Illinois+Professional+Teaching+Standards

**Standard One** - **Content Knowledge: The teacher understands the central concepts, methods of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) and creates learning experiences that make the content meaningful to all students**.
 * 1A. Understands major concepts, assumptions, debates, principles, and theories that are central to the discipline in which certification is sought.
 * 1F. Uses differing viewpoints, theories, "ways of knowing" and methods of inquiry in teaching subject matter concepts.
 * 1H. Engages students in generating and testing knowledge according to the process of inquiry and standards of evidence of the discipline.
 * 1L Facilitates learning experiences that make connections to other content areas and to life and career experiences.

**Artifact:** Community Engagement Reflection


 * Reflective Statement:** I firmly believe that the school library can be an ideal place to combine community engagement and social activism with information literacy. This artifact, a reflection written for my Community engagement course, explains my belief that by focusing on youth as assets rather than as problems and by making them partners, we can help them engage in meaningful experiences that help develop critical thinking skills and a passion for learning. As a librarian, I teach students how to research and how to find an answer to a question they have created. I don't believe that students succeed when given an arbitrary question to research, but they do succeed when they meld together research skills, information and their own individual goals and personal aspirations. As I explain in the artifact, " when I ask students to do a research project in the library, I do not want them to spit back to me the state capital of Idaho or the tallest ten volcanoes in the world. Rather, I want them to think of a problem they want to solve or a question they want answered. When they have done that, I will work with students to develop the information literacy skills needed to go out and find their solutions." This artifact demonstrates not only my commitment to active, engaging librarianship, but my ability to facilitate learning experiences that make connections to real life experiences.

 **Standard Two: The competent teacher understands how individuals grow, develop, and learn and provides learning opportunities that support the intellectual, social, and personal development of all students.** 
 * 2A. Understands how students construct knowledge, acquire skills and develop habits of mind.
 * 2B. Understands that students' physical social, emotional, ethical and cognitive development influences learning.
 * 2E. Understands how to include student development factors when making instructional decisions.
 * 2G. Analyzes individual and group performance in order to design instruction that meets learners' current needs in the cognitive, social, emotional, ethical and physical domains at the appropriate level of development.
 * Artifact:**  Fantasy and Child Development Website

**Reflective Statement:** I chose this website because it fulfills not only the standard's developmental criteria, but also demonstrates my ability to create tools in which I can apply my knowledge in practical ways. In the website, created for my Fantasy Literature for Young People course, I examine ways in which fantasy media experiences affect children at varying stages of development. The website presents a review of literature and research in order to determine how exactly fantasy media affects children in terms of their learning, their propensity towards violence and so on. While researchers disagree on many of these elements, they do agree that fantasy does have the ability to profoundly affect a child. Therefore, as a teacher and librarian, it is important that I offer thoughtful, well-considered recommendations of fantasy books and other media. To do this, I analyze the studies to suggest appropriate and stimulating books, films, video games and more for children in various developmental stages. I believe that by considering a child's developmental factors, librarians are better positioned to encourage a love of reading and a passion for learning.

**Standard Three: the teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.**


 * 3A. Understands the areas of exceptionality in learning as defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the State Board's rules for Special Education.
 * 3E. Understands cultural and community diversity through a well-grounded framework and understands how to learn about and incorporate students' experiences, cultures, and community resources into instruction.
 * 3G. Facilitates a learning community in which individual differences are respected.
 * 3N. Demonstrates positive regard for individual students and their families regardless of culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and varying abilities.


 * Artifact: ** Students with Disabilities Discussion

**Reflective Statement:** This discussion outline, created for my Survey of Exceptional Children course, highlights my positive regard for all students and my understanding of individual differences throughout the classroom. I spent a semester working at an elementary school media center in Chicago and worked with a particular class that shared their library time with a Special Education class. In order to help them achieve an understanding of and appreciation for diversity, I created this discussion outline based around a picture book entitled "Susan Laughs". Through this discussion, I demonstrate my ability to facilitate a learning community in which individual differences are respected and my desire to help students understand their classmates in new ways. I believe that as a librarian and a teacher, I have a responsibility to help student learn about the world they live in. This learning is not limited to facts and figures but rather, includes learning about and rethinking previously held beliefs about the world around us.

**Standard Four: The teacher understands instructional planning and designs instruction based upon knowledge of the discipline, students, the community, and curriculum goals.**
 * 4A. Understands the Illinois Learning standards, curriculum development, content, learning theory, and student development and knows hot to incorporate this knowledge in planning instruction.
 * 4D. Understands when and how to adjust plans based on students' responses and other contingencies.
 * 4M. Creates Multiple learning activities that allow for variation in students' learning styles and performance modes.


 * Artifact: ** Three Little Adaptions Lesson Plan

**Reflective Statement:** This lesson plan demonstrates my ability to create and implement classroom instruction that not only incorporates appropriate Illinois Learning Standards but also responds to students' unique learning needs. I created this lesson plan for my School Library Media Center course while considering a lesson I had observed at the school in which I did my practicum. My supervising librarian had created a lesson in which the students rotated through stations and the students were extremely engaged and interested in the material. As such, I decided to attempt a similarly engaging lesson in order to respond to my own students' needs. To do this, I asked students to read three adaptions of The Three Little Pigs, then rotate through stations in order to experience multiple learning activities that allow for variations in learning styles. As a teacher, I believe that students must feel engaged and excited by the material in order to succeed and this lesson makes room for that sense of enjoyment while still addressing Illinois Learning Standards.

**Standard Five: The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.**
 * 5B. Understands how individuals influence groups and how groups function in society.
 * 5C. Understand how to help students work cooperatively and productively in groups.
 * 5N. Engages students in and monitors individual and group learning activities that help them develop the motivation to achieve.
 * 5P. Modifies the learning environment (including the schedule and physical arrangement) to facilitate appropriate behaviors and learning for students with diverse learning characteristics.

**Artifact:** Book Clubs 101 Website

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Reflective Statement:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This website about the benefits and mechanics of book clubs highlights my ability to think creatively about ways to engage and motivate students both in and out of the classroom. I believe that students have different learning styles and some may be more successful outside of a rigid classroom or scheduled library environment. Book clubs, which allow for individual choice, informal discussion and limited assessment, may be a way in which these students can develop the motivation to achieve. This website, created with a partner for my Literacy, Reading and Readers course, demonstrates my beliefs that book clubs can be an excellent method to encourage motivation, foster critical thinking, and allow for individual choice. I am particularly proud of two of the sections that I created: Value for Different Ages and Unique Readers and Book Clubs because these pages demonstrate the ways in which a learning environment can be modified in order to respond to students with diverse learning characteristics and needs. This site demonstrates my commitment to creating a learning environment that is a place for positive social interaction and active engagement, both in and out of officially designated class times.

**Standard Six: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.**


 * 6C. Knows how to enhance learning through the use of a wide variety of materials as well as human and technological resources.
 * 6F. Evaluates how to achieve learning goals, choosing alternative teaching strategies and materials to achieve different instructional purposes and to meet students' needs.
 * 6O. Adapts the general curriculum and uses instructional strategies and materials according to the characteristics of the learner.

**Artifact** : White House Germ File

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Reflective Statement:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I believe that as librarians, we must incorporate a variety of instructional strategies and tools, such as books, websites, and other forms of media, in order to help students achieve. I chose this artifact to demonstrate this belief because it highlights several different forms of media I evaluated and selected to relate to the original item, a book called Our White House. A germ file is a cross-curricular list of resources, activities and media forms that relate to a particular book. As such, it clearly demonstrates the ways in which I can relate different forms of media to achieve different instructional purposes across curricular boundaries. While this is one of my first websites and therefore somewhat aesthetically lacking, I believe it points to my ability to integrate literature into curricular goals and standards across multiple content areas. Through this germ file, I also display an ability to select and evaluate resources that add significant depth to student learning.


 * Standard Seven: The teacher uses knowledge of effective written, verbal, nonverbal, and visual communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.**
 * 7D. Understands the importance of audience and purpose when selecting ways to communicate.
 * 7E. Models accurate, effective communication when conveying ideas and information and when asking questions and responding to students.
 * 7I. Uses a variety of communication modes to effectively communicate with a diverse student population.
 * 7K. Communicates using a variety of communication tools to enrich learning opportunities.
 * Artifacts:** [[file:Information Security Signs.pdf]], [[file:Bookmark.pdf]], and [[file:Future Stories File Text.pdf]]

**Reflective Statement:** For this standard, I selected three artifacts that demonstrate my ability to effectively communication in varied forms. As a librarian and a teacher, it is necessary that I appropriately use written, verbal, nonverbal and visual forms of communication in order to encourage critical thinking and an appetite for learning. In my first artifact, I created three posters for my Introduction to Networking course. My goal in creating these was to clearly and concisely demonstrate the dangers of internet use and the ways in which to protect oneself through a visually appealing format. I chose a unifying theme - "Protect Your Information. Protect Yourself!" - and then chose three important topics to help users think more carefully about their internet use.

Similarly, the speculative fiction bookmark, created for my practicum placement, uses written words and visuals to convey communications for my students. The goal of this artifact is to provide seventh and eighth grade students with a list of available fantasy, science fiction, and horror books in the Chase school library. The bookmark serves as a supplement to a booktalk in which I interacted verbally with students.

Finally, the future stories file highlights my ability to use a diverse set of verbal and nonverbal communication techniques, as it demonstrates some of the stories I have told and plan to tell after my Storytelling course. This class provided me with the confidence and skills needed to engage students through oral storytelling and these skills will be instrumental in my approaches to library students throughout my career.


 * Standard Eight: The teacher understands various formal and informal assessment strategies and uses them to support the continuous development of all students.**
 * 8A. Understands assessment as a means of evaluating how students learn, what they know and are able to do in meeting the Illinois Learning Standards, and what kinds of experiences will support their future growth and development.
 * 8D. Understands how to use the results of assessment to reflect on and modify teaching.
 * 8E. Understands how to select, construct, and use assessment strategies and instruments for diagnosis and evaluation of learning and instruction.

**Artifact:** @Notefacts Lesson 2
 * Reflective Statement:** During my time at Olive Mary Stitt Elementary School, I collaborated with the fourth grade teachers to create a lesson on the Independent Investigation Method (IIM) Research Model. Students were doing research on the thirteen colonies and, as neither the teachers nor the students had any experience with IIM, they asked me to create a series of lessons to serve as an introduction. To do this, I modeled the concept of "Notefacts" - short, true facts taken from a resource - and then allowed students to practice writing two notefacts of their own. I collected these, and then, after another lesson in which we revised and refined notefact examples as a group, asked students to try writing two more. I created an informal system of scoring these two batches of practice notefacts and then compared the results to determine what students understood and where improvement was still needed. I also used the results to find ways in which I could improve my teaching for future classes (there are four classes in the fourth grade which I see over a period of two weeks). This enabled me to modify my own teaching to better serve the students.

This assessment allowed me to evaluate how students understood about both what they were reading and the notefact process. I was then able to tailor my own teaching and work individually with certain students that I had identified as needing more assistance. While students did not receive grades, they did receive their sample sheets with my suggestions and feedback, which further helped them understand the process. This form of assessment took a little more time but proved to be very beneficial to the students' understanding.

**Standard Nine: the teacher understands the role of the community in education and develops and maintains collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support student learning and well-being.**
 * 9D. Understand the collaborative process.
 * 9E. Understands the collaborative skills which are necessary to carry out the collaborative process.
 * 9H. Initiates collaboration with others and creates situations where collaboration with others will enhance student learning.
 * 9J. Participates in collaborative decision-making and problem-solving with other professionals to achieve success for students.
 * Artifact:** Collaborative Lesson Plan: The Economy
 * Reflective Statement:** As a librarian, it is my responsibility to work hand in hand with teachers and other staff members in order to develop appropriate and multi-faceted lesson plans and curricular units. I chose this artifact because it not only demonstrates my ability to work effectively with others, but it highlights my ability to think creatively and collaboratively. For my Philosophy of Middle School course, I worked with a group of education students and was tasked with creating a comprehensive and collaborative lesson plan. In group settings, I often function as a group member and "go with the flow," but as this group floundered, I assumed a leadership role and created our theme - the economy. I then offered suggestions for group members struggling with ideas and worked with them to create lessons that drew on aspects of lessons from other departments. For example, in the health lesson plan, students create grocery budgets and draw on skills learned in the math lesson. In the library lesson plan, I guide students through ways in which to research information that can be used in all of the other lesson plans. At the end of this artifact, we jointly reflected on the difficulties and benefits inherent in the group process. This artifact aptly fulfills the collaborative relationship standards because it reveals not only my ability to create connected lesson plans, but my willingness to persevere in somewhat difficult group situations.

**Standard Ten: The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates how choices and actions affect students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community and actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally.**
 * 10A. Understands that reflection is an integral part of professional growth and improvement of instruction.
 * 10C. Understands major areas of research on the learning process and resources that are available for professional development.
 * 10G. Participates in professional dialogue and continuous learning to support her own development as a learner and a teacher.
 * 10I. Assesses her own needs for knowledge and skills related to teaching students with disabilities and seeks assistance and resources.
 * Artifact:** Plan for Professional Development
 * Reflective Statement:** Even when I am no longer enrolled in the University of Illinois, I will continue to be a library student. This is because I believe that as a teacher, it is essential to continually evaluate my own educational choices and actions and seek opportunities to learn and grow professionally. In this Plan for Professional Development, written for my Youth Services Librarianship class, I put forth my plan to continually reflect upon and learn about teaching and curriculum. This artifact is demonstrative of my strong belief in professional organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and my desire to continually explore and learn about new forms of technology and collection development tools. Since writing this paper, I have become a member of the ALA and the Illinois Library Association (ILA). Through these organizations, I hope to maintain an ongoing dialogue about best practices in libraries and in teaching and constantly reevaluate my own skills and areas that may need improvement.

**Standard Eleven: The teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being.**
 * 11A. Understands the unique characteristics of education as a profession.
 * 11B. Understands school policies and procedures.
 * 11K. Follows school policy and procedures, respecting the boundaries of professional responsibilities when working with students, colleagues and families.
 * 11Q. Promotes and maintains a high level of integrity in the practice of the profession.
 * Artifact:** No Child Left Behind Examination
 * Reflective Statement:** The success of the educational system in our country can be a hotly contested topic. While legislators continually create new laws and benchmarks concerning schools, teachers must work to keep up. One such example is No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Before my Curriculum & Instruction: Middle School Instruction course, I had heard much about No Child Left Behind but had not taken the time to fully investigate the research behind it. For this paper, I examine both the positives and negatives of NCLB as represented in professional and scholarly literature and consider how it can affect the success of middle school students. I believe that NCLB encourages a less interactive classroom by focusing on test results and textbook and teacher-centered instruction. Likewise, it may force schools to focus on reading and math at the expense of other subjects. However, a crucial element in conducting oneself professionally is making the best of what you're given. As a professional and flexible teacher, I respect NCLB for its positive attributes. The assessment standards it provides are a valuable element of the program in that they require teachers and administrators to be held to a benchmark and deliver on the standards. Additionally, the legislation’s insistence on highly qualified teachers creates a more academically and developmentally appropriate environment for students. As a teacher, my responsibility is to understand and follow school policy and procedures, but also think critically and encourage that critical thinking in students.