Standard 8: Fulfills professional responsibilities established by the school district

a. The teacher adheres to board policies, district procedures, and contractual obligations.

One of my contractual obligations is to have a state teaching license. I am endorsed in elementary education, talented and gifted education, and middle level education. As the picture shows, I display my credentials in my classroom to show that I have met all the required qualifications.

b. The teacher demonstrates professional and ethical conduct as defined by state law and district policy.

I meet all the requirements for having a professional teaching license in the state of Iowa. As the picture shows, I display my credentials in my classroom, just as many professionals do in their workplaces.

c. The teacher contributes to efforts to achieve district and building goals.

One of our district's initiatives is to improve reading comprehension. One specific way we're working to improve reading comprehension is by learning researched based strategies that work for teaching reading across the curriculum. I volunteered to be a part of my building's Literacy Team. I've learned so much over the years, going to our Area Education Agency, learning new strategies, practicing those strategies, teaching those strategies to the faculty in my building, and being a resource to my colleagues as questions arise about those strategies. The following is a copy of an e-mail that shows my involvement in the Literacy Team.

d. The teacher demonstrates an understanding of and respect for all learners and staff.

The Writer's Workshop process, modeled after the design by Nancie Atwell, really tailors writing instruction to the needs of the individual student. Each student in my language arts class keeps a skills list in his/her writing folder. As their pieces get to the teacher editing stage, I make note of skills each particular student needs help with. Usually they come from mistakes that I'm consistently seeing in their writing. When the students come back to conference with me, we talk and have a mini-lesson about the particular skill or skills. They then add each of those to their skills list. When they self-edit their next pieces, they then have a list of things to specifically look for in their own writing... areas to improve, especially tailored to their needs. The yellow sheet below is an example of a student's skills list.

e. The teacher collaborates with students, families, colleagues, and communities to enhance student learning.

The collaborative atmosphere is one of the reasons I love teaching at the middle school level. We're all on the same team, doing what's best for kids. The rubric below is a work in progress. I'm collaborating with Tina Breen of our district's technology department to incorporate documentary film making into my 8th grade curriculum. We knew nothing about it last year when we started. This year, now that we know more of what we want to expect from the students, we're designing a rubric to go with the project. We have collaborated during my planning times as well as through e-mail to develop the expectations for this project.