also incorporate reading, writing, and oral communication in other content
areas, such as math and science. In math, we read story problems and write out problem sets
that relate to what the problem stated. We also use oral communication when giving directions
and solving the problem together as a class. In science, we read about different types of
weather, we wrote about what we do in a specific type of weather, and we talked and
discussed about what we wear and do in different types of weather.
Standard 8 - Collaborative Relationships The competent teacher builds and maintains
collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional
development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students,
parents or guardians, and community members.
Through all of my field experiences at Bradley, I have grown the most in my
collaborative relationships with professional colleagues, students, parents, and community
members. At Bradley, I have been in many group projects were I have had to collaborate with
other students about our goals and plans for our project. I learned how to work well with
others and how beneficial it is to share ideas and experiences with one another that relate to
the given topic. I have also learned how to create a collaborative lesson, using ideas shared
from multiple people. Collaborating with my student teaching cooperating teacher had been
an amazing experience. We love bouncing ideas off of one another and I greatly appreciate the

advice she gives me after I perform my lessons. Her constructive criticism is very beneficial
to me and I have been able to grow immensely from just the four months I have worked with
her. I also have seen and been a part of collaboration among all of the kindergarten teachers at
my school. I have learned how to keep an open mind about others ideas and to listen to the
different strategies and activities that the other teachers use in their classrooms. I also have
learned to share my ideas and incorporate others ideas, and to keep each individual student in
mind when planning the lessons. I have learned and created adaptions to certain lessons for
my struggling learners and gifted students. I also have worked as a team member with
professional colleagues when designing lesson plans and creating weekly themes. I have come
prepared to our meetings, shown genuine interest in others ideas, prepared questions to ask
my colleagues, and shown enthusiasm for ideas that come together to create a engaging lesson.
Standard 9 - Professionalism, Leadership, and Advocacy The competent teacher is an
ethical and reflective practitioner who exhibits professionalism; provides leadership in the
learning community; and advocates for students, parents or guardians, and the profession.
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/
I have met this standard during my teaching experiences by showing my
professionalism through my appearance, actions, and attitude. I have obeyed the dress code at
the schools I have been placed at and arrive to school at the appropriate time to be ready by
the time the children arrive. I have acted professionally among my students, staff, and school
community by creating lessons that are developmentally appropriate for my students,
collaborating among the other teachers and staff, and being friendly, polite, and respectful to
my schools community members. I have shown up each day with a professional attitude and
ready to learn spirit by being prepared with my lessons, energetic about the activities planned
for the day, and confident about my teaching abilities and classroom management style. I have
provided leadership in the learning communities I have been a member of by sharing my
thoughts and ideas about different topics, listening to others ideas and suggestions, and being
organized and having good time management when planning and implementing my lessons. I
have advocated for my students during my student teaching by supporting their physical,
emotional, developmental, and learning needs. I have been a positive role model for them and
a true believer in their abilities to reach their highest potentials. I have supported their parents
and/or guardians by keeping them informed about their childs progress in school through oral
communication or weekly notes sent home, and supplying them with take home materials to
help further learning and development at home.