Teacher Work Sample

Kristy Walker Water Cycle Unit Dec. 2, 2013- Dec. 19, 2013 4th Grade Science

Standard V: Reflection and Self Evaluation

Kristy Walker

TWS: Reflection and Self Evaluation

DM 1- Diversity
To include culturally responsive curricula in my TWS lessons and instruction, I spent a great deal of time getting to know my students and their families. Once I understood my students home culture, I used that knowledge in my lessons and instruction to help students make connections to the new content being taught. For example, I learned that some of my students parents wanted to know exactly what their students were learning about in school. Therefore, I created a study guide to send home with my students at the beginning of the water cycle unit. I figured the more exposure my students had to the content, the better they would understand and the better they would perform on their assessments. I also demonstrated multicultural education when I found Spanish printable resources on the water cycle to send home with my students who speak Spanish in their homes. Both parents called the office and informed the translator that this was the first time they had ever received materials in their native language and that they appreciated it very much. Also, for my Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), I collaborated with the special education teacher by finding resources that she could use with my IEP students at their reading levels on the water cycle. She also informed me that it was not a normal procedure for teachers to find resources for her to use, but she appreciated it and we were both excited that our curriculum would align and hopefully we could make a difference in these students education and lives.

DM 2: Effective Pedagogy

Kristy Walker

TWS: Reflection and Self Evaluation

I used technology with the students every day while teaching the water cycle unit. I started of the unit with Smart Board presentations. Also, everyday we graphed the water levels in cylinders around the room to investigate evaporation. I used Smart Board Notebook software to create a graph and opened it daily to add the new data plots to our line graph. Additionally, I had students explore a web quest on the computers about the water cycle. This web quest gives student five tasks they have to complete by reading information, watching short video clips, or reading charts and data. Furthermore, I created a science Symbaloo that students could get online and explore if they finished their work early. Symbaloo is basically a website with links to all of my favorite websites to teach about the water cycle. When students had free time, and sometimes when they went to computers, I had them get online and explore my science Symbaloo. I added some very challenging water cycle game links and some just for fun water cycle songs and game links to the website. I found it very interesting that students naturally found items at their level. Above grade level students would be playing the hard games while below grade level students would be playing the easier games or listening to the fun water cycle songs.

DM 3: Subject Matter
Before teaching this unit, there was a lot I did not know about the water cycle. However, I planned and prepped for about a month before teaching this unit. By the time I taught this unit, I deeply understood the water cycle and all of the processes.

Kristy Walker

TWS: Reflection and Self Evaluation

I felt confident teaching this unit because of my extensive research on the water cycle. I was able to correctly answer my students questions, and I was able to elaborate on different items being discussed because of my knowledge of the water cycle. Students in 4th grade are not required to know evapotranspiration, acculturation, or infiltration, but because of my knowledge, I was able to teach my higher level learners even more than just the required four terms of the water cycle-evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection.

DM 4: Environment
To create a safe classroom environment, I first taught my students procedures for talk and argument. I explained that this type of argument is not a bad or mean thing. It is simply sharing ideas and agreeing, adding to, or disagreeing with each other in a respectful way. We practiced this strategy during a math lesson before we began our water cycle investigations. My purpose for pre-teaching talk and argument procedures was to create an emotionally safe environment where ideas could be discussed and challenged respectfully. I am very thankful I took the time to pre-teach talk and argument procedures. During some of the water cycle investigations, students disagreed with each other, but a quick reminder that we are challenging each others ideas and not the person helped almost everyone feel safe enough to contribute to class discussions. For classroom management strategies, I use a marble jar to reward or punish the whole class. For individual reward and punishment, the 4th grade team has a money system in place where I can give and take 4th grade money. Both of these

Kristy Walker

TWS: Reflection and Self Evaluation

classroom management strategies work very well and were set up by my mentor and our PLC team. However, the school has a school wide attention getter that I feel does not work well. When an adult says, Freeze please, students are supposed to put up their hand up, freeze, and listen. However, I find that students only freeze until I start talking and then they continue with what they were doing. I had to review the procedure for Freeze please, with my students several times.

DM 5: Reflection
Putting together my Teacher Work Sample (TWS) has helped me evaluate the effectiveness of my lesson plans and my instruction. By creating graphs to visually see the progress of my students, I can easily see areas in which I did really well and areas in which I need to improve. Seeing how low some of my IEP and ELL students scored on the postassessment made me very upset. I still feel like there must have been something else I could have done to help them succeed. I do feel like I put forth a great deal of effort and did everything I could think of to help them understand the content. I met with them in small group, provided tier II instruction for them everyday, aligned lessons with the sped teacher, and taught each lesson with all components of SIOP present, but I still wonder if there was something else I could have done. Also, to be a reflective educator, I met with my mentor teacher each week to discuss strengths and weaknesses of my teaching. I love the feedback she gives me to help me become a better teacher.

DM 6: Teaching Dispositions

Kristy Walker

TWS: Reflection and Self Evaluation

Preparing and teaching this unit taught me a lot about being an educator. I learned very fast that I needed to improve my subject matter knowledge, so I studied and read about the water cycle often. Improving my subject matter knowledge helped me to teach this unit in in a comprehensible way for my students. By researching this topic thoroughly, I was prepared for common misconceptions students have about the water cycle, and I found ways to explain those concepts in a simple way to help students understand. This TWS helped me learn how to evaluate student learning based off several assessments. I also now look for discrepancies to ensure I am using a valid and reliable assessment. By completing this TWS, I also see the need for educators to deeply evaluate their students learning to make sure they are doing everything they can do to help each child succeed. As a SEE (Student Enhancement Experience) student, I have been lucky to be in the classroom with this group of students from the very beginning of the year. Throughout that time, I have built trusting and caring relationships with each student. By taking the time to build a caring relationship with each student, I give the students a reason to do their very best. My students know I personally care about them as an individual, and that makes my students want to do their very best because they know it means a lot to me. It is probably one of the most important things I do as an educator because my students education improves dramatically when they know I am invested in them.