Certificate of Accomplishment in Teaching Program Synthesis and Application Essay Part I: Description and Context Workshops Attended FIT

- Creating a Healthy Learning Environment (Classroom Management) FIT - Shaping Your Teaching Philosophy: Instruments for Finding Your Identity as a Teacher FIT - Putting the Pieces Together: Creating an Academic Portfolio Dr. Beth Overman & Dr. Susanna Klingenberg 2/21/2014 Witherspoon 201 FIT Active Learning Dr. Barbi Honeycutt 4/3/2014 Vet Library A101

Dr. Barbi Honeycutt & Dr. Beth Overman & Dr. Dr. Susanna Klingenberg Susanna Klingenberg 10/24/2013 Witherspoon 201 2/21/2014 Witherspoon 201

After my first three workshops I felt like I was growing as a person as well as a professional who was about to begin my first semester as a solo instructor for a lecture course. I looked forward to participating in more CoAT workshops and learning what new concepts I would get to try. Through these workshops I really understood what a portfolio and teaching philosophy was. I had a much better understand of how I can incorporate the values and ethics from the social work profession to develop a more personal portfolio and a teaching philosophy that I connect with on a personal level. The workshop that focused on creating a healthy learning environment was quite helpful to me to think of ways I could build rapport with my students and develop a space where they felt comfortable exploring discussions about social injustices, poverty, diversity, and their personal beliefs. I have said this throughout this portfolio but the first day I entered my class ready. I mean really ready. Ready for questions, ready for moments of silence, and ready to process anything that might have been difficult for the students. This feeling was built by the tools, experiences, and strategies I learned during the CoAT workshops. Part II: Synthesis After completing the first three workshops I began to feel more self-assured that the concerns I had about being inexperienced at teaching was shared among my peers and this was shared across disciplines. From the workshops I learned how important it is to prepare before the start of the semester. I learned about different approaches to teaching I consider myself to be more student-centered with a focus on collaborative and mutual learning. I heeded the advice of Dr. Susanna Klingenberg when she said to work in advance of several weeks, if possible. This inspired me to learn how to navigate Moodle and create a new course space in Moodle. With the knowledge of Google Documents I created a Google Spreadsheet in my Drive for the students to select a person who embodies social change. I later embedded this spreadsheet directly into Moodle. My students were amazed that they could access the spreadsheet directly from Moodle

 they no longer had to search through countless other Google Docs. Although creating my course from the bottom up took several days, even weeks, to develop over the summer, I believe I was able to enter my class with confidence knowing I was fully prepared. This allowed me to establish myself as the instructor and my students to begin my course with the end in mind. I intentionally opened all Moodle information to create a sense of transparency between my students and me. I specifically chose these workshops so I would have a working knowledge of basic techniques to use in my class beginning the first day. Learning about various ways to establish my legitimacy as an instructor really helped shape my teaching philosophy and inspired me to develop specific goals in my teaching philosophy. I value diversity so much and through the FIT workshops I was able to translate this passion into my teaching philosophy goal of creating an inclusive and supportive classroom environment. Without these workshops I would not have felt as prepared nor as confident as I did the day I walked into class, pulled up Moodle, and took out my syllabus. Part III: Application One example of how I used information from the Active Learning workshop was when I created my Poverty Threshold small group activity worksheet. This activity allowed students to engage one another and make collective decisions about the type of family they were going to calculate the living wage vs. poverty threshold. Students lead their groups through online resources, I provided links to most, where they could find what the average rent is for a family of four or how much the cost of childcare is for a family with two children under the age of 5 years old. Once the groups completed the worksheet I recorded their calculations and the entire class analyzed the disparity of the actual cost of living vs. the poverty threshold. After we compared each group I asked students to think about and share what additional costs were not factored into the calculations. They picked up on several right off the bat. Students quickly mentioned the cost of health care and emergency doctor visits, hygiene products, and clothing. We did a brief final summary of the activity at the end of the class. I feel this was a powerful exercise for the class. However, in the future I would leave an additional 5-10 minutes for more synthesis of thoughts/reactions. I would also include the purpose and/or goals of the assignment right on the paper. This sounds simple enough but I didnt realize how great that would have been for the students to see at the start of the activity. I really did not think of this until this very moment. I guess that is another reason the CoAT program is so wonderful for the development of a competent and prepared instructor. Below is a copy of the activity worksheet I created:

SW 290 Poverty Level Worksheet

Goals: 1) Develop a better understanding of what poverty means in the U.S. 2) Learn what method the U.S. government uses to calculate poverty. Tools: 1) U.S. Census Bureau Website 3) Calculators (cell phone calculator is fine) Cities: 1) Raleigh, NC 2) Chicago, IL 3) New York, NY 4) Los Angeles, CA 5) New Orleans, LA 6) Colorado Springs, CO Household Size: 1) Single Individual; 2) Single Parent w/ One Child 3) Single Parent w/ Two Children 4) Two Parents w/ One Child 5) Two Parents w/ Two Children

Instructions:
1) Look up the most current poverty threshold for a family of one, two, three or four, depending on what your group chooses (http://tinyurl.com/nulonv4). Divide this number by the 12 months to figure out how much a household at the poverty threshold would make in a month. 2) Use local websites to find out how much rent in your city costs per month. Tailor your search to the size of the family. For a family of four, you would realistically need an apartment with two bedrooms or more. 3) Estimate the costs of food for a family of one, two, three or four, depending on the household size you choose. Look at this website: http://tinyurl.com/qh2o42h Base your monthly food costs on what you think people need in their diets, which means that you will want to include fruits, vegetables and meat in your estimate. 4) Estimate the costs of utilities. For utility costs, use a Web site such as the White Fence Index http://tinyurl.com/yefg6bv which estimates the average cost of utilities. If you cannot find utility averages for your city, looks for averages for a city similar in population size to yours. 5) If your household has children, estimate the cost of childcare, Average costs of childcare in the U.S.: Babies/Toddlers = $11,666/yr. ($972/mo.); Preschoolers = $8,800/yr. ($733/mo.). 6) Add your different estimates together to come up with an amount that you think a household would realistically spend each month on housing and food. Compare this number to the amount that the government says that people at the poverty line live on in a given month. 7) Whole class discussion about how people at the poverty threshold would live, including what items they would not have. Also talk about how and why your number differs from the poverty threshold. What items were not included in the calculations?

City, State

Household Size
$

2014 Poverty Threshold (PT)

PT divided by 12 months
$

Actual Cost of Living Per Month

$

Rent/mo. $ $

Food/mo. $

Utilities/mo. $

Childcare/mo.