Wisconsin Teacher Standard #10

Professionalism

Jessica Ciolkosz

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota

Master’s in Education – Wisconsin Program

EDUW 696: Portfolio Production & Presentation

Instructor: James Sauter, Ph.D.

April 2019
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National Board Proposition 5

Teachers are members of learning communities.

 NBCTs collaborate with others to improve student learning.

 They are leaders and actively know how to seek and build partnerships with

community groups and businesses.

 They know how to work collaboratively with parents to engage them

productively in the work of the school.

Wisconsin Teacher Standard #10

Teachers are connected with other teachers and the community.

The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in

the larger community to support students’ learning and well-being, and acts with

integrity fairness, and in an ethical manner.

Knowledge

• The teacher understands how factors in the students’ environment outside of

school (e.g. family circumstances, community environments, health, and economic

conditions) may influence students’ lives and learning.

Dispositions

• The teacher is concerned about all aspects of a child’s well-being (cognitive,

emotional, social, and physical), and is alert to signs of difficulties.

Performances

• The teacher talks with and listens to the student, is sensitive and responsive to

clues of distress, investigates situations, and seeks outside help as needed and

appropriate to remedy problems.

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Danielson Domain

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

4d-Participating in a Professional Community

 Relationships with colleagues

 Participation in school projects

 Involvement in culture of professional inquiry

 Service to school

Professional Development Goals

 I will deepen my understanding of the processes of inquiry for student learning.

 I will seek out community partnerships that will enhance and foster

relationships and learning in my classroom.

 I will work with colleagues to make sure students’ physical, social, emotional,

moral, and cognitive needs are being met in the classroom environment.

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Self-Assessment

I believe in order to teach, the person must be in it for the kids (students). I also

believe you have to love what you do, pick your battles, and write in pencil.

I can honestly say that I am in it for the students that I teach. Each and every day is

a new and different day. Everyone starts with a clean slate and we continue with the

learning. I feel that I connect well with the students and my teaching peers. I would like to

say I help to bring a positive atmosphere to the classroom and school environment. I try to

model good behavior and expectations while learning and during worktime.

Along with the content knowledge I try to incorporate the everyday life skills that

can be taught and are sometimes just expected from our students. In order to truly teach a

student, we as teachers need to be aware of the whole student, not just the one that shows

up for the day. We need to make connections with them so they are more willing to learn.

We need to show care and concern so that there is always and open door if they would ever

feel the need to have to use it. I would like to say that I do that for my students.

Is there work for me to do? Most definitely. I am still trying to incorporate testing

and data results. I am trying to make my classroom comfortable and yet work worthy. The

biggest challenge I have is making sure the online gradebook is up to date and is timelier. I

also need to allow more time to find hands-on projects for my students. My teaching is

very much a work in progress. I hesitate more than I should in finding help when I need,

which is another item to add to the list.

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Teacher as Partner with Families and Communities

While working on my master’s degree, I was a part of two separate school districts. The

School District of Loyal is 45 miles away from my home. I really enjoyed being a part of the

school. I was Co-Advisor for both the graduating class of 2019 and BLAST (Being Leaders and

Standing Tall). Having the responsibilities of Co-Advising, I was able to really become part of

the school and Loyal communities.

I am currently a part of the School District of Thorp. I am a Co-Advisor to the graduating

class of 2021. The Thorp community is and has been a part of my life as I started my teaching

career at the Thorp Catholic School and have been a substitute teacher in the Thorp Public

school system for roughly six years, we attend church in Thorp, and my children have only gone

to school in Thorp.

A few activities I was a part of include; driving class representatives in the Homecoming

parade (both schools), playing Donkey Basketball, being selected to make the half-court shot at

a basketball game, planning Junior Prom, participating in the Christmas Staff Scavenger Hunt,

participated on the staff volleyball team, was asked to “kiss the cow” during FFA Week, was a

participant for the hypnotist presentation (both schools), planned a couple recognition meals,

set up a stand with BLAST members at a Loyal community function, was asked to accompany a

couple students to their individual award banquets, I helped present awards at the Senior

Banquets and Academic Banquets, among other extra activities. Most of these activities had

community members that attended.

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Teacher as Learner

The opportunity or challenge of working in two different school systems while working

on my master’s degree has led to a lot of learning on my part.

I started teaching high school Math at Loyal in February as a long-term substitute. I

never used an online computer system for grading or reporting absences. I hadn’t taught at the

high school level for many years and needed to study the curriculum so that I could present the

material to the students. I did not know any students, teachers, administration, community

members, I was new to everything and everyone. I felt I was doing alright until the many

acronyms came into discussions; SLO’s, PPG’s, NTC, BLAST, STAR, among others. I did not know

that two of my classes were Dual Credit through NTC (Northcentral Technical College) and the

students needed to take the NTC exam for them. I did not know there were different grading

scales for NTC and the high school.

At Loyal, I needed to be aware of what I needed help with and be confident enough to

ask for help. A lot of information was tossed my way in a very short amount of time. I was able

to keep my head above water and help the students learn the best I knew how to teach them. I

was willing to listen to my peers’ ideas and suggestions and listen to the students to understand

what they had learned and what worked for them to learn. I attended meetings at NTC for Dual

Credit teachers to better understand curriculum and expectations. I reached out to the middle

school teacher for help with preparing the juniors for the ACT. I looked into the resources on

the shelves to help cover a concept the students were not understanding. I did my best to learn

the information myself so that I could help my students.

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In Thorp, my year started off much the same as it did in Loyal. This time, however, it

was the beginning of the year and not the middle. Again there are the acronyms, classes I have

not taught before, a class period no one knew what class would be taught, a different computer

system for recording attendance and grades, different peers to work with, the school not

finished from renovations, new technology (a Promethean Board), and new administration to

the school.

I have made connections with CVTC (Chippewa Valley Technical College) for one of the

math classes I teach. By adding the adventure of teaching this course, I have certainly had to

put time into learning. The class includes Auto mechanics, Machine tooling, and Electric

Distribution. I willingly admit I do not know where all the parts are on the car or how things

work, but I can solve the math problems. I told the young men in my class that we needed to

work together to get this class finished. They were going to need to help me understand the

car/shop terms and I would help them with the math. There was a day in class where the

students and I had a wonderful laugh at the expense of me. We were studying about

micrometers and I called it a “micro-meter” (think math). The young men started laughing, gut

laughing, instantly! I’m certain that I looked confused to them. Then, one of the guys said,

“Um, Mrs. Ciolkosz, it is a micrometer.” It was so funny and they were very polite. We have

since worked very well together, I just wished they were a little more motivated for their

homework.

The CVTC mentor I have for this class is also very knowledgeable in Physics and offered

any help that I might need while teaching Physics. I am thankful to have been able to make this

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connection for collaboration. I plan on getting in touch with him to help set up the Physics

tables in my classroom for experiments next year.

I have had to explore the RVA (Rural Virtual Academy) computer system for the Physics

courses I teach. I am also learning the requirements for teaching CVTC’s Pre-Calculus course.

Along with these extra additives, there are still the everyday items for school that need to be

understood; the two SLO’s, the PPG, the working of the Skyward online system, the online

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Algebra II student and teacher resources, the tones for the fire and

tornado drills just to name a few.

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Teacher as Leader/Collaborator

My role as a leader/collaborator is important to my occupation but hasn’t been a real

focus of mine. I think it has just happened because of the information I’ve needed to learn to

teach my classes. I needed to take the initiative to contact CVTC the week before school

started to set up a meeting to find out if I could get approval to teach the Math for Technical

Trades course as a Transcripted credit course.

Thanks to a number of factors, a Saint Mary’s class included, I have taken on the role to

bring the topic of concussions to actual conversation and discussion. It seems we (the school)

are aware of the topic but there are no protocols set up or true understanding of what needs to

happen to help our students. Since I have the passion about this topic, I was asked to present

information to our coaches at their meeting in May 2019. I am really excited to share my

information with the coaches and collaborate with them to see what they need as help from

the school. This is very important for not only the staff in the school, but is it also so very

important to help our students.

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Cumulative Example of being a Teacher

I would say that being involved in the school system offers many opportunities to

become an advocate for our students, a learner, an active member of the community, and a

leader/collaborator. There are many times of all four areas of these work together so I’ll share

two examples.

BLAST is an important group in the School District of Loyal. In that school district, we

were not just teaching the concepts and curriculum, we were teaching the WHOLE student. It

was important to everyone that the students know right from wrong and how to help others.

BLAST meant mostly to help with Red Ribbon Week and Anti-Bullying. The group also helped

with walk to school day and the Parents Who Host campaign.

As a group we also decided that it was important to be a part of the community. We

thought of preparing and sharing a meal to recognize all the EMS, Police and Firemen/women

in the area along with their families because they give so much of their time to the community.

As a part of this event, we needed to try to get in touch with the Greenwood/Loyal EMS and

Police persons, we needed to find a place to host the event, plan and prepare the meal, and

write invites so they knew what it was and why it was happening. The students and Co-

Advisors worked so well to prepare and put this event together. We had so much fun seeing

the smiles of the community members and each other. It was great learning for all involved to

watch the students and staff working together and to enjoy the community members. The

students learned that teachers are people, too. Sometimes the human side of life gets

forgotten and when students and staff get to work together on projects like this, we all get to

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see other sides of each other. We get to see the wonderful giving, kind, and helpful sides of

each other.

While at Loyal, there were two appreciation events the BLAST group planned. The first

was the event for the EMS, Firemen and Police from the area. The second event was for the

school bus drivers. Again the collaboration needed to put the event together was time

consuming but very much worth the effort. The students put smiles on the faces of the bus

drivers that help to put smiles on theirs. This also taught the students that the simplest kind

words, a poster, or picture can make the day special.

An event that I helped with in Thorp was the FFA Farmers Breakfast. This event

happened during the summer before I switched school districts. By helping at the dairy

breakfast I was able to show the students and community that working with others can be fun

and that hard work pays off. I also tried to model what is expected when working with others

and serving guests looks like. I helped to keep students on task instead of wondering around. I

helped students to “see” what jobs needed to be done before they “had” to be done. The use

of manners and respect needed to be revisited once in a while, as well as sharing smiles, and

the wisdom to hide the tiredness that the students could be feeling as the morning and the

days before began to wear on them. A true lesson of being able to work through some

tiredness and crabbiness was just as important as the appreciation to serve breakfast to the

hard working members of the community or visitors to the event.

The students that helped with these events still “remember” what was done, the work

involved, and the fun we/they had while completing the event. I feel that being visible and

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having a positive attitude while doing any task helps the students understand the meaning of

working together. I am confident that there have been impacts on students that I have taught

and that I will teach. The expectations of positivity and kindness are shown in my classroom

and in the hallways. I feel if I can make a difference in one student, I am doing my job.

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Reflective Summary of the Three Teacher Roles

One of the main patterns that I see from the activities I have participated were that

collaboration between adults and students took place. There were many different ages

involved in each of the workers and recipients for the events I mentioned above. I think that it

is just as important to teach concepts in the classroom as it is to teach our students to be well-

rounded community members.

Modeling the expected behavior was the best in motivating the student learning.

Working hard, not complaining about how much had to be finished, and working together

helped the students push through whatever they thought was awful and helped them get the

task finished. Giving positive comments and helpful remarks gave the students added

confidence to feel that the job they were doing was important.

If given the opportunity, I would really like to get a BLAST organization together in

Thorp. I am feeling a lack of community pride in the school and would like to try giving students

the feeling of community and belonging. This is an important lifelong skill.

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Artifacts

The pictures below show some of the activities I mentioned in the examples to show my roles
as teacher.

Serving the EMS, Policemen, and Firemen with BLAST members

Participating on the Loyal Staff Donkey Basketball team

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Artifacts

Serving food at the Dairy Breakfast and playing on the FFA Alumni Volleyball Team.

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The poster of the Kiss the Cow penny war and my dancing skills at the homecoming Teacher/Student
Relay Race

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