Artifact Reflection Artifact Title: Sheboygan Legion Baseball Coach Date: Summer 2013 Artifact Description: The artifact

I included is a link to the Sheboygan Legion Baseball team website. It shows that I was the assistant coach during the summer of 2013 for the U17 junior varsity team. The team consisted of students from both Sheboygan North and Sheboygan South High School ranging in age from 15-17 years old. The website has been updated since last year so it does not include the schedule or roster from last year, but it can be seen where the 2014 elements have been inserted where the 2013 information used to be. Alignment: Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment: This experience best aligns with Standard 10: Collaboration- The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students learning and well being. This aligns with standard 10 because it offered me multiple opportunities to interact with students, parents, and agencies in the community and outside of the school setting. I talked with parents after almost every practice and game. The Sheboygan Legion Post 83 was the organization that sponsored our team and members of the post often attended games and wanted to talk about the team. People in Sheboygan are very serious about baseball. Even though I did not coach the varsity team, the fans were interested in talking to me about the younger players who would be playing varsity the next year. I also had the opportunity to collaborate with the head coach, Chad Dowland, who is an experienced baseball coach and teacher. He went to multiple state tournaments when he was the coach for New Holstein in the 2000s. Chad was a great mentor for me and demonstrated great professionalism, while still being kind and likable towards all of the players. I am more competent in this standard now because I was able to work side-by-side with one of the greatest coaches in the area. I also experienced a lot of interaction with parents of the players, and I learned how to handle every situation professionally and fair. UW-Platteville Knowledge, Skill, Disposition Alignment: This experience best aligns with KSD4.c: Communicating with Families- The candidate is able to provide frequent, sensitive and appropriate information to parents and students about students positive and negative progress within the instructional program and successfully engages families in the educational process when appropriate.

This coaching experience best aligns with this KSD because I was able to interact with families nearly every day of the summer. I had a lot of parents talk to me about their sons position on the team or about issues concerning playing time. I gained valuable experience dealing with all different types of parents. Some of them were angry, some were happy, and some just wanted inside information about the program and the team. I also was given opportunities to ask parents to help when the team needed extra assistance with things that Chad and I could not handle ourselves. I am more competent after these experiences with parents because I was able to be in a powerful position, which I had never experienced before. Parents treated me differently because they knew I was the coach. It was very valuable and provided me similar experiences to the ones I will be facing as a teacher. Secondary KSDs: KSD1.d: Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources KSD4.d: Contributing to the School and District KSD4.e: Growing and Developing Professionally Reflection: What I learned about teaching/learning from this experience: Though my coaching experiences, I learned a lot about teaching and learning. I discovered the importance of maintaining professional relationships between educator and student when the age difference is not that vast. It is important that the students do not get too comfortable with me, and how important it was to stand strong in all of my decisions. I found out that it is hard to be taken seriously if you do not act professionally at all times. It is hard to be a friend and an authority figure at the same time, but the educators who can balance those two facets are some of the most effective teachers. I also learned the importance of remaining calm, relaxed and in control at all times. The students demeanors mirrored mine a majority of the time and this was interesting to observe. If I do not want my students to act a certain way, than I better not act that way myself. What I learned about myself as a prospective educator as a result of this experience: After coaching I realized that the first few years of being a teacher is going to be difficult. It was easy for me to have a friendly relationship with the players because they were only about four years younger than me. I also noticed that the players did not really take me seriously at first. I became aware of the importance of being firm and in control very quickly. If I start off by being the students best friend, they will not react well to me if I try to discipline them. One of the most important things I learned was that the best way for me to deal with upset parents was to just

remain calm and polite. If both parties are upset, than nothing will get accomplished and both sides will leave unhappy.