Danielson Framework for Teaching
The Danielson Framework of Teaching focuses on four domains. Examples of my work and reflections thereupon are linked below.
For planning and preparation, I am including a rubric from a Project Based Learning (PBL) Unit in which I have established three different levels of expectations for my students: Emerging, Proficient, and Mastery. During my study abroad program in Cambodia, I worked in a small group to create an entire PBL Unit covering geometry and yoga. With my partner, we created the 2-3 week unit to cover shapes, angles, and measurements, with potential for expanding and variations which could cover all different levels of education, from elementary through secondary.
In preparing this rubric, different standards and TEKS must be accounted for. The rubric requirements help layout what should be covered throughout the project. After development of the rubric, we created a calendar which further aligned our instruction to the TEKS and gave us a guideline for scaffolding and building our instruction. During my first semester of teaching, I have planned projects in my first six weeks of teaching which have covered as few as five class days and as many as twenty. In order to adequately guide my students, I must provide them with a rubric from the very beginning of the project - the project launch - which they can use to guide their self-led learning and discovery. By this design, a rubric requires substantial planning and preparation to ensure that the appropriate lessons are planned and covered during the scope of the PBL Unit. Instruction plays directly into the rubric as well. In order to identify my expectations on the rubric, I must clearly lay out the instruction format for the entire project. Despite the self-guided nature of PBL Instruction, as a teacher, I must facilitate my students’ learning by planning their instruction and guiding them to the sources, if not the answers. Rubrics help students focus on tying their learning into a bigger picture. The students embark on a project via the rubric provided to them, and through this they are able to guide their own learning, thereby increasing their intrinsic motivation and often their take-away knowledge. Thus, strong PBL, guided via a specific rubric, gives students more opportunities for deeper learning and understanding compared to rote memorization of concepts and definitions as would be tested in a multiple choice exam. The benefits to the instructor are just as numerous, and the planning and preparation required in developing a quality rubric speak directly to Domain 1 of the Danielson Framework. |
In this paper, we detailed how we ideally saw our classroom running. Now that I have entered my own classroom, many of the items in this paper have come to fruition. However, what I've most learned from the course and from the paper is again flexibility. I believe that I have built the rapport with my students that I strove for and indicated in my paper, however, I am still working on finding the balance between approachable rapport and maintaining authority.
The Classroom Management course gave me many opportunities to explore different avenues for managing the classroom, and for that I'm truly grateful. I explored different seating arrangements such as the traditional classroom setting of rows and columns (as used in my student teaching classroom), small group arrangements with 4 desks to a "station," and large tables for bigger groups. My paper cited student-centered and collaborated classroom rules and expectations, as well as classroom norms. In my paper, I identified key terms and principles that I wanted to incorporate into my classroom, notably, the concepts of respect, support, and community. I have generally been successful in incorporating respect and community; support is more difficult to quantify. While it's impossible to build and construct the perfect management template, I was exposed to different scenarios and presented with many different options for handling classroom issues in this course. Through this exposure I have successfully transitioned into my first year of teaching, maintaining control in my classroom while building relationships and trust with my students. By incorporating these key aspects of classroom environment, I can build a rapport with my students that helps me support them, and helps them support each other. Through a classroom built on support, my students and I can all work together to build a successful learning community and supportive, educational environment. |
As a math teacher, it can be challenging to incorporate reading into my subject. For this lesson, I took a section of Euclid’s Elements, a text written circa 300 BC, and had students work in pairs to translate the classic language into a modern, understandable dialog. The end goal for this lesson was for students to translate the text into a modern theorem which they had learned within the prior week.
My lesson plan was for a 90 minute block period during a Pre-AP PreCalculus course. I began the lesson by reading through a different proposition from the Elements, talking through my thinking as I read aloud through the different steps. I hoped that some students would be able to recreate the Law of Cosines through the proposition, and about half of the students were able to. Others got there eventually, with some help from me. This artifact is a great example of cross-curriculum instruction. It was an excellent experience to watch students struggle through some difficult material and ultimately succeed. It was also an excellent experience in using lesson planning as a strong, almost script-like basis for a class period. In preparing my lesson, I wrote out exactly what I would say at the beginning of class; I made notes throughout the proposition that I read through for key terms and phrases; I had written out specific sentences and instructions for transitions. As this was only my second lesson to teach, these written queues were very helpful in keeping me on track and helping keep my anxiety at bay. As I’ve transitioned into my own classroom, I still use some of these strategies for many of my lessons. I have found written statements extremely helpful in beginning the class, transitioning, and summarizing or closing the class. I’ve also used this strategy for writing classroom agendas, and find it very useful for keeping myself and my classroom on task and progressive. |
While student teaching at McNeil High School in the Spring of 2014, I was fortunate to have an excellent mentor in Alissa Tadlock, my cooperating teacher. I also developed a good relationship with my university supervisor, Glynda Betros. Through the course of the semester and with assistance from Tadlock and Betros, I learned to evaluate my performance in the classroom through weekly reflections.
The required reflections for student teaching forced me to think carefully and critically of my classroom performance. Initially I found this quite challenging; I am comfortable in front of students, and my lessons usually went smoothly. However, smooth lessons do not always equate to effective or successful lessons, and my reflections forced me to evaluate the lessons a little more carefully. Instead of gauging the success of a lesson on how the classroom felt, my reflections helped me to identify situations where I could elicit further response from students to check for effectiveness and understanding. I integrated additional group work, more wait time, and deeper probing questions to help assess student awareness and better identify areas of confusion. Reflections during student teaching were important and valuable to my growth as a teacher. Now, during my first semester in my own classroom, reflection is just as important. I do my best to maintain a journal for my classes in which I reflect on successes and struggles, and try to write down thoughts on how to change lessons or strategies in the future. Particularly in a Project Based Learning environment, this journaling and reflective approach will help me adapt and improve my projects overall as well as my effectiveness as a classroom teacher. |
Get involved
Links to mathematical clubs and associations; information on upcoming conferences; etc.
American Mathematical Society
Association for Women in Mathematics
Mathematical Association of America
Summer Math Camps
Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (MAA)
American Mathematical Society
Association for Women in Mathematics
Mathematical Association of America
Summer Math Camps
Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (MAA)