portfolio // principle 4 | reflection 2

“Candidates view and conduct themselves as professionals, providing leadership in their chosen field, including effective communication and collaboration with students and stakeholders.”

// interpret
This principle addresses behavior fitting to a member of a profession.  Like any professionals—doctors, lawyers, journalists—teachers have an obligation to continually improve their own practice through professional development.  In addition, teachers must improve their practice through conversations not only with other professionals, but also with those immediately affected by that practice—students, parents, community members, and other stakeholders in the educational endeavor.  Those who engage in thorough, thoughtful professional development are those who become leaders of the profession.

This reflection focuses on communication and collaboration with stakeholders, specifically parents of students.

// select
As evidence of my efforts to communicate with parents as stakeholders in the educational process, I have included the following materials that were part of an assignment for EDUC 644 (Learner and Learning I):

·         two sets of notes fromparent interviews.  [P4.R2.A1 and P4.R2.A2]
·         the final presentation given in class that includes information from the interviews.  [P4.R2.A3]

// describe
These interviews were conducted as part of a larger group assignment examining the transition from middle to high school.  Group members were to research the transition from the perspective of teachers, students, and parents; it was my task within the group to interview the latter.

I asked my mentor teacher for names of the parents of two freshman students that he thought might yield particularly helpful or thoughtful information.  My mentor teacher exchanged emails with the parents and gave me their phone numbers, and I then called them on a November evening to conduct the interviews.

After the interviews were complete, I collaborated with my group members to assemble the information we had collected regarding the high school transition.  We then presented our findings to the rest of our class, highlighting commonalities between the three perspectives and recommending courses of action to ease the high school transition.

// analyze
The conversations I had in these interviews with the parents of my future students marked my first conversation as a teacher with those who held a stake in my work.  Before completing this assignment, I was certainly aware that parents had a vested interest in their children’s success at school, but having specific, directed conversations with individual parents made my awareness far more immediate.  I learned not only what specific concerns parents had for their children, but what changes these parents wanted to see that might address them.  The impact of this information was heightened by the fact that I was getting to know the students in question and could put faces to names and situations.  Rather than something distant and hypothetical, these stories were concrete and real.

In a way, the presentation portion of the assignment also signifies communication with another group of stakeholders: fellow teachers.  By collaborating with our classmates and sharing findings, we added to the common body of knowledge about schools and how students perceive them.  Ideally, we could all then take information, ideas, and plans of action from the presentations that would improve our own practice, the environments of the schools we worked in, and our students’ chances of success.

Overall, this assignment encouraged the development of an invaluable professional habit.  By continuing to engage in this sort of collaboration and communication with all types of stakeholders, I will develop and preserve a conception of schools not simply as a place where students learn, but where they live and grow.

// appraise
In one sense, the interviews were successful in that they increased my understanding of just what the high school transition means for parent and student.  Both parents discussed the particularly precarious nature of the liminal space that is the freshman class.  Socially and academically, they said, the transition is a difficult one; friends and interests change, as do teachers’ expectations.  Parents also discussed their ideas on how to ease this change—more frequent and extensive orientation sessions, for example.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the interviews were successful simply because they have ultimately led to this reflection.  While the assignment did offer specific insights into the high school transition, it also emphasized the general importance of open communication with all stakeholders.  Conducting these interviews was the first step toward fully developing open, ongoing communication and collaboration with all stakeholders I encounter.

// transform
The only transformation necessary in relation to this principle is for this kind of communication to happen more frequently.  The interviews I conducted and presentation I developed were informative and useful; now, my job is to ensure similar activities continue to occur.  Doing so can only mean the betterment of my own practice and students’ experiences in my classroom.