Katelyn Stout

13 December 2017

EDR 317 Final Self-Evaluation

Introduction:

Charlotte Danielsons framework for teaching has become widely used in the school

system. The framework understands that an effective teacher is not measured by test scores, but

that it is complex in evaluating (Charlotte Danielson, 2017). In an interview done with

Charlotte Danielson, she said, I believe that one of the reasons my framework has become so

widely accepted is that it gives voice to what all educators know, that teaching is very complex

work, its a thinking persons job and you cannot follow a cookbook (Dewitt, 2011). The

framework has four domains: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction and

professional responsibilities. All four domains are taken into consideration when determining an

effective teacher. A teacher can be rated unsatisfactory, basic, proficient or distinguished in each

domain. In preparation for student teaching next semester, I have taken time to reflect and rate

myself in each of the categories based on my practicum experience this semester.

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation

Danielsons first domain, is planning and preparation. This domain focuses on many of

the essential first skills in teaching, such as: knowledge of content and standards, pedagogy, how

well a teacher knows their students and their development and the preparation of each day. I

would rate myself as basic in this category because even though I have noticed a great deal of

growth so far, I understand that there is still a lot of room for development in this area. With
much more experience as I approach student teaching next semester, I am confident that I will be

working towards proficiency. A lot of what I have been teaching has been assigned to me by my

mentor teacher. She usually gives me the content that must be taught relating to the ELA or math

curriculum and allows me to prepare developmentally appropriate lessons based on the

correlating skill. My mentor teacher has years of experience in what she has done in the past, so

she always gives suggestions as to what I can do with my small ELA group, or how to go about

teaching the math lesson. In addition to the skills and content being taught, I have seen a great

deal of growth in planning engaging lessons and knowing where to go for ideas and materials

that directly relate to the content being taught. Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers have been

wonderful resources for me, however, I always make sure that these activities pair with the

Pennsylvania Department of Educations (PDE) state standards. Throughout my classes at West

Chester University, I was introduced to the PDESAS website and feel as though I can

comfortably and confidently maneuver my way through the website. I was also given the

opportunity to familiarize myself with Kindergarten assessments in preparation for our first

round of conferences. These assessments included the PAST test, letter and number

identification and recognition, and testing for sight words. The assessments given to students

both for ELA and math directly relate to the report card expectations and are well known,

common assessments.

Since the beginning of the school year, I have noticed tremendous growth in knowing

each student and not only differentiating for their various needs, but also knowing what they

need as individuals. There are certain students who I now know cannot sit together due to

behavior, and other students who need the extra 1-2 minutes of attention in the morning for them

to have a chance at a good day. Academically, I have students in the class who if I have them
recite a word back to me, they can stretch it out themselves to spell, while others are working

hard on noticing sounds when I stretch out the whole word for them. This is all developmentally

appropriate for five and six-year-olds, but knowing where each child is will help a teacher

scaffold his/her instruction and will result in each students own success. In this area, I feel as

though I am working towards proficient and will more practice, as I approach student teaching

next semester, I will see even more growth in this area. Going forth throughout my next semester

in the classroom, a goal I am setting for myself is to continue to think of new ways to

differentiate for all learners and give them exactly what they need. I have learned so much with

the help of my mentor teacher, but I want to focus on continuing to getting to know each student

as the year progresses so that I can help them in the best way possible.

Right now, each week, my mentor teacher and I co-plan, but she has taken a more

dominant role in the process so far. I do use my knowledge of the students strengths,

weaknesses and observations to assist her in determining groups for ELA centers and math

workshop, and suggest a couple books here or there, but mainly she has gotten me into our daily

routine and I have become so much more comfortable because of it. There was a substitute in the

classroom one day recently, and I was able take over almost as a head teacher to lead the class

through our daily schedule with the assistance of the substitute teacher. This experience revealed

to me just how much growth has taken place in these short couple of months.

Domain 2: Classroom Environment

Domain 2 focuses on the classroom environment. In this domain, teachers are evaluated

based on their professional relationships with their students, their respect of all their students,

and classroom management strategies. Overall, I would rate myself as basic, but very close to
proficient. My relationships with my students are a balance of being a friend while being the

authority in the classroom. From the first day of school, my mentor teacher has made it known to

the students that I am another teacher in the room and they are to show me the same respect as

they do her. She has also made it known to the parents that I am fully capable of working with

their children and I will be helping in all aspects of the school day. It has also helped since I have

been there from the beginning of the year, so I have noticed that for most students, if I tell them

to do something, they usually comply just as they would my mentor. My mentor teacher is

constantly telling me how good I am with the children and how it just seems so natural. Her

feedback to me is that I have really picked up on the kindergarten language and I handle the

conversations and problems that arise very confidently and appropriately. My expectations for

my students are always very high, and I feel as though I have expressed this to them by ways of

my actions. A lot of where students need my help comes from sounding out words in their

writing. My expectation for the class is that each student may be scaffolded based on where they

are now as a learner. As I previously discussed, some students can stretch out the word by

themselves to hear the sounds, while others are simply just not there yet. In the beginning of the

year, we had so many students asking How do you spell ? I have noticed that recently, the

students who are ready to take risks in their writing have been going above and beyond and

sounding out all sorts of words on their own. They come over to me confidently showing their

writing and say, Miss Stout, I did this by myself! Just by the look on my face and my

excitement as I express how proud I am of them gives them the extra boost of confidence to keep

going. Although it is very prominent in Language Arts, I see this all throughout the day, even

during play centers. Motivating students to want to learn or interact with others in an appropriate

manner is so important in making your classroom run smoothly.

 Behavior is huge within our classroom. Two of our students have a behavior chart that is

completed twice a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon. These two students

benefit tremendously just from the extra attention during the day reflecting on how their behavior

was. Oddly enough, the students are usually harder on themselves than my mentor and I observe.

It has been wonderful to get to be alongside my mentor as we discuss the childrens days so that

they see I am also looking for their behavior. In regards to the other students in the classroom, I

have tried to set high expectations in behavior so that they know exactly what is acceptable.

While my mentor is teaching, I do a lot of correcting behavior, and when I am teaching, she does

the same. Having two adults in the room has been very helpful in minimizing distraction where

we would have to stop teaching.

My mentor has slowly let go of the reigns of the classroom at times and has begun to place

larger chunks of the day in my hands. This means that I am involved in transitioning students

from one activity to another. The reason that I rated myself as basic in this domain is solely

because I feel as though there is still a lot of room for improvement in the way I transition

students from one activity to another. I have used the strategies my mentor teacher uses such as

1, 2, 3 eyes on me and clapping a pattern where students clap the pattern back to you. I have

also used the schools quiet sign which is holding two fingers in the air. Students seem to respond

to these transitions. However, I have noticed that transitioning subjects comes difficult to me at

times when switching from morning meeting to language arts, or after I read a book to the

activity that students are to do afterwards. With practice, I am confident that this management

will come, just as I have noticed it has continuously seemed to improve. And with this, I feel as

though I will then be able to rate myself as proficient. During our ELA centers, I have 2 groups

in our rotation. Within these groups, I have noticed that transitions between ending the
procedures and the closure has been difficult at times, but management through the lesson has

not been a problem. My groups are usually engaged in the task at hand which results in little to

none behavioral concerns. My goal moving forward is to become more confident with

transitioning students between activities both in small groups and large group.

Domain 3: Instruction

Danielsons third framework is instruction. When rating myself in this domain, I reflected

on how I communicate, question and engage students in every part of their learning. I also

thought about how effectively I have differentiated instruction and used formal and informal

assessments to indicate whether students retained the information that was taught. I would

consider myself proficient in this domain. Coming into the school year in August, I was very

nervous about teaching actual lessons to real students. This fear of mine quickly faded when I

saw how eager my students were to learn and how much they wanted to be there. They were and

still are little sponges when it comes to absorbing information. With that being said, I feel as

though my lessons have become more detailed and I have learned the importance of modeling

multiple times before letting students go on their own. One lesson I had planned to model twice

before allowing students to take part in the activity. After showing them twice, and noticing the

confused look on their faces, I decided to model it a couple more times before they could do it on

their own. I am constantly learning how to engage students in different ways. Last week, in our

ELA centers, we planted flowers in our vowel garden. Since this activity allows one person to

participate at a time, I wanted all students to be listening and practicing. I decided that I would

have the student with the picture word to say the word and stretch it out if they could and then
have the rest of the group repeat the stretched-out word and listen for the middle sound they

heard. This worked well as I even had some students sad to leave my center that day.

Differentiation is something that I have learned throughout my classes at West Chester

University, but never had to put into practice until this semester. At times, I struggle with

differentiating for all learners when they are in a group setting. I understand that some students

need a lot of extra support, while others are becoming bored so easily. Sometimes these students

can be in the same groups, so knowing how to handle that has and continues to be a goal for

myself moving forward into student teaching. I have noticed a significant amount of growth this

semester when lesson planning and sometimes just thinking of differentiation on the spot. In our

math centers the other day, we were weighing objects on a balance. After reflecting on this

lesson, I decided that for my higher students, when I meet with them again, I will have them

weighing 2 objects instead of 1. In our vowel garden, there was a lot of differentiating. For my

higher two groups, since they needed more of a challenge, I talked about long and short vowel

sounds. We briefly talked about the silent e, which is just getting them thinking for the next

step into reading. Instruction is such a vital part to teaching since that is where most of the

students learning takes place. I am constantly looking at ways to grow and know there is always

room for improvement, but am pleased with the progress I have made thus far.

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Professional Responsibilities is Danielsons fourth and final domain. Discussed here is

the professional behavior a candidate exhibits, the time allocated to reflection, welcoming

feedback, and the relationship with the mentor who has graciously welcomed you into their

classroom. I would give myself a proficient rating here, again, while still realizing there is

always room for growth. Part of the Professional Development Schools (PDS) expectations are
devoting three full days in the classroom. Each week, I attempt to fix my schedule to attend any

extra meetings or events happening at the school while still adhering to my other courses on

campus. There have been multiple days where I have come in extra for things like in-service

days, parties, and meetings (IEP, benchmark, etc.). I realize that to receive the full experience

that the PDS program must offer, I should take advantage of everything I can possibly attend. I

arrive early in the morning and stay as late as I need to as long as I dont have class on campus

directly following the school day.

Reflection is so important in becoming a better teacher. I am constantly reflecting after

each lesson I teach, every time I correct a behavior, or just sometimes how I talked to students. It

has helped that in our lesson plan format for the university, there is a space devoted to reflection.

However, during this experience, I have realized how important it is to guide your future

teaching and reflect constantly. The other day, I managed a behavior problem between two

students who were not using kind words to each other. After walking away from the situation,

the students were writing in their journals, so I briefly thought about how my interaction was

with the students, if it was clear that the behavior would not be tolerated, and any ways that I

could have made the conversation better. Not all situations are the same, and the way you talk to

one student will be different than the way you talk to another, but having the basics and knowing

what works and does not work is crucial. I am constantly asking my mentor teacher about ways I

could teach a specific skill more clearly, or what she would have done in a certain situation. Any

suggestions offered, I kindly accept and work towards growth in that area. My mentor teacher

and I also discuss my language with the students. She has approached me multiple times at the

end of the day to just tell me how great I am with the students. This reassurance is appreciated as

some days, I do reflect and question the way I handled specific situations, lessons, etc. to make
sure that I dealt with it properly. I have benefitted greatly from the reflection meetings with my

West Chester University supervisor after each observation and feel as though it provided me with

strategies and techniques I can use going into student teaching next year. The detailed

suggestions for our lesson plans once they have been submitted and graded has been wonderful

for me to see parts of the plan where I need to spend extra time in to strengthen my lesson plan. I

have taken the suggestions and revised my lessons so that one day I could possibly use them

again.

My mentor teacher and I have a solid, professional relationship. We both have the utmost

respect for one another and bounce ideas off each other constantly. In our instruction, we

complement each other nicely and are able to jump in when needed in any situation. From the

first day, she has welcomed me fully into the classroom. She has made it known that I am can

take a look at any of her resources and materials and if I have any questions, all I should do is

ask. The relationship with the Kindergarten team is also extraordinary. They have accepted me

just as they would any other teacher and allowed me to sit in on their PLC and planning

meetings. During conference time, I pulled some students from other classes to test them so that

they could continue with their instruction. Overall, I believe I have reached proficiency here

based on the time, effort, and reflection that has occurred during this semester by realizing that

growth will continue to occur. An overarching goal I have set for myself would be to be more

involved in after school activities or events once this semester winds down. Unfortunately, due to

taking three other classes, it was very difficult to be involved in these sorts of activities. I look

forward to much more opportunities next semester.

Closure:
 After reflecting on the progress, I have made thus far in the semester, I have rated myself

mostly basic and proficient. This framework is widely used in the school systems, so it has been

beneficial for me to get to know how a teacher is evaluated. Since I am a pre-service teacher, I

realize that there is still a lot of learning and growth that I will do before graduating next May. I

also know that even as a teacher, I will still be growing with the help of professional

development and experiences in the classroom. I look forward to the time and effort I will

continue to put into teaching to work towards hopefully one day rating proficient in each of the

domains.

Resources
Charlotte Danielson. (2017). Retrieved December 03, 2017, from

http://danielsongroup.org/charlotte-danielson/.

DeWitt, P. (2011, October 26). A Framework for Good Teaching: A Conversation with Charlotte

Danielson. Retrieved December 02, 2017, from

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/10a_framework_for_goo

d_teaching_a_conversation_with_charlotte_danielson.html.