Educators have the knowledge and skills to facilitate learning for all students and know when to seek additional support for their practice. Educators thoughtfully consider all aspects of teaching, from planning through reporting, and understand the relationships among them. Educators employ a variety of instructional and assessment strategies.

REFLECTION

          For this TRB standard, I have chosen to include a unit plan on family, which I taught in my kindergarten practicum.  This unit plan is an example of my planning skills, as per this TRB standard.  Through creating this unit plan, I learned how to sequence and scaffold learning, find appropriate resources, and adjust my next lesson based on feedback from the students.  Creating this unit plan allowed me to see the main goals for the entire unit (or the “big rocks”), as opposed to details of each individual lesson, as I was able to guide the students to make connections between different aspects of their learning.

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          This evidence piece has helped give me insight into looking at the big rocks - or the most important goals - of our learning.  What do we really want the students to walk away with?  What are the utmost priorities?  What is authentic for me in my teaching?  These questions become a lot clearer through developing unit plans, versus one-off lesson plans.  Unit planning has helped me see not only what is important for one subject, but how it may tie in to others as well, creating cross-curricular, engaging lessons within the same themed unit.  Within the family unit, we can do math, art, and social studies, giving students an opportunity to explore various ideas in different ways and practice multiple skills.  When we look at the big picture as we plan for entire units, we allow for deeper interdisciplinary learning.

          This evidence piece incorporates different learning styles by considering differentiation within each lesson.  Additionally, each lesson lends to different learning styles, with kinaesthetic, aural, and visual cues, to name a few.  This allows all students to be considered and supported for each lesson to facilitate learning, as outlined by this TRB standard.  When we use cross-curricular and multi-modal approaches to the same idea we create greater student interest and learning outcomes.

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          A strength of my chosen evidence is that this is not a theoretical plan I may or may not use one day, but one that I carried out successfully in a classroom.  Since I have already tried it once, I have an understanding of how I can modify it to suit future classrooms should the opportunity arise.

          This TRB standard is important to me because, especially as a new teacher, I can never be over-planned!  I would rather be in a class with more teaching material than I need than to run out of activities and be scrambling for something to do with the students.  Going in with a well thought-out plan that can be adjusted to students’ needs is going to help both the students and I succeed.  My mother is a teacher, and she always tells me, “The first year is the hardest.”  I know it will be easier if I’m armed with resources, support, plans, back-up plans, and strategies, as per this TRB standard. 

          I will hold this TRB standard true as I grow as a teacher because I will continue to improve how I plan, strategize, and assess new students every year.  The lessons that worked last year may not be right for the next year’s class, or my assessments may have to change as curriculum, student needs, and my teaching evolves.

          Through the planning process and this TRB standard, my understanding of learning priorities for each class will become fully formed.  Planning, like all learning, is fluid.  It is my belief is that just as the young minds we influence, our planning and instruction should be malleable and reflective of the informed, day-to-day needs of our students.