School of Education Portfolio

University of Wisconsin Platteville

Artifact Reflection
Title of Experience/Artifact:

Addie lesson plans, Adapted Aquatics Handbook

Date Experience Completed:

3/17/14

Describe your educational experience/artifact:

For this standard I chose to pick two artifacts that show my understanding of students
with disabilities. My first artifact is from my adapted aquatics student Addie. I was lucky
enough to be able to work with this young lady and it was a great experience. For each class
period I was in charge of making lesson plans that were suitable for Addie to accomplish. The
second artifact was the Adapted Aquatics Handbook. This artifact provides a teacher or
swimming instructor with a variety of different resources that help with students with
disabilities in a swimming pool or other water areas. In the handbook I included visual aides to
help with instruction, different types of games and activities one can work with a student with
a disability, as well as resources that a teacher could use to research for adapted aquatics.

Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment

I believe these artifacts best align with Standard Three Diversity: the teacher
understands how pupils differ in their approaches to learning and the barriers that impede
learning and can adapt instruction to meet the diverse needs of pupils, including those with
disabilities and exceptionalities.
I aligned these artifacts with this standard because working with Addie was a great
example of working with a student that learns differently than other. Being autistic Addie
would need modified directions in the lesson plans to be able to be successful and reach for a
goal. It helped me better myself by teaching a student with a disability because it showed me
how diverse some students are when it comes to teaching. Students learn in different ways and
as a teacher I need to be able to modify my instructions that fit each individual in their own
way.
The adapted aquatics handbook was a prime example of diversity as well. In the
handbook it is focused on students with a range of disabilities. In the handbook it helps focus
on different activities that will work with different needs of students and their disability. Even
with the resources in the back of the handbook will help direct someone that needs help finding
a way to adapt instruction for a student.

UW-Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions Alignment

I believe this artifact best aligns with KSD4.b. MAINTAINS ACCURATE RECORDS
The candidate values, understands, and can maintain accurate records and assessment data
including a system for student completion of assignments, information concerning student
progress, and a system for non-instructional activities with all record systems reflecting student
contributions to their establishment and maintenance.
I aligned this KSD with the artifacts on diverse learners for several of main reasons.
First When doing lessons plans I had to maintain records on how well she was able to perform

in the pool after each lesson. In the lessons plans I had to come up with different basic
activities for her to do in the pool and after each class I recorded on how well she did to help
me make up the next lesson plan of activities. If she was unable to perform certain skills during
the day the next lesson would focus more on those skills. Overall being able to maintain
accurate records helps teachers keep logs on students that will help during each lesson or
activity.

Explain what you learned about teaching/learning from this experience:

There were many different things I learned from these artifacts. First I learned how to
work with disabled students and how different they learn from other students. They need more
of a one on one style teaching (at least Addie did) because of the disability she had. I learned
how to accurately keep records on how well she was progressing through the lessons. This
helped me see what she was doing well on and also what she needed to work on more for next
time. Overall I believe it was a great experience working with Addie along with making a
handbook that could really help me for future use. Whether it were teaching a swimming class
trying to find games to teach to some diverse learners, or also just finding resources that would
help a colleague or swimming lessons teacher with different activities with students who have
disabilities.

Explain what you learned about yourself as a prospective educator as a result of this
experience/artifact:
What I learned about myself as a future prospective educator from these
experiences/artifacts were that I am growing and learning from each new and unique
experience. These artifacts showed me that I am able to work with a wide range of students,
and I have what it takes to be a great educator some day. With each new experience I have, like
working with Addie making her lesson plans, it shows that I myself am capable of coming up
with new and unique activities and games from a range of students with and without
disabilities. Also the adapted aquatics handbook shows me that I am able to look up
information and use my resources to my advantage, the more resources I have the more it will
help me in the classroom.