To be a good teacher, one must know the content area they are teaching and how to teach

effectively. They also need to be aware of the methods that are used to teach in their subject area.
Often these traits will show that a teacher is competent and qualified to teach, but in order to be a
great teacher we must also add caring to the qualities of competent and qualified. Through the
Elementary Education departments program at Dixie State University and their DESERT model
I have learned to be competent, caring, and qualified to teach. The artifacts in this e-portfolio
demonstrate these qualities.
First, I think a competent teacher needs to not only know what to teach and the general
methods that make teaching effective, but they also need to know methods that will help them
teach effectively in specific subject areas, and show that they are capable of doing the things
necessary to help the students in their classroom learn (DM2, DM3). I believe the artifact that
shows that I am a competent teacher is the comprehension lesson plan that I created in my class
on differentiating instruction to all of my students. This lesson plan shows that I am familiar with
methods of teaching a comprehension lesson and that I can differentiate that lesson plan to meet
the needs of the learners in my classroom.
Next, a great teacher is one that is caring. This means that the teacher tries to see what
each individual student can achieve while the student is in his or her classroom and does
everything they can to help them achieve that potential. It also means that the teacher does more
than teach to the test; the teacher also helps his or her students learn and grow. Caring teachers
will also be able to use what they know about students to help teach them effectively (DM1,
DM4, DM6).
There are two artifacts in my E-portfolio that I believe show that I am a caring teacher.
The first one is the teacher notebook. In this project, I selected two students that had behavioral

problems, collected data to help me understand the problem and what I could do to help, and
made a plan to help the students. This artifact shows that I am a caring teacher because although
I employed similar methods to collect data for both of these students, the plan I came up with to
help them was different for each student. Another artifact in my e-portfolio that shows that I am
a caring teacher is my classroom management. This shows that I can think of procedures to help
students have a safe environment to learn and to grow.
Lastly, being a qualified teacher means that you know the subject area that you are
teaching and how to teach effectively. In my case, I need to know the basics of literacy, math,
science, the arts, and other areas that I will have to teach. It also means that I know what is
effective in teaching each of these subjects. I also believe that this means that a teacher continues
to learn about how to teach and what they are teaching (DM5).
The artifact in my e-portfolio that best shows that I am qualified is my science lesson on
comparing magnetic fields with technology. This lesson shows that I am qualified because it
shows that I know my content area well enough to teach it and that I can employ many different
strategies to aid learning. These strategies included using technology in the classroom, having
the students work with hands-on activities, and having students share what they have learned
with each other.
To help our students, we need to have great teachers. These teachers will be people who
know their content areas, know methods to teach that content, and do everything that they can to
help each individual student achieve their highest potential. In short, to help our students we
need teachers who are competent, caring and qualified. The Elementary Education program at
DSU has helped me to become such a teacher.