Standards 4-9

Remember how I said there were six standards to measure teacher success? There are SIXTEEN! Wow. I’ve complained to Andy about the amount of reading I needed to do for three nights in a row and how I just can’t get focused on it. He must have been tired of hearing my complaints and prayed for focus for me today because I spent roughly 4-5 hours on this stuff today! Even I was impressed with myself :).

I skipped my morning workout – I was sore from a double shift yesterday and Marianne wasn’t available to hold me accountable since she was running errands, so I was able to get an early start on the rest of my day. I spent a little time with the Lord and then headed for the pool. I was there from about 10:00-12:30. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and there were very few people there, so I was able to really focus while I soaked in the rays minus the sunscreen today for a maximum tanning experience (I hope my dermatologist isn’t reading this!).

This is what I learned at the pool:

Standard IV: Fairness, Equity, and Diversity
Quick interpretation: Don’t pick on students for being different.

Nuts and Bolts:
1. Work on treating all students fairly and appreciate the diversity that they bring to the classroom.
2. Call on students equally – I need to work on this. I think I’m going to use a popsicle stick method that Ashley recommended. I used index cards last year, and they were harder for me to keep up with.
3. Use diversity in grouping.
4. Focus in on preparing students for adulthood and college through types of grouping.
5. Provide students equal opportunity to use technology.
6. Use literature to help students see themselves and analyze social issues – such as stereotyping.

Standard V: Learning Environment
Quick interpretation: Have a plan – don’t teach by the seat of your pants. Teaching a book you haven’t read would be a problem.

Nuts and Bolts:
1. Create an environment where students aren’t afraid to share their ideas. Teachers create a classroom of mutual respect and trust.
2. Lessons are clear, purposeful and well organized. Students are aware of the purpose.
3. Teachers are willing to change the plan (even on the spot) as needed to meet student needs and the goal of the lesson.
4. Group work, group work, group work!!
5. Relevance, relevance, relevance!!
6. Encourage student connections with the environment.

- I felt more confident after reading this section. Because two of my courses are AVID (and one of them is the group that I taught for their entire freshmen and sophomore years), I spend a lot of time developing a respectful learning environment – and I have that time with the AVID program. I hope that I have a good ninth grade group, because I think my environment will really shine through on video.

Standard VI: Instructional Resources
Quick Interpretation: Use your resources!

Nuts and Bolts:
1. Use various types of media and teach students how to interpret them.
2. Teach students to evaluate credibility of web sources.
3. Uses community resources – like guest speakers or theater opportunities.
4. Teachers pursue other community resources and grant opportunities.

Standard VII: Integrated Instruction
Quick Interpretation: Play well with other teachers.

Nuts and Bolts:
1. Expose students to various types of text and help them interpret those texts
2. Use English skills in other content areas
3. Writing to learn is big – learning logs are good.
4. Teachers make connections with other content areas when teaching literature – don’t forget to make connections with music and art!

Standard VIII: Reading
Quick Interpretation: Reading is a good thing – especially when teaching English.

Nuts and Bolts:
1. Reading is a way that students can understand the world.
2. Teach students to read on a basic level – decoding skills and understanding plot development, but students must be taught to question texts and appreciate big ideas as well. Super excited that my students learn Costas questions and use them in almost all discussions of literature!!
3. Teachers help students make connections between personal experience and texts.
4. Teachers expose students to a variety of informational and nonfiction texts and teach students how to interpret them.
5. Teach reading strategies – teach students how to think as they read and demonstrate that to them. Double entry notebooks are good. Annotating text is good.
6. Graphic organizers, formal analytical essays, questioning, literature circles, Socratic seminars, and dramatic performances are good.
7. Developing reading skills through readers theater, echo reading, and choral reading are good strategies.

Standard IX: Writing
Quick Interpretation: Apparently writing is something you should teach…

Nuts and Bolts:
1. Students need to know a clear purpose and audience when writing.
2. Accommodations can be made for ESL students – they may submit graphic organizers and the such of a writing prompt, but teachers need to remember to keep challenging these students as well.
3. Help students use rubrics to analyze their own work and the work of others.
4. Encourage students to publish their work in various ways.
5. Teach students to successfully engage in various types of writing including emails, memos, and faxes.
6. Help students practice for timed writing and become familiar with the writing process.
7. Respond to student writing as an adult interested in a student author.
8. Encourage students to write to learn… hopefully that works since that is essentially what I’m doing here!! :)
9. Writing portfolios are good to measure student progress.
10. Student reflection on their own writing is good.

Ok…. Considering it is 6:00, I’m going to take a break and grab some dinner. More about the last 7 standards to come later.