Blog Post #1 (2/11/13)

The first characteristic of a novice teacher that i recognized the "big idea"for is the first one which states "Have a commitment to and skills for lifelong learning." For teachers this generally means that they should always be opening to learning new strategies, information, and techniques in education; also, their education about education should continue throughout their career. The second characteristic which states "be an effective communicator"is such a key aspect of being a teacher. One can interpret the big idea as the teacher has a responsibility to relay information to her students so they can learn. This can also be interpreted that the teacher has the responsibility to find out how her students are doing outside of school life. Artifacts that address the first standard include self reflecting after lesson plans, attending seminars on new teaching strategies, and new certifications in content areas. All of these examples revolve around the teacher learning new information, learning from prior lessons, and more. For the second characteristic, examples of artifacts are dialog journals, conferencing, student interviews, and how teacher journals. This examples of artifacts connect to the characteristics with the idea that the teacher is using positive, creative, and meaningful ways of communicating with her students.