WTS 9 Page 1

Self-Evaluation and Reflection

Leanna Cernohous
Saint Marys University of Minnesota
Portfolio Entry for Wisconsin Teacher Standard 9
EDUW 695 Ethics and Issues in Education
Instructor: Kathi Stebbins-Hinz

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Targeted Descriptors from Wisconsin Teacher Standards

Wisconsin Teacher Standard (WTS) 9: Teachers are able to evaluate themselves.

The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her
choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning
community), and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
Knowledge. The teacher understands methods of inquiry that provide him/her with a
variety of self-assessment and problem-solving strategies for reflecting on his/her practice, its
influences on students' growth and learning, and the complex interactions between them.
Dispositions. The teacher is committed to reflection, assessment and learning as an
ongoing process.
Performances. The teacher draws upon professional colleagues within the school and
other professional areas as supports for reflection, problem-solving and new ideas, actively
sharing experiences and seeking and giving feedback.
Individual Goal
The teacher will become acquainted with the consequentialist and the nonconsequentialist approaches. The teacher will recognize all points of view as problems arise,
being sure to draw upon the professional knowledge of all individuals involved, and/or in the
teachers professional circle, to produce a resolution that is befitting the circumstance.

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Self-assessment Based on Descriptors from WTS 9
For Wisconsin Teacher Standard (WTS) 9, I want to focus on the consequentialist and
non-consequentialist conflict resolution strategy through utilization of others in problem
resolution to produce the best results for all involved. I am currently in my first year of teaching
at St. Croix Central High School. I teach classes in agricultural education and am the co-advisor
of the FFA (an agricultural leadership organization). On average this school year, I have twenty
students in my regular education classroom. Of those twenty students, I have approximately
30% of special education students with varying qualifying areas such as autism, emotional and
behavioral disabilities, learning disabilities, and speech and language needs. I have a high
percent of special education students as an elective teacher, and seeing agriculture lends itself to
hands on learning, it is often quite appealing to special education students. I have a co-worker,
and we share the same space for classroom, lab, and materials.
The knowledge descriptor that I chose states that the teacher will use a variety of selfassessment and problem-solving strategies for reflecting on his/her practice. Since I am in a
new school this year, I have to make sure that I am reflecting a lot to make improvements for the
future, whether it is the next class period, or the next semester. Since I teach elective courses, it
is imperative to have course appeal, and teach the students too. If I only utilize one method of
reflection, such as taking some notes after a class, I would be always in the reactive instead of
proactive position.
The teacher is committed to reflection, assessment, and learning as an ongoing process
is my choice for my disposition descriptor. I spend a lot of time in reflection, even during the
class I am teaching, making mental notes of changes for next time. I need to improve my

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reflection process as I do not always write everything down, and my great ideas for next time do
not always come to fruition. I have to assess my current group of students as every semester, and
every class, brings a new group of students to work with. I recognize that both teaching and
learning are on-going processes.
The performance descriptor I chose was, The teacher draws upon professional
colleagues within the school and other professional areas as supports for reflection, problemsolving and new ideas, actively sharing experiences and seeking and giving feedback. I work
with another teacher in the agricultural education program, and it is vital that we work together.
We are in such close proximity in the classroom, as neither of us actually has much of any
personal space, but more importantly, it will take both of us working together to grow this
program, and draw students into the FFA. With two people working in the same program, we
have conflicts periodically, use each other for problem-solving, and reflection. We continue to
work together for the sake of students, academically and with the FFA.

Introduction
I have been teaching for twelve years in some way, shape, or form. I was a substitute
teacher for eight years, and in corporate for almost three years, and have finally had my own
classroom in the last year. I spent one semester in St. Paul, MN and now I am at St. Croix
Central; a lot of movement that has not really allowed me to plant my roots. The masters
classes I have had thus far have brought light to better techniques and practices, from reflection
to daily lesson improvements. My experience all-around provided a good foundation, but
recognizing the various improvements such as checking for understanding, differentiating

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instruction, and the value of varied assessments, have all made me a much better teacher. My
students now have more opportunities for success, and when they can be successful, they are
more apt to take other courses in the program, and even get involved in the FFA where the
possibilities and opportunities are endless. Refection is the key to making the improvements, as
without that, it is much less likely for anything to change.
Personal filters, as taught in the ethics course, are another component to effective
teaching. Filters are hidden rules in society that can, and do, ultimately affect the decisions that
we make. As a teacher, I need to recognize my filters (Artifact A) and those of others when
making decisions. Having empathy toward others is beneficial when your filters are not the
same as the filters of the other party. I have always stressed in my own family how important it
is to recognize how someone else would feel. When my oldest daughter was in preschool, her
teacher noted how empathetic she was towards others. Growing up, we did not have much, but it
was important to be kind and polite. When we did the filter inventory in the ethics class, I found
that have many filters of two economic classes: middle class and poverty. Our experiences make
our filters, and our filters form our decisions. Knowing the filters of others can aid a teacher in
many ways from teaching to conflict resolution to working with parents.
Reflection
This ethics class has been a great experience. I appreciated the emphasis on looking at
both sides of a situation, making sure to address all the facts, and recognizing the rules (legal or
otherwise) before deciding. I have always been an avid rule-follower, and there have been very
few times that I would say the greater good was more important. This class brought out the
fact that there are times when it is more important to do what is better for the greater good and

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less important to follow the rules for the sake of following the rules; consequentialist versus nonconsequentialist thought. This was more evident to me in the journal entries (Artifact B). I
found that I make more decisions based on the consequentialist process (for the greater good),
and not as much in the non-consequentialist thought process (following rules), which I would
have thought to be opposite prior to the ethics class.
As the class progressed, we looked at some hot topics, and began to structure how to
evaluate an issue, as in the Issue Outline (Artifact C). I was able to set up an issue to begin to
evaluate it. Previously, I would have used my background knowledge and some additional
information to form the basis of my opinion. I recognize now how important it is to address the
vital questions, and take a stance only after further research into the issue is completed. There
were times in class that I did change my position after all the research was presented. Many
educational issues really do have a number of facets to them.
The greatest amount of growth occurred because of our debate assignment (Artifact D). I
looked into universal preschool. I had to have enough research to support either stance in class
through a debate. Before beginning research, I already had an opinion. I had to put forth great
effort to block my own personal filters, and look strictly at the facts and data in front of me, to
generate both pros and cons of the topic as I was unsure which stance I would have to take.
Being naturally competitive, I made sure I had enough to support the other side too. Through my
research, I concluded that my former opinion was not as clear-cut any more. I have a vested
interest in this topic seeing I have four children (one that went through preschool, one currently
in preschool, and two that have yet to attend any form of preschool), so I thought I was well
informed. I realized quickly in my research that there are many factors affecting the position of
this topic; some I considered and some I had not when I made my own opinion. As a teacher, I

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often make decisions based on data and research, just as I did with universal preschool, but it
was not until I looked at the other side that I truly made an informed decision. A great teacher
will look at both sides, and reflect on the pros and cons of each, before forming a conclusion, and
this assignment gave me the opportunity to build the skills to do just that. Even though I did end
up having to defend my opposing view, I was confident in my defense as I had thoroughly
researched both sides, reflected through my own filters, and then formed my position. Turning
off my own personal filters was the hardest part of this class, but learning to do that will be very
beneficial while working in education.

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Artifact A: Filter Reflection Paper

There are many reasons that teachers make the decisions that they do. Some of these
reasons are filters: life experiences that shape our thoughts and decisions. Three of these filters
are 1) reasons for teaching, 2) social class, and 3) age. A teacher that went into teaching because
of a love for the content will make different decisions than a teacher who went into teaching
because they want to help students reach their potential. When I was doing an observation in
college, the teacher visited with a student for nearly the whole hour because the student was
going through a tough time. His decision to sit down with that student was not made because he
had a love of the content, but rather his desire to put students first and help them reach their
potential. I too have made decisions based on my filters. A filter that has influenced my
decision-making is also my reason for teaching. My reasons for teaching are to provide
opportunities to students that may not otherwise have opportunities, to be a role model and
positive influence in the lives of my students, and prepare them to be good, productive members
of society.
Providing opportunities to students is part of my reason for teaching filter. It is also a
large part in why I broke some rules at my last school. I do not break rules, at least not until
then. Transportation was a large issue and we could not take students in our own vehicles, and
there were no school vehicles except school busses, for which $250.00 was charged to the
school/organization. There were times when students would not have been able to attend events
because they had no way to get to school, or home from the event. My co-worker and I agreed
that it was more important for the students to attend the events than following the rules, for
which we could ask for forgiveness if confronted. Considering that I will rarely ever break rules,
my filter was telling me that I needed to provide these students rides to school, or home from
school around our extracurricular activities. A few weeks ago, there was a function on my
daughters birthday. My co-worker and I divided the activities for that day, and the next, so that
we each could be home with our daughters who had birthdays. On the night of his event, some
students did not show up to take care of registration. Therefore, despite the fact that it was my
daughters birthday, I stayed to make sure that the students attending the event would have the
best opportunity to learn.
I was filtering my decision to stay that night because I wanted to provide an opportunity,
but I was also being a good role model for our students, a second component to my reason for
teaching filter. The best way to teach is through example, so by me staying, even on my
daughters birthday, I was showing the students that sometimes you have to do things that maybe
you do not want to do, but it is for the greater good. I would want my students to do the same
thing.
The event that I mentioned above was a FFA Leadership workshop, and was made up of
several sessions for students to build their leadership skills; a valuable life skill to many people.
A large part of why I didnt mind staying, aside from setting the good example, is because I
believed in the cause of the workshop. Not all skills are naturally present, so to have a leadership

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workshop can help to find/build some of those skills. Many jobs require, or improve, when an
employee has good leadership skills or skills in general. Each time that I miss my kids going to
bed because I am at school with students for some reason or another, I am making a decision to
prioritize my reason for teaching filter, as I am focusing on producing productive members of
society. The FFA can do many great things for students, and I realize that, or I would not decide
to stay at school for FFA when I could be at home with my own family.
Now that I know this filter, I will be more analytical in the decisions I make, and it will
help me to distinguish between guilt/obligation, and one of the real reasons I went into teaching.
If I am considering a situation out of guilt/obligation only, I will be aware of that and hopefully
make sure that I am putting my family first. If the situation is truly a vector of my reason for
teaching, I will embrace it more heartily. Teaching is an art, and part of that art is recognizing
the aspects of the decisions you have to make, and then making good decisions to benefit all, or
as many as possible, who are involved.

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Artifact B: Journal Entries

Issue: student repeatedly threatens to hurt herself
One of our students repeatedly threatens to hurt herself. She has been given many suggestions
for ways to cope with these feelings, but does not seem to WANT to utilize them and does not
utilize them. She has been to counseling and is on medications. Her SpEd diagnosis is for OHI,
ADHD/bipolar. She has moved into the community from another state a fair distance away. My
observations have been that she is an attention seeker, and she only seems to bring about these
statements with another teacher/classroom. When she is in my class, I have never heard such
things and she is typically very happy to be there. Upon a conference with my cooperating
teacher, she enjoys my class and we are going to use that as a reward for desired behaviors
during the week in the other classroom. It is my hope that the reward and the natural calming
effect of holding/petting an animal will help her succeed in the other classroom.
Ethical Issue: the ethical issue is to determine if she is just threatening for attention, or if
there is real intent. We feel she is doing it for attention, but it is not an issue that you can
disregard either.
To disregard:
Pro
She wont get
attention for an
unapproved behavior

Con
She may try harder to
get attention with that
since it worked
before.
She may actually
make an attempt
Legal action may be
taken if something
were to happen

Not to disregard:
Pro
She hopefully will not
make an attempt on
her life
We will know that we
have done what we
can to prevent an
attempt
We would hopefully
not be in a legal
dilemma if something
were to happen
We can combat this
with
acknowledgement and
reward the more
desired behavior

Con
May be feeding an
unwanted behavior

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We decided to proceed with not to disregard. We are going to continue to take the same steps
if any of the signs are present, but we are working to reward the more desired behaviors and
provide her the desired attention in that manner. Hopefully, she will learn to, and want to, take
the attention from completing her work on time, working during her studyhall, staying on task
and then being able to have time with her rabbit outside of my class time.
I believe that this would be consequentialist because we had to look heavily at the possible
consequences of our actions and the effects that those actions could/would have on many people.
Issue: Perkins funded computer cart does not stay in CTE, but is utilized as an all-school
computer cart.
A few years back, before me and my co-worker started, a cart of laptops was purchased with
Perkins funds. Having been purchased with Perkins money, it should stay in the Career and
Technical Education classrooms. That is a rule of using Perkins funds. I asked my co-worker
why nothing was said so theyd stay in the CTE dept? She said that it is sometimes best not to
make waves. She mentioned it to the principal and he did nothing with it. She said that with
budgets like they are, it is hard for others to get the funds to purchase the computers too. This
cart has been utilized by the whole school for at least the last 4 years. I am wondering if I should
dig deeper to get the literature to prove that the cart needs to stay in CTE, or not?
Make argument to stay in CTE
Leave it alone
Pro
Con
Pro
Con
Wed have a lot more
Other staff may see me
Everyone will have
We will have to buy
computer access for our as a trouble-maker and
more access to
more computers with
classes
resent me for taking the
computers
Perkins funds to help
cart away from them.
support our program.
Students would have
The principal may make My reputation as a nice, Our students wont be
more opportunities to
note of that in a future
easy to work with
able to access all the
utilize the plethora of
letter of
person will not be
programs wed like to
awesome programs
recommendation.
changed.
use to support our
online.
curriculum.
My co-worker does not
My co-worker prefers
support this action.
this, and we have to
work together and plan
curriculum etc together.
In the end, I decided to leave it alone. Once she mentioned that the principal didnt do anything,
I figured that would be a battle that Id be fighting alone and it wouldnt be worth the backlash.
This was consequentialist, yet again, taking into account the greater good. Far more students
will benefit from them being used by all teachers, and not just the 3 of us in CTE.

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Artifact C: Issue Outline

What is
your issue?
Who does
your issue
involve?
How is your
issue
impacting
education
today?
Why is this
issue
controversia
l?
List the 3
articles you
read about
your issue.

Identify an
organization
and tell their
view.

Schools serving free breakfast and lunch to all students

All schools
DHHS
Local Businesses
USDA
WI DPI
Local Farmers/producers
State law makers
(potentially)
Many students go hungry each and every day. It is a proven fact that hungry children do
not learn as well as non-hungry children. By providing meals for all children, wed be
providing the best possible learning environment. All children are entitled to a Least
Restrictive Environment and hunger can be a restrictive agent. Test scores should be
improved with children getting enough to eat. This is significant too with the School
Report Card: test scores are important! It will help to close gaps too.
*funding
*entitlement
*menus
*#students that will use and benefit from the service
http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201303270047 March 27, 2013 ; Senate bill gives every
W.Va. public school student free breakfast, lunch; Eric
Eyre_____________________________
http://frac.org/wpcontent/uploads/2009/09/universal_sbp.pdf____________________________
http://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/school_breakfast_program_fact_sheet.pdf
http://www.spps.org/saint_paul_public_schools_offering_free_breakfast_at_all_schools,
Sept. 5, 2011, Valeria Silva SPPS Supt.
http://www.spps.org/spps_continues_to_offer_free_breakfast_at_all_schools Aug. 13,
2012
http://www.spps.org/saint_paul_public_schools_continues_to_offer_free_breakfast_at_all
_schools, Aug. 20, 2013
http://fns.dpi.wi.gov/files/fns/pdf/suassbp.pdf serving up a successful school breakfast
program 2009
http://fns.dpi.wi.gov/files/fns/pdf/breakfast11.pdf school breakfast report card for 20112012
DPI
Remember your Department of Public Instruction is a resource for questions and
information for all Child Nutrition Programs. We can help you with program
requirements, marketing and technical assistance. Visit our School Breakfast website at
the address listed below to stay on top of the latest breakfast information. This statement
demonstrates how strongly DPI feels about offering school breakfasts; they are even
willing to help with marketing.

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Artifact D: Debate Assignment

Has the time arrived for universal preschool?
Yes
Students in pre-k are more likely to stay in
school, not do drugs or get pregnant in high
school etc.
savings come as the children go on to succeed in
school, get good jobs and pay taxes, rather than
ending up in low-paying jobs, on public
assistance or in jail.
children who went through the program (Chicago
Public School Pre-K) graduated from high school
at a significantly higher rate and were more likely
to land good-paying jobs. W. Steven Barnett,
director of the National Institute for Early
Education Research at Rutgers University, Reide

NO
Public school pre-k programs are too
expensive
most public preschool programs are expensive
and unproven. They point to a report by the
federal Department of Health and Human
Services last fall suggesting that academic
gains made in the early education Head Start
program fade by the time the children reach
third grade. Riede

Libby Doggett, deputy director of the Pew Center

on the States and head of its PreK Now efforts.
The research is clear that it is an important time
in a childs development. When you have a highquality program, you see lasting gains for the
school, the community, and the child. Schol.
Excellent return for your investment dollar:
7% Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Barack
Obama, are jumping on the pre-k bandwagon,
saying it is a crucial and cost-saving investment
in education.
Barnetts work established the 7-1 return on
investment, using data from the Perry Preschool
study. Reide
The returns are so high because the costs of that
failure are so big, he said. Theres a lifetime for
this to pay off, and it adds up.Barnett. Reide
If the United States wants to be competitive in
the global market, Bowman contends, it needs to
do as Japan and other countries have and make
the investment in early childhood education.
Schol.
Head Start cannot support enough children
in need (2.4 percent of poor children.) and
is of less quality.
The quality of Head Start suffers partly because
only half the teachers are required to have a
college degree, and their pay is far lower than

Cost effectiveness
Rachel Sheffield, a research associate at the
conservative Heritage Foundation and co-author
of a March 12 paper slamming Obamas preschool initiative, argues that neither Head Start
nor state-funded universal pre-k are getting
results good enough to justify the expense.
Reide
universal programs which can draw in
middle- and upper-income children who dont
benefit as much -- are not as cost-effective.
Maria Fitzpatrick, Cornell professor. Riede
Programs targeted at kids who need it most are
a better use of public dollars, says Finn. Schol.
Funding?
says Karoly. Its hard for politicians to have to
pony up money now when the returns will come
long after they are gone. Schol.
The presidents program would be funded
through a federal-state share, but it is unclear

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that of public pre-k teachers, he said.
The problem with Head Start is, if the teacher is
just the same as the neighbor-lady or my mom,
how is this going to help? he said. But if its
somebody who is way more educated and has
way more access to the wider world, this is a real
eye-opener. Barnett. Reide
Obamas plantargeted at children from families
below 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines.
Riede

how much either share would be. Riede

Proven results: Abecedarian Project

Barnetts work established the 7-1 return on
investment, using data from the Perry Preschool
study.Reide
public programs like those in Oklahoma and
New Jersey have shown good enough results to
produce big long-term savings. Barnett. Reide

No Proven Success in the large scale

Abecedarian project in North Carolina -- have
not been replicated in larger, government-run
preschool programs. Reide

[NY]failed to live up to its promise to have

funding available for every district. It is
currently active in about two-thirds of the
districts in the state, and most of those do not
serve all the eligible children [40%] Riede
Some districts fear state money will be cut off,
leaving them with an unfunded program Riede

The universal approach doesnt take into

account the diverse needs of families, Fuller
adds. What makes me nervous is the cookiecutter approach of someone in Washington
saying, Well run all preschools through the
public schools and test in the same waythat
kind of standardization, says Fuller. Once we
have centralized administration of preschool,
we tend to see hyper-standardization of what
goes on inside of classrooms. Schol. Fuller, a
professor of education and public policy at the
University of California, Berkeley