Responsible contributing

Someone who is a responsible contributor is involved in and outside of the classroom. Responsible contributor helps the community, and shares their abilities with others. The artifact that I have picked involves: tutoring a student in elementary school on reading, helping 5^th graders develop an outdoor classroom, and helping Cedar Rapids after the flood of 2008.

Before I came to Loras I did some tasks that would fall under being a responsible contributor, but not a whole lot. As an education major responsible contributor is one thing that I would have to develop more over the years in order to be successful. I have learned many different ways to be a responsible contributor while being at Loras.

My first artifact comes from my Reading Across the Curriculum class. This class deals with learning different strategies for teaching the upper elementary grades how to read. Also, part of the class I went out to Lincoln to tutor a student on ways to improve his/her reading skills. I used the different strategies that I learned in class to tutor my student. My artifact is a think-aloud lesson plan. A think-aloud lesson is when the teacher shows the student/students how to use a strategy while reading. First, the teacher models the think-aloud and after modeling the strategy for a few minutes it’s the students turn to apply the strategy to the text. This artifact shows responsible contributor because I went out to the community and shared my abilities with a student to help develop his/her abilities as a reader. Now, the student in turn will be able to share his/her abilities learned from me to others, so it will be a cycle of responsible contributor. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/think-aloud.docx

My second artifact comes from my Curriculum and Instruction Social Studies class. In this class we learned about different ways to teach social studies, and different activities to teach. In this class we had one major project that we did, and that was to help the 5^th graders of St. Columbkille build an outdoor classroom. I had five 5^th graders in my group. First, we developed different ideas for what of kind of outdoor classroom they wanted. After we brainstormed we narrowed our list down to one topic, which was making a prairie grass setting. Once we got our topic the whole class took a field trip to Swiss Valley to get different ideas, and a resource for questions. My artifact comes from this field trip. It talks about how everything went, the different information we found, and how this field trip will benefit the 5^th graders in finalizing their plans for their outdoor classroom. While this project was developing I had to guide the students on the right path, and help answer any questions they might have. This artifact shows that I w as a responsible contributor because I helped the students develop an outdoor classroom that will be used for all grades and the community. Also, this outdoor classroom will be a great tool for learning. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/field trip.docx

My final artifact does not come from a class here at Loras but from my cross country experience at Loras. Each year as part of the preseason for cross country we do some kind of bonding experience and each year is a little different. In the summer of 2008 a disaster hit Iowa; the flood of 2008. As a team we decided that it would be a good idea to travel to Cedar Rapids and help with clean up process. We were assigned to a church called St.Wenceslaus Catholic Church, and helped haul piles of rock out from the basement, so the church could remodel. Also, some members of the team were assigned to help with demolition of a house by removing dry wall, aiding in yard work, painting, and etc. My artifact is an article that comes from the Loras College Magazine. The article talks about the different tasks we completed while we were in Cedar Rapids. This shows that I was a responsible contributor because I went out to a community and helped people who were in need. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/winter09magazine.pdf

By having the different opportunities at Loras to become a responsible contributor will help me succeed in the future as a teacher. I will have the skills needed to work in the community, and will also have the different skills needed to work with students.