NC Teaching Standard #5 - Teachers Reflect on Their Practice

Many teachers deny that they reflect.  I think that is because many teachers think that means writing in a journal or doing some other "formal" review activity.  I feel reflection is as simple as thinking about what your plan was, what actually happened, and what you might do differently next time.  I often reflect on the spot - and write the results on my lesson plans. Sometimes I reflect while laying in bed, waiting to fall asleep at night. Or maybe it is that drive home from work, while decompressing from the day.

Here are the big ideas from Standard 5:

• Teachers analyze student learning. 
• Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals. 
• Teachers function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment.

Again, this standard relies heavily on some pretty formal language - analyze, complex, dynamic.  Those are all accurate, but not my first choice of words to describe my job. But good, effective teachers look at student data/results, they make sure they are continuing to learn, and they are the epitome of multi-taskers.

Here are some artifacts I used:

• Formative and Summative assessments
• EOG Review Centers
• Student Portfolios
• Take Home Tuesday folders
• Lesson Plans
• 14 Things assignment (We read What Great Teachers Do Differently as a school-wide PLC activity this year.)
• NCCAT attendance
• Google Docs end-of-year survey (Awesome! It analyzed the results for me.)

Next year, I'll be able to include my blog and even my Twitter account - using tech in a real world way for all to see!