Portfolio Part Three

Portfolio Part Three Professional Responsibility

Hayley Simmons

Vermont State University- Castleton Campus

Spring 2024
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Introduction

The ways that students learn continue to evolve and change each year. The use of

technology has revolutionized and made learning more accessible to even the youngest of

students. It is the responsibility of the teacher to learn the new programs and methods that come

along with the technology revolution and to use them to help their students learn in unique and

individual ways. As a member of the teaching profession there are different levels of professional

learning and different avenues or pathways to take to achieve them. As a member of a school

district or grade team, the school or administration may choose to focus professional learning

time on a targeted goal. An example of this is the use of behavioral modification programs, ELA

and Literacy programs, Mathematics programs and even science and technology.

As a young teacher I have many different interests and see needs for my students at many

levels. In my first year I hope to develop different techniques of presenting structured

curriculum so that it keeps student interest and reaches a diverse learning population. Hopefully,

I can collaborate with veteran teachers in that content area and offer me insights and techniques.

In addition, I plan on entering a Masters Program that will allow me to continually learn and

grow.

Collaboration doesn’t stop there. Throughout my experiences I have worked with

professionals that allowed me to not only work within content areas, but across the disciplines.

This partnership explored linking the ELA. Mathematics, Social Studies and communication

standards, not only building on basic level skills, but incorporating the standards and skills with

the content. In some schools social studies and ELA are directly linked to ELA at the younger

grades. It has been my experience that the more I work with other teachers, the more techniques

and approaches I learn.

Standard 9 Professional Learning and Ethical Practice

PC 9.1 Candidates are prepared for self-directed, continuous professional learning.

Description

In order for professional development to be effective, it must start from real needs and

goals. There is no shortage of issues and problems that teachers need to address not only

individually but collectively. The most effective results come from the identification of a goal, a

collection of data and a short term and long term plan with input from all the stakeholders.

During my college experience I focused on what programs can be implemented in a rural school

system to help students progress both on content learning and social and emotional development.

It was based on the belief that learning does not have to take place in a traditional classroom.

The process gave me hope that working with others, doing research and proposing new solutions

to existing problems could lead to tangible and real results.

Salient Evidence & Analysis

In order for teachers to successfully teach their students, they need to have the

opportunity to stay up to date with all of the changes in education. For some, this may be hard to

obtain. So, there needs to be a solid professional development (PD) program for teachers . The

article, Designing Professional Development That Works, (2016) author Birman follows a study

with over a thousand teachers and how a new approach to professional development was

successful. The researchers created a program that would cover both math and science skills.
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They focused on form, duration, participation, content focus, active learning, and coherence.

These were both structural and characteristics of the program.

In the small, rural district of Rainforest, Washington, teachers participated in a five day

program over the summer. From then, the program stretched throughout the school year “through

in-class observations, modeling, and coaching of teachers by the district's well-respected science

coordinator” ( Birman, p.29). This school represented how the characteristics of the professional

development program were worth more than the form.

The difficulties that are faced with professional development are endless. There are few

teachers or professionals out there that are qualified to teach these classes and the cost of

enrolling in these programs. The more personal difficulties are the ability to make it to the

classes, and the feeling of it not being beneficial to them. What can be changed is how it is

delivered. In this particular study, they were attending a local college at night for night classes in

science and math. That is not a possibility for many people, and districts to fund. What can be a

new useful tool is the internet.

With the growth of technology, the ability to have teacher resources is now at your

fingertips. In the article, Online Professional Development for Teachers: A Brief Review, (2023)

author Islim Derya Deniz remarked, “The approach to teacher professional development has

shifted from traditional face-to-face training to more interactive web-based activities” ( Deniz, p.

1688)” Teachers in smaller, or more rural school districts face the same difficulties mentioned

above. There is a money issue, personal issues, and program issues. What most teachers don't

express is having a feeling of loneliness, or having a lack of resources. Many of the teachers I

have worked with prefer to do professional development with their colleagues and focus on real

needs within the school and their students. Some pursue alternative degrees and take classes
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based on skills and content they wish to learn about, but all seem to feel that professional

development is a lifelong process.

Being able to access professional development classes is a must for teachers to be able to

advance their teaching skills. “Online technologies have the potential to support more specialized

experiences for teacher professional development” ( Deniz, p1690) Teachers are using more

social media platforms to talk to each other, share their new or old ideas, and broaden their

knowledge on different skills and content areas. Learning on the Internet has led to teachers

being able to control what they learn, when they learn it, and how to apply it to their own

classroom. It gives them the ability to keep their personal lives the way they are, and keep their

professional learning during school hours or free time they are willing to dedicate.

Online professional development is a new and becoming tool. Including online resources

into the classroom has the ability to reduce the common issues that arise with typical PD

programs. Whether you are in a city school or rural school, there are very slim restrictions when

it comes to the Internet. The ability to communicate with other teachers has become something

that has changed the way teachers do things, like classroom management, creating different ways

of presenting information, and resources other teachers have made that can be used.

Continuing with the belief that education is ever changing, a project that I focused on,

discusses the effects of learning in and outside of the classroom. My Ill Structured Problem

focused on the ideas of Montessori Schools and Forest schools. Knowing that classrooms and

students are changing every year, I presented the idea of a new approach to learning, an outdoor

classroom. An outdoor classroom consisted of normal classroom activities but taught outside.

There have been countless studies done that have proven how effective learning can be in other

settings. The same can go for teachers learning.

Ill Structured Problem

Through my research, I discovered that outdoor classrooms tend to have positive effects

on problem solving skills, better test scores and GPA’s, decreased behavioral problems and help a

student develop a sense of self. I concluded that alternative learning settings and programs

address the different needs of learners and can be a turning point in how they learn and how they

see themselves as students. During my fall role as a long term sub in an elementary school, I

made the choice to use the outdoors for as much of the science curriculum as possible. The

students and I worked on topics involving conservation and understanding of the role of the

different animals in the ecosystem. The students loved it and liked being outdoors. We were able

to take abstract concepts out of the textbook and show it to them first hand. Many of the students

live on a farm and are involved in the ecosystem and they were able to show what they knew in

addition to what I was teaching. Moving into my own teaching career, I will use the outdoor

learning setting as much as possible. I will be invested in learning what kinds of science

standards can be linked to the environment. For grades four-six, this is a huge area of interest and

engagement.

Reflection

Being raised in the home of an educator, I grew up not only thriving in school, but

understanding the extra commitments, studying, analysis and preparation that goes into teaching.

I remember my mother balancing the needs of the job, her “ other “ children and our family. That

kind of understanding helped me to know I was choosing this profession for the right reasons and

not with false expectations. I chose this career because it is a calling and not a job. I chose to also

prepare myself by taking on substitute positions and working in schools all the while I was in

college. These experiences have confirmed what I already knew from watching my mother.
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Educators are not only ethical and practice legally based teaching practices, but go above and

beyond for children on a daily basis. While I have a passion for teaching grades four-six, I am

comfortable working with all elementary ages and spend a great deal of personal time

continuously learning and reflecting on how to be the best I can for all learners.

I am excited to enter the field after graduation and will be learning both professionally

and personally my entire life. Some of my knowledge will come from course work, professional

development and training, but the bulk will come from my students and the relationships I form

and the learning that occurs for all of us.

Standard 10: Leadership and Collaboration

PC 10.1 Candidates are prepared to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school

professionals, and community members to ensure student learning.

Description

When Helen Keller remarked, "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,”

she was actually providing for teachers a statement of what is possible with collaboration,

leadership and learning . How people live their lives, how they think, how they eat, worship, play

and dream are ways that can be incorporated into how we learn content. The classrooms I have

seen that students remember long after they have left were not about content, but the culture,

stories and habits of how people and communities come together. Parents, coaches,

paraprofessionals, janitors, lunch staff and more all have a part to play in the story of how a child

is educated.
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My goal as an educator is to work with leaders and be a leader that brings together the

people and resources available to help the child grow and be successful. That growth will look

different for each child.

Salient Evidence & Analysis

In order for students to learn about the past, they need to hear it from someone who has

experienced it. In the article, “Storytelling, Oral History, and Building the Library Community

Storytelling, Self, Society (2023) Renate and Lee share the idea of story telling. “The aim of oral

history is to shed light on the past, inform the present and inspire the future by reflecting on prior

experiences” (Chancellor, 39). The idea of storytelling has been around for centuries. This helps

connect the past to the present in a way that is inviting to people of all ages. It has been found

that storytelling has been in library programming since the early twentieth century. This model

can be effective for all ages, but more importantly students. From past experiences, it has been

found that students are more engaged when stories are made personal. That could be anything

from telling a student how your grandparents came to a new country when discussing Ellis Island

or the Industrial Revolution, or how George Washington stayed in small Washington County,

New York during the Revolutionary War. History is best understood when it is brought to life.

“Before the invention of writing, early human societies stored and transferred information

orally, through speaking, listening and remembering” (Chancellor, 40). Everything we as

teachers teach students comes from something that was orally told beforehand, then transformed

through word of mouth as the years have gone on. Oral history can be adapted in many different

ways, which can always turn beneficial for a learner in the classroom, or even outside of

classroom-age learning. In addition to enriching content knowledge and historical understanding,

oral histories provide a bridge between generations and give personal meaning and content to the

individual.

In order for students to learn about the past, it is best to have the whole community

involved. “About 50 years of research has revealed the striking benefits of schools actively

partnering with families to improve their child's learning” (Ross, 2023). It was found during

COVID that families knew more about education than they thought they did. Since then, teachers

have tried to find ways to incorporate families into the daily lessons so that the students are

essentially learning more during the school day than they think they are.

Karen Mapp, a renowned family engagement specialist, wrote a book titled Everyone

Wins! The Evidence For Family-School Partnerships & Implications for Practice. In this book

she discussed “who benefits from effective family-school-community partnerships and what is

the return on their investment” (Ross, 2023). What was found was that everyone including

students, educators, families, schools, school districts, and communities.

In order for you to be able to have effective partnerships between schools and families,

you need a few things. The first thing is a “successful family engagement requires resources,

infrastructure, and leadership” (Ross, 2023). There needs to be an importance put on parents and

community ties. Without these, there is no success. The second thing “Educators need to be

intentional about building relationships based on mutual respect and trust” (Ross, 2023). Schools

have not been able to accommodate families of all backgrounds, more so the ones who suffer

from generational disrespect. There needs to be options or resources for all types of families, of

all different kinds of backgrounds. With that, there needs to be a type of training or support to

work with families from these different backgrounds. There needs to be an “unlearning" in some

communities and a re-learning of how these families live and make it through life. Some other
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things are “Communication early on while keeping it clear and consistent, not forgetting about

equity, and showing some love” (Ross, 2023) to these students, as some are simply just not

given it.

When teaching, I have found that it is easier to explain something when it is related to

something the students are familiar with or a story of it happening in real life. I can see myself

employing these skills in my own classroom because they are beneficial to students. When

discussing things like 9/11 on September 11th, no book will ever do it justice. However, reading

stories from survivors, using those descriptive words to explain their emotions that day will help

the students to truly imagine what that day was like. No matter what subject it is, somehow, some

way, students will get more out of a story than they would an informal text.

Connecting parents, students and community members to learning takes planning and

forethought. There are many exciting ways to have people be a part of a child’s life and many

different ways to engage them in sharing their own life stories. Oral histories, traditions, foods,

celebrations are incredibly strong memories for children and adults. When I create a unit that

talks about different generations and eras, it is planned to involve different people in the lives of

the child in the learning process.

Unit Plan Decade Week

The Unit Plan Zooming Through the Decades has three main goals. First, it is to learn

about American history from the 1950's-1980's and identify key events and concepts that

happened. The second goal is to take that information and to work in groups to present a concept

and their learning about a specific decade. The materials used to teach the history include vetted

history sites, videos, materials from other teachers, and included music and food. This was tied

into other classes as they would play games in physical education and explore music with the
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music teacher. In the classroom, I incorporated the content into math, literacy, reading, science,

writing and group work. The children were encouraged to go home and talk about the different

decades with their parents and grandparents. Also a fun activity was to look at their parents' old

yearbooks and they could come to school dressed like the decade they were learning about.

While I have not yet taught this unit, I have already plans on how to expand it to a

Decades Night at school with music, slide shows and activities including dances, hola -hoops and

more. This will be open to parents, families and the students and will bring them together to

share memories, have fun and see the school as a place where families can join.

Zooming Through the Decades

This presentation was for my peers and focused on how to create this unit and how to

engage students and the community in learning together. My classmates thought it was different

and really engaging to learn about. Even my professor supplied experiences and memories about

the decades of her youth. It was easy to see how this type of research and oral history would be

an easy way to engage many different generations of people in learning about the past.

Reflection

The key to successful learning is collaboration at many different levels. Through my

observations and research I have seen the power of teachers who communicate, plan and reflect

on problems together. I have seen how my peers and I can come together, research and create

solutions to real world educational problems. And most importantly, I have focused on how

learning should not exist in isolation. The parents, the community and members of the children's

lives should be engaged and involved whenever possible. The stronger the bond between the

child and the learning, the more powerful the impact.

In my own life, one of the strongest success stories I have seen was when a student at the

school was diagnosed with terminal cancer when she was twelve years old. The students planned

and raised money for cancer and for her family. We held fun runs and spirit week that raised

money for her. Even a local golf course made a tournament event to benefit her. While she lost

her battle with cancer, the process we went through as a community changed each of us and our

understanding of what is possible. Even today, events are carried out in her name and the

proceeds go to her foundation. The students and the community wanted to help and found ways

to do so.

Another way that I have seen the community engaged with children is through sports.

There has always been a tradition of varsity players in the summer teaching younger athletes the

skills they need and how to be a team player. This is a form of mentoring and makes connections

between ages that last far after the summer program. It is a proven fact that mentors are key in

the lives of younger children and even when its adults mentoring other adults there can be huge

benefits in spending time with and learning from other people.

My goal as a teacher is to take the lessons and the ability to research and plan to make a

difference in the collaboration between whatever school I work in and the community that is

around it. The more people involved in the lives of children, the more opportunities for

connections and for the child to grow up healthy, happy and successful in their own life.

Portfolio Part Three Final Reflection

This portion of the portfolio has focused on the importance of teachers being lifelong

learners and taking their professional learning personally and seriously. In addition, the teacher

also is a part of a learning community that can include family, grandparents, coaches, student
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mentors, other professionals and that together collaboration can impact how a child learns and

grows. My research confirmed for me that professional development needs to be focused and

effective and that there are many pathways a teacher can use to learn.

In addition, students respond more when learning takes on a personal connection and that

when something peaks their interest, they are willing to engage in many different ways. Learning

is not isolated to the classroom and a teacher is not the only source of new learning. There is an

old expression that to raise a child it takes a village and in all the research supports that this is in

fact a wonderful way to look at education. It does not only happen in the school and it should

include important people in the lives of the child.

Sources

Birman , Beatrice, et al. “Designing Professional Development That Works.” Designing

Professional Development That Works ,

outlier.uchicago.edu/computerscience/OS4CS/landscapestudy/resources/Birman-Desimo

ne-Porter-and-Garet-2000.pdf. Accessed 11 Feb. 2024.

Deni̇ z, İslim Derya, and Birsen Bağçeci̇ . “Online Professional Development for Teachers: A

Brief Review.” Electronic Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 22, no. 88, Oct. 2023, pp.

1687–96. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.17755/esosder.1276982.

Renate Chancellor, and Shari Lee. “Storytelling, Oral History, and Building the Library

Community.” Storytelling, Self, Society, vol. 12, no. 1, 2016, pp. 39–54. JSTOR,

https://doi.org/10.13110/storselfsoci.12.1.0039. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.

The case for strong family and community engagement in schools. Harvard Graduate School of

Education. (n.d.).

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/23/03/case-strong-family-and-com

munity-engagement-schools