Bryan Van Pelt's bportfolio

Standard 2 states teacher leaders analyze learning to promote student growth.   This standard, in my opinion, is a core standard of the Teacher Leadership program.   It is highly important this standard is fully understood and applied in the classroom. When I reflect on this standard I realize it is bigger than it appears, as there are multiple aspects involved.   In my opinion, this standard is centered around two central tenets of teaching, both needed for teachers to properly analyze student learning.   These two tenets are 2) data collection, and 3) the teacher’s personal reflection.   When these ideas work together in harmony, teachers can truly analyze student learning in hopes of promoting growth. For this standard, I engaged in two classes: Accomplished Teaching and Action Research.   Both of these classes sharpened my skills and shed light on what it takes to analyze student learning in the classroom. Reflection:   Previous...

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 cla...