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Janel Horton
EDUC 540
Professional Responsibilities
Throughout this course, I have been working on my professional responsibilities.
Though I am not an employee of the school where I am student teaching, I am working hard to
be part of the team. I reflect on the lesson every day, whether it be with my cooperating teacher,
in this class, or on my own. In addition, I collaborate with the other third grade teachers. They
have shared some of their activities with me, and I have shared some of mine with them. We try
to do our units around the same time, but the lessons are not exactly the same. In these
situations, we discuss what went wrong in our lessons. This is a great way to become aware of
possible issues that I should prepare for, but also gives me ideas and advice to completely
prevent certain problems (4a).
I am doing my best to maintain accurate records by keeping track of who turns in their
assignments and how they perform on them (4b). My cooperating teacher and I have had to pull
students aside for additional help in math (amongst other subjects). We have also had to pull
students aside who were consistently doing their homework wrong or not doing it at all. I do
pretests for many units and base my lessons on them. I also keep aware of who is having
difficulties or who is doing very well, so that I can differentiate the activities. My records do not
stop at homework and pretests; my cooperating teacher and I are constantly going around the
room to try and determine where the students are in terms of meeting the objectives. I take notes
on what I am seeing throughout the day. We, however, are not the only ones keeping records.
The students also have a daily reading log. They are responsible for keeping track of what they

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read and having a parent sign it each day. Looking at the Framework for Teaching manual, I
noticed that I do not have a whole lot of opportunities for students to be responsible for their own
recordkeeping. This is something that I will keep in mind and will try to incorporate more of
when I have my own classroom.
I communicate very little with families as this is not my classroom (4c). My name is
always added to the weekly newsletter, but my cooperating teacher handles all of this. I did go
the parent-teacher conferences and was included in them. My cooperating teacher did 90% of it,
but I did comment or answer questions when it was appropriate. I was really grateful that my
cooperating teacher allowed me to come to these meeting and to be part of them.
I have worked hard to participate in the professional community (4d). As stated in the
first paragraph, I have a professional relationship with my cooperating teacher and the other third
grade teachers; we collaborate frequently. I even did a presentation on traditions in another third
grade class, because the teacher heard how well it went in my class. (Due to my mixed heritage,
I was able to relate my family traditions to exactly what we were reading about that week.)
Besides my relationships with the teachers, I have taken part in the school community in various
ways. I served lunch in the cafeteria during part of my own very short lunch break. I was set to
take part in a clean up afternoonwe were going to clean up around the school and maintain
the outsidebut it was canceled due to inclement weather. It has not been rescheduled as of yet.
I have also attended the Meet the Teacher night and the Back to School picnic. During the
Walk-a-thon, I did not just walk, I ran with some of the kids for part of it. Though not officially
part of it, I have sat in on some of the Principal Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings as well. I
would have asked to help with the after school sports program, but I need more time to devote to
student teaching.

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Growing and developing professionally is something that I am consistently working on

(4e). Being enrolled in classes has provided me with countless resources to better my
knowledge. Being a student teacher does not allow me to take any leadership positions in
professional organizations, but I have attended in-service workshops and trainings. I have even
attended training sessions during school hours when they were scheduled.
I take pride in showing professionalism (4f). I act with integrity and honesty, and I dress
professionally. I do my best to put the students first and find ways to address the students needs.
In addition, I follow the district policies and established rules. I have been told that
professionalism is one of my strong points, but I am always looking for ways, in which, I can
improve. As a student teacher, I am unable to take leadership roles in departmental decision
making and other district concerns, but one day I will be able to do so.
Looking at the elements, indicators, and examples, I have been able to look at areas
where I am strong and areas where I need to improve. As I continue to grow and develop as a
teacher, I will be sure to keep all of the domains in mind. These domains are certainly good
frameworks for self-reflection and observations. I am amazed how many distinguished
categories my cooperating teacher is in. I count myself extremely lucky to have such a great
influence and mentor.