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Wisconsin Teacher Standard #10

Professionalism
Ashley Hodge
St. Marys University of Minnesota
Masters of Arts in Education Wisconsin Program
December 2014

National Board Proposition 5

Teachers are members of learning communities

Accomplished teachers contribute to the effectiveness of the school by working
collaboratively with other professionals on instructional policy, curriculum
development, and staff development.
Accomplished teachers find ways to work collaboratively and creatively with
parents, engaging them productively in the work of the school.

Wisconsin Teacher Standard #10

Teachers are connected to other teachers and community
The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in
the larger community to support students learning and well-being.
Knowledge
The teacher understands schools as organizations within the larger community
context and understands the operations of the relevant aspects of the system(s)
within which s/he works.
Dispositions
The teacher is willing to consult with other adults regarding the education and
well-being of his/her students.
Performances
The teacher makes links with the learners other environments on behalf of
students, by consulting with parents, counselors, teachers of other classes and
activities within the schools, and professionals in other community agencies.
The teacher can identify and use community resources to foster student learning.
Professional Development Goal

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I will participate in professional development opportunities for teaching and coaching to improve
my overall effectiveness as a special education teacher and coach in the hopes to increase
student achievement.
I will foster effective two-way communication with parents concerning their childs
accomplishments and improvements in the classroom.
I will continue to coach girls volleyball in order to promote additional positive opportunities with
students and their parents outside of the classroom.
If my situation allows, I would love to work in a higher education position teaching
either students that have IEPs or students that would like to work with students
who have IEPs.

Self-Assessment
There are so many facets of being a successful teacher, and I honestly feel that I
possess many of those needed facets. I try to be involved as much as possible not only by

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planning new experiences for my special education students throughout the school year, but
also by being a volleyball coach and sophomore class advisor. These have given me the
opportunity to interact with students outside of the classroom, which I think is so incredibly vital
to strengthening my rapport with all students in our school.
I was hired last year in a new position as a high school cross-categorical special
education teacher. Last year was my first year at a high school; I previously was a middleschool teacher for the past five years in a neighboring community. I regularly teach Reading and
English to approximately 15 high school students in grades 9 through 12. In my English class I
have eight students: four are Learning Disabled (LD), two are Cognitively Disabled (CD), and
two are Emotional Behavioral Disabled (EBD). Because this special education English class has
a wide range of learning abilities, I constantly have to approach higher level materials with
deeper explanation, so everyone can be successful.
I think it is very important to have and promote positive and active engagement during
my classes. If the students are active in the classroom, that means they are absorbing what is
being taught, thus getting the most out of the class.
Collaborating with colleagues is also important to the success of my students and I have
implemented a new way to give information in the form of an IEP at a Glance to every teacher
for every special education student they have in class. These forms articulate to the teacher the
students disability, their strengths, accommodations, and a BIP (if applicable), along with a
photo so they can easily identify the student. I also find it important to email teachers regularly
about student progress in individual classes.
Families and Community
For the past two years I have been a part of the Black River Falls High School teaching
9-12 Special Education students, prior to that I worked at Tomah Middle School working with 68 grade students. As a special education teacher, I do a lot of parental communication with the
IEP meetings and quarterly progress reports. I answer emails as soon as possible from parents

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about grades and behaviors, I also make the phone calls that need to be made. But it has
always been very important for me to see my students in a different light, not only in the learning
environment, but also outside of school. That is why coaching and been a class advisor have
been so important to me.
In Tomah I coached middle school and high school students in basketball and track.
Now at Black River Falls I have coached C-Team volleyball for the past two seasons. During
this fall volleyball season, I planned two excursions for the girls. One in August (prior to teams
being spilt) to a ropes course for a team building day at a local college and the other near the
end of the season to a Badger girls volleyball game. Parents volunteered to drive and we
enjoyed an awesome game and then dinner afterwards. It was such a great time and one girl
even mentioned that it was the best trip she had ever taken!
It is also a wonderful experience to get my special education students out in the
community. This past spring I scheduled a field trip to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for
all 50 of the students at our high school and it was amazing how many of my students had
never had the opportunity to take the 40minute drive to La Crosse and have that experience.
The kids were able to visit a planetarium and an archeology building and they also were
able to eat their lunch in the colleges open commons. The day was just a wonderful time and so
many of the students have already asked me this year when we are going back to do it again.
That to me is success.
Our school also plays an active role in the Project Christmas for our community. So just
in the past few weeks many of my special education students have been raising money,
organizing donations, wrapping gifts, and then preparing and sharing those gifts to families in
need. It has been a great experience to show how much time and effort is needed to make such
an event work. It also added an element of sharing and caring for all the students.
I also am in works for planning a trip to a no-kill Animal Shelter in a neighboring
community for my students that are enrolled in a Vet Small Animal Ag class. They will be

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videotaping a virtual tour to share with the other regular ed students in their class. My hope is
that the trip will be beneficial for the Ag class and the virtual tour will be saved and shared in
future classes. I have also opened the opportunity to our CD teacher and she will be planning
on bringing her students as well!
I truly believe life experiences, such as field trips and assisting members of the
community are important for students to strengthen life skills and overall learning.

Learner
I have always loved to learn new things, and I think this is very important when it comes
to learning along side of my students. I continually try to seek opportunities for professional
development that will improve my teaching and coaching skills and benefit student learning. I
usually teach an English and Reading course and I never have said I am an expert at either,
because many lessons that I come up for my students are topics that I may not have had any
clue about prior. It is so important to me to push myself and learn the poem or piece of literature
or concept so that I can make the learning as insightful as possible.

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Because we are a 1:1 school, using technology in our classrooms almost every day is
highly stressed. It was important to me to make sure that throughout my lessons my students
use their computers in appropriate and educational ways to increase their learning. This means
that I have to constantly be learning about the best practices and useful tools in technology, so
my lesson plans are not only productive, but worthwhile and grade level appropriate for my
Reading and English students.
I have pushed myself by seeking opportunities to increase my knowledge in technology,
because I felt it was a weakness area of mine, and have attended a few professional
development opportunities. The SLATE conference (held in the Dells) was one of those
trainings that really opened my eyes to what I could be doing differently for greater success.
Even though technology can be a useful tool to make students motivated and inspired,
the fact that the teacher is the most important motivation is always my driving to force that helps
me develop curriculum that encourage students to see, question, and interpret new concepts
and ideas.
My state of mind could be summarized by having enthusiasm for the disciplines I teach
and I try my best to have a positive attitude every day during school. I believe teachers need to
have enthusiasm to teach and learn, in order for the students to have that same enthusiasm. I
enjoy working with special education students every day; however, I realize that this is not true
for every teacher. My hope is by being passionate in my position that enthusiasm will rub off
onto some of my special education cohorts.
As a Cross-Categorical teacher I deal with everything from Behavioral Intervention Plans
(BIPs) to Transitional Plans to college readiness programs, all focused in the IEP. I feel that IEP
writing tools are ever changing. Luckily, my old school was ahead of the game and integrated
the SEEDS program, so when my new school switched over I was very well versed in how the
program worked. However, it was important to me to attend all the trainings though, just in case
there was something I missed and needed to know in order to write the best IEPs.

Leader and Collaborator

Though it is only my second year in this position, my past knowledge coming from my
old school has really helped me fill a leadership void that was at my new school. Only last week
was I working with my principal, school counselors, and fellow teachers, meeting about
scheduling our students for the second semester. When all of the other teachers had to leave
for classes, my principal commended me for all the hard work Ive done and he recognized me
at our last staff meeting also.
At my old school there were three individuals that had been working in the department
for many years and they did not let new staff really have much say. At my new school, the
situation is much different where there is only one individual who is close to retirement and
allows for new staff to take leadership opportunities. During all special ed staff meetings I am

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responsible for organizing and taking minutes, along with making any necessary changes if
needed.
All of my students are assessed at the beginning of the school year and are all at
different reading levels. I feel that integrating technology will not only hit on everyones different
learning styles, but it will also be a nice change from what these students are used to with their
old worksheets and textbooks curriculum. It is thought that special education students are not
capable of completing grade-level work, but that is often untrue. I believe that it is important to
remember that grade-level content may be modified or reduced in difficulty for students;
however, that does not mean that the highest learning standards should be lowered.
This school year, I also started new IEP at a Glance sheets. Every special education
teacher was required to make snapshot of all their students with photos, accommodations, and
disability information and we organized them into folders for each teacher in our school. This
was something new that have never been implemented in the past and I did it so the teachers
were well informed and now that have access to information about our students at any time.
My curriculum always includes times when students need to problem solve, critically
think, collaborate with each other, and use creativity and communication skills in order to be
successful. I believe all of these are characteristics of effective learning! Because these
elements are incredibly important to me, I also try to help regular education teachers as much
as possible modifying their core curriculum. I not only want my special education students to be
successful, but also every student.
As a special education teacher, I teach English and Reading in my classroom, however,
am a permanent fixture in a handful of other classes i.e. World History, Biology, and Creative
Writing. I do my best to interact with as much of the student body as possible and I enjoy being
in the classes and assisting everyone in the learning environment.

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Reflective Summary of Teacher Roles

Upon reflecting on my entries regarding Wisconsin Teaching Standard Number 10, I
have discovered some patterns have emerged. My commitment to families and my community
has always been important, but realizing how getting my students out and about is even more
noticeable when I comment about all the trips and opportunities I have planned. These students
will be active members of our community sooner rather than later and to get them ready for the
jump into adulthood is very important for me.
In looking at the other Wisconsin Teaching Standards, I feel I made the most growth with
Standard 6. My face-to-face communication has always been decent and I am able to articulate
student growth especially during IEP meetings. However, my goal for this school year was to
focus on emailing parents and making phone calls more frequently about student progress, not
only struggles and discipline issues.
Looking back of everything on my past seven years of teaching, there have been
instances where a lesson didnt go the way I wanted it to or a child acted in a way they never

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have before, but I always step into a new day with a positive attitude and hopeful that it will be a
great day! I think my students appreciate my bubbly personality and often times my honesty and
bluntness is also something they find refreshing.
Because reflective teaching is essentially a means of professional development that
begins in the classroom, I really thought videotaping myself teaching was a true eye opening
experience. I had never realized how many ums and pauses that I use in my speech.
Watching that made me realize this is something I need to be more cognizant of and that is
definitely a weakness of mine. This could be something I work on by making an effort to speak
in front of my peers and even during my classes just thinking about the actual words that come
out of my mouth, so it flows a little better.
My biggest strength is in my teaching. One of my goals for every lesson is that all the
students gain knowledge in a fun and safe learning environment. I feel like it was a successful
lesson if the students come away from the class with the ability to articulate what they have
learned in class. This is why I use exit tickets a lot that ask deeper thinking questions. I stress
the importance of being active participants during class and because of this I often have
students volunteering to read or asking really deel questions.
I also think I relate well with all my students. From the boys that drive trucks that arent
excited about school to the girl that was newly adopted but reading at a 4th grade level to a nonsocial senior who wants to attend college, but cannot enter doorways to a classroom - I take
everyone as they are and appreciate them for the individual they are.