Amy Louden Student Teaching Showcase Portfolio. Greenwood Middle School

Amy Louden

Student Teaching Showcase Portfolio

Greenwood Middle School

Greenwood Middle School Demographics

• Greenwood Middle School is currently rated as a four star school. There are 911 students enrolled at Greenwood Middle School for the 2013-2014 school year. The school consists of predominantly White students (82.9%) with the second largest ethnic group being Hispanic (9.5%). American Indian students (.2%) represent the smallest ethnic group at the school. Multiracial students make up 3.9% of the student body, and African American students make up 2%. 38% of the student body receives free meals and 10% qualifies for a reduced price meals. This means 52% of the students pay full price for their meals while at school. During the 2011-2012 school year Greenwood Middle School had a 96.8% attendance rate.

Greenwood Middle School Demographics

• The second period class consists of 14 males and 16 females. There are 3 special education students in this classroom and one classroom aid. The third period class consists of 15 male students and 18 female students. There are two special education students in this class and one classroom aid. The fourth period class consists of 14 males and 15 females. This class is for students who have a lower comprehension than most of the other 8th grade students. This class has a high number of special education students and requires to aids. The sixth period class consists of 16 males and 18 females. This class is the 8th grade honors class; a little over half of these students were pass plus on their ISTEP scores. The seventh period class consists of students from the 4th period class that need extra remediation. This class acts as a language lab and gives students more time to ask questions and fully comprehend a lesson. The ninth period class is evenly split with 15 males and 15 females. There are no aids in this class and only one special education student.

Philosophy of Education• Education is a highly interactive mutual learning experience between

the teacher and the students. Teachers need to make their lessons relevant to students while still meeting the demands of the curriculum. Our society is very reliant on the actions of one another, and it is necessary to teach students, not only subject content, but also how to interact with one another in a productive manner. Our society has also become very technologically based, so it is extremely important for students to learn how to use various technologies appropriately. With technology changing at such a fast pace, we need to keep ourselves and the student as current and up to date as possible. We are also constantly faced with new teaching strategies in our ever-changing society, so it is important to stay up to date with new strategies to encourage effective learning and mastery as well. We need to understand that each student is different and enters our classrooms with different life experiences than our own. They learn from us, but we must also learn from them.

INTASC Principle 1

• The student teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful to students.

INTASC 1 Artifact

INTASC 1 Artifact Explanation

• My first artifact for INTASC Principle 1 is a section of my Praxis Score Report. This principle assures that I am competent in my content area and in pedagogical practices. This score report shows that I have passed Praxis 1 and Praxis 2 meaning that I have adequate knowledge of the Language Arts content for secondary education.

INTASC 1 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 1 is part of a schedule I created for the Honors class’ speech unit. The students were to write and present a persuasive speech over their American Dream, similar to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. The unit covered the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King’s speech as well. This shows interdisciplinary connections to events in fairly recent history.

INTASC Principle 2

• The student teacher understands how children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development.

INTASC Principle 2 Artifact


• My first artifact for INTASC Principle 2 is a vocabulary quiz created for lower level and special education students. Most of the students took a quiz with a list of 15 words and 15 definitions. This quiz was differentiated by breaking the words into groups so that the students had fewer options as definitions for their vocabulary words. This shows my ability to differentiate based on learning level.

INTASC 2 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 2 is a lesson plan from my remedial English class. This lesson was during the students’ speech unit. In order to get the students thinking about a social topic for their persuasive speeches, I had them write a journal entry discussing what they would change about the world they live in. The students then shared their ideas with the class. This shows my ability to incorporate students’ ideas and opinions into the lesson and support their social development by highlighting their opinions and beliefs of the world around them.

INTASC Principle 3

• The student teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.

INTASC 3 Artifact


• For my first artifact for INTASC Principle 3 I included a revised schedule for my fourth period class. This class consists of lower level students and special education students. While reading Touching Spirit Bear, many of these students were falling behind in their reading. In order to help the students keep up with the reading, I revised the schedule for their class to give them more time to complete their readings from the novel. This shows my ability to adapt to the different needs of my students.

INTASC 3 Artifact


• For my second artifact for INTASC Principle 3 I included the final project instruction sheet. Students could choose between 4 different projects. This way, the students were able to choose a project they felt they could do well. This shows my ability to create projects for diverse learners.

INTASC Principle 4

• The student teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

INTASC Artifact

INTASC 4 Artifact explanation

• For my first artifact for INTASC Principle 4 I included an idea man used for their Touching Spirit Bear unit. The main character in the novel goes through a lot of personal changes. The students filled out two different idea men- one at the beginning of the novel and one at the end of the novel. On the first, the wrote characteristics about the main character in the beginning of the novel. On the second, they wrote characteristics about the main character at the end of the novel. Then, when we were finished with the novel we used the two charts to discuss they ways the main character had changed. This shows my ability to create a variety of instructional strategies by creating graphic organizers that deviate from typical graphic organizers.

INTASC 4 Artifact


• For my second artifact for INTASC Principle 4 I included a jeopardy game I created for my remedial English class. The students had an upcoming Spelling/Vocabulary test and an upcoming Short Story test, which was also heavy on vocabulary. To study for their upcoming tests, I created a Jeopardy game for them to play. This shows my ability to create activities that are fun for the students as well as helpful for their learning.

INTASC Principle 5

• 5A- The student teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction in the classroom.

• 5B- The student teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction in the classroom.

INTASC 5 Artifact


• For my first artifact for INTASC Principle 5 I included my Philosophy of Discipline. Students need a structured classroom environment for effective learning to take place. This is an important part of discipline because with no structure, students are more likely to have behavioral problems. This artifact shows my understanding of the importance of discipline in schools.

INTASC 5 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 5 is a seating chart I created for my ninth period class. Many behavioral problems can be fixed by simply changing the students’ seating arrangement. This class in particular had a group of chatty girls in the back of the classroom that were often distracting to the students. In this seating chart, I broke up that group of girls, which got rid of the distraction for the students in the class. This shows my understanding of grouping students in different ways in order to created a structured learning environment.

INTASC Principle 6

• The student teacher has knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

INTASC 6 Artifact


• For my first artifact for INTASC Principle 6 I included a screenshot of a game on a website called Quizlet. I created sets of vocabulary words on the website and showed the students how to access the vocabulary sets so they could use them as study tools. The website offers flashcards, practice tests, and games to help learn vocabulary. This shows my ability to use available online resources to help students learn.

INTASC 6 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 6 is a PowerPoint I created over the Civil Rights Movement. The PowerPoint was used during the speech unit to help students gain an understanding of the importance of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. This shows my ability to use technology as a tool to deliver information to students.

INTASC Principle 7

• The student teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of the subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

INTASC 7 Artifact


• My first artifact for INTASC Principle 7 is a weekly schedule I created for student teaching. I made a schedule every week with a reflection of the previous week and goals for the next week attached. In doing this, I was able to assess my end goal for the next week, as well as my overall goals for the end of student teaching, while making sure I met the school’s curriculum goals.

INTASC 7 Artifact

INTASC Artifact Explanation

• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 7 is the students’ speech assignment from their speech unit. Overall, students typically dislike giving speeches in front of the class. To help with this, students were able to choose their own topic for their speeches rather than be assigned a topic. Students were able to evaluate the world around them and choose a topic that was important to them. This relates to INTASC 7 because students were able to give a speech based on what was important to them and their community, while still meeting curriculum goals.

INTASC Principle 8

• The student teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of learner.

INTASC 8 Artifact


• For my first artifact for INTASC Principle 8 I include examples of worksheets I created for the Touching Spirit Bear Unit. This worksheets were not taken for points and were used to facilitate discussion of the novel. The discussion was used as an informal assessment of the students’ understanding of the novel and the characters in the novel. This shows my ability to use informal assessments in the classroom.

INTASC 8 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 8 is a graded rubric from the honors class’ research reports. This shows my ability to create and use formal assessments to gauge student learning and understanding.

INTASC Principle 9

• The student teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

INTASC 9 Artifact


• My first artifact for INTASC Principle 9 is my videotape analysis. I recorded myself teaching a lesson to the honors class, watched it later, and analyzed my teaching in the video. I noticed positive teaching practices the video as well as things I needed to work on. After watching the video I attempted to improve in my weaker areas. This shows my ability to reflect on my teaching practices and grow professionally as a teacher.

INTASC 9 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 9 is the title page for Unit D in Harry Wong’s First Day of School. Every Wednesday we had professional development meetings after school. During one of the meetings we broke into groups and read different sections of this unit. The next week each group presented their section to the rest of the group. This was very beneficial to me as a student teacher and allowed me to grow professionally as a future teacher.

INTASC Principle 10

• The student teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students’ learning and well-being.

INTASC 10 Artifact


• My first artifact for INTASC Principle 10 is a picture of the Central 9 building. I volunteered to attend a field trip to Central 9, which is a technical school that high school students in the area have the opportunity to attend. I learned about schooling opportunities for students in the community. This demonstrates my understanding of INTASC Principle 10 because it showed my willingness to participate in school activities and showed my interest in the community.

INTASC 10 Artifact


• My second artifact for INTASC Principle 10 is an email correspondence between a parent and myself. In the email I answer a parents questions about work being done in class. This demonstrates my ability to communicate with parents in a professional manner.

Documents

Amy Louden Student Teaching Showcase Portfolio. Greenwood Middle School