Novice Characteristics 2 and 8

A novice teacher should be an effective communicator. Communication with teachers, students, and the community is an essential part to a teacher's work and student enhancement. As an effective communicator one should questioning techniques to enhance discussion and conversation and communicate through a variety of ways such as technology, standard language, and written language, and non-verbal communication or body language. An effective communicator is one who expresses and recieves ideas, messages, or information through appropriate spoken, written, and non-verbal forms. To reach this goal of an effective communicator I have sent notes home to parents communicating student progress. More so, I have strived to be an effective communicator with students. I often include written responses to papers assigned to students where I work to identify with my students and assure students I am there to help them in any way I am able to. In my responses to papers I also ask questions to to continue communication with my students. These are a couple of artifacts I have to represent effective communication.
A novice teacher should also be reflective practitioner. Reflection should promote effective teaching, improves quality of learning, and facilitates the development of teachers as a researcher and learner. A reflective practitioner should should attempt to make sense of events in the educational environment and critically examine choices to inform practice. Artifacts I have representing my effort to reach this characistic are written reflections of lesson plans and written observations by my mentor teachers and others while teaching. After teaching a lesson I often reflect on what went well and what did not go well. What teaching strategies proved to be effective and what areas of my lessons need to be improved. Written observations recieved by mentor teachers and others also list what went well during the lesson and suggestions for improvement. These written observations also critique communication and interaction with students and examine appropriate background knowledge. Using these artifacts I can analyze teaching methods and knowledge and improve lessons to enhance student learning and achievement.