Reflection of Program Standard for EDU6134 Professional Issues /Abuse

8.2 Growing and Developing Professionally

Teacher welcomes feedback from colleagues when made by supervisors or when opportunities arise through professional collaboration.

                                                                                   

This program standard is an important one.  As educators, we must be willing to both give and take advice from our colleagues in order to better our practices as teachers.  Teaching is not a profession to be kept within a bubble (or single classroom).  There is always some idea, concept, or understanding that can be implemented for improvement.  By opening our doors and inviting these opportunities for growth into our classrooms, we are giving the gift of what learning truly is to our students.  The acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught, that is learning and that is a goal for that we need to carry within ourselves and share with those for whom we teach.

          Although I am currently the teacher of record at a small private school, my mentor teacher recently presented me with a wonderful opportunity for collaboration.  She invited me to co-teach both in her classroom and in mine.   We both teach the same group of students and know them well by this point in the year.  Our goal is to learn from one another the best way of reaching our students.  We have spent time observing one another’s classroom placement ideas.  We have discussed who works best together for group work.  We now are going to do a little bit of team teaching.  This should be a great change for the students and a way to give us both new perspective on teaching.  I am looking forward to this opportunity and I appreciate my mentor teacher going the extra mile to make this happen.

          Per Harry Wong, “Professionals do not work alone; they work in teams.  When teachers meet in teams to focus on a problem, they become part of a unit that will work with students who are in need of help” (p.334, 2006).  This is a valuable paradigm to teach by.  At our recent end of trimester parent teacher conferences, my teacher team and I sat down together with our parents (and in some cases the student as well).  This was such a wonderful balance of ideas.  We could tailor what was appropriate to share without overwhelming our parents and we could collectively decide on the key take aways we wanted to endow upon each family.

          As I have learned firsthand in my teaching experience and conceptually through my SPU courses, “Collaboration is the most effective way for teachers to learn” (p.334, 2006).  For me, growing in the profession of education will not occur unless I surround myself with those who are willing to share and grow alongside me,

References

Green, C. A. (2006). The first days of school: How effective teachers teach classroom management.

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