Maria Kumor Portfolio
Domain 4- Professional Responsibilities
The lesson my classmate and I did was an evidence case study that sorted and counted coins. We started off with a review of each coin and their value with a song. Before the song we made sure to tell them the hand motions of the song and we made sure to point to them when they had to repeat the song lyrics. Then Julia did a quick slide review of each coin and dollar bill up to 10 dollars. After this, we introduced the scenario of money being stolen, and students had to find the stolen money. With this we did not think about how the concept of staying “stolen and robbers” could be traumatic for some students. I think that was a great comment from one of my classmates, it will now make me double check my wording to make sure that it will be "appropriate”. We could have used missing money instead of stolen money. For the first activity, they had to sort the coins and count up how many of each they had. They also had to say how many of each coin to make a dollar. We could have gone over this more in the review. Like you and our classmates said, depending on the district they could be there but they most likely won’t know how many cons are in a dollar. The second activity they had to move from table to table in groups and use the money in the evidence bags to add up how many coins and bills each detective found and find the total amount of money. Finally, we had some wrap-questions going back to the first activity and some questions about the final activity. There were many parts of our lesson that went well but reflecting back there were some things I would change.
This collection of anecdotal notes helped me learn to keep accurate and detailed notes. The time-stamped, observable descriptions, including the student “listening, but also zoning out” at the start of the morning meeting and later being “distracted by things on the wall” during math, captures crucial non-instructional data that impacts the students' learning. These notes track student completion and progress, and help me think of strategies to help the student in the future. By maintaining this level of specificity and accuracy across different settings and activities from small group work to independent iPad time. I can monitor specific patterns of engagement, pinpoint areas where extra intervention or modified instruction is required, and use this data to make informed adjustments to future lesson plans.
Domain 4- Professional Responsibilities
Attending the first-grade ELA curriculum meeting was an eye-opening deep dive into the foundational building blocks of literacy. It was fascinating to see the intentional shift toward a structured literacy approach, emphasizing the "science of reading" through systematic phonics and orthographic mapping. Moving beyond simple memorization, the discussion highlighted how we can better support young learners in decoding complex vowel teams and building robust vocabularies through rich, diverse texts. Collaborating with the team to align our instructional strategies—balancing high-frequency word recognition with deep comprehension—left me feeling both challenged and energized. It’s clear that these early interventions are the most critical lever we have for ensuring long-term student success.
The experience of making my first ChildLine report, even while being assisted by the school social worker, served as a great learning experience in my placement. I immediately consulted my ,mentor teacher on what I should do. She adivesed that I met with the school's social worker, it ensured that I was compliant with all state and district regulations for mandated reporting. This collaboration showcased my ability to work within the school's professional structure. It also showed that I can seek the appropriate guidance and support that I needed to successfully execute a complex and critical professional responsibility. It was a daunting task for me because I have been through the trainings for jobs in the past but I never had to use my training. This supervised experience has significantly prepared me to execute any future mandated reporting procedures with greater autonomy and in strict adherence to all established protocols.