And Now The End Is Near

As my final day in my PDS approaches, I find myself having mixed emotions. On one hand I am very excited to have finished my first semester of my graduate year. On the other hand, I am very sad to be leaving my mentor teacher, my students, and the classroom aide. Through my internship, I have become very close to my students and am dreading not being able to see them every day. I also feel that through my internship, I have learned the most. I have learned not only how to modify and implement effective lessons to students with disabilities, but also how to deal with the "bumps in the road" that they bring. With that said, I have also been re-assured that special education is where I truly belong.

Yellow, Yellow, Everywhere

This week is the last week that I will be implementing my Action Research in the classroom. The color of the week this week is yellow. The first few days this week have not started off to a good start, but it was to be expected. Since the student I work with has Autism, I anticipated this being a hard week for him after being home from school all last week for the holiday. On Monday, the student was very agitated and would not focus at all when we attempted to explore through the color i.d boxes. On Tuesday, we worked on a computer game in which the child began on a good start, but soon became unfocused and wanted no part of the game. With that said, he can identify that a banana is yellow, but needs to be prompted to say the color "yellow". I usually prompt him with the beginning sounds. I also noticed that when asked what color a yellow object is, the student would respond with "banana" as the color. Although he was unable to state the word "yellow", I was happy that he was able to identify the color being the same color as a banana. I feel that it is at least important for him to be able to identify the color with the surrounding world.

Orange Ya Glad Thanksgivings Next Week?

The color of the week for my action research is orange. So far, the student that I have been working with has been doing a great job and is progressing very well. The colors we have worked with so far include red, blue and green. He is able to identify blue and green pretty well when asked but we still have our set-backs from time to time. For example, sometimes instead of looking at the object, this student will just respond with a color...it is always "green". When this occurs, I have to remind the child to focus and look at the object that we are discussing. Also when this occurs I try to get the child off of his "fixation" that he is currently having with the color green. Students with Autism often get fixated on certain objects or ideas. I feel that often occurs with this student because "green" is always the color of choice.

Although this student has been doing well, he refers to orange as "grenorange". I take this as his way of saying green but also including the orange into the mix. I hope by the end of the week to have him saying simply "orange".

What'd Ya Say?

This semester I have had the privilege of working in a special education classroom. With this semester quickly coming to an end, I have been starting to really reflect on my experiences and things that I have learned. Without a doubt, this semester has been one of the best and most rewarding experiences of my life. Not only have I learned so much about being a special education teacher but I have also learned a lot about myself.

In my elementary placement, I have had the privilege of working with great students. One student in particular, is a student that is non-verbal and autistic. This student is very bright and is capable of completing a lot of activities. When I first began this placement, the only word that this student was verbally speaking was "bye" at the end of the day. At this time, she was using a device in which she could press different buttons and the device would speak for her. Then, a blessing in disguise occurred when her device broke. 8 weeks later (still without a device), this student is saying her alphabet, potty, bye, good and also stating her spelling words. It goes without saying that this has been amazing to watch. Our next goal is to teach this student how to respond to yes or no questions without being prompted. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks will bring and better yet, how much progress she makes when I return for contract hours next semester!

Action Research

For the past two weeks I have been working on my action research with one of my students. The focus of my action research this semester is how differentiated instruction will influence a 2nd grader with Autism to self identify his colors. Through my research, I am beginning to find that although the student has a hard time self-identifying the colors, he is able to match objects according to their color. For example, today I had planned to have the student identify the color of the week (blue) through illustrations in the story If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. Due to the fact that he was very distracted and not focused on the story, I changed my plans and instead had him pick out all of the blue dinosaurs and place them into a blue box. While doing so, I had this student repeat me as I said "Blue dinosaur" or "Blue box." Immediately after him repeating, I would ask, "What color is the dinosaur or the box?" Although he had just correctly picked out the blue dinosaurs from the pile, he was still unable to state that the dinosaurs were blue. Next, I assisted him on an interactive color website where he was to sort the objects according to their color. Since the color of the week is only blue, I just wanted him to find the blue objects. This student needs assistance when working on the computer, so at first I just had him point to the blue objects on the screen. Since there were so many objects on the screen to choose from, he was easily distracted by all of the objects so I instead began to ask him to find the (for example, Blue Mailbox). When he would identify the correct object, I assisted him in using the mouse to drag that object into the blue box. Once he identified the object correctly, I had him repeat "Blue ____". Immediately after, I would then ask him what color the object was. Although he wasn't able to identify the color blue for some of the objects, you could tell that he was thinking really hard about the answer when asked. I found this to be a really great sign because in the past, I was receiving only blank stares and no indication that he was focused. This student did the best when identifying the mailbox as blue. I am very eager to see what else I will learn through the rest of my action research.

Happy Harvest Week

In the upcoming week, my class is hosting a "Happy Harvest Week" with our students. Throughout this week, the students will participate in a specific theme and also complete different activities involving pumpkins. Our "Happy Harvest Week" begins on Monday when we will count the different seeds found in a carved pumpkin. On Tuesday, the students will participate in a school-wide hat day in which they will have to pay a $0.50 donation that will go to the United Way. In our classroom, we will also be having Tell & Show Tuesday (Show & Tell) as well as doing an activity where the students will be weighing their pumpkins and graphing the results. On Wednesday, we will be dressing for Wacky Wednesday and I am very excited to make my hair a little crazy and wear different shoes! We will also be doing an activity to see whether our pumpkins will float or sink. Thursday will be Thankful Thursday in which the students will bring in something that they are thankful for. Through this theme, we are hoping to promote the school-wide positive behavior support plan where the students show compassion and respect for something/someone meaningful to them. Our pumpkin activity of the day will require the students to measure their pumpkins with a ruler from the bottom to the top of the stem. They will also have to measure their pumpkin with cubes. For our final day of our "Happy Harvest Week", we will be having Fan Friday in which the students will dress in their favorite team's colors! Our pumpkin activity will involve the students finding the circumference of their pumpkins.

I am very excited to participate in "Happy Harvest Week" because I think that it will be a great way to get the students excited about learning. Due to the fact that the students are unable to dress up for Halloween, I think that these activities will allow the students to be excited about the entire season of Fall rather than just the Halloween day.

Whatcha' Packin' Sugar?

The topic of study in science this week for one of my students is the food pyramid and deciphering between healthy and unhealthy foods. After giving a brief presentation of the food pyramid, I allowed this student to play a game in which she was expected to drag the different foods into the correct food group. I was surprised to find that the shape of the food pyramid had changed into a plate rather than the well known pyramid. The student that I was working with has Autism and is non-verbal so it is often hard to read what she is thinking. Through this activity though, she was fully smiling throughout the entire activity which allowed me to know that she was enjoying it.

The end of my lesson involved this student participating in an experiment. First, I laid out 4 different snacks and explained that we were going to be sorting them according to healthy and unhealthy snacks. In order to complete this activity, I gave her a science log and had her write down her hypothesis of what snacks she thought were the healthiest through the unhealthiest. The snacks I provided were alphabet cookies, fruit roll-ups, apple sauce and a Reese’s cup. After her hypothesis was completed, I had her (using a tea-spoon) measure out the amount of sugar that is included in each snack. Due to the fact that conversions are too difficult for her to solve, I had converted the amount of sugar (which was presented in grams) into teaspoons so that it was easier for her to measure out. After measuring out the sugar in each snack, we compared the piles to determine which was the healthiest. My student had a blast with this activity and it really was eye-opening as to how much sugar is actually in each of the foods that we eat.

Ahoyy Mate!

This week in math my students were learning about measurement and how to use a ruler. To wrap up the week, I chose to incorporate a fun pirate treasure hunt to assess the students understanding of using a ruler. To begin my lesson, I asked the students if they had seen anyone (different than usual) come into the room while we had stepped out. With confused looks on their faces, I explained that someone had left an interesting note (tied with ribbon) and 4 pirate hats. As soon as the students heard/saw the pirate hats, they were immediately excited! We discussed the possibilities of what the note could be. "Maybe it's a treasure map" they all kept shouting. Ah, the treasure map. I knew I had forgot something!

You see, I created a treasure hunt for the students including clues that they would need to follow. In order to solve each clue and get to the next, the students had to measure the designated item stated on the previous clue. The students loved it because each clue was written in pirate language! The activity went very well and the students enjoyed it very much. I was also very happy to see them properly using the ruler as they had learned all week.

If I could change anything about the lesson, I would remember to incorporate a treasure map. Although it was not needed for this activity, I think it would have made the effects more interesting and maybe I could have incorporated measurement into the map as well!

Show Me The Money

This week in math the topic of my lessons are dealt around counting and identifying money: coins and dollars. Yesterday, I introduced the topic by making Money Boards. To create this, I used glittery foam boards and glued pipe cleaners on the board so that it was divided into 4 squares: penny, nickel, dime, quarter. Next, I took Velcro and put it on both the board (2 pieces in each square) and on the back of foam that was labeled: 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents. I also put Velcro on an actual penny, nickel, quarter, and dime. When presented to the students, I had the value foam pieces and actual money in a plastic baggie so that the only thing on their board was the labels: penny, nickel, dime, quarter. First I wanted to know what the students already knew about coins so I explained that I wanted them to take the values and the coins and Velcro them in the correctly labeled box. Through this opening activity, I was able to understand what coins the students already were able to identify and which they struggled with. I was also able to get an understanding of whether or not they knew the different coin values. Out of the 4 students that I have at this time, 2 of them were able to identify at least 2 of the coins and their correct value. Now, after going through the coins more, I use this same activity as a "practice" session in which the students can practice identifying what they have learned over the past few days. The students really enjoy this activity because the sparkly foam has seemed to excite them. They also really enjoy Velcroing the different coins to the foam and pulling them off. I highly recommend anyone who is teaching money to make these boards!

New Placement, New Faces

After spending 5 wonderful weeks in my high school placement at Fairmont Senior, it was time to adventure back to my home-based placement at East Park Elementary School. At my East Park placement, I am in a self-contained special education class. Within this classroom, I work with 4 students for the majority of the day; two students with Autism (one in which is non-verbal), one student with a learning disability, and another student that is mildly impaired. I also have 5 students who come into my classroom for 45 minutes of each day who get extra help in language arts.

I have only been at this placement for 4 days, but already feel very comfortable with my students. I am also very lucky to be placed with a great mentor teacher. Thus far, she has offered a lot of suggestions and good ideas in which I plan to use. She also is very helpful in the aspect that she is always sharing information about teaching strategies or lesson ideas that she newly learns about. I am very excited to spend the rest of the semester here and to work with my new students!

New Placement, New Faces

After spending 5 wonderful weeks in my high school placement at Fairmont Senior, it was time to adventure back to my home-based placement at East Park Elementary School. At my East Park placement, I am in a self-contained special education class. Within this classroom, I work with 4 students for the majority of the day; two students with Autism (one in which is non-verbal), one student with a learning disability, and another student that is mildly impaired. I also have 5 students who come into my classroom for 45 minutes of each day who get extra help in language arts.

I have only been at this placement for 4 days, but already feel very comfortable with my students. I am also very lucky to be placed with a great mentor teacher. Thus far, she has offered a lot of suggestions and good ideas in which I plan to use. She also is very helpful in the aspect that she is always sharing information about teaching strategies or lesson ideas that she newly learns about. I am very excited to spend the rest of the semester here and to work with my new students!

Intern Rubric Reflecting in My Classroom

At the end of last week, my algebra class was learning about solving problems using the order of operations (P.E.M.D.A.S). To get the students motivated about this topic, I put the letters P.E.M.D.A.S really big on the front board. I began by asking the students if they had ever heard of this before. Immediately, the hands went up because their minds had reverted them to their “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” days otherwise known as P.E.M.D.A.S (otherwise, otherwise known as the order of operations). I chose to motivate the students to get excited about the order of operations by allowing them to think of their own mnemonic device other than Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The students had a lot of fun with it and came up with really creative sayings! This was an example of element 5.3: uses an understanding of motivation and group motivation. This activity allowed the students to become intrinsically motivated because they enjoyed saying their self created mnemonic device while solving the problems.

For the next few days in my algebra class, we are learning about basic graphing and functions. Due to the fact that this is the first time the students are being introduced to functions, the students had to participate in note taking. Due to the fact that most of the students in the classroom rely heavily on their notes, I decided that I would make a flap book graphic organizer to highlight some of the important vocabulary and concepts. Also keeping in mind my students, I filled in the titles of each flap so that the students could easily navigate through while taking notes. I feel that this was a good example of element 4.2: creates appropriate instructional opportunities for diverse learners because I considered each of my students’ learning styles and strengths when planning this lesson.

Of course to effectively teach these lessons, I had to come up with thought out lesson plans prior to teaching. This represents 5.5: develops and implements well defined lessons. In my opinion, I feel that both writing out the lesson plans and also writing a list of bulleted points to use when actually teaching is very helpful for me. This allows me to remember the big events that I wanted to touch in my lessons without skipping over anything.

Bittersweet Ending

In three days, my 5 week placement at Fairmont Senior High School will come to an end. To be honest, BEFORE I began this placement I was terrified and had myself convinced that High School was not the place for me. I did not think that I would enjoy teaching students that were so close to me in age and was very apprehensive about the material that I would have to be teaching (because the content was so specific). Now, as the final day approaches I find myself wanting to stay at the High School.

Over these past couple weeks, I feel that I have learned so much about what a special education teacher's job entails. Although I have been educated of this through my SPED classes at the university, it wasn't until I was at Fairmont Senior and learned/saw firsthand that I actually had any clue. I truly admire my mentor teacher. She is a very hard worker who has a true passion for teaching these students and helping them to become young adults. Not only does she care about their academics, but she does all that she can to ensure that all of her students are comfortable and on the right track to become a young adult (even if it means putting in extra time and work for her students).

Not only do I hope to be the kind of teacher that she is in the future, but I also hope to have her organizational skills. I came here knowing that special education meant paperwork but I had no idea the amount of time and work that went into all of these different forms. Obviously, with all of that paperwork (especially with the majority of it being confidential) you have to have a fantastic organization system or else your job will be impossible. My mentor teacher has her organization system in full swing and I feel that it is very beneficial for both her job and mental health.

Although I was scared of these High School students at first, I developed a great relationship with all of my students and have finally figured out their interests, personalities and learning styles. I have finally come to a point in my teaching here where I feel completely comfortable in front of these kids and in this atmosphere. High School is not a scary place like I had originally thought and I cannot wait to come back here next semester to complete some of my contract hours. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement or a better experience. So, until next time…

Roll The Dice!

This week in my Algebra 1 class (with freshman), I was teaching powers and exponents. On the first day, I introduced the topic and we went through the main concepts and important information dealing with the topic. On the next day, we practiced problems as a class based on powers and exponents followed by independent practice. The following day, I decided to change it up a bit. Since the students had been working with pencil and paper all week, I decided to add a little fun into the way they were practicing completing powers and exponents problems.

In order to do so, I began by putting the students into 2 groups (one of 2 people and one with 3). Next, I handed out a chart to each student and 2 di to each group. As the chart explained, the students were to roll the first di once to determine the base number and record it. Next, they were to roll 2 di to determine the exponent and record it. In the next two columns, the students had to write out the complete number formed and the multiplication represented by the exponent. It is also important to note that the students were not rolling for themselves. To keep each of the group members actively involved and enforce cooperative learning, I had the students take turns rolling the numbers for one another.

I was apprehensive at first because I did not know how the students would react to an activity like this, but was happily surprised when each student was actively involved. I was happy to see this because the students often get restless when they are constantly doing practice work with pencil and paper. I plan to use this lesson for multiple concepts in the future!

Year 4 Portfolio Critique and Hopes for Year 5 Portfolio

Overall, I was very pleased with the way my Year 4 Portfolio turned out. For starters, I was able to include a lot of good samples of work that I feel truly represent my abilities and strengths as a teacher. For example in the section Two Examples of Work Completed in Professional Education Courses, I included a lesson on fact and opinion that I had created for my EDUC 414 Creative Expressions class. Since the lesson was done around the time of Halloween, I decided to incorporate the holiday into the lesson as well as different aspects of the arts and creativity. To start off, I had the students sing a song titled “Francine the Nice Witch” which was sung to the tune of “Frosty the Snowman”. After singing through the songs a few times, I had the students stand up and either create “F” or “O” with their arms in order to show if each line in the song represented a fact or opinion. Afterward, I had the students decorate a picture of something that represented Halloween and had them write both a fact and opinion statement about the picture or the holiday itself. I feel that this shows my strengths as a teacher because it shows that I like to bring creativity into my lessons. This artifact also shows that I consider all learning styles while creating my lessons to ensure that each child has a fair chance at learning the presented information.

I was also happy with the overall look of my portfolio. I ensured to make sure that my tabs stuck out far enough this time because when I had handed in my first portfolio, they did not. I also wanted to have a common theme for this portfolio, so I found decorated paper that I felt represented me and my passion for elementary teaching and incorporated it throughout the entire portfolio.

For my Year 5 Portfolio, I hope to make my action research artifact a better representative of who I am as a teacher. For my Year 4 Portfolio, I decided to include my action research assignment from Fall semester of my participant year which included a power point slide presentation of the data that I had collected. On my next portfolio, I hope to include my action research that I complete this year. With that said, I will make sure that I include all the aspects of this project such as the brief, notes from the data taking process, my charts, and my final paper. I think that if I include all of these aspects, my teaching strengths will show.

"Welcome To Fairmont Senior"

For my Intern 5 week Special Education placement, I am currently at Fairmont Senior High School. Here, I will be working with 9th, 11th, and 12th graders in the subjects of math and chemistry. I will also be working with an individual student for one period using Plato program. Our students were scheduled to arrive last Thursday 8/18, but due to a construction and espestis problem…the date was pushed back until tomorrow 8/24. Although the students have not arrived yet, I have been enjoying getting to know my mentor teacher as well as the rest of the Fairmont Senior staff. They have all been extremely helpful and welcoming (especially through these difficult times). Because this is the first time I have ever been in a high school teaching setting, they have been willing to help in whatever way possible and offering lots of great advice. I am very excited to take on this challenge of teaching the high school students, especially in an area in which I am not my strongest…MATH.

Practicum Plan

This semester, we were required to create a Practicum Plan as an assignment for EDUC 401. For this assignment, we were instructed to organize our assignments based on the due dates for all of our classes. The Practicum Plan was intended to be a way for all of us students to keep ourselves organized and up-to-date as to which assignments need to be completed and when. With that said, I felt that the idea of the Practicum Plan was very helpful, but found the desired format to be very confusing and not very effective (in my own personal opinion).

At the start of every semester, I write down all of my assignments for each of my classes in my planner which is in the format of a calendar. I have been using this method since my first year in college and have found it to be very effective ever since. In my opinion, if the Practicum Plan were to be an assignment given next semester, I would recommend allowing the students to put their Plan into any format that they desire (while still including all of the required information). I feel that this will allow the assignment to become more personalized and effective for each individual rather than being effective for the grader of the assignment. In all, I really liked the concept of the assignment, but I would recommend changing the format.

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher 2

Characteristic # 3 states that we believe that the novice teacher should recognize that teaching is a professional, moral, and ethical enterprise, should understand moral issues and ethical practices in educational environments, and should have developed ethical frameworks which facilitate effective teaching.

I feel that characteristic # 3 is an important quality for teachers to have because the principal of ethics is crucial when working with students. In my opinion, there needs to be a deep sense of trust between the student and teacher in order to have an effective relationship and in order for successful learning to occur. For the safety of the student, it is the teacher’s responsibility to keep all information about that student confidential. Although information about the student is expected to be confidential, it is also the teacher’s moral responsibility to protect that child. With that said, if a student relays information to the teacher involving the student being abused or neglected, it is the teacher’s responsibility to report it in order to save the child.

An artifact that I feel would be a good representative of this characteristic are the parental consent forms that state whether a parent gives their consent for their child’s picture to be taken in the classroom by the Benedum student. I feel that this represents the characteristic of ethics and morals because by asking for parental consent, the Benedum student is protecting the students and respecting their and their parents beliefs and opinions.

Characteristic # 4 states that we believe the novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students

Characteristic # 4 is in my opinion one of the most important qualities for a teacher to have. Every student learns differently, so it is important that the teacher is able to differentiate their lessons in order to reach every student. Students can learn differently in ways such as kinesthetically, orally, and visually. Students may also learn differently due to disabilities or handicaps. For this reason, a teacher needs to be flexible in their teaching and ensure that their lesson plans are created in order for each student in their classroom. Each student needs to be offered an equal chance to learn to the best of their ability and it is the teacher’s job to ensure that.

An artifact that I feel would be a good representative of this characteristic is my differentiated lesson plan in which I created in my Special Education class last semester. For this particular lesson, I gave the students a choice in which way they wanted to represent their “book reports”. The students were given three choices: they could create a poster based on the main ideas of the book and present it along with a brief summary to the class, they could write a paper based on the main idea and summary of their novel, or they could create a visual of their choice to represent the main idea and summary of their novel. I found that the students responded very well to the assignment because they had the opportunity and power to choose what type of assignment they were working on. In the end, every student did very well on this particular project.

Learning Goals

One of my learning goals that I created to accomplish this year was to speak loudly while teaching lessons. When I taught lessons last semester, I often was encouraged by my host teacher to speak louder when presenting the information. This semester, I have been more aware of the volume of my voice when teaching my lessons to ensure that I reach all students. I knew that speaking louder would make a difference in keeping the students’ attention, but I never realized how much it would affect my lessons. Since I have worked toward this goal, I find the students’ goofing off/talking less and staying actively engaged in the lesson.


As the semester progresses, I find the target dates of my assignments and goals being revised a bit. This is due to snow days, two hour delays, and time management occurring in the classroom. Along with my mentor teachers help though, I have found it very easy to get all of my goals and assignments completed this fur due to her continuing support. I have yet to get behind in my assignments and hope to keep it that way.


As far as learning goals go, I find myself creating a learning goal every week to accomplish for the duration of those days. I find that this helps me to stay motivated and focused as to what I have to complete and allows me to put forth all my efforts onto those subjects/assignments.

Characteristics of a Novice Teacher

Characteristic # 7: we believe that the novice teacher should effectively integrate content and pedagogy.

Characteristic # 7 highlights the fact that the novice teacher should be able to successfully link content knowledge with his/her pedagogical knowledge. The combination of the two allows teachers to know what and how to teach the particular subject content. This is important because a teacher should be able to take specific subject topics and translate them into a lesson which represents the way they teach and the way their students are able to learn. Anyone, given the information, could teach a lesson to a class about particular subject content, but the effectiveness of a lesson depends on a teacher’s pedagogy and understanding of his/her students.

An artifact that I would use to correspond with characteristic # 7 would be my unit plan in which I created for my Elementary School Health Program class. Through this course, I was instructed to create a unit plan consisting of 12 lesson plans based on a given curriculum unit. The 12 lessons included in this unit plan were reflections of the information that I felt was most important to relay to my students. The lessons were also planned to reflect the teaching style in which I use currently and plan to use in my future career.

I feel that my unit plan fits into the category with characteristic 7 being that the novice teacher should effectively integrate content and pedagogy for many reasons. One of these reasons is that the lesson plans that make up my unit plan effectively show the pedagogy in which I base my teaching on. As an educator, I feel the uses of all types of instruction are necessary to reach each of my students and that strategy is shown within my lesson plans. Also as an educator, especially an elementary educator in which you teach all different subjects in a given day, it is important to be able to present the content to students in a way that they will understand and learn to the best of their ability. This concept is shown in my unit plan because they not only show my teaching styles and pedagogy but also show my knowledge in the content that is to be taught.

Characteristic # 2: We believe that the novice teacher should be an effective communicator

Characteristic # 2, we believe that the novice teacher should be an effective communicator is very important in the aspect of the Benedum program as well as for teaching in general. In order for a teacher to be effective, he/she must be an effective communicator both verbally through their lessons, non-verbally, and written. It is very important for a teacher to communicate in these various ways because it gives students the chance to retrieve information in various forms. For example, it is important for teachers to force students to get their information through a given text or through directions rather than directly telling them the information all of the time. Through this, students get a sense of responsibility and are able to retrieve information themselves.

An artifact that I feel corresponds with characteristic # 2 is written feedback based on a lesson observation done by the tutor coordinator in my PDS school. Throughout my student teaching years, I have had many observations done while I was teaching lessons, but this particular observation stuck out to me the most and in my opinion best reflects this characteristic. During this particular observation, I happened to be teaching alongside a substitute for the day, working with the students on a tech-steps assignment. The observations are a great way to show an observer’s opinion of the way in which I present myself to my students and teach my lessons. These observations are a great way to figure out which aspects of teaching you need to improve and what your strengths are.

I feel that the observation feedback notes correspond well with characteristic 2 because the notes show the ways in which the teacher communicates with his/her students. Without the aspect of communication, a classroom where learning takes place would not be possible. I feel that the observation feedback is a great representative of this characteristic because they show real-life situations in which the teacher is teaching her students and is a true reflection of how he/she communicates daily.