Teaching for Equity Defense

For my Teaching for Equity Defense, my portfolio as a whole captures my essence of an art educator in how I center the identity of my students in every lesson. In our MIT program, each strand helps us remain centered on social justice and how we can create community with our students. Each artifact in my portfolio connects to at least one of the strands as aligned with the Danielson framework. 

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I used the following educational theories for determining which artifacts to choose for my portfolio:

 

• Gloria Ladson-Billings- Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Framework

• Paulo Freire-Critical Pedagogy

• K.M. Sheridan- Studio Habits of Mind

• G. Gay- Culturally Responsive Teaching

• Flavell, J. H., Ross- Metacognition

• Parker, W.C- Structured Academic Controversy

• Elliot Eisner – Arts-based Cognition

• Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe- Backwards by Design

•  bell hooks- Teaching to Transgress

• John Dewey- Experiential Learning

• Lev Vygotsky- Social Constructivism

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The above list of frameworks, authors, and theories that have been most informative for my growth as an art educator. For my on-going learning, I plan to continue to seek out new and respected resources from similar authors and frameworks to continue growing in my knowledge and skills as an art educator. The list above is my own personal baseline for my own informative processes and I plan to continue to grow the list as I move through my career. 

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In my defense, I believe that Strand One: Social Justice and Identity that asks the Essential Question: How will you develop your identity as an anti-racist, humanizing teacher working for social justice is my strength. In the list below, I have highlighted the specific competencies that I believe is a strength within this strand of mine as evidenced within my artifacts in my portfolio:

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1.1 TCs are committed to examining their own histories, identities, biases, assumptions and their
own tensions with racism and oppressions.
1.2 TCs value learning as a lifelong process in becoming an anti-racist educator.
1.3TCs recognize students' intersecting identities and critically reflect on how biases, perceptions,
expectations and actions in classrooms and schools affect their learning opportunities.
1.4 TCs understand how anti-racist and humanizing pedagogies impact the teacher student
relationship and professional relationships.
1.5 TCs understand how historical and institutional structures create and maintain racial and other
inequities and oppressions in education.
1.6 TCs develop the skills to reimagine and enact solutions to the inequities within schools,
specifically focused on students who are disproportionately harmed on a micro or macro level,
based on their various identities (racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, etc.).
1.7 TCs demonstrate the expectations and requirements of the teaching profession and engage
with all stakeholders in humanizing ways.

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A strand that I have identified as an area of growth is MIT Strand Two: Authentic Partnerships that asks the Essential Question: How will you partner with families, communities, and school personnel to cultivate learning opportunities in pursuit of educating the whole person? In my reflection on my time student teaching during my MIT program, I had very limited experience with working directly with families and the local community due to the upheld responsibilities owned by my mentor teacher. During my internship, I engaged actively and frequently with families via email and in person during art shows, field trips, and IEP related meetings. But I personally feel that this is an area of growth for me because of my limited engagement in partnering with families, communities, and professionals. I have developed my own professional growth plan (PGP) with this as the highlight of my focus for improvement. 

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In my PGP, I have set the below goals for me as I head into my first year into teaching:

1. Creating a communication plan for keeping
   families “in the know” of what work/projects
   their students are working on in class.

2. Collecting input, feedback from professionals on
   future planned lesson plans for revisions or
   changes to better mirror the professional level of
   applying their art skills.

3. Creating and growing my own personal “sphere
   of influence” with art educator experts to help
   provide feedback, ideas, and troubleshooting
   issues that I may face in the classroom.

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As a result of meeting the goals I listed above, I expect to have the following as evidence of meeting the goals I have set forth:

1. Maintaining my current membership to WAEA
   (Washington Art Educators Association)
   throughout my career.

2. Attendance of workshops for art educators from
   WAEA.

3. Networking and building relationships with other
   art educators in my school district through
   curriculum reviews, personal communication,
   and district level engagements.

4. Creating communication templates for start of
   year communications to families and project level
   communications for keeping families engaged
   throughout the year