Bryan Van Pelt's bportfolio

Standard 4 states teacher leaders “engage in analysis of teaching and collaborative practices”. Though this standard can be applied to many courses in the Teacher Leadership degree program, the main course of focus was “Accomplished Teaching”.   In this course I engaged in a multitude of activities and assignments in which I grew as both a reflective and collaborative educator.             At the beginning of this course my thoughts regarding accomplished teaching were shallow and vague.   Are students engaged? Does the teacher possess the appropriate skill set?   Is the classroom managed?   These were the big picture ideas that came to mind prior to this course. After many readings, discussion board posts, and face-to-face interactions my definition changed in many ways.   Some thoughts remain intact but many ideas and principles have changed into something deeper, pointed and more meaningful.   Many experiences this quarter redefined my ideas on what it means to be not

Standard 3 Standard 3 for Teacher Leadership states "teacher leaders improve teaching and learning through the use of educational research at the classroom and school levels". To accomplish this, we took two classes centered around this standard: 1. Action Research in School Settings and 2. Applying Research in School Settings.   Both classes provided me the tools, skills, and intellect to successfully implement research principles into the music classroom. Prior to these course, I thought of research as a long arduous process, one in which I wasn’t going to enjoy or find practical.    I have respect for researchers and I even enjoy reading research papers, but never thought I had the time, energy, or focus to engage in a quality research project.    All of the vocabulary, data collection, and technical terms do not make research projects particularly inviting to me.    I also thought about the necessity of research in the elementary classroom.    My inner dial

Bryan Van Pelt EDU 6085 Course Reflection: EDU 6085 Moral Issues in Education Course goals Too many individual goals to state Teacher Leadership  Standard : Teacher leaders model ethical and moral behavior Response :             My preconceptions prior to this course were highly selfish.  I thought this course was all about me, the teacher. “I know what it means to be moral” and “I am a responsible educator” where a couple thoughts in my head.  For some reason, none of my thinking revolved around the students and how moral teaching impacts them and their experiences. There was disconnect from me, the teacher, to the students.  Likewise, I firmly believed, coming from public schools, religion had no place in the classroom. My viewpoints were rigid and unfair. I thought with a subject matter as “touchy” as religion, it is best kept out of schools. This course shed light on the importance of making unselfish teaching decisions. Likewise, I now view