Standard 10: Professional development. The teacher is above all a learner who reflects on and evaluates choices and actions, and continually strives to improve practice

Indicators:

• Actively seeks out and participates in professional development activities and articulates and applies what is learned
• Actively seeks and acts upon feedback from colleagues and students
• Continually reflects upon, inquires about, and employs new teaching practices
• Honestly assesses her or his own knowledge and abilities and acts upon that assessment by setting goals
• Demonstrates competence through multiple sources of evidence
• Engages productively in collegial discussions about educational issues

Artifacts:

1) Portland District High School Art Teacher Meetings-I attended a series of meetings and met the other Portland high school teachers in the district. I listened to teachers talk about their current programs, and curriculum and standards being met. Additionally teachers discussed how their programs overlapped and how to create more of a common experience for their students to ensure that each student upon graduating, regardless from which high school, would have a similar set of skills.  Here is a goal from their agenda: " a set of items and common scoring criteria that will measure proficiency of the identified standard(s). Identify next steps/needs for 2015 ."

To view agenda email:

Oct.1stPortlandArtTeachersMeetingEmail.pdf

To view Proficiency Based Graduation Agenda document:

October 1 Prof Based Grad pdf.pdf

2) "Language and Culture Series" staff meetings at Reiche Elementary- Over the last several months I have attended a three part series of staff meetings led by ELL teachers. The purpose of which was to familiarize teachers to all the different countries, cultures and languages of our ELL students at Reiche.

Part 1 was devoted to researching the countries where our students are from. The countries that were included were, Burundi, Rowanda, Djibouti, Somalia, Angola, El Salvador, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and North and South Sudan. We formed small groups and were assigned to these countries to research facts, history, and about education. 

Language and Culture Series_Part 1.pdf

Part II was devoted to experiencing what it is like to learn another language. I stayed with my group who studied Somalia, and we were paired with two Reiche students who were born there. They taught us how to say, "hello" in Somali, "salaamu aleykum" amongst other words. They spent time helping us with pronounciation and then they read us a picture book in Somali. We had to try to understand the plot by relying on the pictures and we found we still had trouble understanding the meaning. Through this experience we felt how difficult it is to be spoken to in an unfamiliar language. These artifacts show you the words we learned and the pictures we remembered from the story book.

Language and Culture_Part II.pdf

Part III was devoted to defining culture and identifying what is considered "surface culture" (easy to see) and "deep culture" (difficult to see). Again, I worked with my group to come up with this definition. Then, as a large group we discussed acculturation, what it is and how it impacts our ELL students and families. 

Language and Culture _Part III.pdf

3) Public Art Shows-I believe it is important for artist to show their work to the public in some capacity. For young student artists it is important to see their work displayed either on the walls of the classroom or in a public setting. I have organized several student shows since in the last several which include, Silhouettes by Riverton Study Center, shown at the Holiday Inn and Portland City Hall for First Friday Art Walk in Portland. Artwork from Art in the Park, shown in Portland City Hall for First Friday Art Walk in Portland.  Dia de los Muertos Inspired Masks, shown at El Rayo Restaurant.

4)Consultant at Portland Museum of Art-SidexSide hired me to work with an intern and lead a work shop after a film was shown for the Children's Film Festival. We had a table setup with supplies and examples and participants could come and make a book. We also set up a poster on an easel with step by step directions to reinforce our teaching. There were different materials available for book making: pencils, sharpies, colored paper, glue sticks, scissors and ribbons.