Goal: I will work towards becoming more culturally aware by being more involved in the

experiences and home lives of my students, so that I can better understand their
background and the cultural practices their families have in order to create a classroom
dynamic where the students feel comfortable. This will also allow me to create lesson
plans that reflect the experiences of the students so they are able to relate their
experiences to the concepts they are learning.
Standard: This is a disposition that belongs to WTS #6 which states: “The teacher
appreciates the cultural dimensions of communication, responds appropriately, and
seeks to foster culturally sensitive communication by and among all students in the
class”.
Rational: It is important for a teacher to be culturally aware of his/her students because
every student has different experiences from his/her peer. Building this relationship with
your students allows for them to feel comfortable in the classroom. In being culturally
aware you are able to use the experiences of your students to build your lesson plans.
In learning about your students and their cultural beliefs you can also learn about the
different ways that their families learn and also teach their own children. Knowing what
your students are or have been exposed to at home aids in being able to relate your
lesson plans to their home life as well.
Assessment: In order to measure my achievement of this goal is to look at the different
lessons that I have planned and see the different ways that I have included the
children’s diverse cultures and experiences within those lesson plans. Evidence for this
could possibly include, for instance, a writing about who the child believes loves them
the most and why, or a type of autobiography telling about their cultural experiences
through things they have done with close family or friends. These are just two of many
ways that I can be informed of my students’ experiences and incorporating that into my
lesson plans.
Goal: I will aim to become more familiar with specific content areas and how they can
relate to each other and also to personal experiences so that my students are able to
not only see how different subject areas and concepts relate to each other, but also
clearly identify how they differentiate from each other. My students will also be able to
relate real life experiences to different subject matter.
Ability: The ability I am referring to is Conceptualization which states: conceptualization
is the ability to bring together understandings in three areas: frameworks in the content
areas (e.g., mathematics, literature, etc.), in educational theory (e.g., developmental
psychology, learning theory, motivation, etc.) and liberal arts (e.g., problem solving and
valuing), e.g., your awareness of the development of children/adolescents and your
ability to account for individual differences, see influences on behavior, etc.
Rational: It is important for a teacher to understand the different content areas fully in
order for her/him to fully teach their students clearly enough for understanding.
Understanding the content areas you teach and being able to integrate them within
each other is important in order for your students to relate what they are learning in
each area of study, but also be able to relate their current learning to previous learning.
One way that I plan to work towards this goal is to assess my student’s current
knowledge of a subject matter and using that to formulate my lesson plans for their
future learning and understanding. It is also important to know the students’ prior
knowledge and how that relates to their personal experiences in order to allow your
students to relate to the subject matter. This relates to my first goal because in order to
engage your students in their learning, no matter the subject matter, you need to be
able to understand their life experiences and relate that to the different content areas
and the lesson you plan.
Assessment: I will be able to measure my achievement in this goal by again looking at
lesson plans that I have made in multiple different subject areas and breaking them
down to see what aspects of the lessons relate to each other and which differentiate
from each other. The assessment I used in my first goal may also help because if I can
integrate either of those examples, or any other example, into multiple different subject
areas, that is conceptualizing. For example, an autobiography about a student’s culture
could be based off of different cultures we may be learning about in Social Studies, or it
could also be the students writing a biography of a character in a fiction or non-fiction
book about their culture and how that relates to their own culture.