Nicole Pivaro

Professional Disposition Survey

531B Student Teaching

National University
 Assess

When reviewing my survey reflection from TED626, it turns out I

have marked identical survey results. The disposition area that

continues to represent my classroom strengths is responsible

citizenship and the area that continues to represent my area of

improvement is teamwork. I have marked the other areas of

scholarship, active reflection and standard of exemplary practice as

emerging.

Even though I have marked 3 areas as emerging, I definitely feel

that I have grown in these areas since, just not fully developed them.

I have greatly improved in active reflection. I feel this is because of my

student teaching experience and the feeling of community I was able

to build with my students in the classroom. Feeling connected to my

classroom pushed me to be active in my reflection of teaching, not just

because it is a professional habit and expectation, but because I truly

wanted to give my students the best learning experiences possible that

will help them be successful in life. One of the ways I have improved in

active reflection is that I now take into consideration the individual

needs of students. As a sub bouncing around last year, I was not able

to: 1. Make my own lessons, and 2. Scrutinize evidence of learning and

connect comprehension or lack of comprehension, to the techniques

that were used in class.

 My previous area marked as developed was responsible

citizenship and I feel this is still accurate. I went beyond learning

about my basic classroom and student backgrounds by informally

interviewing various teachers in the history department about the

school culture, history and environment. From this, I also learned

about the local neighborhood our students live in and neighboring

schools that many of our Magnet students are opting out of attending.

One event during student teaching that helped me understand my

individual student backgrounds was when I ran around the classroom

conducting mini-interviews and issued an 8-question survey as

homework that I used to help me get TPA 3 done. The interview

questions I asked were: What is your favorite type of classroom activity

(identify preferred learning style), is there a particular subject in history

class you are personally interested in, what is your favorite hobby, and

describe your home life in one word. I felt silly doing this and was a

little embarrassed to mass collect information in this way, but it turned

out to be extremely valuable. I utilized this information to engage

student personal interests, go in-depth on historical topics students

expressed interest in and incorporate student preferred learning

activities when possible. I also had cultural information regarding how

students identified and saw themselves.

My continued area of improvement is teamwork, in particular,

networking. I have limited connections at my current school and it is

definitely due to my lack of networking. I was very shy arriving at my

new school. After about a month I went exploring the campus until I

accidentally ran into a friendly teacher and was able to gain more

confidence in speaking to other staff. I believe if I had taken more

initiative to introduce myself or speak up I could have left a positive

first impression and gained more confidence in networking with my

fellow teachers.

My goal from TED626 was to network with teachers and school

secretaries enough to work 3 out of 4 weeks every month at one of my

preferred schools as a sub. My deadline for this goal was January

2016. I ended up going beyond completing this goal and was offered a

semester long cluster-sub position at my favorite school. This was an

exciting opportunity for me because I worked hard at this school and

always accepted additional tasks (such as teaching welding) with a

smile and it felt like my work was being recognized. I was given the

position in January of 2016 and stayed until June. I left this position for

student teaching.

Plan

I definitely still need to work on networking skills. In the future, I plan

on introducing myself to my surrounding teachers, no matter how shy I

am feeling. I plan on verbally contributing during professional

development meetings and identifying teachers to exchange ideas

with. I still need to develop a way to build a relationship with school

administration. This may be possible if I volunteer for supervision of

school events, but I will have to make sure my class workload is

prioritized first. The next area I would like to continue improving is

active reflection. Though I feel awkward, I have learned that recording

and viewing myself teaching has been the most effective way to self-

evaluate my performance. It reveals small details I would never notice,

such as me predominantly addressing one side of the room. I can

create a goal to record myself 4 times a year and evaluate my

performance using the TPEs.

Implications

Responsible citizenship includes valuing human diversity and

identifying appropriate communication strategies. This strength is vital

to classroom management and my future goal of improving my

networking. For classroom management I will need cultural

competence and inclusion of multiple perspectives when instructing

history to make topics meaningful and relevant to students. It is also

important to know the best way to address certain students. For

example, the Somali community often prefers verbal teacher contact

through phone calls, instead of written messages sent home due to

cultural communication style. Strong communication skills will also

help me build relationships with other coworkers. It is important that I

improve my networking skills because these skills go beyond

establishing personal benefit. I will need to communicate and network

with parents and may be able one day to network with community

leaders for opportunities that benefit my school. For example, one of

my co-workers was able to reach out to Lowes Home Improvement

store independently and get pounds of soil donated to the school

garden. Both my strength and area of growth are critical to benefitting

my personal career goals and building a strong sense of community in

my future classroom.