Standard 1: Knowledge of Subject Matter
I find it important to go the extra mile and truly understand the subject matter I am teaching. Teachers can't know everything, therefore, it is critical that I am resourceful and take the time to learn the subject matter. Although I have artifacts of some papers from my college classes (Geology and Elementary Math for Teachers), I find it important to show that the same skills I had in college to get good grades and learn new material have transferred to my teaching when in the classroom. I study the subject matter before I teach it so I am able to explain it step-by-step.
The first picture shows the "Fossilization Process" that I taught my second graders. Although during my geology class I took Junior year helped me understand most of the fossilization process, I still had to read many resources online, talk to my lead teacher and other teachers to truly understand the subject matter. For example: I did not know before teaching this lesson that the minerals and water seep into the bones and that is eventually how the bone turns into a stone. We reviewed the poster every day and taped on the important words with pictures later the week. Eventually, my students were able to make a flip book explaining the fossilization process themselves.
The first picture shows the "Fossilization Process" that I taught my second graders. Although during my geology class I took Junior year helped me understand most of the fossilization process, I still had to read many resources online, talk to my lead teacher and other teachers to truly understand the subject matter. For example: I did not know before teaching this lesson that the minerals and water seep into the bones and that is eventually how the bone turns into a stone. We reviewed the poster every day and taped on the important words with pictures later the week. Eventually, my students were able to make a flip book explaining the fossilization process themselves.
When teaching fifth grade ALP (Accelerated Learning Program), I had to be in charge of creating a unit. My lead teacher told me that the Rainforest unit would be a perfect one for me to teach. I didn't remember learning anything about the rainforest and had to go through many books and learn about the four different layers myself. I had to learn what kind of animals and plants lived in each layer and how each layer was different or the same. I copied pages from books for each layer and annotated them before I taught them (this was still new information for me even though I did my homework on it). You can see from the pictures that I found which text would work well and thought about what questions I should ask when reading it to help explain the materials to the students. I also put random information down that I needed to remember because this was the first time teaching about the rainforest. I believe the students' end work (the picture with the rainforest drawing and facts on the left side of each layer) shows how much they learned from my teaching! It also shows how much information I learned in order to teach it.