Characteristics of the Novice Teacher - Blog #2

Characteristic 1: We believe that the novice teacher should have a commitment to and skills for life-long learning

            A life-long learner is someone who strives to always search for new information, and in this case, for teaching.  They are always looking for new and more effective strategies to help them educate their students.  Life-long learner go alone with another characteristic as well, which is being a reflective practitioner.  Lifelong learners want to do better and be better than they are and by reflecting on the practices that are and are not working, it enables them to research more information.  There is a quote I read in a book for one of my classes this semester where a teacher stated that when a teacher thought they knew everything there is to know about teaching, it was time to retire.  This is because those teachers were not longer putting in the work to learn new ways of teaching.  As long as a teacher is in a classroom, they are learning, about their content area, their students, ways to differentiate based on their students, and the pro’s and cons of their strategies.  Finally, lifelong learners are always open to new ideas and should collaborate with their fellow teachers regularly about what works and what doesn’t.

The artifacts I’m choosing to include in this characteristic are my research brief/inquiry assignment, my video analysis, and records from the Pod 6-2 Team Meetings at Bridgeport Middle School where I am currently a participant.  The research brief/inquiry assignment fits into this category because it is an ongoing process of learning.  We also have to make a plan, do research, collect ongoing data throughout our years in the Benedum Collaborative and finally, we have to show the results from our study.  This does not stop here, however, because we will continue to do the same thing when we are out of college and teaching on our own, even if it’s in a less formal manner.  The video analysis is helpful because we are able to videotape ourselves teaching, and instead of getting feedback from our mentor teachers and coordinators, we are able to critique ourselves.  Although our mentor teachers are honest about their feedback, people tend to criticize themselves more harshly than others do, so being able to see yourself teaching, and to observe what you like about it and what you don’t is a great way to evaluate yourself, your teaching style, and your student interactions from time to time.  Finally, the Team Meetings we have a Bridgeport Middle are somewhat like a PLC, but they are specifically for the 2^nd half of sixth grade core teachers.  There are four core teachers and they see the same students for the entire year, and because of this, they are able to sit down with one another each day (2^nd period) and collaborate together.  They work together in filling out paperwork, making decisions for the Pod/Team, and discussing students who are struggling, excelling, having behavior problems, and the like.  I take notes each day at these meetings and although I’d have to change the named of my students if I ever write about them, these meetings are a great way to continue learning and seeing things from another persons perspective.

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               2012                                                                                                                                                   2072

Characteristic 7: We believe that the novice teacher should effectively integrate content and pedagogy

When I think of content, it is easy for me to put a definition with it – the subject matter – but when I think of pedagogy, it has always been harder for me to define concretely, but the best way I can put it is, the way in which one teaches, and more specifically, the way they teach their content.  For example, being in social studies and English, my pedagogy might be different for these two classes because the content differs.  The goal for my students, however, stays the same – to teach in a way/ways that they can all learn.  Many teacher’s who go into the professional go in with an intense knowledge of their content area, but are not able to teach the students in a way that is meaningful to them.  I had a teacher in high school who was this way, she was extremely intelligent, but she did not know how to teach the content with which she was so familiar.  Because of this, it is imperative for teachers to know their content and know how to teach it. 

Included as artifacts for this characteristic are a final exam and a final unit plan from my Social Studies Methods course in the Fall 2011 semester with Dr. Waterson.  I also plan to include a unit plan from my Literature and Grammar Methods courses from the Spring of 2012.  The final exam in Social Studies Methods was a compilation of the NCSS standards for Social Studies Education.  We had to take these standards and explain what they were, why they were important, how we used them in our practicum experience, and how we planned to use them in the future.  It was a very in-depth study of our knowledge on the content and pedagogy we had used that semester.  The unit plans from both of my specializations will be another important artifact because they show case both of my content areas and several ways I plan to teach them to my students.