TEACHING PORTFOLIO - 
ASHER KURTZFREILICH

All children are unique and have something special they can bring to the class.  I believe in hands-on and cooperative learning and developmentally appropriate instructional methods.  Instruction should be student-centered and student-driven, teacher-guided, and based on students’ interests.  Content should be made relevant to students’ lives.  This can be something as simple as putting students’ names and interests into word problems, but can also be as complex as having students who like hip-hop present a project through a rap they created.  Both formative and summative assessments are vitally important to student growth.  Formative assessments should be used to determine areas of weakness and areas of strength in comprehension.  The results of these assessments should be used to alter and improve instructional practices for the purpose of increasing student comprehension.  Formative assessments can be a variety of things, but one that I believe has a lot of value is the Exit Ticket.  Summative assessments should be used as a method for students to demonstrate growth and mastery of the concepts being studied.  These assessments should be used to identify students who may still be struggling with a concept for extra help and potential small-group reinforcement instruction.  Throughout the day, informal observations and notes should be made to identify points of weakness for later reinforcement and for immediately resolvable misunderstandings.  Students should frequently be asked and encouraged to self-assess.  This can and should happen in many ways, from something as simple as Finger Rating or Thumbs-Up/Thumbs-Down to individual conferencing with students.  Students should also regularly be asked to explain their reasoning and strategies when solving problems.  Differentiation is crucial to the learning process as well.  Information should be provided through a range of modalities – songs/chants/raps, visuals, movement, etc.  Additionally, student methods of providing responses should be varied and multimodal.  Another essential aspect of education is communication and collaboration.  Students should be invited and encouraged to learn with each other and from each other, should generate ideas together, hold discussions, and explore the content together.  However, collaboration and communication should not only exist within the classroom.  Parents should be invited and encouraged to be a part of the classroom community, for example through guest-reading, career chats, and civic involvement.  Parent-teacher collaboration is also possible through sending home a weekly newsletter and regularly calling home to update parents on how their child is doing.  I believe in a responsive classroom.  Being in school is not exclusively about learning content.  It is also about learning how to be people.  The classroom should be a safe space for students to take risks, speak freely, make mistakes, blossom, and grow.  Building the classroom community is essential.  This happens through daily Morning Meetings, classroom jobs, and collective success rewards such as filling a Puff Jar.  Most importantly, I believe learning is a lifelong adventure.  Teachers and students should always be learning from one another.  Even as a teacher, one never stops learning.  Teachers can always learn more about and improve their content knowledge, methods of instruction, new philosophies, and classroom management techniques.  Finally, I believe in accepting all students for who they are and teaching them to embrace their differences.