Sarah Engström, Outdoor and Environmental Educator
K-8 Teacher Certified
Standard
Artifact
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Rationale
ALASKA STATE TEACHING STANDARDS
Evidence supporting my ability as a teacher to adhere to Alaskan Teaching Standards
3A. Making connections with local cultures and with individual and cultural characteristics of the students to promote learning;
3B. Using resources and information about the community and the state in planning and delivery of instruction;
3C. Recognizing and minimizing bias in instructional materials and practice;
3D. Using culturally appropriate communication, instructional strategies, and ways of knowing, and using knowledge of the cultural standards adopted by reference in 4 AAC 04.180 in practice;
3E. Identifying and using instructional strategies and resources that are appropriate to the individual and special needs of students.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to meet standard 3E because it is a demonstration of how I changed my teaching to meet the needs of the individual students with special education needs.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to meet standard 3D because in my lesson about the properties of light students and I discussed ways of remembering the order of the visible spectrum of light, specifically the nonsense word "ROYGBIV." I then compared this nonsense word to the Russian mmenomic device which is a full sentence, "Каждый охотник желает знать где сидит фазан" (Every hunter wants to know where the pheasants are)
By incorporating other ways of knowing into my lessons I hope to emphasize to students that there is no one true way and that different cultures are by no means less right in their thinking because they are different.
This Mapping Unit also features a land use debate, with many different view points about the way land should be used.
When introducing this aspect of the unit I made sure that there were no negative or postive value judgements placed upon the viewpoints. I also coached the students on the value of looking at instructional materials and practices for bias, and how this influences the material.
My Mapping unit is an artifact that supports my proficiency with standards 3B and 3C. The unit brings in community guest speakers, such as Department of Transportation engineers, to discuss how planning and local communities affect the building of roads and highways in the State of Alaska. This unit also looks at many varieties of maps of Alaska, emphasizing the local aspect of learning.
This lesson plan is an article that demonstrates my ability to meet Standard 3A because it is directly related to local cultures. The study of Salmon in Alaska is very culturally appropriate, and knowing about salmon and their life cycle and how that is connected to modern (and historical) Alaskan culture is crucial to student's concept of self and state.
Standard 3: Diversity
A beginning teacher teaches students with respect for their individual and cultural characteristics.
3A. Making connections with local cultures and with individual and cultural characteristics of the students to promote learning;
FINAL PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
MIDPOINT PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
MIDPOINT PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
3B. Using resources and information about the community and the state in planning and delivery of instruction;
3C. Recognizing and minimizing bias in instructional materials and practice;
FINAL PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
FINAL PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
FINAL PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
This demographic chart is a representation of my ability to meet Standard 3A because it shows the kind of racial diversity that existed in the classrooms where I was teaching. PJMS is a Title I school, and as such there is also significant financial diversity. I had to use several teaching techniques specific to Alaskan Native students that were new to me before this internship.
The link to the news story about when I took my students on a field trip to the National Tsunami Warning Center proves my ability to meet standard 3B because it shows my consideration of Alaskan resources when planning instruction. This field trip was important for several reasons. First of all, it is an important element of my teaching philosophy to connect students to their place. Secondly, the National Tsunami Warning Center is an important and unique fixture in this community. Studying it helped make our discussion of plate tectonics more real to students.
FINAL PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALES
This artifact proves my ability to meet standard 3C because one of the essential ideas of this unit is that the WESTERN philosophies, stories, and explanations of astronomy are by no means the only explanation out there. This unit explores the constellation legends of the Ojibwe, Scandinavia, India, and South American groups. Each time a new group's mythology was introduced it was done so in the context that Science is one way of explaining the world, and yet without the stories that preceded the science there would be nowhere for scientists to begin their research.
Also, in my Astronomy Unit I made a point of incorporating the constellation stories of Native Americans, Scandinavia, and other parts of the world to contrast to the typical Western philosophy.
There is also a link to my photogallery. This artifact [Mayan Math, Gallery Walk] is another example of how I minimized bias, by discussing the values of other ways of knowing, in math and art.