The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris

 Robert Byrd  River Ridge High School Cherokee County  Ninth Grade and Eleventh Grade  Ms. Jennifer Dow  9 th College prep. ELA. 9 th Honors ELA 11 th American Literature.

To the left is a contract to teach school from The contract is for my Great Great …. Grandfather, Charles Byrd. He taught a class of twenty five students at $3.50 per student for a six month period, payable in corn, grain, colts, yearlings, bees wax, or pay on his account at the general store. Here I am 184 years later. I would be happy to have a contract payable in colts and yearlings.

River Ridge High School Arnold Mill Rd. Woodstock, GA Cherokee County Opened in 2009 Now serving 9 th -11 th grades.

 River Ridge high school is located in the northern portion of Woodstock, Georgia in Cherokee County.  RRHS is a new school containing ninth through eleventh grades.  The community that feeds into RRHS is lower to upper middle class.  There are approximately 1100 students.  RRHS has a broad multicultural diversity of students. Student diversity ranges from North America, South America, Central America, Europe, Eastern Europe, India, and the far East Asian communities.

 1 st period planning 8:30 -9:30  2 nd period 11 th American Lit. 9:35-10:30  3 rd Lunch 10:35 – 11:30  4 th 9 th College prep. ELA 11:35-12:30  5 th 9 th Honors ELA12:35-1:30  6 th 9 th College prep. 1:35-2:30  7 th 9 th College prep. 2:35-3:30

PART II. CANDIDATE PROFICIENCY EVIDENCE: Documentation of Competency

 Proficiency 1.0: The teacher candidate uses knowledge of curriculum, learner differences, and ongoing assessment data to plan for student access to same essential content.  Reflective Analysis: How did you use knowledge of curriculum, learner differences, and ongoing assessment data to plan for student access to same essential content?

Night by: Elie Wiesel non-fiction memoir 9 th ELA Lesson Plan Ender’s Game by: Ormond Scott Card science fiction 9 th ELA Lesson Plan Non-fiction Expository writing. 11 th grade American Literature Lesson Plan

 Proficiency 2.0: The teacher candidate utilizes a variety of strategies to differentiate instruction and assessment.  Reflective Analysis: How did you utilize a variety of strategies to differentiate instruction and assessment?

Allusion Lesson Rubric Student’s power-point Expository Writing

Proficiency 3.0: The teacher candidate uses systematic formal/informal assessment as an ongoing diagnostic activity to measure student growth and to guide, differentiate, and adjust instruction. Reflective Analysis: How did you use systematic formal/informal assessment as an ongoing diagnostic activity to measure student growth and to guide, differentiate, and adjust instruction?

Ender’s Game Lesson Pre-assessment The pre-assessment determined that most of the students were deficient with the literary element of allusion. In the reading of Ender’s Game, there are several references of allusion. Therefore, I prepared a lesson on allusion. I had observed in other lessons that the students enjoyed an element of competition and they also enjoyed being creative in the area of power-point presentations. I utilized this assessment to create a lesson that optimized on the student’s interest. The students were broken into teams and created a power-point presentation about allusion following a rubric I created for them. The teams could win on multiple levels; therefore, creating an opportunity for each team to win at multiple levels. Power-Point Rubric After the students completed their power-points they presented them and were graded as a team; their rubric being the guide by which they were scored. The students were also given a post-test to determine if they understood the material they had just worked on. Post-Test

Proficiency 4.0: The teacher candidate displays a professional commitment to the teaching philosophy of differentiated instruction to support students’ diverse learning needs and to maximize learning. Reflective Analysis: How did you display a professional commitment to the teaching philosophy of differentiated instruction to support student’ diverse learning needs and to maximize learning? How has your teaching philosophy changed during Candidate Teaching?

Reflection of Domain 4 While observing my ninth grade college prep students, I began to see that quite a number of students were reading well below grade level. I therefore devoted more time to in class reading. One of the books we were reading was Ender’s Game by Scott Card. Through a power point presentation I introduced the fiction novel and modeled reading strategies, and discussed literary elements that would help the students with their reading skills. Then as we began reading the book I would model reading aloud to them and then discuss what I had read. I then had the students read pop-corn style around the room discussing the book as we went. I then gave the students silent reading time, and along with silent reading they had a study guide they were to fill out as they went. The study guide also had other activities as mentioned before in a lesson plan about allusion. This afforded the students the opportunity to use technology to develop their own power-points and take ownership of their lesson and learning. Students need constant motivation and redirection to stay focused on a task. It is often necessary to take multiple approaches to one lesson.

 Parent Student Conference  IEP Conference Professional Organization Memberships  SPAGE

Teaching Philosophy at the conclusion of candidate teaching as contrasted with an earlier philosophy /Philosophy.htm My Teaching Philosophy

PART III. CONCLUSION: Mat Candidate Teaching Experience Approximately 3 Minutes

This time of candidate teaching has been a tremendous learning experience. I could not have asked for a better collaborating teacher. She gave direction, encouragement, and well administered advice. As I embark upon my search for employment in the educational field I will seek to add to my certificate to make myself more marketable. In the mean time I’m going fishing. See you at the lake this summer.