Title of Experience/Artifact: Team Teaching Date Experienced/Completed: April 11th, 2013

Description of My Experience: During the fall semester of 2013, during my time in block one, our class was invited to the Platteville Middle School to teach two 5th grade classes science for an afternoon. We all were in charge of separate stations that all were a part of the same theme. I was grouped with one of my classmates, and we got to teach the students about the effectiveness of assembly lines. Wisconsin Teaching Standard Alignment: This experience of team teaching, I assign to Standard 10 Collaboration, which states the following: The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support pupil learning and well-being and acts with integrity, fairness and in an ethical manner. This really describes our team teaching experience perfectly, so I had no choice but to align it to this standard. Having our entire class of 50+ students be invited back to the middle school, was really an honor. We had already been once, but since the students had such a great time, they actually ended up inviting us to come again. This is a prime example of fostering a relationship with the larger community. We established a reputation as a result of our first time teaching there, as being reputable teachers, worthy of a second go round. And as a result were invited back for a second time. In regards to teaching our lesson at our station, my partner and I had to collaborate extensively. Everything from the planning of our lesson, to the application of it, to the conclusion of it all of it was a team effort, with contributions from both of us making it a success. Without his ideas, the lesson wouldnt have been half the lesson it ended up being. And vice versa. Collaboration with our colleagues was essential to the success of our teaching. Knowledge, Skill, and Disposition Alignment: SD4.d. CONTRIBUTES TO THE SCHOOL AND DISTRICT The candidate is able to assume a leadership role among colleagues and is supportive and cooperative with peers and volunteers, and serves as a participant and leader in school events and school and district projects. As my partner and I first started to brainstorm how we were going to teach the topic of assembly lines, we werent really sure which direction we were going to go with it. After a short while however, I brought up the theme of paper footballs. Something that would be

easy for the kids to mass produce, and also something they could actually use after they were done. Once we had this starting point, the ideas blossomed and grew from there. He added his input and creativity, as did I. That was the launching point we needed. I really was the leader for this lesson; I provided us direction, and we took off from there. After we had our direction, we worked together smoothly and efficiently. Our lesson was a great success, the students learned a lot, and had a great time. Due to the collaboration of us both working together towards the same goal. Secondary Alignments: KSD4.f. SHOWS PROFESSIONALISM Personal Reflection: What I learned about teaching/learning from this experience: Team teaching is very effective! I never really had even thought about the possibility of team teaching prior to conducting this lesson, and I honestly didnt really know what to expect entering into it. But after going through with it, I now see that it can be extremely successful! The students were really honed in on what we had to say. It really provided us with a lot of unique teaching moments that would not be available to us if we were teaching the lesson on our own. For example: we could bounce questions off of one another during the lesson, then pose them to the group. Like, Hey what else could we mass produce? Thats a good question, what do you guys think? It really allowed us to use different strategies like that. It was a great experience! What I learned about myself as a prospective educator as a result of this experience: Utilizing the knowledge of my fellow teachers is going to be invaluable! I am going to be surrounded by colleagues that all have different skills, different ideas, different strategies, different resources, etc. It is impossible to be a one dimensional teacher if I am constantly taking advantage of that opportunity, and tapping my colleagues. Asking them what they think, what they might do, how they would approach a situation. Im going to be surrounded by an ocean of different knowledge and perspectives during my entire career as an educator. It would be absolutely foolish to deem it unnecessary to take advantage of that. I am going to be an example to my students. If I want them to be open minded individuals, I need to be an open minded individual. Plain and simple. As George Bernard Shaw put it; Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.