October, 2012 Dear ED201 Student,

You may be feeling overwhelmed looking at the agenda that was handed to you. I know was. When I was in your seat I wasnt really sure if this- teaching secondary students- was for me. I had two sisters that had gone into education before me. One dropped out and the other complained all the time. I was surprised I had made the effort to register for this class. But something was drawing me to itIm being honest, but please dont be discouraged. The homework load is big, the effort is heavy, but as youll find out soon, the reward is greater than it all! In this course you will be introduced to the five most important words of your teacher education program at Alverno: conceptualization, diagnosis, coordination, communication, integrative interaction. These are the Alverno Education Abilities created to help you model your pedagogy to be effective and inclusive and to help you become a reflective educator. Throughout my education program, I have increasingly depended on these abilities to make my lessons and develop my own teaching philosophy. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with these abilities early on so that you can successfully integrate them in your lessons throughout your program. Conceptualization reminds me to be a well-rounded teacher, integrating my liberal arts education with content knowledge and skills as well as educational frameworks and theory. This is critical to help me plan my lessons and think about what I want my students to extract from them. Diagnosis is an essential part of teaching any student or body of students. Its about

observing behavior, investigating the situation, defining a problem and applying appropriate solutions. It is so important to personalize and analyze problems among classes or students before implementing a solution. Like a doctor, we must diagnose before we prescribe! Coordination makes a teachers life doable! In essence, it means balancing my resources. Coordination helps with the implementation of lesson plans. Whereas conceptualization is necessary to plan lessons, coordination is needed to put them into action. I evaluate what I have at my disposal to use in the classroom and who I can work with for help in the school, how much time I have to teach and how I can build on students prior knowledge. Coordination is the structure of my practice, assembling resources that reinforce learning goals. Communication is more self-explanatory than the other abilities, but dont underestimate what it implies! I have learned that clarity is number one in efficacy. Use what you can to get your message across to your students and be aware that communication is not only verbal, but nonverbal as well. The various modes of communication help me be more creative in the way I deliver instruction. Media is a major tool that we can use to engage and inform students. As a social studies/history teacher I have found that including PowerPoints with images and video help to engage students in the lesson. Finally, integrative interaction has pushed me to blend all of these abilities together to encourage and direct students while modeling my expectations. Integrative interaction reminds me to make learning active to meet the needs of all students! In addition to the AEA (you will soon learn to use as acronym to make your life easier), you will be introduced to the Wisconsin Standards for Teacher Licensure and Development (WTS). Teachers must meet this set of ten standards which enumerates all of the qualities,

knowledge, skills and dispositions effective teachers must possess. As I have progressed through my fields, I find that it is safe to plan my lessons, projects and teaching style according to the standards. The standards provide a blueprint for me to follow in various aspects of teaching: differentiation, classroom management, effective communication, organization and planning, assessment and others. The Wisconsin Standards for Teacher Development and Licensure provide us explicit instructions to ensure student learning. When practiced alongside the Alverno Education Abilities, you can trust that you have a secure manual for how to become a successful teacher! I hope that you will enjoy the ride youre just starting. It will be challenging, but learn from your cooperating teachers who are invaluable resources as they are actually working with students every day; cooperate with your peers to bounce ideas off each other; and finally, always believe you have what it takes to be a teacher!

Sincerely, Adriana Vazquez SSH/SED Alverno School of Education