The second characteristic of a novice teacher encourages a belief in the novice teacher's ability to communicate effectively. I share this notion wholeheartedly and have been trying to increase my ability to give commands and instructions to the students I teach at Suncrest Middle School this semester as well as North Marion High School for the past 3 semesters. Something that I had trouble with was getting everything out that I needed to say without being wordy--much like that sentence. So, I can take this need ability to communicate effectively to and with students to a personal level in my teaching career so far. Thankfully, because of feedback from various mentor teachers, substitutes, and coordinators who have observed me teach, I am actively dispelling this qualm.
Artifacts that could support this effort would be my attendance to faculty senate meetings, workshops, and seminars. While at these gatherings, I have collected hand-outs, itineraries, and reflected on the experiences and how they have impacted me as a learning teacher. These would connect to the enhancement of my ability to communicate effectively by providing tips for me to try--such as using direct, concise verbs and nouns when speaking--as well as examples of what has worked or failed for other teachers. Every effective teacher has to have some idea of how they communicate with his/her students, so this is a universal topic in which everyone can improve.
The eighth characteristic of a novice teacher explores the novice teacher's ability to be a "reflective practitioner." This means that the teacher needs to reflect on various aspects of his/her teaching styles, experiences in and out of the classroom, as well as, communication operations with students, parents/guardians, and staff. With this in mind, this characteristic suggests that by being a reflective practitioner, teachers will constantly give themselves the opportunity to grow in areas they are weak and spot-check questionable territory for future references.
Lesson plan reflections are an excellent artifact for this characteristic because it allows the teacher to not only reflect on what happened each day in class, but it also allows the future-version of that teacher to take note of progress--hopefully--made over time. A teacher-researcher's notebook would also be a great artifact to show recorded thoughts, trials/errors, and motives of that time. These aspects of this characteristic are important to me because they encourage me to continue my education outside of college--something I had hoped to do anyway, but now have more of a guideline of how to go about this.
