INTASC+Standard+10

__INTASC Standard 10__

The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students' learning and well-being.

__Specific Category of Standard 10__

INTASC.10.H. The teacher is willing to work with other professionals to improve the overall learning environment for students.

INTASC.10.M. The teacher talks with and listens to the student, is sensitive and responsive to clues of distress, investigates situations, and seeks outside help as needed and appropriate to remedy problems.

__Understanding Sentence__

The teacher builds and maintain relationships within the school, child's home, and other parts of the community to better students' learning and overall welfare.

__Artifacts__
 * Chapter 10: How can I support the literacy and language of children? (Group presentation)
 * Reflective Practicum Journal: Working with Kira (2nd Grade)

__Reflect__

The Chapter 10 presentation is a group project that I completed with three of my peers. Our assignment was to address the question, "How can I support the literacy and language of children?" We worked from chapter 10 of Dodge, Colker, and Heroman's //Creative Curriculum for Preschool.// We presented ways to foster literacy in a preschool classroom and even built an ideal preschool library with a writing center. This assignment directly relates to INTASC.10.H. in that I worked with others to educate our fellow peers on how to create an ideal environment that fosters literacy and language for preschoolers.

The Reflective Practicum Journal is the final write-up of the field experience that I completed with the "Community in Schools" organization (CIS). I volunteered once a week (throughout the fall semester) to be a mentor to one student: 8-year-old Kira. I helped her with Spelling, initiated some projects we completed together, and helped her sort out life in general during some of my visits. This directly relates to INTASC.10.M. in that I was sensitive to her needs and listened whenever I visited her. We completed some work for the teacher, but mostly this was our time to talk about what she wanted to discuss. A lot of times, we talked about her dad passing away, her mom, smoking, drugs, and what she liked to do at home. At times, I sought out and talked with the teacher and CIS coordinator to learn more about her situation or to clarify some things that Kira would tell me.

__Project__

Doing group projects similar to my artifact (chapter 10 presentation) are sometimes fun. This artifact was fun to do because my peers were cooperative, helpful, and ready when the day came to present. For my future practice, I have come to decide that group projects are good for many assignments, but it is not appropriate to use them all the time. They are an important aspect of any classroom, but students also have to be able to work independently and produce high-quality work if they have the capabilities to do so. Becoming a teacher has been difficult. Meeting with Kira has helped me as a learner in showing me that some kids' lives are not like I would have ever imagined. I very much enjoyed talking and spending time with her, but at the same time, it upset me that she asked about such grown-up or sad topics. Seeing how much she was affected by her home life and how she functioned at school has shown me a way to be the kind of teacher I want to be: patient, compassionate, understanding, and willing to work with a student no matter what kind of history or baggage they bring with them to the classroom.