Standard 2 – Educators act ethically and maintain the integrity, credibility, and reputation of the profession
This is the standard that seems the most basic, but also the one that is the most challenging to define. In order to meet this standard, I make sure that my actions in public and private do not in any way embarrass or malign the profession to which I have entered in – this includes how I respond to difficult and challenging situations and making sure that I do not allow myself to be in situations which could be perceived as compromising to my role as an educator. In short, this means that I need to be aware of what I am doing when I am out in the community, because I am representing not only a school community and school district, but the larger community of educators in the profession. My actions matter, my words matter, my responses matter.
Part of this is being professional with my peers, and supervisors. Despite the fact that I completed all of my Practia in the same high school, I wrote a letter introducing myself and personally handed a copy to the Principal and each of the Vice Principals of the school that I was in at the start of my final Practicum experience. This gave me an opportunity to talk to each of them, confirm the expectations and protocols in place in the school and I believe is important to setting the tone of future interactions.