Section Four: Alignment to Curriculum & Professional Standards

Introduction
This section will bring together the artifacts mentioned in section three, with the
applicable curriculum and professional standards for educators in New York State. These
standards describe what it means to be an educator and the work that goes into our jobs
each and every day. As teachers, we need to be aware of these standards not only to
follow best practices, but for us to be the very best teachers we can be. You are always a
work in progress, comes back into play here once again. We build upon these standards
to improve the lives of the children in our classes and in turn, improve the world around
us. Also included in this section will be a chart to map out how my artifacts fit into the
standards I will be describing in this section.
Curriculum and Professional Standards
INTASC Standards
The INTASC Standards are all about professional development for
teachers. The first of these standards is Learner Development. Teachers need to
be able to understand what practices are developmentally appropriate for the
students in their classroom. I have to be very careful that Im not asking so much
of my first graders that theyre attempting to do an assignment that should be
done when they get into third or fourth grade. When something like that happens,
students become discouraged and can feel as though what theyre doing may not
be good enough. A teacher also needs to understand that all of their students are
going to be on differing levels of development. Some students may be more
advanced and need to be challenged while others may need a little extra help or

one on one attention. When I make accommodations in my lesson plans and unit
plans, I have to take into account the different developmental levels of my
students. I have to make arrangements for my higher students as well as my lower
students to try to bring everyone up to a higher level of thinking.
According to standard two, a teacher must also be able to understand that
there will be differences in learning. Gardner has shown us that there are multiple
learning styles and not everyone fits into the same box. Sometimes I may have to
try a little harder in order to hit as many learning styles as I can in a lesson to
ensure that all of my students have found some way to connect to the material. In
my App Review assignment, I have included several different apps that can help
students with English Language Arts. By covering different apps, I have also
accounted for differences in learning styles. I believe my students will find this
beneficial in the future.
Standard three is something that I am absolutely excited to witness and
take part of in the classroom. This standard involves the classroom environment.
Teachers need to provide a safe space for students where they can feel
comfortable enough in class to relax and soak up every bit of life they are offered.
This can also involve the physical set up of the classroom. Students may feel
more comfortable during reading time if there was a comfy spot that was all theirs
in the room. Students may need a little extra space between them and the person
next to them in order to feel comfortable. As much as we want our students to
learn, they need to feel safe and at home in the classroom to truly engage their
minds with the material. My DASA certificate shows that I have undergone

training that focuses on creating a safe space for my students to learn. No matter
my students race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, etc. I will be
there for my students in any way that I can.
Standards four and five are closely tied together as they are content
knowledge and the application of content. A teacher needs to know the material as
well as how to convey the material to students in a way that engages them and
helps them to construct their knowledge for the future. Students need to be able to
think critically, be creative, and work collaboratively in order to be career and
college ready in the future. It is our job to get them there. My Smart Board
presentation shows that not only do I have the content knowledge for this lesson; I
have a way of presenting it that may be new for my students. When the students
are playing through the different activities I hit upon many different learning
styles in a way that would be beneficial to my students in its application.
Standards six, seven, and eight involve assessment, planning for
instruction, and instructional strategies. My unit plan for EDU500 on poetry
shows that I can do all three of these things. Throughout the unit plan I plan for
instruction for my whole class as well as small group and individuals. Instead of
teaching poetry as a stand-alone unit, I decided to have it coincide with learning
about adjectives and how to use them in a positive light. I included various
methods of assessment as well. I had my students creating their own poems
during the unit as well as exit tickets for me to formatively assess whether they
had grasped the material at hand.

Standard nine, professional learning and ethical practice as well as

standard ten, leadership and collaboration go together quite well too. A teacher
must be professional at all times. As educators, we are under a microscope for
most of our lives inside and outside the walls of a school. Even when outside of
my certification of grades 1-6, I have shown leadership, collaboration, and
professionalism through my Brand Integrity certificate in section three. The post
shows that I am able to collaborate with other teachers to create a warm and
loving environment for my students while also being professional in the work
place.
NYS Code of Ethics Standards for Educators
The NYS Code of Ethics Standards for Educators is a set of standards that
focus on six different principles. The first principle is Educators nurture the
intellectual, physical, emotional, social and civic potential of
every student. As educators we must care for and nurture every
part of a child. We are not only here to give them information. As
teachers we have the responsibility and the privilege to care for
our students emotional well being, and make sure that they feel
safe at all times.
The second standard states Educators create support and
maintain challenging learning environment for all. In the future I
will have students from all kinds of cultures and developmental
stages. I need to be able to create an environment for my
students where I can differentiate my instruction and

accommodate for their differences. I need to challenge my higher

performing students and I need to be able to pull up my students
who may be struggling with a certain concept.
The third and fourth standards seem to go together in my
mind. They are, Educators commit to their own learning in order
to develop their practice. and Educators collaborate with
colleagues and other professionals in the interest of their
students learning. When a teacher uses his or her own
knowledge to develop their practice, I would hope that they
would go to others for collaboration at the same time. When
many minds come together for a singular task, the workload
becomes far lighter than it would be alone. As a beginning
teacher, I know that I dont have to do this alone. I can ask my
colleagues for help when I need it and I will help them in return.
An

educator

shouldnt

only

collaborate

with

their

colleagues, but instead they should collaborate with parents as

well which is covered by the fifth standard from the NYS Code of
Ethics Standards for Educators. Parental involvement is huge for
the elementary classroom in my opinion. When parents are more
involved, they know exactly what is happening at school. Instead
of getting an answer of Its fine. from their student every day,
they know that they can come to me or email me with any
questions. I believe it is just as important for the parents to feel

comfortable with me as it is for the students. These parents send

their kids off to school every day during the week and they need
to know that their child is being taken care of well. They need to
know that I am going to help their child grow into the best person
they can be because they arent there with us all day.
NYS P-12 Common Core Learning Standards
Within my portfolio I have included several examples of lesson plans as
artifacts in section three with a specific concentration on literacy. Students spend
most of their day on reading and writing so I thought it necessary to include
multiple different lessons on this subject. Under the subject of ELA, I was able to
write several lesson plans with various assessments that correlated to the common
core learning standards. I specifically focused on students creating their own work
in poetry and students being able to differentiate an adjective from others parts of
speech.
NYS Learning Standards
My literacy lesson plan also falls under the NYS Learning Standards.
Specifically it falls under English Language Arts standard four, which is
Language for Social Interaction. This standard states,
Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students
will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of
the English language for effective social communication with a wide
variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social

communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their

views.
My students need to be able to do this for their futures. I need to facilitate an
environment where my students feel comfortable enough with myself and each
other to have conversations with each other in a way that they can develop their
social skills as they learn how to read and write. In order to be career and college
ready, my students need to be able to speak intelligently as well as read and write
well.

TEAC/CAEP Claims
This set of claims is created by Medaille College as a set of standards used
to ensure that graduates of the Education program are ready for the classroom.
Throughout all of my artifacts, I have shown that I qualify for claim one which is,
Medaille College graduates know the subject matter in their certification area.
By using three different methods and styles of creating poems in my EDU500 unit
plan, to my research for my annotated bibliography, I have shown that I know the
subject matter and that I can relate it to the classroom.
Claim two states, Medaille College graduates meet the needs of diverse
learners through effective pedagogy and best teaching practices. In all of my
lesson plans, I take care to make sure that all of my students needs are accounted
for. I attach every lesson to the diversity of my students in order to make sure all
of my students have a safe space in my classroom. I tailor each lesson to

individual classes and the students in them using best practices and effective
pedagogy.
Claim three states that graduates are caring educators. I have shown this
time and time again throughout my portfolio. In fact, this may be the claim that I
connect to the most. I consistently care for my students, not only as little learners,
but also at a basic human level. These children need to know that I care about
them so they can feel comfortable in my classroom. They are spending time away
from home, away from their comfort zones and safe spaces to spend eight hours a
day with me so they need to know that I care about them and their lives. My
Brand Integrity post is probably what shows this the most. Those little girls
needed someone to come along and show them how much they were cared for. I
have never and will never waiver on this. Caring for children is one of the most
important things you can do in this lifetime and I for one cant wait to do it for the
rest of my life.

ISTE Standards for Teachers and/or Students

Children these days are growing up in a digital age. As I was growing up I
got to see the transformation of the world from pen and paper to typing and IPads.
My future students will have grown up knowing nothing but technology, which is
inherently fascinating. My Smart Board presentation, as well as my App
assignment, show that I am up for this challenge. I am always searching for new
ways that technology is advancing so I can familiarize myself with it. The apps I
included in my assignment show this as well. We need to be able to inspire our

students through not only our teaching, but our use of technology as well. When
new technology comes out, we, as teachers, need to know how it works as well as
how it can impact our students lives. If there is any possible chance that the
technology could harm our students, we need to be mindful and monitor it
accordingly. On the other hand, if the technology can impact our students in a new
and wonderful way that helps them to learn better, we need to be on top of that in
order to provide the best education we can for our classes.
ILA International Literacy Association Professional Standards
The main standard that I found myself connecting to from the
International Literacy Association Professional Standards was a specific standard
about diversity. It states that teachers can Recognize, understand, and value the
forms of diversity that exist in society and their importance in learning to read and
write. When we live in the day and age that we do in this current moment, we
find ourselves watching the news only to become saddened by the images that
come across our screens. We find that diversity is separating us more than it is
bringing us together. My DASA certificate from my artifacts in section three
shows that I am up to the challenge of bringing a diverse group of children
together to learn. While children are in my care they will learn to read well and
write well while being respectful of the different cultures in our classroom.
Whether I have boys, girls, trans, gay, straight, African American, Hispanic, etc.
students in my class, I want them all to feel welcome and accepted by their peers
as well as myself.

CEC Standards
While reading through the standards put forth by the Council for
Exceptional Children, I came across one that stated that teachers are Using
evidence, instructional data, research, and professional knowledge to inform
practice. My annotated bibliography shows that I have the skills necessary to do
this in my classroom. I can analyze research and break it down into parts that can
be swallowed easily. I have to be able to do this in the field. My students,
especially those with IEPs or my gifted students, need to know that I am always
looking for new ways to help them succeed and that I am always looking for ways
to help them be the best they can be. My students will need someone who can
push them a little further. Theyll need someone like me on their side to challenge
them and help them become who theyre intended to be.

Standards Chart
My standards chart is a visual representation of where my artifacts fit into the
standards of each organization. This shows that I am able to visually show my correlation
from my artifacts to the different standards.

Conclusion
Connecting to all of these different sets of standards could be a challenge for
some, but when it comes down to it, a good teacher does all of these things and more
every single day. A good teacher is always looking for ways to improve his or her
teaching. We always need to connect to the standards with everything we do. Whether we

are planning for instruction, assessing, or even researching we are always improving and
continuing on our educational journeys.

Artifact Title

INTASC
Standards

Annotated
Bibliography

Standard 1:
Learner
Development
Standard 2:
Learning
Differences
Standard 3:
Learning
Environments

Literacy Lesson Standard 7:

Plan
Planning for
Instruction
Standard 4:
Content
Knowledge

EDU500 Unit
Plan

Standard 5:
Application of
Content
Standard 7:
Planning for
Instruction
Standard 4:
Content
Knowledge
Standard 5:
Application of
Content

NYS Code of
Ethics
Standards for
Educators
Principle 1:
intellectual,
physical,
emotional,
social, and civic
potential

NYS P-12
Common Core
Learning
Standards

NYS Learning
Standards

TEAC/CA
Claims

Claim 2:
Pedagogy
Best Practi

Principle 3:
Commit to own
learning to
develop practice
Principle 4:
Collaborate with
colleagues and
other
professionals
Principle 2:
Challenging
learning
environment for
all

Principle 3:
Commit to own
learning to
develop practice
Principle 2:
Challenging
learning
environment for
all

RL.3.3 Describe
characters in a
story (e.g., their
traits,
motivations, or
feelings) and
explain how
their actions
contribute to the
sequence of
events.
W.3.4 With
guidance and
support from
adults,
produce
writing in
which the
development
and
organization
are
appropriate
to task and
purpose.

Claims 1, 2
3: Content
knowledge
pedagogy,
caring edu

Claims 1, 2
3: Content
knowledge
pedagogy,
caring edu

Survey
Assignment

Standard 1:
Learner
Development

Principle 5:
Collaborate with
parents and
community

Claim 2:
Pedagogy
best practi

App Review
Assignment

Standard 7:
Planning for
Instruction

Principle 6:
Intellectual and
ethical
foundation

Claim 2:
Pedagogy
best practi

DASA
Certificate

Standard 2:
Learning
Differences

Principle 3:
Commit to own
learning to
develop practice

Claim 3: C
educator

Brand Integrity
Certificate

Standard 3:
Learning
Environments
Standard 9:
Ethical Practice

Principle 4:
Collaborate with
colleagues and
other
professionals

Claim 3: C
educator

Principle 3:
Commit to own
learning to
develop practice

Claims 1, 2
3: Content
knowledge
pedagogy,
caring edu

Smart Board
Lesson

Standard 10:
Leadership and
Collaboration
Standard 7:
Planning for
Instruction
Standard 4:
Content
Knowledge
Standard 5:
Application of
Content
Standard 6:
Assessment