I feel that I excel in this area as I am always researching for new ideas and resources and consistently seeking out opportunities to attend conferences, present at conferences, and engage in school wide committees and conversations to discuss best practice and pedagogy with colleagues. I also continuously experiment with new projects and methods in my classroom on a path toward to implementing best practice and current research as much as possible.
My personal research and reflection on best practice include:
A Netvibes page to aggregate feeds from numerous bloggers and sites that share interesting perspectives and resources on education (with special emphasis on mathematics).
A Twitter account which I use to both read and take in ideas from other educators as well as share new ideas and things I find and wish to spread.
I am a member of the Classroom 2.0 Ning which I use to engage in conversations with teachers from all over the world about methods and opportunities to collaborate on projects.
Subscriptions to podcasts and TED talks to stay up to date on discussions and innovation in education, technology, and the sciences
Attendance at two NESA conferences, ASB Unplugged conference, and ELMLE conference.
Presenting to colleagues on "The Web and Evolving Math Education" at ASB Unplugged and "Video in the Classroom" at ELMLE conference.
Completion of the K12 Learning 2.0 course on use of technology in the classroom (see my reflection blog)
From a student point of view, I believe students respect my ability to answer their most challenging questions and to show them how much I love my subject and my profession and want to share it with them. As shown on my student feedback data, students provided the following responses when asked about my subject knowledge.
My teacher knows a lot about the subject he or she is teaching.