What ARE the NCPTS? What Do They Mean For Me?

Before today, the last time I had seen the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards (NCPTS) was two years ago, in EDUC 250. Even then, I hadn't fully grasped what they were, where they came from, or what exactly they meant for me. As you can imagine, the fact that I will be student teaching next fall makes the fact that I had little to no knowledge of the NCPTS a little bit scary.

Thankfully, today in class we took some time to go over what the NCPTS are as a whole, what they're for, and go over a few of them a little more in depth. First of all, I am now fully aware that these standards are literally what will determine whether not I am recommended for licensure as a teacher. Then, I learned that there is a rubric (there's a rubric??) which will be used to evaluate me on each of the standards and their various elements, and at the very least I must be proficient in every standard. While it will certainly take a lot of time and effort to make sure I'm prepared to demonstrate proficient ability in the NCPTS, I feel a lot more comfortable now that I actually know what is expected out of me concerning them.

We then took time to go over the first two standards, however I would like to focus on Standard Two for a moment:

"Teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students."

Basically, this standard boils down to relationships. The relationships you build with your students, the environment you create for your students, how you'll handle students who are culturally different, in different places academically, etc. I think this standard will honestly be one of the biggest challenges for me in teaching, because I think it's going to be difficult to learn how to make sure everyone is being appropriately challenged academically when each student is so different and many are on very different levels; this is something I'm honestly very nervous about. That being said, I am excited to gain more experience and knowledge in this area, especially throughout this class, as I know it will ultimately make me a better teacher.