Katie Foley Fitch Profile

The most important part of being an educator is to always keep in mind what is best for the students as a whole and how to achieve that for each student that comes into my life. Whether it is a preschool student in summer camp, an elementary class of first graders, a special education student I am working with individually or a cast of students that I am costuming in a summer musical, my first focus is about being a positive, educational influence in their lives. I believe that all students are teachable. Some may take longer to be successful in learning the content than others. This means getting to know each student, how they learn and what is the pace they are able to best learn at. This does not mean leaving a student behind because they won’t focus. Having high expectations for students does not mean that I expect all of them to reach the same level at the same time. Some students simply understand the content earlier than others. This gives me a chance to introduce content that can help them understand it in more depth. Setting a goal for all students to strive for shows them that I believe they are capable of reaching it at some point. Students come from all walks of life. They are all at the same age in a class which means that they have lived the same amount of years. This does not mean they have lived the same lives. It is my job to learn about those backgrounds, cultures, families, situations and traditions in order to make each student’s learning experience accessible to their lives. Learning experiences are based on trust. Students need to trust me and each other in order to have a successful career. In order to do this, I need to listen to what students have to say and what they have to offer to the learning conversation. I also need to reflect on what is being offered and how it affects the student’s learning experience. It is my job to make sure all students are treated with respect, kindness and compassion. In doing this, I create a learning environment where the students treat each other with respect, kindness and compassion. As an educator, my professional appearance and behavior is tantamount to my validity as an expert in my field. Wearing professional attire and holding myself to high standards of behavior helps students take me as a professional educator and someone who can be trusted to learn from. It ensures to my colleagues that I am taking my job seriously and hold myself accountable to any mistakes I may make. Maintaining a professional attitude about my students and my job proves an environment of confidentiality that protects the students in my care. I continuously evaluate my presentation, preparedness, productivity, and progress with my students. I ask myself what I did that was successful each day and what worked. When a lesson is over, I evaluate what the students were responsive to and what I need to work on to make it better for them. I weigh each interaction against what the student was able to achieve each day and what I can do to make it easier for them to understand. As their educator, I am responsible for giving them clues to the knowledge they have inside of them already. I frame questions in a way that they are able to use what they have already learned to arrive at the answers they need to know for further success. I also believe in sharing with them examples of how what they are learning is incorporated in their lives. If we are learning about neighborhoods, and I have pictures from my family’s urban neighborhood, I will share them with the class to show them what the differences and similarities are. When my STEM class was learning about the Antarctic, I shared pictures of my parents when they visited there, and all of their penguin friends. I am not a perfect person, and I do not expect students to be perfect either. When I make a mistake or do not achieve the high expectations I set for myself, I acknowledge it and admit it to my students. I let them know I am still learning some things. If I don’t know the answer to something a student asks about, I will use the opportunity to learn about it with the student or the class, or I take it upon myself to research it and present them with the answer at the next opportunity. Everyone, including students, deserve understanding, empathy and warmth. If a student is not feeling well or is having a struggle, giving them the benefit of the doubt, or a step away for a breathing minute can benefit both them and me in the teaching and learning process. One student I have is very bright, but their reading process is a struggle because they think they are pronouncing things correctly. It occurred to me that it might be the intonation their parents use in speaking because the parents are not American born. I made a self, mental note, to be more patient with this student as we continue to learn to read. Having children of my own that have struggled with medical and mental difficulties, I feel I have a unique perspective on students who might not behave as well as expectations require. Whether it is a student who has not had a decent night sleep because their medical issue has kept them awake, or they have spent time in the hospital for a few days, I understand the difficulties these bring to trying to learn. For example, a student with a backpack that contains a feeding pump will not be able to carry their books to school in a wearable backpack. Their use of a rolling backpack, which is not usually allowed in most schools, makes complete sense to me because they can’t wear another backpack while hooked up to the pump all day. Most teachers will not have thought of this reason, although it is an accommodation for the student. Stomach issues brought on by having tubes in their Gastrointestinal system are not unusual to me, however I can also recognize when the student is trying to use their issues to avoid schoolwork. I will help the school understand why the student feels like they think they can use it to their advantage, but knowing the student’s abilities, I will hold them to the high expectations set in place for everyone else. When a substitute tries to complete the work of the affected student, I will explain that the student has a medical issue, but they are perfectly capable of doing the work assigned. I believe that continually learning about what to teach, how to reach students and how to understand student situations for their best successful experience is to continually learn, ask questions and investigate. Putting what I learn into practice will help not only the student or students I am trying to teach, but it will help me, too. 

Where I highly agree with the majority of the assessment, I believe I can do better on my part to improve my appearance, attention and approach to teaching and students. I know I need to work harder on tuning into who the students are and how to reach them in order to be the best educator they deserve. In order to work on improving myself, I will record my thoughts and reflections daily. I will spend time each day after school investigating how to improve on my mistakes and what strategies I can use for certain students who need more support. For students who need more challenges, I will investigate age-appropriate materials and resources to enhance their learning experience.

When I started my program, I was disconnected and afraid. I didn’t believe I belonged in school at my age. I have always believed that all students are teachable. I have known that keeping confidentiality in education is important. I did not expect that my appearance was reflected by my mentor. I didn’t understand how easy it was to welcome each and every student into my heart, and that they never leave. I thought I was only capable of effectively teaching the middle level students. I did not understand how important it was to me that I reach each student, or to what lengths I would go to to help each student be successful. One student seemed unreachable to the paraprofessional and the teacher. I focused on them and learned that they were more capable than they believed the student to be. I worked on creating a set of alphabet cards for the student, with cartoon characters that they like. The game was to create a new team of characters each time they spelled a new word. The student responded enthusiastically and improved their spelling from 3/10 words to 9/10 words in a week. 

The Moral Code of Ethics for Educators (MCEE) is a reminder and a list of expectations a person is required to adhere to when they choose to become an educator. It requires professional responsibility to the profession, professional conduct and to the students. A personal disposition is a checklist for an educator that is comprised of the components of the MCEE. An educator can check their conduct and track their record of following their personal disposition against the requirements in the MCEE and adjust their performance as they see themselves adhering or straying from both. 

NASDTEC. (2023). Model code of ethics for educators (MCEE) - NASDTEC. Moral code of ethics for educators. https://www.nasdtec.net/page/MCEE_Doc 

University, B. (2023). Professional dispositions: Teaching, learning, and educational leadership: Binghamton University. Teaching, Learning, and Educational Leadership - Binghamton University. https://www.binghamton.edu/tlel/resources/professional-dispositions.html#:~:text=Professional%20dispositions%20include%20the%20values,the%20educator’s%20own%20professional%20growth.