Running Head: Competency D

Competency D: Communication Matthew Cheatham Regent University November 9, 2013

Running Head: Competency D Rationale: Communication is a critical element to any successful human interaction, and this rings especially true for teachers. Aside from communicating with administrators, fellow teachers, and of course students, teachers need to maintain an open line of communication with parents. While we professionally craft students into better learners, this task becomes insurmountable without the guiding and/or aiding from parents, who, without a shadow of doubt, understand the unique needs of their children far better than teachers. Therefore, to be efficacious in the classroom, we need to open and honest with our cooperating parents. While in the classroom, I constantly noted student behavior and shared both quantitative and anecdotal evidence with my cooperating teacher to better the classroom. Sitting in on parent/teacher conferences and offering my input when appropriate helped build a stronger rapport between myself, my cooperating teacher, and our students parents. There were a handful of minor classroom issues that required collaboration with parents; one instance regarded a student that showed a lack of attentiveness. This particular student had entered 5th grade with a prescription for their attention disorder because it was notated last year, and steps were made to remediate the condition. Privy to this information, my cooperating teacher and I decided to take precautionary steps by placing the student in a front-and-center desk in the classroom. We both soon learned that the student regularly chose to be a non-participant in lessons and instead opted to doodle pictures on their papers, and after a few weeks of constant redirection of the student (reminding the student to take notes, finish assignments and tests, and adhere to the classroom routine), I decided to call the students parent in order to share information with them and collaborate on a solution. Through open communication, the parent and I decided to inform the student that they were allowed to doodle but only after completing assignments and tests. The

Running Head: Competency D students parent also asked for permission to allow the student to hold a handheld, malleable rubber ball so the student could concentrate on their work. The student made some slight improvements after the intervention by being more motivated to finish school work. In conclusion, the intervention plan that was created by the students parent, me, and my cooperating teacher wouldnt have been possible without effective communication and collaboration.