Teacher Professional Growth Plan

PS1 Student Name: Peyton Church School: Gilbert Patterson Middle School

Goal #1

Inquiry: How does student involvement/engagement in reading and working through lectures/slideshows improve and
support their learning?

Professional Goal #1 → Engage students more in class slideshows, letting them analyze/read concepts in the slides before I
explain them to them, thus requiring more student involvement in each lecture period.
Rationale:
I believe that by involving students more actively in each lesson, information will stick and retain in their working memory,
and therefore their long term memory more effectively.
If I spend the entirety of my lecture time speaking and explaining information to students, I run the risk of multiple students
zoning out and therefore not properly learning the course materials.
Teacher Quality Standard:
TQS 4 → Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments
TQS 4(b) → using appropriate universal and targeted strategies and supports to address students’ strengths, learning
challenges, and areas for growth.
TQS 4(f) → employing classroom management strategies that promote positive, engaging learning environments.
Strategy(s) Timeline Resource(s) Indicator(s) of Success
Promote and use Echo Reading,
requiring students to repeat back the Starting Nov. UC and TA input Higher student involvement in my lectures and
information that I speak to on the 20th, ongoing participation in things such as echo reading.
slides.

Have students try to recognize things Starting Nov. How To Produce Students being able to make connections
such as similarities/differences 20th, ongoing Massive Academic between concepts and recognize differences
between concepts, rather than Improvement In and/or similarities before I explain them.
explaining it to them immediately. Your Students

Call on the classroom/specific Starting Nov. Feedback from Students providing their own examples and
students to come up with 20th, ongoing students’ definitions of concepts based off of the lectures
supplementary examples/definitions participation I give.
of specific concepts.
Reflection Mid round:
- Echo reading has been successful; students universal minimum requirement of engagement raised significantly
- Students reading and analyzing the slides to explain concepts has been successful; classes have been challenged to
answer questions surrounding class slides, which has made them hit higher levels of thinking
- Still want to have higher levels of universal answer rates; need to come up with methods/practice of use of
whiteboards, exit slips, etc.
Reflection End of Practicum:
- Echo reading, whole brain thinking techniques have engaged students to higher levels by the end of PS1
- Whiteboards have been successful in seeing all students quickly; every student is required to answer
- Think/pair/share activities more closely monitored; guiding questions push certain groups to engage more
thoughtfully

Goal #2

Inquiry: How do I know that every student is understanding the concepts that I am introducing to them in class; in what ways
can students quickly and efficiently express that understanding to me?

Professional Goal # 2: To incorporate universal all student responses into my lesson plan, thus better understanding the
comprehension of learned materials amongst my students.
Rationale: In many classes of Social Studies or Language Arts, students are asked to take in a number of new concepts/terms,
sometimes in the same class. It can be difficult to know if students are truly comprehending the information we give them, and
some formative assessments like exit slips or graphic organizers can take up more time than is available. Additionally, if
students are not comprehending information, it can sometimes be difficult for them to complete these longer types of
formative assessments. Therefore, by using things such as whiteboards, holding up a certain amount of fingers, thumbs up,
thumbs down, and think/pair/share activities, I can quickly see and correct areas of weakness or misunderstanding amongst
students.
Teacher Quality Standard:
TQS 4: Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments
TQS 4 (b): using appropriate universal and targeted strategies and supports to address students’ strength, learning challenges,
and areas for growth.
TQS 4 (f): employing classroom management strategies that promote positive, engaging learning environments.
Strategy(s) Timeline Resource(s) Indicator(s) of Success

TA input TA feedback
Use activities that incorporate Nov. 23rd and
student use of whiteboards in order ongoing
to see responses from every student. Five Easy to Higher student engagement/participation
Implement "All though classroom activities such as whiteboard
Asking every student to respond via Nov. 23rd and Student Response" activities and other all student response
holding up fingers, ie) hold up 1 ongoing Strategies systems.
finger for Person vs. Person, 2 for
Person vs. Self, etc.
Nov. 23rd and “Eliciting Evidence
Incorporating exit slips activities ongoing of Learning” → Higher rate of student participation across the
when there is time; making time in https://bookshelf. board in class activities; even individual work
my lesson plans to accommodate for vitalsource.com/r in their subject specific notebooks can be
exit slip activities. eader/books/978 monitored to see if student understanding of
1945349232/epu new class concepts are increasing.
bcfi/6/22%5B%3
Bvnd.vst.idref%3
DChapter04%5D!
/4
Reflection Mid Round:
- More tracking of formative assessments needed; need to organize my findings more accurately
- Exit slips useful, but not time effective strategies; lessons either need to be shortened or exit slips need to be cut out
- Holding up fingers effective way of quickly tracking how students are feeling about course content
Reflection End of Practicum:
- Grid with anecdotal tracking of students’ work effective in illustrating which students are more often failing to meet
expectations, and which students are exceeding expectations
- Student participation has significantly raised; game based activities have been the most successful form of activating
students
- Exit slips have been cut out mostly; more active participation based activities with opportunities to immediately
respond to students have been better utilized

Goal #3

Inquiry: How can I better predict and accommodate for the time students need to complete their classwork/tasks/activities in
order to plan and execute lesson plans with proper time management, hitting all components in said lesson plan.
Professional Goal #3: Build lesson plans that better reflect the time needed in order for students to complete their work and
digest information during class; having enough time for activities like closure/review and exit slips should be a standard in all
of my lessons so that students can receive information/concepts multiple times.
Rationale: Managing time in my classroom properly will allow me to better execute my lesson plans. However, in order to
better manage time, I need to accommodate students before the lesson and not after; as they stand, my lessons have a
tendency to be overplanned to the point that necessary components are rushed. Therefore, the lessons need to have the
correct amount of content so that students have the appropriate amount of time to complete tasks and activities associated
with said content. Thus, these concepts spend more time in their working memory, and consequently, more time in their long
term memory.
Teacher Quality Standard:
TQS 3: Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge
TQS 3 (a): planning and developing learning activities that: - address the learning outcomes outlined in the programs of study
- are varied, relevant, and engaging to students - consider student variables, including… physical, social, and cognitive ability
TQS 4 (f): employing classroom management strategies that promote positive, engaging learning environments.
Strategy(s) Timeline Resource(s) Indicator(s) of Success

Adding more time for activities/tasks Nov. 22 and TA input Feedback from my TA
and restricting the amount of time ongoing
that new concepts are being taught
and lectured. “The Case for Students’ ability and success rate in
Formative completing the tasks that I give them in class.
Add flex activities that can be taken Nov. 22 and Assessment” → If students are able to complete the classwork
out or added to the lesson in order to ongoing https://bookshelf.vit in the form of worksheets, graphic organizers,
compensate for variable class pace. alsource.com/book etc. at a nearly universal rate, then the lesson
s/9781945349232 plans are properly accommodating student
Create extension tasks for students needs.
who complete classwork at an Nov. 22 and Classroom
increased pace, so that the extra ongoing accommodations Growth from extension activities that higher
accommodated time in lesson plans for slow processing achieving students are completing while
does not limit their potential. speed others complete their tasks.
Reflection Mid Round:
- Time management still an issue; lessons routinely go over time
- Proper closure practices need to be added for students to reflect and re-engage with lesson content
- The time needed for certain tasks and activities is much larger than I am currently planning for
Reflection End of Practicum:
- Lesson content has been accurately adjusted to better fit time constraints of students
- Proper closure activities have been more consistently incorporated into my lesson plans
- Time given for activities/tasks essentially doubled; more accurate view of what can be accomplished during class time
- Students have more opportunity in class to fill gaps in their knowledge/extend their own learnin