Dispositions+Self-Assessment


 * Disposition 1 Self-Assessment: Values Change as the Source of Opportunity for Improvement**

The lives of the students that I teach are constantly evolving. From interests, to relationships, to opportunities, students are never the same from year-to-year. Because my students’ lives are always changing, by necessity, the way I think about teaching must reflect this situation. In order to remain an effective teacher, I must continually repackage both my content and teaching methods in order to remain relevant to my students.

Currently, I believe that I embrace changes to the content I teach. As a Language Arts teacher, I strive to foster an appreciation for literature in my students by keeping up with current reading trends. I am continually researching the latest and most popular books that teens are reading and I find ways to use these texts as a way to help students make connections between popular texts and canonical texts. Without connecting the classics to the contemporary interests and issues that my students face, they lose their relevance. In the past, students may have accepted that a piece of literature was great because the teacher said so but today, I recognize that I must reach into their lives in order to help them see why some literature is considered timeless.

Not only do I strive to embrace change in my content, but I also see it as a vital component to effective teaching methods. Five years ago, as I was graduating from college, I realized that I didn’t know much about using technology in the classroom. Quickly, I found that my students were not engaged with the content and the lessons that I was putting together. After polling my classes, it became abundantly clear to me that it wasn’t the content that the students hated, it was that they had been doing the same types of assignments throughout their entire school careers.

I quickly realized that I needed to change my teaching methods to more accurately reflect the social lives of my students, and adding a technology component to my lessons was one answer. I began to look into the possibilities that technology offered to my students when discussing books, and as a result, I developed online book discussions where my students were chatting about their books with college students from across the state using Google Groups. The students loved the change in teaching methods and produced much more high quality discussions online than I was seeing in class.

As I continued to use Google Groups for a few years, I realized that this too was becoming outdated, so I continued to seek change. As of this year, my students now use Facebook to engage in their literature discussions and multimedia projects. Using Facebook takes school work one step closer to reflecting my students’ social exchanges, and it ahs added relevance and excitement to the content I am attempting to teach my students.

With today’s fast-paced, ever-changing social climate, teachers are forced to continually repackage both their content and techniques in order to remain relevant. The idea of continual change is exciting to me, as it will force me to look into new ideas and adapt as better, more effective teaching opportunities arise. A s new teacher, I certainly see the value of change, and I plan on continuing to adapt to the times as long as I teach.

As a teacher who is early in my career, I believe I am, by necessity, receptive to others’ ideas. When I first got my job as West De Pere High School, I was a first year teacher in a department with nearly 180 years of combined teaching experience! Although the personal experiences between my fellow co-workers and me were vastly different, we worked collaboratively to design units and lessons. I learned a tremendous amount from these veteran teachers, and my teaching abilities were enhanced by being open to modifying my practice.
 * Disposition 2 Self-Assessment: Display the ability to understand people and relations and be receptive to the ideas of others**

After my first year of teaching was complete, all four of the most veteran teachers retired, and our school hired four first year teachers to take their place. This major change in staff tested my ability to understand people and be open to new ideas once again. These four talented individuals brought new perspectives and energy to our department, and as a result, we had to re-create our department philosophy to accommodate new ideas and interests.

Although I believe I’ve had a lot of experience in collaborative planning and trying to allow everyone to have a voice, I think I still have a long way to go. Sometimes, I feel that I speak too quickly or may dominate conversation, which stifles ideas. Sometimes, even if I have a clear opinion, I think I need to allow others to toss ideas around first before I add my two cents.

As a new department chair next year, this ability to allow for confident voices during meetings and everyday interactions will be extremely important. So far, I think I’m doing a good job of delegating work in order allow for these voices to come out, but I need to remain cognizant of the ways I am perceived by students and co-workers as well as the roles that they see themselves fitting into. By working to create spaces for individual voices, I believe the department will function at its best which will result in the optimal experience for our students.


 * Disposition 3 Self-Assessment: Shows a willingness to implement non-discriminatory access, accommodations, and assessments**

Since my students come from a variety of social, economic, and cultural backgrounds, I need to offer multiple modes of assessment and teaching techniques for them. One way that my current teaching allows for non-discriminatory access is through my assessment of literature discussions. Typically, I require my students to complete literature discussions in online forums because I can see how each student responds and meet each students’ individual needs. In this mode of assessment, I am offering my students non-discriminatory access to their voice because they each can respond when they choose (instead of on the spot), and each student’s ideas are able to be posted rather than a classroom discussion that is dominated by a few outgoing students.

However, economically, the online discussions are discriminatory to students who do not have access to the internet or a computer at home. To accommodate for these students, I modify assignments so they are still able to write down their comments, and I print off the online discussions, so they can still benefit from what other students have said. In this way, I believe my modifications also allow for non-discriminatory access to information and learning.

I do recognize that I have a ways to go in this area though. By adding options to assignments and essay prompts, I can allow students to discover their passions and demonstrate their knowledge in the ways that they are the most comfortable with. I generally try to create modifications for students who approach me with suggestions, but I also could be better with recognizing when students need modifications and are unwilling or unaware that they could get more out of a modified assignment. I will also continue to work with my Special Ed. teaching staff and the students in the program to develop appropriate assignments and assessments for these learners. The time is a major factor inhibiting me from creating these modifications, but I can continue to be aware and work toward differentiation for each student.

This disposition hits at the core of a fundamental debate in 21st century education. As a teacher who uses technology in nearly every class, what is my responsibility to students who come from different socio-economic backgrounds? There are some families in my district who cannot afford computers, cell phones, and internet at home. On the other hand, there are families that are saturated in technology and have multiple computers and the latest cellular technology. There are also families that have the means to acquire technology, but refuse to on moral grounds.
 * Disposition 4 Self-Assessment: Demonstrate empathetic understanding of diversity in all domains.** 

With all of the different technology situations that my students face, I find it difficult to come to decisions relating to technology use and requirements in my classes. For example, is requiring a student who doesn’t have internet at home to come into the computer lab before school to do online posting discriminatory or liberating? If I don’t require the student to use the technology because it isn’t as convenient for him/her to access the internet, this student will fall behind the learning curve even more, and be more likely to be left out of the types of jobs that will lead him/her out of poverty. However, if I require this student to use the technology despite limited access, it could be seen as punishing the student for not having the technology or not being empathetic to his/her financial situation.

This technological issue is one of the main problems I am having philosophically with being empathetic to all areas of diversity. I just can’t definitively decide where I stand on the issue. Currently, I allow students without access at home the option to submit paper assignments that are modified, but those students lose out on the skills and the collaborative experience that online assignments offer. I am always aware of these diversity issues, but at this point, I think I am still developing my philosophy regarding access to technology and the responsibility of a 21st century education.

In other aspects of diversity, I believe I am very empathetic. We read a lot of literature that discusses touchy cultural subjects. When running class discussions, I try to keep in mind what I know about students’ different backgrounds in an attempt to have everyone feel as comfortable as possible with participating in a very “real” discussion. I also try to keep in mind the backgrounds of my co-workers and parents of my students whenever I am communicating or creating educational experiences. I believe that a good teacher must be constantly conscious of gender, racial, cultural, and socio-economic diversity when doing his/her job.


 * Disposition 5 Self-Assessment: Regularly reflect upon the philosophical assumptions, ethical principles, and rationale that guides one’s practice**

This, of all the dispositions, is the one I believe I am the strongest at. I am constantly reflecting on my practice as a teacher, whether it is by thinking about strengths and weaknesses of a lesson, reading the latest educational theory, or having philosophical discussions with my co-workers. Thinking and talking about education is my passion, and I truly enjoy finding new ways to improve my craft.

One new way that I will be developing this disposition next year is through becoming the department chair. One of the roles my administration expects from this position is to reflect on the practices that are going on in our departments. My principal, who is a big fan of the book __Seven Habits of Highly Effective People__ is constantly telling us to “sharpen our saws.” This can be done through analyzing test data, looking at lesson plan structure, planning collaboratively, holding regular department meetings to discuss our teaching practices, doing classroom walk-throughs, keeping up with the latest literature on teaching reading and writing, as well as general teaching theory, and instilling the value of being a reflective practitioner in each one of my colleagues.

I also believe that articulating these principles and philosophies helps to establish them in actual practice. If we know what we stand for, we are more likely to put it into practice. I believe that I have a good start on this disposition, and I look forward to continuing to work with my enthusiastic and high achieving colleagues.


 * Disposition 6 Self-Reflection: Understands oneself as a learner and values learning as a core capacity

This disposition is another of my strengths. I continually strive to be a student of my craft, and I act on that by continually seeking out new knowledge, techniques, and professional development. As an English teacher, it is important that I am well-read on literature that my students would actually read for fun. Because of that, I must stay on top of the latest teen trends in reading. I do this by attending multiple conferences and author visits throughout the year, checking the American Library Association book lists, and buying and reading the latest books to come out by popular authors. This allows me to be effective by gaining the trust of my students who may not like to read. If I can recommend a book to them that they enjoy, they will be more likely to listen to me the next time I offer a book suggestion. **

I also understand that I am the type of learner who enjoys reading pedagogical research and the latest methods of teaching and ideas about English, specifically. In addition to the conferences I attend, I also subscribe to many of the major English publications and frequently browse them for new ideas and information. As a learner, I also benefit from sharing my ideas, so I frequently share articles with my colleagues and engage in pedagogical discussions with them later.

I also found that I learn the most when I produce something or am able to teach something. Therefore, I’ve tried to incorporate educational research into my own classroom, and then share it through presentations at conferences and staff development sessions. In the past two years, I have presented my technology research at four state and national conferences as well as numerous local venues. The next step for me is to publish some of my ideas in a journal or a book. The process I have to go through in creating publications or presentations helps me to solidify my own ideas about classroom practice, and as a result, I become a better teacher by sharing my work.

Finally, as an English teacher, I need to continue to push myself as a master of literature as well. This is one area that I need to keep working on, particularly within the literary cannon. I am kind of weak in my knowledge of the Classics, and need to continue to push myself to read and understand new works. This will give me better perspective on the works that I teach my students.