Professionalism

The standard of Professionalism evaluates an educator’s ability to maintain ethical behavior, engage in effective communication, and enhance student learning through professional development and growth opportunities. The primary goal of Professionalism is to encourage teachers to work together and to become more skilled educators so that they can provide students with opportunities for academic and personal growth. Encouraging teachers to use constructive relationships with colleagues, guardians, and the community to build and maintain a positive student learning atmosphere represents the objective of Professionalism. Teaching represents a profession based on the collaboration of many parties, and educational methods are most successful when they come from the combined effort of educators, administrators, guardians, and the community. When it comes to education, then, professionalism is not something that is learned or acquired second-hand, but must be actively sought and cultivated.

Professional Development

  • I was lucky enough to attend a seminar presented by Beth Estill on November 10. Roanoke County Schools have adopted methods of teaching reading based on research done by Ms. Estill and the activities and documents created by Ms. Estill. The specific professional development workshop I took part in was focused on fourth grade nonfiction text, expository, and research writing. We completed various sorting activities to learn new ways of teaching inferring, main idea, and text features.
A matching activity for vocabulary terms.
Putting cards in order based on the main idea and supporting details.
A sort of living things based on five questions for determining importance.

Professional Certifications

  • During my time as a graduate student with Hollins, I have been able to take some engaging courses with knowledgeable faculty who have helped me obtain certain certifications. While taking Teaching Science and Math, I worked with Dr. Rebecca Cox through the required training for Project Learning Tree and Project WILD. Serving as another type of professional development, I consider membership in these organizations as evidence of my continuing dedication to professionalism.
Certificate for completing PLT course. Click image for larger version.
Certificate for completing WILD course. Click image for larger version.

Communication

  • Maintaining a constant flow of communication between educators and guardians/parents is vital for the success of any classroom. A teacher who does not seek out positive relationships with the community cannot hope to be successful or have successful students. Parents and guardians not only want to know what their children are doing in class, but also who is teaching them and what kind of character this person has. I began my student teaching experience with direct contact with the parents through a letter about photographing students for this e-portfolio. In the letter I introduced myself, stated how long I would be working with the students, and explained the role I would serve. When parents come to each lunch with their children or volunteer in the classroom, I am sure to re-introduce myself and maintain a professional demeanor.
Letter sent home to parents with attached permission form. Click image for larger version.

For further discussion, see my Professional Practice Standards paper.