Standard Eight | Collaborative Relationships
The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members.
Artifacts
Spring 2012 | Collaboration with Professional Learning Community
Knowlege Indicator 8B) Understands the collaborative process and the skills necessary to initiate and carry out that process
Performance Indicator 8K) Participates in collaborative decision-making and problem-solving with colleagues and other professionals to achieve success for all students
Knowlege Indicator 8B) Understands the collaborative process and the skills necessary to initiate and carry out that process
Performance Indicator 8K) Participates in collaborative decision-making and problem-solving with colleagues and other professionals to achieve success for all students
standard8p1.jpg | |
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Spring 2012 | Parent Contact E-mail
Knowledge Indicator 8D) Understands the benefits, barriers, and techniques involved in parent and family collaborations
Performance Indicator 8Q) Establishes respectful and productive relationships with parents or guardians and seeks to develop cooperative partnerships to promote student learning and well-being
Knowledge Indicator 8D) Understands the benefits, barriers, and techniques involved in parent and family collaborations
Performance Indicator 8Q) Establishes respectful and productive relationships with parents or guardians and seeks to develop cooperative partnerships to promote student learning and well-being
parentcontactemail1.png | |
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parentcontactemail2.png | |
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parentcontactemail3.png | |
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parentcontactemail4.png | |
File Size: | 342 kb |
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Reflections
Spring 2012 | Collaboration with Professional Learning Community
This essay is a sample of student work that we looked at within our Professional Learning Community (PLC) to standardize our grading procedures for this assessment. Especially when using Standards-Based Grading (SBG), we as a PLC have found it helpful to look at student work and together discuss specific criteria that essays deserving 4’s have, criteria that 3’s have, etc. This example caused some debate because the student can clearly produce writing, yet the quality of the writing is lacking (the examples do not back the thesis well, and the thesis itself is flawed because it’s very specific and doesn’t match well with the information from the articles we read). At first, looking at the work individually, I gave the student a 3 (a.k.a. “Meets Standard”). As my personal notes on the top of the essay attest, after discussion within the PLC, we decided that it actually deserved a 2.5 (a.k.a. “Partially Meeting Standard”), because of the specific errors cited above. Complicating matters is that the student producing this work receives accommodations because of a writing disability; however, with the help of the special educator in our PLC, we determined that the accommodations were appropriately carried out and he did indeed deserve to receive a 2.5. Overall, then, this essay demonstrates one of the important ways our PLC collaborates to help ourselves as teachers to in turn provide better support for our students.
Spring 2012 | Parent Contact E-mail
These four screenshots show portions of two e-mail conversations I’ve had with parents of students, showing that I am able to collaborate effectively with members of the community, valuing them as an important part of students’ learning environment. At the beginning of the semester, I sent home with students a letter of introduction to all parents/guardians, introducing myself and inviting them to contact me with questions or concerns about their child at any time via e-mail. The above conversations are examples: the first, a parent asking for homework because of his/her child’s absence from class; the second, a parent asking about his/her child’s low grade and my opinion about next year’s English placement. To both inquiries, I respond promptly and succinctly, valuing the parents’ input and giving them the information/opinions they’re seeking. I’ve also included my cooperating teacher on the e-mail thread, in order to ensure that this person is always in the loop with my parent contacts and can offer more information or advice to me if needed.
Through this communication, I have really learned how valuable parent contact and influence is. In many cases, like the second example above, parents are the reason why students get caught up on their work. Accountability at home is a huge part of making knowledge learned in school stick in students’ heads. Therefore, in my own teaching practice, I will highly value establishing partnerships with parents (in any way possible – parent-teacher conferences, phone calls home, meeting parents at after-school events…) in order to understand my students in a way that’s outside the realm of the classroom as well as to encourage students’ overall knowledge retention.
This essay is a sample of student work that we looked at within our Professional Learning Community (PLC) to standardize our grading procedures for this assessment. Especially when using Standards-Based Grading (SBG), we as a PLC have found it helpful to look at student work and together discuss specific criteria that essays deserving 4’s have, criteria that 3’s have, etc. This example caused some debate because the student can clearly produce writing, yet the quality of the writing is lacking (the examples do not back the thesis well, and the thesis itself is flawed because it’s very specific and doesn’t match well with the information from the articles we read). At first, looking at the work individually, I gave the student a 3 (a.k.a. “Meets Standard”). As my personal notes on the top of the essay attest, after discussion within the PLC, we decided that it actually deserved a 2.5 (a.k.a. “Partially Meeting Standard”), because of the specific errors cited above. Complicating matters is that the student producing this work receives accommodations because of a writing disability; however, with the help of the special educator in our PLC, we determined that the accommodations were appropriately carried out and he did indeed deserve to receive a 2.5. Overall, then, this essay demonstrates one of the important ways our PLC collaborates to help ourselves as teachers to in turn provide better support for our students.
Spring 2012 | Parent Contact E-mail
These four screenshots show portions of two e-mail conversations I’ve had with parents of students, showing that I am able to collaborate effectively with members of the community, valuing them as an important part of students’ learning environment. At the beginning of the semester, I sent home with students a letter of introduction to all parents/guardians, introducing myself and inviting them to contact me with questions or concerns about their child at any time via e-mail. The above conversations are examples: the first, a parent asking for homework because of his/her child’s absence from class; the second, a parent asking about his/her child’s low grade and my opinion about next year’s English placement. To both inquiries, I respond promptly and succinctly, valuing the parents’ input and giving them the information/opinions they’re seeking. I’ve also included my cooperating teacher on the e-mail thread, in order to ensure that this person is always in the loop with my parent contacts and can offer more information or advice to me if needed.
Through this communication, I have really learned how valuable parent contact and influence is. In many cases, like the second example above, parents are the reason why students get caught up on their work. Accountability at home is a huge part of making knowledge learned in school stick in students’ heads. Therefore, in my own teaching practice, I will highly value establishing partnerships with parents (in any way possible – parent-teacher conferences, phone calls home, meeting parents at after-school events…) in order to understand my students in a way that’s outside the realm of the classroom as well as to encourage students’ overall knowledge retention.