Teaching Standards

Iowa Teaching Standards

1. DEMONSTRATES ABILITY TO ENHANCE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND SUPPORT FOR AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT'S STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT GOALS.

The teacher:
a. Provides evidence of student learning to students, families, and staff.

Parent Email 
Assessment scores- sent home monthly. 
Bedrock word scores

b. Implements strategies supporting student, building, and district goals.

Observation Feedback 
Lesson Plan Feedback

c. Uses student performance data as a guide for decision making.

Assessment scores
Bedrock Words scores

d. Accepts and demonstrates responsibility for creating a classroom culture that supports the learning of every student.

Observation feedback
Peer Observation

e. Creates an environment of mutual respect, rapport, and fairness.

DoJO 
Behavior Chart
Individual Student behavior Chart 

f. Participates in and contributes to a school culture that focuses on improved student learning.

Dojo

g. Communicates with students, families, colleagues, and communities effectively and accurately.

Parent Communication
Monthly Letter
Blog 
DoJo
2. DEMONSTRATES COMPETENCE IN CONTENT KNOWLEDGE APPROPRIATE TO THE TEACHING POSITION.

The teacher:
a. Understands and uses key concepts, underlying themes, relationships, and different perspectives related to the content area.

Lesson Plans

b. Uses knowledge of student development to make learning experiences in the content area meaningful and accessible for every student.

Lesson Plans- Scroll to writing

c. Relates ideas and information within and across content areas.

Lesson Plans

d. Understands and uses instructional strategies that are appropriate to the content area.

Lesson Plans
Observation Feedback
3. DEMONSTRATES COMPETENCE IN PLANNING AND PREPARING FOR INSTRUCTION.

The teacher:
a. Uses student achievement data, local standards and the district curriculum in planning for instruction.

Lesson Plans

b. Sets and communicates high expectations for social, behavioral, and academic success of all students.

DoJO 
Behavior Chart
Student Individual Behavior Chart 

c. Uses student developmental needs, background, and interests in planning for instruction.

Lesson Plans

d. Selects strategies to engage all students in learning.

Lesson Plans
Observation

e. Uses available resources, including technologies, in the development and sequencing of instruction.

Observation
4. USES STRATEGIES TO DELIVER INSTRUCTION THAT MEETS THE MULTIPLE LEARNING NEEDS OF STUDENTS.

The teacher:
a. Aligns classroom instruction with local standards and district curriculum.

Observation
Lesson Plans

b. Uses research-based instructional strategies that address the full range of cognitive levels.

Observation
Lesson Plans

c. Demonstrates flexibility and responsiveness in adjusting instruction to meet student needs.

Observation
Lesson Plans

d. Engages students in varied experiences that meet diverse needs and promote social, emotional, and academic growth.

Observation
Lesson Plans
Student work

e. Connects students' prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests in the instructional process.

Lesson Plans
Student work

f. Uses available resources, including technologies, in the delivery of instruction.

Lesson Plans
Student Work
Observation
5. USES A VARIETY OF METHODS TO MONITOR STUDENT LEARNING.

The teacher:
a. Aligns classroom assessment with instruction.

Lesson Plans

b. Communicates assessment criteria and standards to all students and parents.

Parent Contact

c. Understands and uses the results of multiple assessments to guide planning and instruction.

Lesson Plans

d. Guides students in goal setting and assessing their own learning.

Peer Observation

e. Provides substantive, timely, and constructive feedback to students and parents.

Parent Contact

f. Works with other staff and building and district leadership in analysis of student progress.

Peer Observation
6. DEMONSTRATES COMPETENCE IN CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT.

The teacher:
a. Creates a learning community that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement, and self-regulation for every student.

DoJo

b. Establishes, communicates, models and maintains standards of responsible student behavior.

DoJo 
Observation

c. Develops and implements classroom procedures and routines that support high expectations for learning.

DoJO 
Lesson Plans

d. Uses instructional time effectively to maximize student achievement.

Lesson Plans

e. Creates a safe and purposeful learning environment.

Individual Student Behavior Chart
Parent Teacher Conference Schedule

7. ENGAGES IN PROFESSIONAL GROWTH.

The teacher:
a. Demonstrates habits and skills of continuous inquiry and learning.

Peer Observation
Observation 

b. Works collaboratively to improve professional practice and student learning.

Observation

c. Applies research, knowledge, and skills from professional development opportunities to improve practice.

Lesson Plans
Observation

d. Establishes and implements professional development plans based upon the teacher needs aligned to the Iowa Teaching Standards and district/building student achievement goals.

Lesson Plan Feedback

8. FULFILLS PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES ESTABLISHED BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.

The teacher:
a. Adheres to board policies, district procedures, and contractual obligations.

b. Demonstrates professional and ethical conduct as defined by state law and individual district policy.

Solutions Form

c. Contributes to efforts to achieve district and building goals.

Solutions 
Peer Observations

d. Demonstrates an understanding of and respect for all learners and staff.

Observation

e. Collaborates with students, families, colleagues, and communities to enhance student learning.

Peer Observations
Parent Contact
Blog
Solutions

Writing

Wow! I haven't blogged in forever! One of my reading groups have really been working hard on a writing project that goes along with a nonfiction text they read about Hamsters. Today's blog is about the steps we took to get to our final project.

First students read a book and book marked 3 pages they thought were the most interesting. The next step was to take those pages and write a quick note/idea on a graphic organizer (see rocket page in picture). The next step was probably the hardest because we couldn't "copy" what the the author wrote because that is cheating. The best thing about this conversation is our media specialist's word of the week this week is Plagiarism! Students will already know about that when they get to library today!!! The last step was writing sentences about hamsters. We learned that even though we titled our paper, the title wasn't the beginning of our first sentence. They did great with this, and I'm hoping to do more pre-writing like this as an entire class! These 4 students will be able to help others as I introduce it in the classroom! Check out the pictures below of our pre-writing and our final paper..... The best is we didn't "copy" the author!!

Math 101

Today is a complete SUCCESS for my math lesson- it's not that I taught the greatest lesson or was at the top of my game- the success goes to my STUDENTS!!! I wish that someone could have been in my room with me today to hear the group discussion and also a small group discussion I had as  I was challenging 3 students. Well, nobody was in here so I'm "bragging" about my students today!
In large group we did a 5 minute activity that turned into 20 because of GREAT Thinking!! We were looking at groups and making one or two less. The problem that turned into a great discussion was we had 6 dots. What number of dots would we have if we had one less? I let students think about it and the discussion just went on and on. When I asked students how they knew there would be 5 dots left the students told me because there will be a group of 2 and a group of 3 and that makes 5. Other students told me that there is a group of 2 another group of 2 and one left so that makes 5. I have attached a picture to this blog to show you the reasoning students knew there would be 5.

Later during the math lesson I was challenging a group of 3 students. We had to represent a number and then build/change that number. Each student had 3 ten frames. We had a discussion about counting by 10s and how many squares were in front of students. Students started with having to represent the number 20. They had to build off 20 to make 25. Students did that quickly and I thought hmm that's too easy. So I had students clear their ten frames. I then flipped over 23. One student said, "Mrs. Earle I could have kept 25 and turned it into 27 easier." My heart stopped at this moment and I held back the tears of pride and smiled and gave him a high five. As we continued, they had to change 23 to 17. The same student said, "I know two full cards is 20 and that's too many." He quickly pulled off 3 more cards and was done. This was the first day I challenged students with this instruction of this math activity-
I can't be happier or more proud of all 3 students for going the extra mile in math today.

This goes to show that students will do what we ask and what we expect- yes, they may be 5/6 but they CAN and WILL do what we push them to do!

Interactive Writing

In writing, math, and for our morning message I have put a twist on writing. Students have shown in reading group what great writers they are becoming by writing words we know and also sentences in their journal. I have put a twist on group writing. It is NO longer teacher directed!!! It's been great to have students help me with our writing ideas. It does take a lot longer for the whole group lesson model to get completed, but it's definitely MORE engaging for our students.

What am I doing differently? Simple! I am no longer writing the entire idea students have for our model sentence. Students are helping me! See the picture below to see an example. Students are helping me with beginning letters of words because of the sounds they know, they are writing sight words we have worked on, and they are writing the punctuation needed to end a sentence. What am I doing? I am helping fill in words that students aren't sure of how to spell. For example I fill in the e on likes because it's not a sound we hear. I also wrote the word named because it isn't a word that we know yet. I also ask questions as students write- for instance when we wrote likes in the picture, the first time we had a capital L. I asked the student if likes is the first word. The student responded, "No." I continued the discussion by asking if it's not the first word do we need it to be capitalized? He new it should be lowercase l. It was great to see him thinking and change his writing! We do make sure that words are spelled correctly when we do interactive writing, but as you can see, some letters are written backwards- I'm okay with that because that is developmental and will come the more we write.

Deciding to do more writing was a difficult decision to make because I knew it would take longer and wasn't sure students would sit for the amount of time it takes... Boy was I wrong! They LOVE it and can't wait to come up and have a turn helping me write a sentence!

Kindergarten Around the World

I'm so thankful that our media specialist told me about this project! Our class has a partner class with a Kindergarten in Canada. We have had a lot of fun learning about Canada. Students can tell you what the flag looks like in Canada, that they don't have a president but instead have a Prime Minister. They can also tell you that Canadians like to play hockey and their national song is O Canada.

Today we sent our first Tweet to the class from Canada to answer. We told them that we say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning- we asked if they say any kind of a pledge. We also made a video to send them of us doing the pledge- Unfortunately it didn't upload to my youtube account.... so my goal is to get that figured out by Friday- if it doesn't upload, I may just attach the file to an email to the classroom teacher.

Students are sad to see our friend Cole Cougar leave the classroom, but we are sending it to Canada. they are sending us a wolf. I'm excited for students to take turns taking the wolf home and writing a sentence about what they did with the wolf. We will use this as a journal for the project and I'm not sure if we will add this to a blog or how to share with the other class. I'm still trying to work some parts of my ideas out-

We are also graphing weather in Toronto, Canada and comparing it to our weather- we were a little surprised that it was  warmer in Canada than it was in Iowa the other day.

I know I'm going to need a lot of support with this project, but I'm very excited to get it rolling!

Thanksgiving

Well, I am very proud to say that I "recycled" something my daughter did in school about Thanksgiving. We made bracelets to help us tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. I first read the book The Very First Thanksgiving Day. The story was great because it would tell a little about the first Thanksgiving and then it would repeat during the story. We took that information and made story bracelets. We took a pipe cleaner and added 8 beads to the pipe cleaner. They went in this order and for these reasons:

White: represents the pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower
Blue: represents the ocean the pilgrims sailed on.
Black: The storms endured during the trip
Green: Celebrating a new land
Brown: eating Turkey
Corn: Indians helped them to grow corn
Red: Red berries they found together to eat
Orange: Pumpkin Pie

The best part of this project- is students could repeat the story and tell their parents the story of the first Thanksgiving.- This is definitely something I want to remember to do  next year!!

Reading:

We are really picking up on words when we are doing our independent reading. This week we starting writing all the words we recognize as we read on post it notes. Students stick them on the door when they are done to showcase what we found. Later in the day we read our words to the class. They are very proud of showing other students what they found. Some students are writing letters they recognize because they are not quite ready for words- But I'm glad they are showing what they know and can transfer reading/writing!! :)