Domain D
Teacher Professionalism
This domain focuses on the teacher's ability to evaluate his or her own instructional effectiveness in order to plan specific future lessons for particular classes and to improve his or her own teaching over time. This should also include sharing appropriate information with other professionals and with families in ways that support the learning of diverse student populations.
Criterion D-1: Reflecting on the extent to which the learning goals were met.
In this photograph I am writing one of my bi-weekly journal entries. This method of reflection allows me to think about specific situations and try and come up with solutions to specific problems. It is always interesting to return to previous journal entries and asess my growth in a particular area.
Criterion D-2: Demonstrating a sense of efficacy.
Keeping a clean, organized, and visually appealing classroom tells my students that I feel confident in my ability to teach them, and that I feel confident in their ability to learn. This efficacious environment ensures that everyone gets the most out of the school day. This is the beginning of a bulletin board I was creating for my poetry unit. The white signs are quotations from famous writers about the art of poetry.
Criterion D-3: Building professional relationships with colleagues to share teaching insights and to coordinate learning activities for students.
This is a photograph of a team meeting where Ms. Twana Hill and I are sharing experiences that we had with a particular student. Another thing we were planning to discuss at this meeting was an interdisciplinary unit on advertising and comparison shopping that we were planning in the students' Math and Language Arts classes.
Criterion D-4: Communicating with parents and guardians about student learning.
One of the most important things I can do as a teacher is to become familiar with the families of my students. Parent communication with the school is crucial for a student to be successful. One of the most important ways a teacher can establish a positive school-home relationship is to call when good things are happening as well as bad. In this photo, I am calling Justin's father to let him know that Justin earned the third quarter "Classroom Citizen" award.
