Dispositions

=Dispositions =

Beginning of Program The first disposition had me reflecting on how I value change as a source of opportunity for improvement. Change has always been easy for me to accept and I understand that change needs to happen. I do agree that change is needed for improvement, but I also know that I need to balance that with practice. Being meticulous has allowed me to go back over lessons and make changes where I have needed them and to realize that sometimes I just need to practice to material or the procedure more. Displays the ability to understand people and relationships and is receptive to the ideas of others is the second disposition of this program. I am good at understanding people and listening to what they have to say. I can be stubborn though if it involves something I am adamant about. I have a nasty habit of listening to someone and then going back and doing it my way anyway. I do consider what people tell me, but I know that it irritates people when I do not do what they suggest and do not voice any objection when they are talking to me. I do not do this to avoid confrontation because I have no problem being confrontational with someone. I do this because I have found it easier to get their whole idea or opinion if they think I agree with them. If I disagree with them then they become defensive and nothing gets accomplished. Disposition three deals with showing a willingness to implement non-discriminatory access, accommodations, and assessment in the classroom. When it comes to what I implement in my classroom, I consider the class and adjust my teaching methods and assessments to fit with their strengths. I would never consider doing anything that would offend someone’s religious belief nor intentional exclude a student based on their ethnicity or a disability. This disposition has always seemed be the simplest to me; any teacher worth their salt is going to be accomplishing this. The fourth disposition I reflected on was: Demonstrates empathic understanding of diversity in all domains. I understand that everyone and everything is diverse and I guess that by adjusting my teaching methods to suit the class is one way that I demonstrate this. Another way that I demonstrate empathy is by listening to others and doing my best to consider their point of view. I try to not pass judgment and also look at things rationally when people or students are sharing ideas or concerns with me. Disposition five deals with regularly reflecting upon philosophical assumptions, ethical principles, and rationales that guides one’s practice. Reflecting is one of my strengths and has been very helpful throughout my education and career. I have no problem looking back over what I have done and thinking about it rationally, so that I am able to improve. By reflect I also understand why I do what I do and how that affects my class and me. Reflecting is the easy part, sometimes I have difficulty applying what I notice or think I should change. It is easier to form a habit than it is to break one. Like anything constant practice and reflection are important to overall improvement. The sixth and final disposition of the program focuses on understanding oneself as a learner and values learning as a core capacity. Being good at reflecting has also helped me with understanding myself as a learner. I have always been curious, so learning about things interests me. Throughout school I have learned what styles work best for me as a learner; I have always favored visual and learning. If I am in a situation where there is lecturing taking notes helps me focus my thoughts and keeps me actively paying attention. I prefer to see things being done than to have someone describe the process to me. In situations where someone is describing a process I do my best to visualize what they are saying. I have also noticed that if I have done something once I can usually repeat the process over again. Movement helps me focus my thoughts, so throughout college I have written the majority of my papers will doing chores, walking, or running.

End of Program Change has been a constant companion, since beginning my masters program. There has been many changes made at the National and State levels of education and on a personal level I have changed as a teacher. As stated at the beginning of the program, I handle change well. That has been a helpful disposition because not every change made has been within my control. From the National level, there has been a push to align curriculum to a common set of standards. I can see the benefits of having everyone use the same standards because it is a method for ensuring that all students receive a high quality education. I also understand why some teachers feel like the standards movement is just more of the same old, same old. Regardless of whether it is the same concept in a new package, aligning to the common core has made me more conscious about what I do in the classroom and why I am teaching the way that I teach.

To help shape the change in my school, I have become a member of the professional development and the RtI committees. As a member of the professional development committee, I help to determine the schedules for inservice days, district wide professional development opportunities, and the policy for professional development requests. Being on this committee has given me an inside look at how change can be beneficial for an organization and it has helped me develop empathy for other people's feelings. There have been times when I think something is a great idea, but then I have to stop and think about how others will feel about that idea. I have also gotten to see how combining the ideas of others can make a good idea great. For example, one of the committee members suggested team building activities for our fall inserivce to increase our sense of community within the district. The idea went from ice breaker activities to a speaker who taught the benefits of improvisation in the classroom and it was one of the most memorable and fun inserivce I have ever been a part of. Had we not combine the ideas and connections of the committee members, we would not have had the same quality inserivce.

As a member of my schools RtI committee, I am helping to implement the RtI framework in the high school. RtI is proving to be a dance between doing what is required of the district and keeping the teachers at the high school happy. When the teachers were told that we would be implementing RtI over the next few years, you could hear the collective groan from the staff. I am quickly realizing how the pressures from the outside can push teachers away from accepting the benefits that can come from change, causing them to be less receptive to other peoples ideas. Constantly encountering this reaction can wear on a person, so I have to remind myself to step back and remember that it is not me they are displeased with but the new change being presented. My experience with this committee have also reminded my why it is so important to continue to learn for the sake of learning. Even if I do not like a new idea that is being developed or implement, there is still knowledge that can be gained and some might make the difference in whether a students is success or not.

Within my classroom, I am constantly reflecting on my teaching and changing the methods and assessments to reach the needs of my students. An example that stands out to me involves a lessons I had been given by my colleagues for a course that was new to me last year. For the first time last year, I began teaching the later half of world history and my colleagues gave me some of their lessons to supplement what I was creating as I taught the course. This particular lesson involved using a debate to help teach the differences between capitalism, socialism, and communism. When I used the debated method, students did not seem very engaged and they did not retain the information very well. The next time that I taught the lesson, I modified the debate into a discussion. By discussing the difference rather than debating them, students were more engaged and when it came time to apply the information to other events in history the students did a better job of recalling the content.

There have been other times where I have modified lessons because the students had a great deal of prior knowledge on a subject, so reteaching the basics would have been redundant. I tend to see this when teaching financial literacy in economics. My students have varying amounts of knowledge about money, credit, checking, and investing. In classes where a number of students have checking accounts, I will prepare a briefer lesson on the basics and given them the activities sooner. At the same time, I work in small groups with the students who do not have as much background knowledge of checking accounts.