School of Education Portfolio

University of Wisconsin Platteville

Artifact Reflection
Title of Experience/Artifact:

Elementary PE Parachute Unit

Date Experience Completed:

Fall 2013

Describe your educational experience/artifact:

For this Standard, I decided to choose an artifact that best describes how effectively I am
able to communicate with my Class. This unit included a cue card to give the students a visual in
order to better understand what I was communicating to them. I created this unit plan and cue
card in my Elementary/Middle School Methods course. I had to then present this unit to many of
my classmates at the end of the semester. This is an eight day unit that encompasses three of the
standards in it. In order to help the students meet the standards, I need to be able to communicate
effectively what I need each student to do in order to reach our goals.
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment

I believe this artifact best aligns with Standard 6: Communication; The teacher uses
effective verbal and non-verbal communication techniques as well as instructional media and
technology to foster inquiry, collaboration and supportive interaction in the classroom. This
artifact aligns with this standard because it allows me to communicate with my class both
verbally and non-verbally. As a teacher, I have to communicate daily and this unit shows that I
am competent in doing so in more than one way. It is very important to communicate the safety
hazards when starting up a new lesson or even an old one as well and this artifact shows that I
can do so.

UW-Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions Alignment

I believe this artifact best aligns with KSD3.a: Communicates Clearly and Accurately;
The candidates spoken and written language are correct, expressive and clear, with well-chosen
vocabulary that enriches teaching and communicates thoughtfully, responsively, and effectively
for a wide range of student understanding and encourages appropriate student language
development.
This artifact best aligns with this KSD because it shows my ability to communicate
effectively with the students. I created a cue card so that they have something to go back to in
case they forgot a cue or were not listening in the first place. There is also a rules visual that
allows me to communicate in pictures rather than words. These give the students a chance to
better understand what I want from them.
Explain what you learned about teaching/learning from this experience:

Through this experience, I learned of many ways to communicate with my students. Cue
cards work the best for this as well as posters or flyers hung up on the wall. Communication is a
big key when it comes to the students understanding and engagement. If I had not communicated
clearly then I may lose control of the classroom or have a lot of students performing the wrong
skills when working with parachutes.

Explain what you learned about yourself as a prospective educator as a result of this
experience/artifact:

As a future educator, it is very important that I work on my communication skills

constantly. Every now and then, I over explain activities to students not only wasting time but
also losing students attention in the process. I also cant miss chances to give both general and
specific feedback to my students. Communication is the number one step in having a successful
class. Without communication, it would be very tough to build relationships and manage my
class.