Welcome to the Teacher Quality Standards section to my portfolio. Click the button to view two lessons I taught as well as how those lessons related to some of these standards! This is the animal lesson and this is the social justice linoleum print lesson.
Quality Standard I: Teachers demonstrate mastery of and pedagogical expertise in the content they teach.
Element a: Teacher provides instruction that is aligned with the Colorado Academic Standards, and their districts organized plan of instruction:
Manitou Springs School District 14 is starting to want to see unit plan goals on the board or online for each lesson. This is already something I was doing in my lesson plans through CSU. Through CSU it is shown in my essential lesson plan targets or the students “I can statements”. I had seen them written on boards in previous schools thatI had been to, but it was something new for me to write for my students. It also really helped keep me on track for what I wanted my students to be able to do. There were days they would question why we do shading and perspective and it would be easy to refer to the board and say well when we add value we are changing a shape into what? A form.
Here is an example from one of the lesson plans in the unit:
Standards:
· Create- 1. Establish a practice of planning and experimentation to advance concepts and technical skills.
- c. Practice techniques and improve skills by testing media to consider constraints and potential of materials
· Transfer- 2. Develop proficiency in visual communication skills that extends learning to new contexts.
- b. Transfer and integrate concepts and skills to inform innovative ideas and solutions
I Can Statements:
(Student will be able to, “I can…”)
· I can show that I can use a gradient/ tonal scale.
· I can explain what a gradient/ tonal scale is to another classmate
· I can explain what complementary colors are.
Element b: Teacher develop and implement lessons that connect to a variety of content areas/ disciplines and emphasize literacy and mathematical practices.
At the high school I tried to implement a little of both literacy and math into every lesson. Two lessons in particular where I used the most literacy and math were my social justice linoleum prints (click here to see the lesson) and my environmental justice sculpture group project (click here to see the lesson). In the group sculpture project students needed to find an area in the environment that they wanted to create a change. There sculptures needed to either benefit the environment physically such as cleaning or mentally so to move the view to make the change in the environment. They had to make an imovie that involved writing, voice overs and math to prove their engineering skills. An example of a question they needed to answer was how can your sculpture withstand extreme weather? And how will you maintain your sculpture and fix damages?
This is an example from the linoleum print social justice piece. I had the students write a paper about a time they or a friend had related to social justice. After they were done with their stories they emailed them to me and approved them and then sent them to another classmate keeping everything anonymous. Math came into play when students had to register their prints. This is a very mathematical process because there is lots of measuring to insure that the layers of color would line up evenly and every print would look almost exactly the same. Another area where literacy was used was in the critique. Students were given sticky notes and asked to silently reflect what they thought each print ment. After the sticky notes were placed we talked about why we conceptualized the print in such a way.
Element c: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of content, central concepts, inquiry, appropriate evidence-based instruction practices, and specialized characteristics of the disciplines being taught.
At Ute Pass elementary I taught a lesson about the book If you Take a Mouse to School, in the lesson the first grade students created a mouse that they took to school. I read the book to the students then had them brainstorm out loud what their mouse would do at school. After brainstorming I passed out white boards and the students followed step by step instructions on how to draw a basic mouse. If was important to show the first graders how basic shapes could be put together to create something else. We did this so students would feel confident when it came time to drawing their final one on their own. After they were done drawing we went over some new vocabulary words and I showed pictures based on their vocabulary. They learned about neutral colors (which their mouse was encouraged to be). They also learned about foreground and background so that way they could create the action of what their mouse was doing at school. In the picture to the left there are examples of the mouse in four different actions. Students were encouraged to come up with one on their own, but it was important to give multiple resources for students to look at just in case they needed help creating their mouse in action.
Quality Standard #2: Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students.
Element a: Teachers foster a predictable learning environment characterized by acceptable student behavior and efficient use of time in which each student has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults and peers.
Teachers reflect on their professional practice
This was in my beginning art class. These two students were fairly good at helping each other until one day they got frustrated and confused over one point perspective and one was being pretty mean to the other. I told the one who was getting most frustrated and taking the brute end of the frustration to go out and get a drink of water. Then Sometimes it is important to let students go out and take a tiny break before they explode and give up all together. When he came back I was able to let him borrow my computer to follow step by step instructions on making a race car in one point perspective on YouTube. .Sometimes students need to learn in a different way than their peers.
Element b: Teacher demonstrates an awareness of a commitment to, and a respect for multiple aspects of diversity, while working toward common goals as a community of leaders.
Students in advisory for a week had to learn about kindness and work on kindness exercises not only was it beneficial to students but also for me. Through October 8th- October 11th they spent advisory learning what it meant to be welcoming and kind to people not quite like themselves. In the picture above students had to write something people may not know about them in the left side of the glasses and something that they were proud of themselves for in the right side of the glasses. They had the option to put their names or leave it without a name because these “perspective glasses” were going to be hung in the hall. I had asked the class the question, “do you wish you could give your teachers a pair of these glasses?” and “do you wish you knew what your teachers perspective glasses said also?” I wanted students to think about how sometimes they go through thing away from school and it gets brought with them to school just like how teachers go through things and bring it with them. What a different learning environments it would be if we knew the struggles some of our students were bringing with them to school.
In the glasses exercise we were working towards a common goal of kindness, but it also brought awareness to me about the diversity of what/ who our students are. Students wrote about anxiety, depression, being afraid to be conservative, being in foster care, coming out, etc. Part of being a community of learners is also creating a culture of kindness.
Element c: Teachers engage students as individuals, including those with diverse needs and interests, across a range of ability levels by adapting their teaching for the benefit of all students.
In this project, students were asked to find a 2d abstract painting and turn it 3d. (to see the lesson plan click here)
Students were given a list but encouraged to find an abstract painting of their choosing on their own. That way the level of difficulty was the students choice based on what painting they chose. Before creating this sculpture they also had a couple assignments on cardboard connections and cardboard relief. In the cardboard relief assignment I graded all students on a rubric and then pulled them out into the hall and asked them what grade they thought they deserved. We went through the rubric boxes one by one and talked about it. Because we did that students were more reliable for self-regulation and performance for the 2d-3d project. I would hear students remind each other to stay on task and say things such as “did you look at the rubric, we get extra points if we …” Another unique thing that was to happen during the 2d-3d project was a parent came in and observed their child create their sculpture. The parent was there visiting their child because they lived in a different state. I got to hear my student explain to their parents what they were creating, how, and why.
We also had a midterm critique as well as a final critique. In the midterm critique students asked questions about their own work and got feedback from peers on how to push their sculpture further. During the final critique they got to experience ‘table talk twitter” where they wrote a tweet about their peers work and included a hashtag to people could “find the work when on twitter”.
Attached here is an example of the table talk twitter:
Attached here is an example of the relief sculpture with the rubric:
Element d:Teachers work with families and/or significant adults for the benefit of students.
I was lucky enough to do a couple different things to work with families and significant adults to benefit the students. One of the things I did was to get an artist from the community to talk to the photography students about colonial style printing and show a demonstration involving students. This artist came in on September 27th and explained the process and brought the students out to her portable dark room that was in the back of her car. She then had the students turn into ghosts and she took an image that will be in an art show on October 25th, 2019. The students were asked to write a reflection on the experience and they all seemed to really enjoy the day outside.
Another event I helped create was one directly involving parents and students. It was called Painting with the Herd. On October 25th, 2019 parents and community members were invited to a painting night. This was a fundraiser for the art department where students instructed parents/ community members on how to paint a painting of some aspen trees. Not only did it bring leadership skills to the students who taught but it also bought some funding to the art department.
Quality Standard III: Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction and create an environment that facilitates learning for their students
Element a: Teachers demonstrate knowledge about the ways in which learning takes place, including the levels of intellectual, physical, social and emotional development of their students.
In the 4th grade class at UTE Pass Elementary I had students reflect on a personal narrative and create it from November 11th-December 2nd 2019. Ironically enough it was something they were already exploring in their 4th grade class, and they had already written personal narratives so in a way it became a collaborative project between their fourth grade teacher and I. We did this in the form of stained glass, because after we explored the history of stained glass we learned that it was an art form to share stories. Students used acrylic and plastic to mimic the stained glass appearance and created an art piece that related to them. In the image above a student created the time he hit the ceiling fan and his cat came to cuddle him and make him feel better. Some students really made this a personal and emotional project where others wanted to just create a narrative to show something they really loved such as a memorable video game. I also wanted them to explore learning a new skill in art so I gave them the challenge of not being able to use brown and they could only mix complementary colors to make brown. In theory this was a good idea because it was teaching them what complementary colors were, but in reality we wasted a lot of paint. So for the last day I did distribute brown in order to save some of the paint, but the concept of complementary colors did stick for most!
Element b: Teachers use formal and informal methods to assess student learning, provide feedback, and use the results to inform planning and instruction.
On September 12th I tried to distribute a ticket out the door to my beginning art class at Manitou Springs High School, those questions for the ticket are up above. I had taught all the answers at the beginning of class not only the monday prior but also that morning. It was important that they knew what the answers to those questions were before moving on to the big kaleidoscope project. It was posted on their canvas so they could answer and I could reply to comments that were accessible to parents. I always tried to leave comments on canvas submissions so the parents and students would be able to understand why I gave the grade I did. This wasn't worth too many points just 5 out of 20 to see if they really grasped the new learning before moving on to a bigger project. I learned that students were struggling with the terms gradient and complementary colors (one response I got was complementary colors are colors that make other colors feel good about each other Example:Green), this was important to me because I knew I would need to teach it a little different. For class that friday I gave them examples that would hopefully help them remember the complementary colors (Bronco colors, Minnesota Viking colors, and Christmas colors) this really benefited the students because they were able to compare it to something they were familiar with.
Element c: Teachers integrate and utilize appropriate available technology to engage students in authentic learning experience.
I was very fortunate to be at a school that gives their students Ipads because it made it easier to include technology in more assignments.There were at least a couple assignments in the high school where I made Ipad use a requirement. In the image above students had to make a social justice sculpture that could benefit the environment as a group. Students had to research on their ipads social justice in nature and find a specific area they would like to help.The group with the picture above wanted to make filtered water more accessible for places that are polluted. October 11th, 2019 students were required to make an imovie showing how their sculpture would al work in nature and answer questions regarding its structural integrity and how it would be taken care of over time. If they forgot the questions that were required to be answered in their imovie, all information on the lesson including questions and the rubric were posted on their canvas, in which was accessible from their Ipads.
Element d:Teachers establish and communicate high expectations and use processes to support the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
10-08-19 This was a project where I really tried to push students into deeper thinking. In the image above a group of students made “Trash Fish” they did this with purpose of showing the pollution in the ocean but I wanted them to further their knowledge.I asked them to describe why creating a fish out of trash would encourage me to recycle or clean up the ocean. There answer started out pretty vague by saying things such as because its a trash fish so I would respond with well what about the trash fish makes me want to clean up the ocean? Why does this inspire me? It eventually encouraged the students to further research the problems with pollution and how to develop them further.
Element e: teachers provide students with opportunities to work in teams and develop leadership.
There were a couple lessons where I had students work in pairs or teams at the high school level, and an after-school activity. One was the kinetic group sculpture where students had to work as a group to create a sculpture about the social justice of the environment on 10-2-19. Students were graded individually based on the amount of work they contributed to the group, so it promoted an equal work environment. Another one was the personal social justice print in printmaking where students had to write a social justice event that directly impacted them and trade it with a partner to be created from 9-13-19 to 10-11-19. For the after school activity on 10-25-19 I had a group of three students learn how to teach a class to adults on how to do a guided painting. They all had different roles but had to work together to set up the event, help during the event, and lead the event. It was very unique because not only where they are being leaders of classmates but also of their parents.
Element f: Teachers model and promote effective communication
5th grade at UTE Pass Elementary has been my class to really practice efficiency when communicating. From 11-05-19 to 11-19-19 we really practiced together to promote active listening and communication. My first class on my own with them I had everyone starts the day by sitting on the rug we talked about how we were going to research an animal that was wither impacting the environment or was directly impacted by the environment. I had the students join me in the library and find a book so they could write a short description about the animals. It was CHAOS I tried getting them to calm down and write but books were being thrown students were arguing and that's when I realized I had no control of the class. I took them back to the art room and had them sit in silence I told them how disappointed I was in their behavior and they needed to shape up or I was going to tell their home room teacher about their behavior, they shaped up for probably 10 minutes and started writing and then it went all downhill again. I ended up telling their homeroom teacher and they had a serious talk about respect. The next class I knew I had to have the students think about classroom behavior and I would have to be very clear about what they needed to do next on their projects. On 11-12-19 I asked the class what class room behavior looked like they all told me very reasonable responses. I also asked them what we worked on last time and I told them what we were working on this time. I even had students surround me at a table to see how to work with plaster strips and rolling newspaper to create legs and arms for their animals. This class was better but still off task. There was constant reminders about better behavior until I started listing kids names on the board for further consequences unless they shapen up. Everyone did shapen up after that. On 11-19-19 I had students come in and instead of asking them what proper classroom behavior looked like I told them this time. I also asked them to explain what we did last time so students that were gone could catch up. I even wrote on the board the steps for today just in case anyone forgot what they were supposed to do. Finally! We had a successful class! All it really took was me telling the students what I expected to see from them. It is effective communication when students understand what you would like from them and when you can listen to what they need from you.
Quality Standard #4: Teachers demonstrate professionalism through ethical conduct, reflection, and leadership.
Element a: Teachers demonstrate high standards for professional conduct
Being a teacher you are held at a high ethical standard. I saw many student records, and even got to be a part of an IEP/504 meeting in the high school. It was very unique to be a part of this meeting because I got to learn about my students and how to teach them. It was so beneficial to me as I leaned about their learning differences and in some cases their families. I learned that some families are wither really active in a students educations and some would not like to be bothered with it at all. It was great to learn with my co teacher because we were able to hold each other accountable for how to teach the students. After a few weeks of teaching the foundations of art my mentor teacher and I were struggling with some students so we referred back to the IEP's and it helped both of us teach those students.
There was also a couple cases where I served as a mentor to students who found themselves in trouble. There were a few students in the high school who got in trouble not only in class for disruptive behavior but also suspended for other actions. Suspension was something that was not to be discussed among classes to peers, and there were times I had to tell students not to gossip. I remember when one student in particulate got back from suspension, they were pretty low on themselves thinking that they were 'bad' and wouldn't go anywhere in life. They were talking to a peer about how they would never make it into college and they might as well drop out. I asked them why they thought that. They told me it was because no one believes in them and they've never had much. I told them I believed in them and told them that if they really wanted to go to college they should apply and be vulnerable, put their life story into scholarships and do what no one expects of them. That student was in disbelief that I told them they could really could go to college. That student looked at me and said "you really think I can go to college?" and I told him "yes I do think so." and he told me thank you. No matter what a student has done it doesn't mark them forever and it is so important they know that. As a teacher we need to respect all students and staff alike.
Element b: Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals.
During my time at Ute Pass Elementary I adjusted many of the things I originally did in my teaching. One of the lessons I taught was to fifth grade. It was a lesson about animals and how animals are either impacting the environment or being impacted by the environment. Attached here is the lesson. I made sure to align this lesson and all lessons with the Colorado state standards as well as some of the districts goals to help create environmentalists. The first couple says teaching this lesson were rough, not due to planning but because the class had no management. I was a new teacher in the students eyes and they didn't know what my expectations were. It took a couple days to really get the class to respect class time and work hard. I had to do self reflections after every class to figure out how I could get them to behave in class and respect my time. Part of adjusting for student growth is sometimes adjusting the way you teach. My students were not able to grow in the beginning of the lesson because they had too much freedom and some where even unsure as to what they were actually suppose to do. I needed to be firmer with my expectations in my students in order to create a good learning environment. It also helped me become more firm with other classes, because it wasnt me being mean it was me setting the tone for the art classroom.
Element c: Teachers respond to a complex, dynamic environment.
In the fourth grade class at Ute Pass Elementary I taught a lesson about stained glass 12-2-19. Students had to create their personal narrative. In there core 4th grade class the teacher had been teaching students about personal narratives and they wrote their own. I wanted to collaborate with this teacher and have the students illustrate what they wrote. Some students wrote things they were not comfortable with painting so I had to adapt to the class environment and allow students to paint about another narrative in their lives. There were some changes made in the collaboration aspect but it didn't change the students learning about narrative and communication through art. Their home room teacher and I still collaborated everyday with communicating a point scale with how they did in art. Every day student would be given points out of 10 based on how they did in my class and the collaborating teacher would work with me to improve their scores for next time. At the end of the assignment students were welcomed to share their narrative, over half the class wanted to share their stories. When done sharing I asked the students if there was anything they would change about their own work and students had a lot of thoughtful responses. Which is a sign to me about the improvement of their learning and development.
Element d: Teachers demonstrate leadership in the school, the community, and the teaching profession.
Throughout my time at district 14, I was given so many opportunities to not only be a leader in the school but also the community. I volunteered and got to help with the school parade early September 2019. I attended all staff meetings and added my input when necessary. I even helped create and lead an after school fundraiser on October 25th called Painting with the heard. Painting with the heard was a very unique event because I had the opportunity to teach my students how to be teachers and they lead their parents and other adults in a painting class. Through November to December 19th I held an after school sewing class every Thursday. In my sewing class I taught 9 kids kindergarten to fifth grade, teaching students a new skill that they could take come and teach to their family/friends. I helped Ute Passes PTO with painting the backdrop for Christmas with Santa an event held on 12/08/19. I helped a potter glaze pottery to be donated to the school on 12/04/19.
Being a part of the schools was being someone who could wear many hats and I enjoyed that.