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Individual Learning Plan

Jessica A. Mask
Walden University
EDUC 6610: Teacher As Profession
Dr. Patrick Kahill
June 12, 2022
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Individual Learning Plan

Reflection of Professional Dispositions Survey

As I was reflecting on my personal teaching practices going through the Disposition

Survey for Individual Learning Program, I discovered I have a high number of areas of
strengths, and a few areas I need to improve. For my strengths, I found I was proficient in my
professional; conduct, qualities, and communication. The area I need to focus more attention is
professional collaboration, specifically when using technology.
In my teaching practice I am proficient in presenting myself in a professional manner. I
prepare my material and programming in advance to be organized in the classroom. When
there is specific administrative paperwork to be completed, it is finished on time and thoroughly
finished. I obtain self-control inside and outside the classroom. I have a passion for teaching
and continue to develop my career. I attend professional development sessions to improve my
craft of teaching. In a class with diverse learners, I have learned to be respectful of backgrounds
and provide equitable teaching to be fair to all pupils in the classroom. To ensure I continue to
be proficient in these practices I will attend professional development sessions, and collaborate
with various stakeholders to learn and discuss ways to improve or create plans to help individual
students.
An area in my teaching profession that needs improvement is ‘use technology to
enhance collaboration, strengthen partnership,and foster relationships with others to improve
teaching and learning.” (Walden, 2022). I have tried to use different programs and technology to
develop and maintain relationships with my students’ families, but I do not seem to keep up with
those connections as much as I feel I should. I have used a weekly Remind app to send
messages to parents, I could send it easily from my phone and anywhere I seemed to be I could
send a quick message out. Then our district recommended staff not to use the app, due to
confidentiality issues. So we now use a Powerschool link to send to parents, but it is not as user
friendly and I need to be at a computer to send it, not as easily obtained sometimes. We tried to
use Freshgrade, another app to keep parents informed and a type of online portfolio. Then
again once we started to get familiar with the technology our district changed plans and no
longer pays for the app. Our district is piloting a new program called Brightspace, an app that
can organize files, teachers can collaborate and share materials, and an area to send
communications to colleagues and parents. One of my goals to help foster proficiency when
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using technology to communicate with others is to learn how to maneuver and use Brightspace
in my everyday teaching. To be able to obtain this goal, I will have to find online videos to work
through and show the basics of where things are. On Youtube, there is a whole set of tutorials
for Brightspace. I am subscripted to Brightspace Tutorials to find weekly videos to watch on how
to work on their program. Our district is hosting sessions to participate in to help teachers who
are new to the program and need extra help. I have requested a time slot to come and learn
about the program. I plan to learn about one aspect of the app a week over the summer break
and by the time I start in September I will be fluent in using the app's various functions. My goal
is relevant to my current teaching profession, as I need to have a consistent way to send
communications to parents and work collaboratively with my own staff to improve my teaching.

Reflection of NBPTS Core Propositions

After reviewing my NBPTS Core Propositions survey, I realized my areas of strengths

and areas that need improvements. The areas I feel confident and achieve success is being
committed to students and their learning,the responsibility of managing and monitoring students'
learning, and teachers being members of the learning community. When completing the survey,
one of the areas that stood out where I need to make professional improvements is the topic of
knowing the subjects I teach and how to teach those subjects to students (Walden, 2022).
One of my areas of strength is ‘help students learn on their level, adjusting my teaching
to help them learn.’ (Walden, 2022). When I start a unit I usually start with the beginning skills,
to see where my students are and slowly build onto their knowledge. Some of my students can
progress to mastery and some are still working on the beginning skills with slow progression. I
feel students need to feel success when learning something new, building on their past skills,
then stretching them mentally I have seen higher success. To further my growth in this area I
will pre assess my students and meet them where they are. I will connect with staff members
and parents to make sure I have an adequate plan for each of my students’ learning styles or
levels. By having parents involved in my teaching and planning it increases the overall well-
being of my students.
When I completed the NBPTS Core Propositions of your Dispositions Survey (2022), I
marked ‘does often’, under the ‘I am able to use diverse teaching strategies to teach for
understanding’. I have been taught various teaching strategies and use them in my classroom
frequently. I feel as though one teaching strategy I would like to focus on is to help build
conceptual learning. To improve on these teaching skills, I would need to know how to go from
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students learning basic information to having students form opinions from their knowledge they
learned. According to Marschall (2019), “there are three ways to help students’ boost their
conceptual learning.” I think the article I choose would help me obtain my goal because it
explains three ways to add conceptual thinking for students and provides examples, so I know
exactly how it looks and sounds in the classroom. Having three easy ways to start introducing
conceptual think is a manageable goal when adding to my teaching instructions. I can have
rewritten questions planned in lesson outline, so I have an easy reference and not trying to think
of the questions on the spot, since I am new to incorporating the ideas in my plans. I will pick
one subject to first try out conceptual learning. If I do it in all my subject areas it would be
overwhelming, and I do not think it would be achievable to do five or more subjects. I will start to
incorporate conceptual learning in my first science unit, Waste in Our World, when I start
teaching in September. I can infuse my questions in my unit before I start and school is almost
over this year, which would not give me enough time to evaluate and adjust my teaching. My
goal is relevant in my teaching environment because our provincial government is moving to a
more conceptual outcome based learning over the next few years when our new curriculum
starts to roll out.
Reflection of Technology Proficiencies

When looking through the Technology Proficiencies survey I completed,I discovered how
I may not be as strong in my profession in this area as I might have thought. I have a few points
of strength, for example, in providing my diverse students opportunities to access technology
and I try to incorporate various platforms to my students. Based on the survey, I will need to
have a few goals over the next few years to reach proficiency in more areas. It would be
unrealistic to have them all in a goal right away as I want to make sure they are attainable and I
can thoroughly manage my time and profession at the same time.
My strength in technology is making sure my diverse learning are able to have their own
access to technology and have programs to support them. In my school, we have Individual
support plans for various students and technology is an asset for continuous learning.
Sometimes I need to advocate to different stakeholders to provide equitable equipment for our
learners. There are great programs such as; read, write google and other apps to allow learners
to show their knowledge along with their peers. I will continue to work with our support teams to
learn about the multitude of programs that would benefit my learners. Moreover, parents know
of programs their child can use too, and I will continue my communication and meeting with
parents as we are all working together for one goal, the child.
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When it comes to technology, I am not comfortable with driving into learning

something new, I tend to ask my colleagues who are more technology aware for their
advice. I do reach out and my colleagues are great when teaching me a new program. The
area I need improvement is using technology for assessments or improving students'
learning. My own personal goal for technology would go along with my first goal in my
professional dispositions. As I learn our new school board's recommended program,
Brightspace, for improving communications with parents and staff. I can use the program to
record students’ assessments, create portfolios to showcase students' work and student
accountability. Currently, I record assessments with a paper and pen format. As I develop
my knowledge in the Brightspace program I will learn numerous ways to improve my own
teaching. I do not want to add too many new technology goals to my list as it would not be
attainable as technology is an area I struggle with the most. Brigtspace is a large app that
can cover many aspects for my teaching profession along with enhancing student learning
with portfolios, completing assignments and sharing their research with peers. I will watch
Youtube videos and attend professional development courses provided through my district
to help me learn the ins and outs of Brightspace. By the end of my summer holidays, which
is the end of August, I should be familiar with the program and able to utilite it in my own
classroom. The more I try to implement it in my daily teaching, the more I will be familiar
with the app.
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References

Marschall, C. (2019, September 10). 3 ways to boost students' conceptual thinking. Edutopia.

Retrieved June 12, 2022, from

https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-ways-boost-students-conceptual-thinking

Walden University, (2022). Dispositions Survey for Individual Learning Plan (Word document)
https://content.waldenu.edu/content/dam/laureate/laureate-academics/wal/ms-educ/educ
-6610/module-01/USW1_EDUC_6610_DispositionsSurvey.docx
Walden University, LLC. (2016). Dr. Research: SMART goals [Video]. Walden University
Blackboard. https://class.waldenu.edu