Standard 1 - Teaching Diverse Students The competent teacher

understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and

how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social,
economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses
these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize
student learning.
I work to meet standard 1 in my instruction by differentiating my
teaching methods, building on prior knowledge and encouraging
students to explore the world around them in their own way. I believe
strongly in the benefits that play has on the development of the whole
child, and my creative nature allows for my curriculum to promote
social, economic, cultural, linguistic and academic development.
Play creates a safe environment in which children can
experiment with different aspects of language and explore their culture
and the culture of others by temporarily assuming roles that allow
them to recreate scenarios that they have lived, create completely new
ones, or a combination of the two. In doing this, students are able to
experiment with language, social cues, terminology and cultural
values. This is important to the development of a child because it can
allow for matters of significant concern to be brought to light, and
provides wonderful teachable moments throughout the day.
In my portfolio, one of the most prevalent ways that I have
addressed standard 1 through play is in the use of the puppets that I
used for my instruction of character study. I read the students the
story, asking them questions about the characters behavior and
choices throughout, and then assigned each student to a role, which
they acted out using the puppets. When the children finished acting
out the story as they had heard it, I told different groups to tweak small
parts of the story here and there, either by adding a new character or
changing the persona of another character. Doing this benefitted the
children even more than acting out the story exactly as it happened,
because they were able to experience the benefits of play to their
development while being completely unaware of the good that it was
doing for their development on a large scale.
Standard 4 - Learning Environment The competent teacher
structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural
and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive
social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risktaking, self-motivation, and personal goal setting.
I meet standard 4 first and foremost by setting firm expectations
for my students. My classroom is a place where mistakes are perfectly
acceptable, harsh words and unkind actions are far from acceptable,
and all students are able to achieve their goals. It is important as an

educator that I get to know all of my students very well. Doing this
allows me not only to figure out how they operate and what strategies
for behavior management do and do not work with them, but it also
allows me to create an atmosphere of mutual respect in the class.
I want students to feel comfortable bringing any concerns or
problems to me. I make this possible by using kind words even when I
have to take disciplinary action. I do not believe in raising my voice in
the classroom. I feel that this disturbs the entire flow of the classroom
and can often set it off for the entire rest of the day. Instead, when I
have to talk to children about their behavior, I take them somewhere
quiet, get down on their level, and speak clearly and concisely. I make
steady eye contact, and work to get a firm understanding of what the
problem is, why or how it came to be, and what the students will do to
make sure that it does not continue to be a problem.
By using only kind words in a gentle tone, especially in a
disciplinary situation, my students learn to be responsible for their own
actions, and it makes the times when I do have to be more serious with
a student more impactful. I strive every day to create a learning
environment conducive to the fun-loving, curious and busy nature of
children. Under no circumstances do I expect children to stop being
children in my classroom; I simply adapt my behavior management to
ensure that student behavior is beneficial to student growth.
Standard 6 - Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication The
competent teacher has foundational knowledge of reading, writing, and
oral communication within the content area and recognizes and addresses
student reading, writing, and oral communication needs to facilitate the
acquisition of content knowledge.
As an English concentration, and a lover of literature myself, I know
the importance of acquiring reading, writing and oral communication skills
from an early age. This is something that children need if they are to be
successful not only in English Language Arts, but in all subject areas for
their entire lives as students. These foundational skills are created in the
early childhood years, so it is extremely important that no matter what I
am teaching, there is something of this nature in my instruction.
One way that I have incorporated the foundational ELA skills into my
teaching is with my digraph bulletin board. I noticed that my students were
missing digraphs in almost all of their writing. They would either use one
digraph in the place of all of them, or they knew the first letter of the
sound, but not the second. I created a bulletin board with four characters
on it- Charlie, Whit, Sherman and Theo. Each character has its own
personality and its own set of favorite things, all of which begin with
their digraph. I thought at the time when I showed the characters to my
students, that they would be a helpful tool when writing, but they quickly
became so much more than that. Now, almost any time a student sees a

word in a book or writes one with a digraph in it, they look up at the
bulletin board and thank the character whose name begins with that
digraph. This is just one example of the impact that building foundational
skills in ELA early on can have on children.
I think that, as adults, the foundational skills of the English language
are often overlooked. Not many people can explain they things are the way
they are, but that is how they have always done it so it must be right. By
bringing more creativity to small concepts such as digraphs, I am able to
put a method to the madness we call the English language. My students
feel encouraged to ask questions if they notice something that does not fit
the standard rule. They take note of the small aspects of reading and
writing, and implement their newfound skills in a cross-curricular method.
Standard 8 - Collaborative Relationships The competent teacher
builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive,
linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher
works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents
or guardians, and community members.
I constantly ask my students if they enjoy what they are learning
about, or the activity they are doing. I think that this is the most important
form of collaboration there is, because teaching begins and ends with the
students. Everything that I do is to benefit and enrich their learning, so it is
important for me to go straight to the source and ask how they feel about
things. It is not very often that they tell me they do not like an activity, but
when they do, I ask them how they think it could be better.
Beyond collaborating with my students, I believe that it is important to
collaborate and work as a team member with my co-teachers. In my time
as a student teacher, I have grown more and more comfortable going to
not just my own cooperating teacher for ideas, but also to the other
kindergarten teachers in the school. This collaboration works to accomplish
two key things. First, it keeps my instruction from becoming monotonous. I
can easily get into a habit and do things the same way for months at a
time without noticing, so when I notice this beginning to happen, I often go
to other teachers to see how they do things in their class. This can be fore
something as simple as organizing bathroom breaks to using different
manipulatives in math. Collaborating with peers is a great way to freshen
up my instruction so that neither my students nor I become inundated with
the same old thing day to day. Next, I believe that collaboration helps to
build school morale. When administrators see that their kindergarten team
works closely together to create learning opportunities that benefit every
child, they are bound to take notice and must feel good about the work
going into the early education of the students in their school. When a
teaching team works well together, everything is easier. The big stuff
does not seem so daunting when teaching teams are able to tackle
problems head-on and all together. This can benefit not just the academic

growth of students, but also the social and behavioral aspects of their
development as well.
When a team of educators comes together to solve problems and find
new and exciting ways to create student interest, great things can happen.
Collaboration is key to any successful school and classroom.
Standard 9 - Professionalism, Leadership, and Advocacy The
competent teacher is an ethical and reflective practitioner who exhibits
professionalism; provides leadership in the learning community; and
advocates for students, parents or guardians, and the profession.
Being an advocate is crucial to student growth. No matter what
my students face beyond the walls of my learning environment, I know
that when I am an advocate for them, they perform better, have more
confidence and are able to achieve whatever goals they have. I believe
that every child deserves to be treated equally and fairly as learners in
the community, so I strive to make it known to them that I believe in
them, and that they are capable of doing whatever they set their
minds to. This could be something as simple as encouraging children
to step outside of their comfort zone by using a silly voice every once
in a while, but by showing them that I am not afraid to do something
different, and that the do not have to be either.
Professionalism is a huge part of any learning environment. I
have to remind myself throughout the day that yes, I do spend the
majority of my day with kindergarteners, but I am not their babysitter
or their family friend. I want my students to see me as a role model
and a lasting positive influence on their lives, and by maintaining a
professional demeanor I am able to accomplish this. I have done this in
my student teaching by working to create bonds with my students that
are appropriate and professional, but that show the children that I am
someone that they can feel comfortable to talk to about anything.
Leadership plays a very large role in being a competent teacher. I
have always been more of a leader than a follower, and in early
childhood this is important because students cannot be expected to
take the lead on everything, as they might be able to in secondary
education. I exhibit leadership everyday in my classroom through
modeling and asking questions of my students. It is nearly impossible
not to be a leader in early childhood education, because by nature
children are going to look up to you as a role model and the guiding
force of the learning environment. Therefore, it is very important that I
work to meet the expectations that my students have of me, and be
the leader that they see me as.