Standard 10: Leadership and Collaboration
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.
Leadership and collaboration mean taking an active role in the classroom as well as in the community beyond the classroom. As a teacher, it entails openly and professionally communicating with others in a manner that is respectful of their opinions and approaches to various situations.
Throughout my teacher preparation program I have had several opportunities to grow in leadership and collaboration. Some of the strongest examples of this growth came from my placement in Early ACCESS. While at Early ACCESS I collaborated with families, members of the early childhood team from a variety of disciplines, with community school personnel, and various other professionals. I was responsible for coordinating team visits, sharing updates with the team, planning my instruction based on the parent wishes as well as student goals, and several other tasks associated with working in a highly collaborative early childhood setting as the Service Coordinator and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Teacher. To further demonstrate my ability to take on leadership as well as collaborate, I have provided several artifacts.
In my first artifact, I have a note left for a parent after I visited their child at a daycare setting. Even when I was unable to discuss progress with parents in person, I ensured that parents were aware of the fact that I had seen their child, were provided a brief overview of skills and progress, and had an option to contact me for more information or with any questions they may have. This is significant because as an ECSE Teacher, it was my role to maintain open communication and to coach families and care providers on ways to continue to help their child progress.
Another way I communicated with families was through mailing or providing meeting notices, prior written notices, and other documentation associated with their child's Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). These documents make up my second artifact in this area. These documents notified families and team members about important meetings or changes to the IFSP. It allowed the team to communicate about goals and work with the family to determine an approach that would fit best with their lives.
My final artifacts demonstrates my transfer of this leadership and collaboration into the 3rd grade setting. The first is a letter introducing me to my families for my 3rd grade student teaching placement. Being open and providing opportunities for families and students to ask questions is a key component in establishing effective collaboration in the classroom. Additionally, the transfer of collaboration and leadership skills is demonstrated through my reflection upon a Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Kennedy Elementary School. This reflection demonstrates my ability to critically examine another teacher's approach to instruction and my work to incorporate aspects of it into my own classroom environment.
Throughout my teacher preparation program I have had several opportunities to grow in leadership and collaboration. Some of the strongest examples of this growth came from my placement in Early ACCESS. While at Early ACCESS I collaborated with families, members of the early childhood team from a variety of disciplines, with community school personnel, and various other professionals. I was responsible for coordinating team visits, sharing updates with the team, planning my instruction based on the parent wishes as well as student goals, and several other tasks associated with working in a highly collaborative early childhood setting as the Service Coordinator and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Teacher. To further demonstrate my ability to take on leadership as well as collaborate, I have provided several artifacts.
In my first artifact, I have a note left for a parent after I visited their child at a daycare setting. Even when I was unable to discuss progress with parents in person, I ensured that parents were aware of the fact that I had seen their child, were provided a brief overview of skills and progress, and had an option to contact me for more information or with any questions they may have. This is significant because as an ECSE Teacher, it was my role to maintain open communication and to coach families and care providers on ways to continue to help their child progress.
Another way I communicated with families was through mailing or providing meeting notices, prior written notices, and other documentation associated with their child's Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP). These documents make up my second artifact in this area. These documents notified families and team members about important meetings or changes to the IFSP. It allowed the team to communicate about goals and work with the family to determine an approach that would fit best with their lives.
My final artifacts demonstrates my transfer of this leadership and collaboration into the 3rd grade setting. The first is a letter introducing me to my families for my 3rd grade student teaching placement. Being open and providing opportunities for families and students to ask questions is a key component in establishing effective collaboration in the classroom. Additionally, the transfer of collaboration and leadership skills is demonstrated through my reflection upon a Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Kennedy Elementary School. This reflection demonstrates my ability to critically examine another teacher's approach to instruction and my work to incorporate aspects of it into my own classroom environment.