D2. The teacher establishes and maintains productive, collaborative relationships with colleagues and families.
Establishing and maintaining productive, collaborative relationships with colleagues and families was one of my favorite parts of my student teaching experience at Altoona Area High School. In the beginning of my internship, I sent out an email to all students and their parents/guardians introducing myself and sharing my mission statement. From then on, it was easier to talk with my students' guardians. For example, towards the end of my time at AAHS, because students were not getting their late assignments in, I contacted a few guardians as the screenshot below shows:
After contacting parents and guardians and urging their students to finish their missing work, I got several submissions that I was able to grade and hand back to students for partial credit. Also towards the end of my time student teaching, I had more time to observe other teachers and how they managed their classrooms. I was fortunate enough to observe an art class, a math class, and a cooking class, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching these teachers teach and interact with their students while learning more about the teachers themselves. I got to see differences from how things are run in a typical English class, especially after each teacher explained what his/her students were doing in class, how they would be successful that day, and what they would continue doing.
Additionally, I attended Games Night for Homecoming week, and it was fun to see a different side to some of my students that I do not see in the classroom. Games Night consisted of each Homecoming candidate and his/her team playing timed skills games - my job was to assist in setting up the games, helping the teams with learning to play each game, guiding them through the games, and then cleaning up afterward. Although I got home very late at night, it was worth seeing my students having fun while also observing a different side to some of the teachers I know and work with.