Leadership and Collaboration:
Description:
InTASC - The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.
Danielson Framework Component - Professional Responsibilities. (4c: Communicating with Families. 4d: Participating in a Professional Community. 4f: Showing Professionalism.)
In the picture to the left, the student is about to take their turn and start their round. Mrs. Heffner (in blue) is on the sidelines just in case. My university professor and supervisor are sitting at the table evaluating me. The room is full of excitement.
In this picture to the right, the student is choosing their word. I get down on their eye level to communicate clearly and properly with him. I make sure to give him all the time he needs to decide.
I promised the class if they did well on their quiz, I would wear my cheese head for the game. I also wore it to keep everyone engaged since this activity was at the end of the day.
In the picture above is one of my handmade review game twister boards. I created this material by thinking of a way to combine a movement based game like twister, but for literacy. I also considered concepts such as gross motor development and active engagement.
In the two side by side pictures above, the student is competing with the other student I paired him with who he works well with. They had spelled the word aloud as they hopping to each letter of the word on the board. They ran up to the board and are now writing that word out correctly and legibly as fast as they can to win a point for their team. The student is using my accommodation of the index cards as a resource. The entire class, including all the faculty and my supervisor, cheered the student on until he finished and won the round.
Additional Photos of Students Playing
Reflection:
In the photos above, I implemented this standard through an interactive vocabulary review game on the Midwest with fourth graders at Parkway Manor Elementary. In order to accommodate for all students, I had to communicate and collaborate clearly with other faculty. In this instance, I had the pleasure of working with the classroom TA (teacher's assistant), Mrs. Heffner. She assists several students in the classroom on the autistic spectrum and other special needs. I discussed with her in detail about each student's strengths and weaknesses. I also asked her how other specialists and educators accommodate for these students as well as what works best for them. I wanted to make them feel a part of the class as well as engaged in the activity. I wanted to provide them an inclusive environment to learn with their peers. For one student, I accommodated in multiple ways. I partnered him with a student that he is friends with and works well with. I also let the student choose the word he was going to spell out loud as he hopped on each letter of the word on the twister board. He chose the word crop. In addition, I had all three words I let him choose from (canal, barge, crop) written out on index cards on the board. This was extremely helpful because as he ran up to the board to write, he had a resource to refer to in the moment. I hung up these cards before the game had even started for the class as a whole. I did not wait to put them up just for his round. As a student with special needs myself, I felt doing so might draw negative attention to him and defeat the purpose of an entirely inclusive learning environment. The entire class cheered this student on and he won the round for his team. Overall, it was a fantastic lesson on social studies, but even more on mindfulness, being inclusive, proper sportsmanship, and teamwork. I was exceptionally proud of my students on that day.