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Evidence #2: Professional Development Plan |
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Evidence #2: Professional Development Plan
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My second evidence to address AP#3 is my Professional Development Plan required for my Level II Internship. For this assignment, I had to provide specific goals for improvement and steps needed to accomplish these goals. I also provided a target date in which to have completed these tasks. Before I completed mine, I talked to my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Heres, to help me come up with some things she would like to see me doing in her classroom and that she could observe. From her suggestions and my own wants, I came up with two specific goals each with three-4 specific steps to help me reach my goals.
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My Professional Development Plan meets this AP in many ways. First of all, at the beginning of the semester, I identified specific teaching skills that I know I need to improve to become a professional teacher. I worked on these skills throughout the semester in my internship by following the specific steps listed to meet my goals. My first goal was to improve my behavior management. I did this by focusing on presenting rules clearly and consistently so we don’t have to waste time repeating things over and over. This also gives every student a clear idea of what they should always be doing. I also strive to use ‘with-it-ness’ to eliminate behavior problems by using proximity. Another good way to manage student behavior is to create and implement engaging lessons. This way, the students stay interested and motivated while you are teaching. My second goal to reach is improving my time management. I came up with several ways in which to do this such as allowing extra time for students to ask questions, because this could take a lesson that you thought would take 15 minutes to about 30 or longer with student questions. Another way I came up with, with Mrs. Heres help, is planning and practicing every lesson before teaching it. Proper planning is the best way to ensure you will implement teaching strategies appropriate for all diversity in the class, and you will have a smoother lesson that will take less time to teach. My third step is to try to have extra lessons for the children to do if a lesson finishes early and you have extra time.
The development and implementation of my Professional Development Plan allowed me to work directly with my 5th grade Level II Internship class. My students definitely benefited from me having these specific goals in mind everyday as I was teaching. Time management has always been an issue for me to control, and I have to pay very close attention to make sure I don’t run over into lunch time teaching and things like that. Throughout the semester, I practiced my specific steps, such as practicing the lesson at home the day before so I have an idea of how long it will take. This also gave me insight to where students might ask questions, or maybe where I might should ask them some questions. This is also something that took some practice for me, but once I actually got some experience, it became easier. I also had to get used to being aware of the time and checking the clock time every couple minutes while I am teaching a lesson. The students benefit from this because there is less wasted time and more time for extra questions or enrichment, or even a fun activity. Behavior management in the classroom is so important to me. Because of my specific goals and steps to reach my goals, I have created a classroom where the school day and my rules especially are very consistent and very clear. I make sure that my students know exactly what they need to be doing at any given time of the day. I say directions out loud as I simultaneously write them on the board. This way, if a student didn’t hear me or was in the rest room or something, they can look at the board and get directly back on task without interrupting the class by asking questions. They know this too. SO many class disruptions are eliminated just by the students getting used to my clear and consistent rules. I also practice the proximity rule too. If a student is talking while I am talking, I don’t skip a beat and just go stand next to him. 10 times out of time that works! The ‘teacher look’ works too. If a student is acting up, they simply get the eyebrow raise and they stop the negative behavior. I also realize sometimes it’s hard for children to sit still through long lessons. Especially when they are receiving such a heavy load of information for FCAT preparations, they can get bored and restless. This is why I try to create engaging lessons for them. For example, on a recent lesson on idioms, I acted out the literal meaning of the idiom so they could see how ridiculous it looked. Like telling someone to ‘break a leg’ before performing on stage, I pretending my friend actually wanted my leg to be broken. Another one I demonstrated for them was ‘beat around the bush.’ I pretended I was walking around and around a bush hitting it with a baseball bat. This looked so silly, but they thought it was hilarious, and they also saw the point – that if idioms were taken literally, they would make no sense. It is so easy to add spice to humdrum lessons. Let’s face it, you can’t be fun and exciting and do amazing hands-on experiments for every lesson you teach. I have found though that adding small little things like this to ordinary lessons can really keep them engaged and eager to learn more.
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