Section One: Teacher Candidate Introduction to the Elementary Portfolio Project

Introduction, Overview and Rationale

The Elementary Portfolio Project is an important project for Teacher Candidates to

complete because it showcases their talents and abilities and differentiates their skills from their

fellow teacher peers. It allows teacher candidates to explain their teaching philosophy, build

confidence through the display of previous projects and show professional competency as a

future teacher.

As an introduction to my teacher candidate profile let’s examine some important teacher

competencies that are important to utilize in order to foster a successful classroom environment.

The first component of ensuring a successful classroom environment is proper planning.

Planning allows teachers to create important and interesting lessons that help keep the class on

track while taking the skill levels of students into consideration. “Planning for the classroom is

an important part of education and behavior management. Proper classroom planning will keep

you organized and on track while teaching, thus allowing you to teach more and manage less.”

(The Importance of Planning for the Classroom, 2015, para. 1) There are at least five crucial

components that go into effective planning and they include: creating lesson plans, planning for

behavior management, having a daily classroom routine, having a classroom layout that works

for the teacher as well as the students, and planning to incorporate technology into the classroom.

As a future teacher I would need to take each of these components into careful consideration and

ensure that I spend an adequate amount of time planning out interesting lessons that incorporate

the needs of each individual in the class. I would also need to have a plan of how to deal with

disruptive behavior while rewarding and encouraging positive behavior, for example, reminding

a disruptive student to follow along with the class to the lesson and if the disruptions continue
taking the student into the hallway while the class is working on an assignment to talk to him or

her about his or her behavior and how it can be improved and if the situation escalates, sending

the student to the principal’s office and then following up with the student and parents after

class. I would also need to establish classroom routines like reading a book together as a class

every day to settle back in from a recess as an example. I need to ensure that students are seated

in a way that will not cause disruptive behavior but instead encourage students to work together

and learn from one another and use technology like iPads, YouTube videos and websites as part

of my daily teaching.

Good instruction is another component of ensuring a successful classroom environment.

Teachers need to cater their teaching skills to meet the learning needs of the classroom and build

positive rapport with their students in order to be influential. As a teacher I need to be adaptable

to different students’ needs and practice respect, encouragement and positivity so that I can

ensure that students will look forward to coming to class to learn.

Along with instruction comes measuring through assessments how well students

understand the teacher. Assessments are important because they provide “diagnostic feedback by

showing the student’s knowledge base, the student’s performance base, the student’s needs and

what has to be further taught.” (Why Is Assessment Important, 2008, para. 8) It is important for

teachers to have multiple forms of assessing a student in the format of formal and informal

assessments as a student may display his or her learnings better on different perhaps more non-

traditional assessments than on traditional testing assessments. I would strive to have multiple

ways of assessing learned material in my classroom as I understand that while some students

may prosper on tests, others may freeze and blank out due to nerves even though they understand

and know the material just as well as the students that do well with testing. If I notice some of
my students struggling with testing, I would include a lesson on test taking strategies and how to

become comfortable with taking tests as they are a part of school life.

Teachers also need to take into account the use of technology in the classroom as it has

become a big part of student and family life. Technology needs to be made accessible to students

through classroom or library check-outs if possible and teachers should also use different types

of technology for example, PowerPoint presentations, iPads, websites, computers and any other

technology tools that would help with learning. While I understand and know how to use many

forms of technology, as a teacher, I would need to be open to continual learning about

technology as it changes quite frequently and also share the knowledge with my students.

Teachers also need to effectively manage their classroom with rules and procedures, be

able to accommodate students who may have different learning needs from their peers and

practice culturally responsive teaching as students will come with varying needs that teachers

need to accommodate while creating an inclusive classroom.

Lastly, teachers need to always act with professionalism, participate in professional

development opportunities and follow curriculum standards.

Through careful examination and understanding of the competencies it takes to be a

successful teacher like proper planning, instruction, assessments, the use of technology,

classroom management and professionalism I am prepared and ready to teach in the field of

education. The classes at Medaille College have very influential professors who know the ins

and outs of the teaching field and are preparing us to the best of their capabilities to be ready to

successfully manage an elementary classroom. By learning how to set up a classroom,

participating in fieldwork even though it is online for now, understanding the cultural diversity

of a classroom and also understanding that students learn differently I am prepared to be

adaptable, professional and motivated to not only teach students but also to inspire students that

learning can be fun and is a life-long process.

Portfolio Development

The Elementary Portfolio encompasses six sections that include: teacher candidate

introduction to the elementary portfolio project, teacher candidate background experiences,

teacher candidate artifacts, alignment to curriculum and professional standards, teacher candidate

reflection and teacher candidate interview video. An overview of each section will be described

below.

The first section which is the teacher candidate introduction to the elementary portfolio is

discussed above and provides information about why this portfolio is significant for future

teachers, the key teaching competencies that create a successful teacher and my readiness to

enter the teaching field. The introduction explains that it is important for teachers to highlight

their unique skills and competencies to recruiters so that they can differentiate themselves from

other teachers. It also explains that it is important to plan and instruct well, have various forms of

assessments, incorporate technology into the classroom, have effective classroom management

skills and be professional at all times and it explains that I am prepared and ready to incorporate

all of these skills into my classroom.

The second section, teacher candidate background experiences, introduces me as a future

teacher, explains my educational background and work experiences and how they relate to the

classroom. It talks about things I have learned while participating in fieldwork in a classroom, it

also talks about my philosophy of education and shows my resume and qualifications with a

conclusion following.
 Thirdly, under teacher candidate artifacts, I will introduce between eight to ten artifacts

that show my ability to be a competent educator. Some examples of the artifacts that I may

include in my portfolio include the Weebly website I designed in a previous class, my Pecha

Kucha presentation about cerebral palsy, my annotated bibliography analysis, the cyber safety

slide deck I created, my survey assignment about classroom inclusion among students with

special needs, the presentation about DuoLingo as a helpful tool for parents and students to learn

to spell, my SAVE and Child Abuse workshop certificates and my assignment about how I

would organize my classroom.. I will explain the significance of these artifacts and how they

connect to theories and theorists, and provide a brief conclusion tying everything together so far.

The fourth section, alignment to curriculum and professional standards, introduces the

importance of the curriculum and measuring students based on pre-determined standards. It

explains the standards and how they are relevant and connect to competency goals and identifies

a standards chart that accurately shows the curriculum requirements and then concludes the

topic.

In section five, teacher candidate reflection, an introduction to the topic is made and the

section talks about my learning experiences throughout Medaille’s Teacher Education Program

and how they can be related to the classroom. It also identifies my readiness to teach and to

reflect on future learning to become a successful teacher and then to provide a brief conclusion.

In the final and sixth section, teacher candidate interview, I will be creating a ten to

fifteen minute interview answering the questions that will be posted in BlackBoard. I will be

including my Weebly website, writing a two to four page summary of my video experience and

posting my video in the discussion board and providing feedback to fellow classmates.
Theories, Theorists and Experts in the Field of Education

Throughout my Teacher Education journey at Medaille College, we have learned about

key educational theorists and theories and the importance of understanding the information they

were trying to convey in order to help pave the way for success in the classroom. Some of the

key theorists that stand out to me include: Benjamin Bloom, Howard Gardner and Jean Piaget.

Benjamin Bloom did a significant amount of research in the field of education and found

that “educational settings and home environments can foster human potential. Bloom developed

a “taxonomy of educational objectives, which classified the different learning objectives and

skills that educators set for students. Bloom divided educational objectives into three domains.

Affective, Psychomotor and Cognitive. ” (Benjamin Bloom - New World Encyclopedia, 2019,

para. 1) He set different learning hierarchies that students progress through. They include:

“remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.” (jshabatu, 2017,

para. 2) Bloom’s taxonomy of education is significant in a classroom setting because it is the

building blocks for teaching students new concepts. Initially, as a teacher, I would like students

to be able to recall and understand information they have learned from their long term memory

and to be able to explain it. Then I would like students to be able to apply and analyze their

knowledge through their school work. Then student’s work would need to be evaluated which is

where I would come in to help students understand if they are on the right path or to get them to

the right path and then the step of creating or putting everything together comes in which

combines the student’s over learning.

Howard Gardner was another important theorist who proposed that people have many

different ways of learning and therefore have multiple forms of intelligence. He proposed that
people could have “linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence,

bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal

intelligence and naturalistic intelligence.” (Marenus, 2020, para. 1) This is important to know

and understand as an educator because students will come in all sorts of different forms. It is

important to be able to cater to the linguistic student just as much as to the bodily kinesthetic

student. As teachers we have to be adaptable and understand the different forms of learning when

it comes to teaching and checking for understanding because not everyone learns the same way.

It does not mean that a student is not intelligent, rather they have a different method that helps

them comprehend information.

Jean Piaget is another theorist who brought significant findings to the child

developmental world. His theory of “cognitive development explains how a child constructs a

mental model of the world. He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, and

regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and

interaction with the environment. He proposed four stages of cognitive development which

reflect the increasing sophistication of children’s thought. These stages include: Sensorimotor

(birth to age 2), preoperational stage (age 2 to age 7), concrete operational stage (age 7 to age 11)

and formal operational stage (age 11+).” (Mcleod, 2018, p1, 7) Piaget’s theory is important

because it explains that children need time to develop cognitively and if they are somewhat

delayed in development it doesn’t mean they are not intelligent, rather they are still working

through a particular stage. This can be related to a classroom setting in that we will most likely

be working with children who are at the preoperational stage or higher but it is important for us

to understand that these students are still developing and we need to be understanding and give

them the support and tools they need to grow.

Conclusion

Overall, the Elementary Portfolio project is an important project because it showcases my

competencies and capabilities as a future teacher. It allows me to highlight my skills through

demonstrating my work and explaining the importance of key teacher competencies like proper

planning, instructing, assessing, professional development and the use of technology. The

portfolio project also talks about theorists like Bloom, Gardner, and Piaget which are theorists

that I find very influential to know and understand and explains why these theorists are

significant in the field of education. It then goes into the next section which explains my

background and experiences and highlights my work history, experiences with children and a

resume is also included. Following this, I will present eight to ten artifacts of my work in the

third section to show that I am competent and ready to enter a classroom and will explain the

importance of each artifact. In the fourth section an alignment to the curriculum and professional

standards are made and I reflect on my readiness to enter a classroom in the fifth section. In the

final section I will post an interview video and respond to fellow peers as well. All of these

sections together will show how prepared and confident I am to enter a classroom and will

differentiate the skills and abilities from my peers in terms of teaching style, logic and

preparedness.