School of Education Portfolio

University of Wisconsin Platteville

Environmental Health Mini-Unit Reflection
Title of Experience/Artifact:

Environmental Health Project and SHI Project

Date Experience Completed:

Spring 2014

Describe your educational experience/artifact:

My first artifact for this environmental health project on transportation, for which I was a
member of the group, put together a presentation on greenhouse gas emissions, and important
facts about transportation as it relates to everyone in the class. We put together a power point on
the four key components of greenhouse gases and how they tie into transportation emissions.
Then we put together some assessment questions about transportation and had the students
watch you tube clips and answer the questions. Lastly we talked about carbon footprint and had
the students put there carbon footprint on a Google forms sheet for everyone to see how each
persons carbon footprint is different and how they can help.
The second artifact I took part in was the School Health Index project in which I was a
member of the group that helped put together a grant idea. This grant idea had to do with our
asthma program. We were to put together information about a grant that would fit our asthma
program and give a presentation on our work to the class.

Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment

Standard selected-Collaboration: Teachers are connected with other teachers and the

community. The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in
the larger community to support pupil learning and well-being and acts with integrity, fairness
and in an ethical manner
I aligned these artifacts with this standard because I believe as a member of each group
we used collaboration very well to put together our presentations for the class. We
collaborated by working together in the library and first by talking about how we wanted our
presentation to flow by talking to one another about our different ideas. I believe we did great
by coming up with the idea to use Google forms to show the students the answers of the quiz
questions in the Environmental Health Project. Also we used collaboration to specifically pick
what parts of our presentation we would each be talking about to the class. For instance I did
the power point on emissions so I thought it would be best for me to present my emissions
power point to the class.
For my School Health Index project I was able to put together a card on my specific
findings on a grant to present to my peers in our presentation. This was done by working with
my group to come up with the facts and write them down so each member of the group would
talk about certain topics. Overall you can see that we as collaborators used the standard of
collaboration to put together our presentation on transportation and gas emissions as well as a
grant for our asthma program. I believe I will continue to use collaboration in my future
education when I am a future teacher someday.

UW-Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions Alignment

KSD selected-KSD4.f. SHOWS PROFESSIONALISM Aligns with WSTDL 10 The candidate

has the ability to participate professionally in staff decision-making and be highly proactive in
serving students, working to assure that all students, particularly those traditionally underserved,
have an opportunity for success in school.
I aligned these artifacts with KD4.f. Shows Professionalism because I believe both of
these artifacts helped me show great professionalism in the classroom as I presented with my
collaboration partners. My partners and I collaborated together in a professional manor to come
up with ideas in our presentation to get all the students learning and actively involved. We did
this by coming up with questions for both presentations and having the students answer these
questions, then after they all answered the questions we as the teachers went over the questions
to make sure they all got the correct answers to earn full points. It is important to show
professionalism when giving presentations because it shows to the students you are teaching to
that you know what you are doing and you are taking teaching seriously. I believe my group
members and I showed a great deal of professionalism in both of my presentations and I plan to
show professionalism every time I teach.

Explain what you learned about teaching/learning from this experience: (the standard and
KSDs selected)
I believe that from the standard of collaboration and KSD of questioning and discussion
techniques I learned a lot of useful information that will help me better my teaching skills. I
learned how important collaboration is as a group and how you have to come together to make a
presentation that will help educate the students. We were able to communicate affectively to
bring our ideas together and collaborate them into one presentation. Also in our presentations I
learned how effective it is to use questioning and discussion with the students because of how
well they pay attention and learn about the given information on gas emissions and transportation
as well as our asthma program involving a grant. Teamwork is very important as my group and I
found out when putting this grant together we had to look up a lot of information about the school, and
worked hard to find a grant that would fit our asthma program. I believe this artifact helped me broaden
my knowledge on grants while working with my group to achieve our overall goal of completing the task
and give a well put together presentation. Overall I learned a lot of good information not only on the

standard and KSD listed above but more that will help me as a future teacher.

Explain what you learned about yourself as a prospective educator as a result of this
experience/artifact: (How will this impact you, your future students and school district?)

I learned that I need to work on a few main aspects in the environmental health
competencies. For instance, I need to work a little more on advocacy that will someday help
build and maintain administrative and community support for my future students. Also I need to
work on curriculum development and instruction planning when it comes to transportation, gas
emissions and grants. I know that I collaborated well with my group members in both artifacts
from the way I was able to give ideas and help the group out as we worked together. Sharing
portions of the project is a great form of collaboration and I did a great job sharing my ideas that
helped with the presentations. If I am able to do this task of collaboration in the future I believe I
will be a great future educator for my students and I will work hard to accomplish this goal.
Overall I believe this artifact was a great experience for me on how to work together and how
well I did in certain areas and in others I may need a little work on. This project greatly helped
me as a future teacher to open my eyes on how to use Google forms, and to work together to
collaborate with two other future teachers to make a great transportation presentation for the
students.