Portfolio 1

1. Five images (you can take them or they can come from the Internet [provide proper credit]). These images should reflect, in some way, what you imagine your classroom will look like once you are a teacher. Please annotate your images by providing a description of the image and how it relates to your future classroom.
2. Imagine the surrounding in your classroom. What does the room look like? What resources are available for students? How are the resources used during the lesson?
3. Describe the students in your classroom. What are their backgrounds? What are their interests? What are they doing during the lesson?
4. Describe your classroom policies. What are your classroom rules? What is your discipline plan? What are your homework policies?
5. Describe a typical lesson you will teach in your classroom. What will you teach? What is the topic? Why did you choose this topic? How will you teach it? What is the main thing you want students to learn during this lesson?
6. Imagine your work as a teacher during this lesson. What are you doing during the lesson?
7. Imagine your students again, what are they doing during the lesson?
8. Imagine how you will assess your students' learning and achievement. How will you know they have learned?

  

1. My first picture is of a reading corner that I want in my classroom. There will be shelves full of books to encourage literacy and enjoyment of reading. There will be a carpet for students to sit on for when I read out loud. There will also be pillows or beanbags for students to use for when there is free time or reading time and the student wants to read.
Photo by Khumantaris. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/33216422@N08
/3578400771/in/pool-spaceandplaces

My second picture is of a job chart. Students will have a daily/weekly job to help them learn responsibility. Students will also be responsible for helping to clean up the classroom, as they spend much of their time there and it should be a clean place where we can continue to learn, and where the Spirit can be present to help them learn (and to help me teach).

Photo by Jodi Durgin. Retrieved from http://frame.bloglovin.com/frame?post=1327624935&group=0&frame_type=a&blog=2679652&link=aHR0cDovL2NsdXR0ZXJmcmVlY2xhc3Nyb29tLmJsb2dzcG90LmNvbS8yMDEzLzA3L3RpcHMtZm9yLWNyZWF0aW5nLWFuZC1tYW5hZ2luZy5odG1s&frame=1&click=0&user=0

The third picture is the “Good Morning” Board. It is a welcome area, where, as students come in to the classroom, they can turn in homework, pick up the classwork that needs to be done that morning as they come in to the room, etc. There will also be a calendar with important dates.

Photo by Ashley Hall. Retrieved from http://owlwaysgoodteaching.blogspot.com/2015/09/classroom-reveal.html

The fourth picture shows more or less how I want to arrange the desks in my classroom. I want students in groups of 4 or 5 with their desks put together so that when we do group work we do not have to use our class time moving desks and putting them back. Photo by Caitlin Spencer. Retrieved from http://www.teachingforthethrill.com/category/teaching/

The last picture shows that I want my room to be colorful and full of life. I want it to feel warm and have boards on the walls to post students’ art or good writing or other work. I want them to be able to show their hard work to others and have them think about how much effort they are putting in to what they are doing because it might go on the wall where their parents, peers, and other teachers will also be able to view it.

No photographer listed. Retrieved from https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/21/4e/7e2

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2. My classroom will be a place where students will feel safe. It will have some of their best work posted on at least one of the walls. It will have a large bookshelf full of books of varying levels and genres to promote student literacy and enjoyment of reading. There will be art supplies as well and pictures of students and interesting places-such as India, the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids in Egypt, Mount Rushmore, etc. to incite a desire to learn and discover new things. During lessons we will use art supplies, where applicable, to inspire creativity. We will talk about pictures and paintings and we will use books. I also think that we will use technology to our advantage. I will show videos to help students learn about things or places to which we do not have access within our classroom. The room will be vibrant and full of color and life, but it will also be a calm place. Things on the walls and boards will not be so distracting as to cause students to lose focus on the task at hand.

3. The students in the classroom are engaged learners. They think critically and ask questions. They are a diverse group culturally and socioeconomically. They are interested and invested in their education because they think learning is fun. During the lesson, a few may be off task occasionally, but for the most part students are following directs and commenting and enhancing the lesson.

4. The most important classroom rule I will have is respect for others and yourself. Listen to the teacher and follow her directions. I will use the “Class”, “yes” method to get students on task and use tallies to show how well/poorly students are behaving that day. Other than that I will let students decide on their own rules and consequences.

My discipline plan will be to first use teacher proximity, and get closer to the student or group that is causing problems. If they continue to act out, I will issue a quiet warning as the other students are busy working on something else. The third step, if the problem continues will be a first timeout. Students will sit in a designated area in the classroom (probably a corner further away from the activities and other students) until they feel they are ready to come back, in which case they come talk to me, and then they return to class. The fourth step will be a second timeout in which the student will go to the principal’s office (unless they are trying to get themselves there, in which case it will be the corner again), and they will be talked to about behavior. A message will be sent to parents as well. The fifth step would be a behavior-intervention contract in which students, their parents, and the teacher meet to discuss the student’s behavior and possible solutions to the problem. This would be if it all happened in the same day. However, if a student has several repeated warnings or timeouts, I would involve the parents.

My homework policy would be that turned in on time you can get up to full credit. If it is late it will be docked 10-25% depending on how late it is. No late work for units after the term has ended.

5. Depending on the grade level, I will probably teach lessons dealing with literacy. The goal of one lesson would be for students to learn to use alliteration in their writing. Students would liste to, read and identify alliteration in writing and then practice using it on their own. We would read on the reading carpet Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book and identify patterns in the writing. Then we would have a small lesson on alliteration, using various visual aids, like the Ice cream scoops page (see image at right). Students will then create their own ice cream alliteration and write their examples on the board and share with the class. Then students will apply alliteration to their writing piece from the previous lesson. I want students to begin to identify and apply different writing techniques. I chose alliteration because it is an easier technique to identify and learn to use and can be used across most grades as an introduction into writing strategies. I also want students to learn that their writing is unique and that it can be fun to do.

6. During this lesson, I will begin by reading the story. Then I will monitor as children work on creating alliterations in groups, walking between the different groups. I will help students as they write their examples and then walk between the desks as students work on their own writing and give them positive praise and feedback, as well as help those who may need further explanation or aren’t understanding what to do or are stuck on how to start.

7. During the lesson, students are actively listening to the book reading, participating in discussion with the class, and working together with their group to come up with alliteration examples. They will work on their own writing skills and will be seated in their desks, focused on the task at hand.

8. To assess my students’ learning I might create a worksheet where they can identify alliteration by circling the group of words that forms an alliteration in a poem. I will also see if they are able to incorporate alliteration into their own writing.  If they can do both of these things, and explain to a neighbor what alliteration is, then they probably understand it fairly well.