Prompt 3 (2nd Webinar Session): Have you witnessed staff acting in an  unprofessional manner? If so, what can you do to avoid pitfalls associated with unprofessional behavior?

I have witnessed instructors acting unprofessionally. One of the Characteristics of Professional Conduct is demonstrating respect for self, colleagues, students and property and in more than one occasion I've overheard an instructor demean a population of students. The worst part is that the instructor expects the class to behave exactly like she wants and when it doesn't, she goes to the first person to complain about how "bad" her students are in class. The funny thing is that I worked at the "detention" school were some of the students she has mentioned have gone and I've never had problems with them.

I mostly avoid contact with instructors that have a negative attitude because they are either terrible people and\or terrible at what they do. That's what I'm doing with this instructor. We may to share a general area, but I don't have to share any social experiences with that individual.

Prompt 2 (2nd Webinar Session): Did you experience Bullying as a child either as a victim, witness or as a bully? How did you survive that experience and what did you learn from it that is helping you now as a teacher?

Bullying is not something I am too familiar with personally. The grade schools I went to were low socioeconomic but, while there was teasing and fights, I never noticed repeated negative behavior towards one child. Now that I am an instructor it is more obvious when students are picking on a student for acting\being different.

Unfortunately, because I have little experience with it, I had a bit more difficulty picking up cues to help me identify it. So I, from the start of the class, mention to students to be respectful of everyone and that negative comments are not welcome in the class. I do this in the hopes that even if it is happening, and i do not know, at least I am preventing it in the classroom.  

Prompt 1 (2nd Webinar Sessions)

Prompt 1 (2nd Webinar Sessions) : What are your goals for the Spring 2014? What are 3 things that you want to improve or initiate within your classroom this semester? How can your Cadre Leader support you with these goals?

For the Spring terms I would like to implement self assessing of students. When I was evaluated by the district (my principal) she mentioned that my strengths and my weaknesses, the biggest weakness being that I ask the class if they believe they got the material and most just nodded their head. I was given advice to have a scale that students will be able to measure themselves and display to me so that I do not move forward on a lesson until the students feel comfortable with the material. Also get in touch with other school's instructors to collaborate on district\state standards.

Three things to improve: 1) Oratory\Lecture skills. I tend to have the material on a power point and while that helps I may not be using the specific words (vocab words to explain the concepts\lessons).

2) Collaborate with other instructors to have a more uniform structure of material.

3) Setup a feedback\self assessment scale for students so that they inform me of comfort level before I do an assessment.

I've been getting much info from other instructors and from online sources, if the the Cadre Leader has material on self assessments that would be much appreciated. As of now I use Fist to Five scale. This is a very simple method where students raise their hand and pick between a fist, meaning no understanding, and a 5 fingers up, indicating students feels they have it mastered.