Standard+10

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**Teachers are connected with other teachers and the community.** 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.

 Computer Applications I Moodle Course Shell [] (guest access)
 * Evidence **

Moodle Class Management System is a source of communication between me as the teacher, my students, and their parents. For the Computer Applications I course comprised of freshmen, sophomores, and seniors, I used it primarily for alerting students and parents to assessments that were coming up. In particular, I am referring to the unit and semester review topics links on the shell. Students had “Guest” access; no students were issued usernames/passwords for Moodle at St. Mary’s Springs Academy at the time this course met. I allowed anyone to access the course as a guest, including parents.
 * Rationale **

The review sheets were discussed in class. The Letters and Correspondence review sheet was used as an in-class “Numbered Heads Together” collaborative review. However, if a student wasn’t there, s/he wouldn’t have had the review. By posting the review, students and parents could reference it outside of the classroom. In fact, I had posted it //before// conducting the in-class review. After the in-class review, a student said that he had already reviewed the questions because he saw them on the course shell. That made it worth it for me to continue posting that type of document on Moodle for the students. At parent-teacher conferences I told parents about Moodle and suggested it as a way to see what their students are doing in class. The final exam review sheet was also reviewed in class for clarification and expectations for the final exam.

Communication from the teacher is vital in education. Oftentimes students would miss in-class reviews for quizzes or tests and would not be properly prepared. They may not have received the review sheet or left it at school. By placing it online, students had it available to them. Also, the questions from parents asking how they can help their child better prepare for quizzes was addressed by having the review sheet available online. My development as a teacher occurred with better communication to students and parents and doing it in a way other than a hardcopy. After students saw it online, they could ask me specific questions and take responsibility for their learning and outcomes.

What I do as a teacher impacts student learning and participation in the course. While completing this program, many sources indicated giving more responsibility to the students for their learning. Evidence of this was that students asked permission to download the Word document from the course shell and type in the answers to questions so they could review it on their own. Following the in-class review, they had the correct answers and could further review the questions they didn’t know well. I previously mentioned how a student accessed the review file on the course shell and found it a convenient way to review. He was a student who liked to prepare well in advance of a quiz so it was good that the review was posted before I held the in-class review. I saw these as ways students could complement their own version of preparing for a quiz or other assessment. What I have learned from doing this is to post the review well in advance of the end of the unit, maybe at the beginning, to cater to those students who like to reinforce their learning as the course progresses.

Teaching students to be independent learners and be responsible for their learning is a skill that can transfer to the work community. I have responsibility to students, parents, and the integrity of SMSA to maintain a working relationship through communication.
 * KSD **
 * 10.K.1 ** The teacher understands schools as organizations within the larger community context and understands the operations of the relevant aspects of the system(s) within which s/he works.

Having talked with other teachers and parents about Moodle and the advantages of having that form of communication, teachers have asked for help in setting up a course shell. When I mention it to parents, they are unaware of it. Verbal feedback from parents has been supportive. Moving forward, I want to inform the counselor and administration of the advantages of using this form of communication.
 * 10.S.2 ** The teacher makes links with the learners’ other environments on behalf of students, by consulting with parents, counselors, teachers of other classes and activities within the schools, and professionals in other community agencies.

Moodle was available on the SMSA website but we were given no instruction on how to use it. Since this program was conducted on Moodle, I had confidence to experiment with Moodle. Since it worked for me, based on student feedback, I showed five other teachers how it can be used. I plan to continue instruction to other teachers in the school.
 * 10.D.3 **<span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 13px;"> The teacher is willing to consult with other professionals regarding the education and well being of his/her students.