Standard 9

The teacher is a reflective practitioner who uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (students, families, and other professionals in the learning community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.

My Interpretation: The teacher regularly reflects on their teaching and uses evidence to assess how their decisions impact students, families, and colleagues—and adjusts their approach to better support each learner.

Artifact 1: Math Proffesional Development

Indicator: 9 (b) Engages in meaningful and appropriate professional learning experiences aligned with his/her own needs and the needs of the learners, school, and system.

Introduction to Artifact: I was presented with this certificate for attending the ATOMM conference, which was specifically for mathematics educators. The conference, which was held on March 25th, was 8 hours long, with three-hour sessions and two keynote speakers. I went with my mentor teacher, Courtney Fish.

Rationale: There were a ton of different sessions offered for teachers that day. I went to sessions that I thought would benefit my students. The first session I attended was on how the brain works. During the session, we learned tricks and ways to help our students remember the content we taught them. The second session I attended was on how to incorporate manipulatives into the classroom at a middle school level. I feel like my students would benefit from using manipulatives. During the session, we learned great tools on how to use shape tiles to represent fractions, as well as Post-its. The final session I attended was on how to change the question, not the problem. It gave me good information on how to frame problems and then let the students have a productive struggle solving the problem. All of these sessions gave me great insights on different techniques I could try with my students.

Artifact 2: UMF Proffesional Development Day

Indicator: 9 (a) Engages in ongoing learning opportunities to develop knowledge and skills in order to provide all learners with engaging curriculum and learning experiences based on local and state standards.

Introduction of Artifact: At the start of my student teaching experience, the College I attend, the University of Maine at Farmington, held a professional development day for all of the student teachers. We received this certificate after attending two one-hour sessions.

Rationale: The two sessions they hosted were Social-Emotional learning and trauma-informed instruction. Both of these are great topics to teach to future educators. As educators, you never know what kind of home/background your students will come into the classroom with. Meeting them where they are and using social emotional learning and trauma-informed instruction in the classroom will make your students feel like school is a safe place. During these sessions, different examples of curriculum were used in the classroom to help motivate students and build relationships with them. Using these two types of instruction will help all learners engage in the curriculum because it relates to them and will help them achieve the standards they need.