Amanda Gantt's Professional Portfolio
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Standard Two - Knowledge of Human Development and Learning |
||
|
The teacher understands how the children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development. Effective educators must have a thorough knowledge of the development of their students. This knowledge allows a teacher to know what can be expected from their students. Students are unique, and we must consider this when we are teaching our students so that we will allow them the best opportunity to learn. We must create lessons and activities that will be meaningful to all students. Through “Kidwatching”, we can come become aware of our students’ strengths and weaknesses, and we can help them grow intellectually, socially, and personally. These reflective practices allow us to use our knowledge about child development to reach each child individual needs. This will help develop the whole child rather than just developing their mind. Through our understanding of the ways that children learn, an effective educator should be able to create a classroom environment that creates positive social interaction. This shows that for full implementation of INTASC Standard Five, an educator must have knowledge of human development and learning through INTASC Standard Two. |
||
Rationale of Artifact One
|
Artifact One
|
|
|
Every child is a unique individual, and as an effective teacher, I have taken this into consideration when creating lesson plans. The students constantly strive for what they need, and I have tried to take this knowledge and use it to create my lesson plans. “To Glasser, four basic psychological needs drive students: the need to belong, the need for power, the need for freedom, and the need for fun. Once teachers meet these psychological needs, he says, students will behave appropriately.”(Butch et al., 2001 p.4) To show my competency, I have placed included a picture showing my students creating an assembly line during one of my social studies lessons. As seen in the photograph, this assembly line lesson created an environment which met the student’s need for power, freedom, and fun. We were studying the “Roaring Twenties” and the fact that Henry Ford used assembly lines to create cheaper cars faster. Thus, I created a lesson where the students had to work as a group to create their own assembly line so they could see if the process was effective through their own personal reflection. I believe that this picture shows that I instructed the students and their social interaction created learning opportunities that support social and intellectual development. Through their group work, the students were able to see both how assembly lines operated which increased their intellectual development as well as how to work in groups effectively which increased their social development. From the facts given above, I believe that my picture fully shows that I understand how learning and development can be produced through the intellectual and social interaction of the students. |
 |
|
|
|
||
Rationale of Artifact Two
|
Artifact Two |
|
|
To create an environment of open learning, effective teachers must know their students. This knowledge comes from effective Kidwatching strategies. However, knowing what to look for when Kidwatching comes from a deep understanding of the way that children learn and develop. Also, a teacher must be able to take the knowledge gained in the activity to create learning opportunities for their students. I have shown that I do understand how to Kidwatch, how to reflect on these practices, and how to create a lesson that insures each student’s personal development through my paper “Constructing Knowledge Rather Than Algorithms”. In this paper, I describe how I conducted a Math Interview with one of my students. During this interview, I was able to use my Kidwatching skills to learn what this student knew about multiplication and division math problems, and I was able to assess her knowledge from my own understanding of the subject matter. I, also, elaborated on how I was able to manipulate the lesson to meet these students’ personal needs as well as to help me see where she had the most difficulty. This demonstrates that I know how children learn and what I can do to help them develop in their learning process. After conducting this Math Interview, I was able to help my student by giving her individual help in multiplication and division from what I had learned during the interview. This shows that I know how to insure each individual student’s personal development through personal conversations about what is needed to help that student’s individual learning process. Throughout the Math Interview, I was able to Kidwatch, assess, and assist my student in her learning process. Through my paper, I am able to show this understanding of her development; thus, I believe that in the future I will be able to repeat this process again for other students. |
This text is linked to Constructing Knowledge Rather Than
Algorithms. |
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|