Standard+2

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**Standard 2:** **// Teachers know how children grow. //**  The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social, and personal development.

**Evidence 1:** SMARTBoard Files/Responsive Classroom **Rationale 1:** Our school day starts with a morning meeting that includes the components of the Responsive Classroom via the SMARTBoard. One of the goals of the Responsive Classroom is to build community. I added links to music and chose backgrounds of paintings and/or photos to add visual and auditory stimulation to the poems and songs. These additions created greater interest in the Responsive Classroom materials and engaged my students. These SMARTBoard files were shared with teachers in my school and other elementary schools in our district.

 Some first graders struggle with the concept of community. Using the additional auditory and visual materials enriched the morning meeting lessons, strengthened them, and added instructional opportunities that supported student growth and development. The students were excited when seeing the familiar SMARTBoard slides and were quick to follow the routine that was set up for classroom interaction with each individual slide, which included hand-clapping, prescribed movement, discussion, or cooperating with a partner.

 While creating the SMARTBoard files for the Responsive Classroom, I learned how to add links to the music that was available on the web. Since my initial bachelor degree was in fine arts, I love being able to make my educational projects visually pleasing and engaging. Additionally, I am becoming more adept at layout, choosing fonts and color, and finding or creating visuals that make the end product more exciting for the viewer.

**KSD:**

 **2.K.2 The teacher understands that students’ physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive development influence learning and knows how to address these factors when making instructional decisions.** I wanted to augment the Responsive Classroom materials so they would better meet my students’ social, emotional, and cognitive abilities. Providing them with music and visuals that tied into the concept(s) being presented made this a more powerful learning experience.

**2.S.3 The teacher assesses students’ thinking and experiences as a basis for instructional activities (i.e., encouraging discussion, listening and responding to group interaction, and eliciting samples of student thinking orally and in writing).** When the students first see the SMARTBoard slides we discuss how we can make the concept more exciting and meaningful for them through movement, clapping or singing, call and response, etc. These group discussions help push the students by challenging them creatively, furthering their understanding and learning.

 **2.D.1 The teacher appreciates individual variation at each developmental level and shows respect for the diverse talents of all learners, and is committed to help them develop self-confidence and competence.**

I enjoyed working with my students to develop the additional auditory and visual materials that we added to our daily Responsive Classroom lessons. Providing the students with opportunities to improve the lesson served as an excellent learning tool, which also increased their self-confidence, cooperative and listening skills, and higher level thinking skills.