Assessing one's practices

In honor of statewide inservice day, I'm doing a reflection on my teaching practices:

2. I welcome students to my classroom on a daily basis by greeting them as they enter.

Yep--and since I meet them at the bus, I greet them before they even get inside the building. A few like to hang out with me until everyone has arrived, so I usually get a chance to ask them how they're feeling/what they did over the weekend/etc.

5. I have been trained to utilize the district's curriculum.

Not really. I've done a lot of self-study in the areas where I perceive a need to improve my own instructional effectiveness. There's a lot of training opportunities coming up though, so we'll see what happens.

7. The administrative staff frequently conducts walk throughs in my classroom.

No way! You almost never see admin in a SPED classroom. Either because of confidentiality issues, or because nobody ever thinks to wonder what we do all day. ;)

9. I receive constructive feedback concerning my classroom instruction.

Yes, usually. Several times a week on average. Either from other staff members, or sometimes students.

10. My curriculum, instruction, and assessment are aligned.

Yes, they pretty much have to be since progress and mastery is the sole determiner for whether or not it's worth moving forward in a new direction. If the student doesn't understand the concept, we DO NOT move forward...I go back a step and re-teach.

13. I use data to target individual student instructional needs including reteaching.

Yes, but for the most part, it's based on informal assessment (observation).

15. I have an opportunity to provide input into what staff development will be provided.

No. And boy do I wish someone would ask me. I have lots of ideas.

16. My students have access to adequate instructional materials and resources.

Usually. Although I often like to improvise and make my own because they're more specific to the goals we're working on.

21. I plan lessons so that they are relevant to the student.

Oh yes. It's especially important for the things I'm working on right now...we're at the beginning stages of AAC, so student-perceived relevance is absolutely critical.

22. I tie lessons to real world problems.

Yes, it's always been a preference before, but especially now that functional goals have such strong importance.

25. Activities in my class are "hands-on" and engaging.

As much as humanly possible.

26. I have discipline problems and/or problems with classroom management.

A few--I work with students who have difficult behaviors and need explicit social skills training, so to some extent, I have to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate on whether or not my interactions are helping a student or not.

27. When asked, students will say my class is boring.

I doubt it.

28. I have classroom procedures that are clearly communicated and taught.

Yes, routines are very important, and I spend a lot of time explicitly explaining expectations and procedures to the students I work with.

31. I use data from assessments to drive instructional decisions.

Definitely.

36. I communicate with parents or guardians of all my students.

In my current role, that's not something I'm supposed to do, but there are definitely times I wish I could.