Domain 2: Classroom Environment
2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
A few weeks into my fourth quarter student teaching placement, a rather extraordinary tragedy took place. A teacher was fired, leaving a vacant position at the high school, and a desperate need for a long-term substitute teacher. I was asked to fill the position. Among my two classes of juniors and four classes of freshmen, it became very apparent that these students were not accustomed to a structured, disciplined, rigorous learning environment. I was able to change that, and within the first two weeks of instruction the classroom atmosphere improved drastically, as evidenced by this classroom observation from my practicum supervisor.
2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning
When I first entered a long-term substitute position for a group of freshman, I found that the students didn't seem to understand the purpose of an English class. They had been popcorn reading a rather dry and arduous textbook version of the Odyssey for several days, and were ready to move onto something they felt was relevant. In order to refocus our efforts on necessary skills and standards, I wrote the prompt for their final essay up on the board as a goal for them to work towards, and designed discussions and assignments that were directly related to answering the prompt. The main issue in the prompt was determining what defines and true hero, and arguing whether or not Odysseus was a true hero. To find and cite relevant examples from the text, students created timelines of events. With a partner, they decided what they believed were the ten most significant events of the Odyssey, and evaluated the hero's actions in this event, searching for both heroic and non-heroic traits.
2d: Managing Student Behavior
The artifact I chose for this domain is a formal evaluation of my time teaching middle school band. While this document covers a great deal of material, I believe it paints a very vivid and accurate picture of the way my classroom runs and functions. I am a strong believer that most behavioral issues are a result of students being bored or confused, and I constantly strive to develop creative and engaging lessons, and to present these lessons with clear instructions and realistic expectations. This evaluation attests to that.