4a Reflecting on Teaching Below is a section taken from my formal evaluation that my supervisor from The College of Idaho and lead teacher from Idaho Arts Charter completed with me. This evaluation was completed by the three of us after my placement at IAC. I had been teaching a third grade ELA reading class on my own for two months. I am a firm believer in always being able to have personal growth and be a stronger teacher. Thanks to my many years as a student athlete, I invite and use guidance well. In order to be a better teacher I encourage constructive criticism from both administration and colleagues.
4d Participating in a Professional Community Growing up as an athlete and being a student athlete at the collegiate level, I realized my years of team building helped me transition into the adult world of teaching. At Idaho Arts Charter I was part of a third grade teaching team. As a team member, I had a big voice in the ELA part of the curriculum. My contributions were very respected by my colleagues. I learned those collaboration sessions added value to the overall outcome of my student teaching experience there. Having my colleagues opinions/input helped me to grow as a student teacher. Even though I was a student teacher, I felt like I was respected as a colleague and I know that I can always reflect on the knowledge gained from those relationships. Going to school festivals, wearing spirit wear, dressing up on dress up day, all of that contributed to my sense of community.
I don't have a picture that actually shows the value of our team building sessions. To give you a visual, we would sit in student chairs and brainstorm, contemplating ideas, laugh, cry, and sometimes eat (lunch=meet and eat). I am sharing a picture of my biggest mentor, Karie Yost, from Idaho Arts Charter. She was truly a blessing in my journey. I am confident I can always go back to her for any insight about education.
4e Growing and Developing Professionally I was given the opportunity to be a guest speaker and teach a children's literature/art class at The College of Idaho for my professor, Patti Copple. It was an honor to be trusted to present an art lesson to the undergrad students. I took pride in sharing my knowledge of art and enjoyed the professional, adult setting. Being in the higher educational atmosphere inspired me to possibly consider obtaining my Doctorate and teaching at the college level.
I have included a power point of the lesson I presented during the college presentation. This lesson was about art and illustrations that are in children's books. The main focus of the lesson was to emphasize the value in illustrations for children to develop a better understanding of written material. The important part of the lesson truly came from the meaningful dialect I had with the students and unfortunately isn't present on the power point.