Portfolio of Jan Abernethy
DOMAIN FOUR: PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
4a Reflecting on Teaching
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The 2014-2015 school year was: a tough one for me. Due to health issues I was forced to take a four month sabbatical. Things did not happen as quickly as I would have liked them to but eventually I found the right doctors and was given the correct diagnosis and medication. Most importantly, I was able to get back to the classroom and back to my students.
Despite missing almost half of the school year, my class and I still formed quite a bond and were able to accomplish quite a lot. This year’s class named themselves “The Dauntless Dogs.” They gave themselves that name because they are fearless and willing to take on all the injustices of the world. They have classroom pets that they take care of every day, and they have a classroom habitat that they are also responsible for maintaining. In the spring, they planted crops in raised beds in a portion of the habitat that will then be taken over by the community. They are aware of the world's problems and they do their best to help solve them. They even have a talk show to address bullying. They may only be kids, but they are DAUNTLESS!
The Dauntless Dogs were most certainly brave and fearless in their pursuit to stop bullying. They produced, directed, and filmed their own talk show about bullying called The Dauntless Dog Talk Show. You can find the show on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE01kEcCNAGyRv7gdAK3VMLYJBViA615Q.
They have over twenty episodes. The shows are filmed before school on Friday mornings at 8:00 am, and it is amazing how many kids showed up each week. The show started with five cohosts, but now the screen is filled with students. Some of the kids are not even in my class and some are not even in fifth grade. We will probably film a few episodes over the summer and continue filming next year since most of these students will be in sixth grade.
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The goals that I focused on this year – The goal that I planned to focus on this year was to prepare my students to be confident and successful on the state tests, but that didn’t happen. I was there at the beginning of the year. During that time you are winning their trust, building a relationship, and teaching them to work independently so you can work with small groups on their individual needs. You are teaching them to be excited about learning; you are teaching them enough about the technology that they can create exciting projects that show what they know; you are building a community of learners. I had them right where I wanted them when I left for the sabbatical. Unfortunately, when I returned there were only a few weeks before the state tests. I was starting all over in terms of a relationship with my students and I was cramming in terms of preparing them for the test (not at all the way I like to teach.) So, I would say that goal was not met at all.
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Looking back on the school year I wish – Of course, I wish I had not been gone for four months, but that could not be helped, so I must move on.
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Planning for the 2015-2016 school year I will – I have my end of the year evaluation with Mr. Bronson this week, so of course, I will take anything he tells me into consideration. I do most of my planning for the next school year over the summer. This year, I am lucky enough to be going to the International Society for Technology in Education. I choose one week long conference each summer to attend for professional development and this year it is a big one! There will be teachers, speakers, and vendors from around the world. Fortunately, it is in Philadelphia, so it doesn’t involve a plane ticket. Lucky for me Bill and Linda Gates are picking up the tab for my ticket to attend and hotel stay. The entire time I am at this conference, I will be planning for the 2015-2016 school year. I will be listening to speakers, taking notes, downloading apps, talking to other teachers about possible collaborations, bartering with vendors (I’m pretty good at this), and most of all grabbing up all the free stuff I can get. The fact that I don’t have to worry about the 50 pound weight limit on luggage is awesome! My car is going to be dragging from Philly to Greenville!!!!
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I am grateful for – This one’s pretty easy. I am grateful for Cleveland Clinic. I will never root for the Browns, but I must say Cleveland has a great medical facility. They gave me back my lifelong dream of being a teacher!
In my role the areas I focused on were: By accident, the area I focused on was getting grants. When I was on sabbatical I felt so helpless and it was so hard not to be teaching. In addition to researching teaching methods, new apps for the iPads and exciting programs that would make mundane tasks exciting for the kids, I started applying for grants. Below are the grants that I was able to procure this year.
One of my most proud accomplishments this year happened at the beginning of the year. After struggling through much red tape, East Elementary, Allegheny College and University of Pitt were able to collaborate and create a brand new program at Pymatuning State Park. It was an awesome day of environmental learning and fun, but it was also a precedent set for other schools and hopefully for our students in the future.
The Alex and Hayden Show also continued to film this year, but often the hosts didn’t show up regularly. Therefore, members of that show crossed over the to the Dauntless Dog show. Below are some pictures of the Alex and Hayden Show from this year.
Other goals, however, were met by accident. There was plenty of time after the test to teach and get to know my students again and form the bond we had at the beginning of the year. They were quite a needy bunch of kids. It seemed our topic of bullying was a good one for this group in a lot of ways. The class had plenty of “bullies” and “victims.” We worked through a lot of issues to become what all of my other classes had become in the past, a family. We worked on lots of end of the year projects which gave them the opportunity to learn a lot of the technology tools they had missed out on throughout the year. We joined together to fight what we thought was a threat to losing the animals in our classroom. We created a trout quilt from the quilt squares sent to us from other schools across the country who had also been raising trout. We cleaned up the habitat and planted the vegetable garden. Perhaps the best goal met of all, we put down the reading textbook, formed literature circles, and finally most of them fell in love with reading.