Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #3

The artifact I chose to use is my Character Education lesson plan that I developed for EDUC 401. This lesson plan focuses on teaching students about the pillars of character education. This lesson was conducted in a fifth-grade classroom and I thought that the pillar of respect would be appropriate for the grade level. For this lesson, I read the students a book called, Mr. Peabody’s Apples, which focused on the pillar of respect. After the book, we held a class discussion about the book and talked about the moral of the book. After I read the book, the students researched all of the pillars of character education as well as decided which pillar they were like the most and which pillar they needed to work on. A class discussion was held about character education afterwards and students were allowed to talk about which pillars they chose. I have decided that the Character Education lesson plan goes along with Characteristic #3. Characteristic #3 is: We believe that the novice teacher should recognize that teaching is a professional, moral, and ethical enterprise, should understand moral issues and ethical practices in educational environments, and should have developed ethical frameworks which facilitate effective teaching.

I believe that this lesson plan fits in with Characteristic #3 because the lesson includes activities for students to understand how to develop good character as well as morals and ethics. The lesson also includes questions for students to think about that can apply to their own lives and responsibilities. The lesson plan allows time for students to talk with the teacher about moral and ethical situations and allows time for the teacher to respond using moral reasoning skills. I also think that by teaching this lesson, it shows that the teacher has moral practices in place and wants her students to have the same. Sometimes I think people do not realize that school is an excellent place to teach students about character education. I have learned that there are a lot of great children books that discuss this topic in an age appropriate manner, which allows teachers to develop excellent lessons to help students understand the importance of character, morals and values. I think teaching this lesson was very valuable to me because in my future classroom, I want to be a role model for my students, and I want them to reflect the same behavior so they can set a good example for others.