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Lilian Slater Schulz

Personal Code of Ethics

CATE 4052: Senior Seminar

Dr. Sheri Deaton

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What it takes to be a professional in the education world is different from any other

profession due to the audience of children and how much they develop within your classroom

every day. A professional has respect for anyone that walks into the threshold of their classroom.

This means always taking your students for who they are and making them feel welcome.

Professionalism comes with effective communication to both colleagues and students. A well-

functioning professional classroom starts with good communication of rules and regulations as

well as expectations and instructions. Knowing, living, and owning your content is key to ensure

that students will want to learn and grow in your environment.

My personal code of ethics would be to always maintain a professional relationship with

my students and colleagues, always have the best in mind for my students, never waiver on my

beliefs and morals, have clear expectations, and always commit myself to learn and grow

alongside the students. By implementing these in my classroom it will allow participants to

reflect on their needs in the classroom by examining the equality and differentiation to enhance

the diversity of learning.

How I will continue to grow professionally would be by giving back to my profession

with both time and effort. Making time for my students outside of the classroom is an easy way

to professionally use the things set before me. Getting to know colleagues and fellow educators

can help further my network and just make friends within work. By going to students’

extracurricular activities outside of school hours, shows a level of care that sets teachers apart.

By doing this it “makes these exemplary teachers stand out” and creates a level of respect from

both students and parents of those children (Konen, 2018).

Reflecting on the TESS domains learned in class, it is very important to focus on your

classroom environment and how you handle students on a daily basis. My growth plan would be
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to ensure that I maintain a healthy ratio between a good classroom environment and creating a

well communicable system for students. I plan to grow in these areas by creating an environment

that is clean and tidy but also exemplifies professionality with its clear expectations. I also plan

to grow in these areas by maintaining a well shifting classroom that flows with the time and ages.

This is done by implementing the right amount of technology and supplies into the classroom to

support the students' learning. I also strive to create clear and concise expectations with and for

my students, so they know what to expect from me and what I expect from them on a daily basis.

I personally would like to see growth in both implementing technology and supplies into

the classroom well, but also, keeping up with records and maintaining a well-organized space. I

plan to grow in these things by holding myself accountable to deep clean the classroom at least

once a week and then tidy up at the end of every day. I also plan to grow in implementing

technology by partnering with the school’s IT department to sift through options on what would

be good to introduce in my classroom. This will ensure creativity within the lessons to help

students grow and succeed. This will also allow me to further my learning with students as they

teach me along the way. I want to strive to maintain a healthy classroom environment that

welcomes learning and creativity to spark new and innovative ideas in my students and teach

them to be their best selves.

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Sources:

K-12 Professional Development Philosophy and Goals. Code.org. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3,

2021, from

https://code.org/educate/professional-development-philosophy

Konen, J. (2018). 3 Questions to Tackle when Growing and Developing Professionally.

Teacher.org.

https://www.teacher.org/blog/growing-developing-professionally/