Professional Growth Plan
This year, I have faced many challenges in learning to teach and I addressed those challenges in specific ways to improve my teaching
Unit Planning: Throughout this year I have created and taught multiple units. The most challenging was creating a Geometry unit newly aligned with the Common Core State Standards without a textbook or background knowledge from my mentor teacher.
Unit planning has allowed me to work closely with other math teachers. During the Geometry unit I was able to co-plan with a fellow MSU intern. I was able to use ideas and concepts from our Holt Mathematics textbook and our Connected Mathematics textbooks, however these are not aligned with the Common Core, so I had to create my own lessons for the most part. Geometry is almost entirely new to seventh grade when aligning with the Common Core, so our textbooks had very limited Geometry lessons, and most did not match the Common Core Standards required for seventh grade. The entire Geometry unit was created on my own, inspired from a few Connected Mathematics lessons, lessons I have seen in my MSU Teacher Education courses, NCTM website, and other online resources.
Researched lessons and misconceptions about Common Core Geometry topics while creating the unit plan and individual lesson plans. Throughout this year I have grown in not only creating units that align to the new Common Core State Standards while I have become very familiar with these standards, I have also learned how to create a coherent unit. I have worked on improving making units that “flowed” through a mathematical storyline, making connections between all topics of the unit.
Classroom management: Over the course of the year, I have learned many strategies to manage an entire class along with individually difficult students.
Classroom management can be discussed in methods courses, but experience in the classroom is needed to have a real understanding of classroom management. This year I was able to try a large variety of classroom management routines. At the beginning of the year, daily routines for class were started and classroom expectations and consequences for breaking these expectations were clearly posted on the wall. Daily routines included a one-minute timer at the beginning of class and bellwork following this timer. I often and consistently reminded the class and individual students of the classroom expectations written on the wall. When reminders did not work, I would provide students with three warnings. Once I had given a student a second warning I would talk with them about the rules he/she was breaking tell them in this discussion that I enjoy having them in class and I do not want to send him/her out because it doesn’t help him/her learn, and learning is what is most important. One student in particular did not respond well to the warning and discussion, so I started writing notes to her on paper. She responded really well to this and would immediately listen to me, where she would not follow classroom expectations when I asked her verbally. The frequent offenders and more serious offenders would be sent to the Restorative Thinking Center (RTC) room. Here, parents would be called and after multiple times being sent to this room, they would have more serious consequences. Some students did not seem to be affected by being sent to RTC, so I chose a few of the frequent offenders and asked if I could set up a plan with them. I contacted the parent to let them know I was concerned about their student’s behavior and the consequences of the behavior. This new system, I told the student that he/she would receive 2 warnings and on the third offense he/she would receive a lunch detention. This did not work for one student, so I tried after-school detention, and saw positive results. I also made a deal with these students, if we could have three good days in a row, I would reward them with a treat we discussed ahead of time. Throughout the year, I also discovered that a simple move of the student’s seat could help the student focus better in class. Class-wide, I started a positive reward system, so students would have to hold each other accountable and after earning points we set as a goal, students would receive a reward that would not interfere with their learning, such as listening to headphones during class. I also created an end of the day self-assessment for students. They would assess themselves on their behavior at the end of the class, and if they received all “yes” (good marks), they would receive a reward of candy.
Using Technology: This year I learned how to use new types of technology and have been able to incorporate technology into lessons to better engage students.
I have used PowerSchool, Google Docs, ExamView, and interactive whiteboards on a daily basis for teaching duties, such as taking attendance, recording grades, class routines, planning lessons, and engaging students. Over the course of the year I have become proficient in using iPads and finding math apps to engage students in learning math. These apps help students explore math concepts and create deeper mathematical understandings. I have also been able to use the iPads to help students relate math to their everyday lives such as a “7th grade prom” activity I created to show students the use of percents when going shopping an out to eat.
I have identified three areas of growth in my teaching practice that I would like to continue to work on. Below, I detail those three areas and discuss what activities and resources I will use to improve my practice in these areas.
Assessments
I would like to improve the amount and types of assessments I use in the classroom. Exit slips on a more regular basis would be helpful to help me immediately assess how well students understood that day’s lesson. Weekly homework quizzes would also be beneficial. This would again provide me more feedback, and give me a better idea how well students understand topics covered in class before giving a test. I would also like break units up into smaller units, so I can assess students using tests more frequently. When giving quizzes and tests, I would like to incorporate problems from previous units as well, so that students will frequently practice all the skills they learned throughout the course of the year. Not only would I like to create and give quizzes and tests more frequently, I would like to create different types of assessments that would be more interesting for all students, such as a project instead of homework or test. Peer and self assessments would also be beneficial to students as a different type of assessment. Once, this year I gave students peer and self assessments. These types of assessments require students to think about their learning and help other students learn. Using these different types of assessments next year would help differentiate instruction to help reach all students.
Classroom Management
This year I have learned and tried numerous classroom management strategies for individual students and classes, but I know that I have a great deal of room for improvement. To improve classroom efficiency and making transitions smoother in class, job assignments would help. On a typical day in class bellwork journals or vocabulary folders need to be put away and handouts need to be passed out. Creating weekly job assignments for students not only increase classroom efficiency because students know exactly what their job is and I don’t have to waste time choosing students for each job, it also eliminates choosing students repeatedly and being unfair to all students. I would also like to try different seating arrangements to help improve student behavior. This past year students sat in groups of four or six. These groups were too large and tempted students to talk too much, so I would like to try seating students individually or in pairs to reduce talking. Also, to help create better classroom management I need to be more consistent. As Weinstein and Novodvorsky mention in Middle and Secondary Classroom Management, that teachers who are effective with classroom management are predictable with procedures by students. I can also try more subtle techniques to help get students back on track in class, such as incorporating the student’s name in my instruction. (Weinstein & Novodvorsky, 2011)
Reaching Every Student
All classrooms have a variety of students with broad ranges of intellectual ability, life experiences, and more. With this being said, I will create more differentiated assignments as discussed in Middle and Secondary Classroom management. These assignments would be of varying difficulty so students can challenge themselves intellectually at an appropriate level. I will also strive to differentiate my types of instruction in and out of the classroom to help all different types of “multiple intelligences.” This means some students learn best using reasoning, others learn best using manipulatives and so on. (Weinstein & Novodvorsky, 2011) I not only intend to vary the difficulty of assignments for students, I also intend to vary the type of lessons and assignments for students. This means for example, some assignments I can give students the choice to create their own word problems about the topic we have been discussing, or I can give students problems to solve, or I can give students a project they have to build. This will help give students choice in the classroom as well as apply to all types of learners. I also believe that Weinstein and Novodvorsky discuss an important framework called “Expectancy x Value.” This means “motivation depends on students’ expectation of success and the value they play on the task.” (Weinstein & Novodvorsky, 2011) Making sure the task is not too difficult for students to succeed is important in this idea, so students have the expectation of succeeding. Also, students need to see the value of math they do in math class. Being able provide students with real-life applications of math will highly increase their value. These methods to help reach all students in math class will be challenging, but as a teacher I will strive to make sure all students are being challenged and seeing the importance of math in their everyday life.
Unit Planning: Throughout this year I have created and taught multiple units. The most challenging was creating a Geometry unit newly aligned with the Common Core State Standards without a textbook or background knowledge from my mentor teacher.
Unit planning has allowed me to work closely with other math teachers. During the Geometry unit I was able to co-plan with a fellow MSU intern. I was able to use ideas and concepts from our Holt Mathematics textbook and our Connected Mathematics textbooks, however these are not aligned with the Common Core, so I had to create my own lessons for the most part. Geometry is almost entirely new to seventh grade when aligning with the Common Core, so our textbooks had very limited Geometry lessons, and most did not match the Common Core Standards required for seventh grade. The entire Geometry unit was created on my own, inspired from a few Connected Mathematics lessons, lessons I have seen in my MSU Teacher Education courses, NCTM website, and other online resources.
Researched lessons and misconceptions about Common Core Geometry topics while creating the unit plan and individual lesson plans. Throughout this year I have grown in not only creating units that align to the new Common Core State Standards while I have become very familiar with these standards, I have also learned how to create a coherent unit. I have worked on improving making units that “flowed” through a mathematical storyline, making connections between all topics of the unit.
Classroom management: Over the course of the year, I have learned many strategies to manage an entire class along with individually difficult students.
Classroom management can be discussed in methods courses, but experience in the classroom is needed to have a real understanding of classroom management. This year I was able to try a large variety of classroom management routines. At the beginning of the year, daily routines for class were started and classroom expectations and consequences for breaking these expectations were clearly posted on the wall. Daily routines included a one-minute timer at the beginning of class and bellwork following this timer. I often and consistently reminded the class and individual students of the classroom expectations written on the wall. When reminders did not work, I would provide students with three warnings. Once I had given a student a second warning I would talk with them about the rules he/she was breaking tell them in this discussion that I enjoy having them in class and I do not want to send him/her out because it doesn’t help him/her learn, and learning is what is most important. One student in particular did not respond well to the warning and discussion, so I started writing notes to her on paper. She responded really well to this and would immediately listen to me, where she would not follow classroom expectations when I asked her verbally. The frequent offenders and more serious offenders would be sent to the Restorative Thinking Center (RTC) room. Here, parents would be called and after multiple times being sent to this room, they would have more serious consequences. Some students did not seem to be affected by being sent to RTC, so I chose a few of the frequent offenders and asked if I could set up a plan with them. I contacted the parent to let them know I was concerned about their student’s behavior and the consequences of the behavior. This new system, I told the student that he/she would receive 2 warnings and on the third offense he/she would receive a lunch detention. This did not work for one student, so I tried after-school detention, and saw positive results. I also made a deal with these students, if we could have three good days in a row, I would reward them with a treat we discussed ahead of time. Throughout the year, I also discovered that a simple move of the student’s seat could help the student focus better in class. Class-wide, I started a positive reward system, so students would have to hold each other accountable and after earning points we set as a goal, students would receive a reward that would not interfere with their learning, such as listening to headphones during class. I also created an end of the day self-assessment for students. They would assess themselves on their behavior at the end of the class, and if they received all “yes” (good marks), they would receive a reward of candy.
Using Technology: This year I learned how to use new types of technology and have been able to incorporate technology into lessons to better engage students.
I have used PowerSchool, Google Docs, ExamView, and interactive whiteboards on a daily basis for teaching duties, such as taking attendance, recording grades, class routines, planning lessons, and engaging students. Over the course of the year I have become proficient in using iPads and finding math apps to engage students in learning math. These apps help students explore math concepts and create deeper mathematical understandings. I have also been able to use the iPads to help students relate math to their everyday lives such as a “7th grade prom” activity I created to show students the use of percents when going shopping an out to eat.
I have identified three areas of growth in my teaching practice that I would like to continue to work on. Below, I detail those three areas and discuss what activities and resources I will use to improve my practice in these areas.
Assessments
I would like to improve the amount and types of assessments I use in the classroom. Exit slips on a more regular basis would be helpful to help me immediately assess how well students understood that day’s lesson. Weekly homework quizzes would also be beneficial. This would again provide me more feedback, and give me a better idea how well students understand topics covered in class before giving a test. I would also like break units up into smaller units, so I can assess students using tests more frequently. When giving quizzes and tests, I would like to incorporate problems from previous units as well, so that students will frequently practice all the skills they learned throughout the course of the year. Not only would I like to create and give quizzes and tests more frequently, I would like to create different types of assessments that would be more interesting for all students, such as a project instead of homework or test. Peer and self assessments would also be beneficial to students as a different type of assessment. Once, this year I gave students peer and self assessments. These types of assessments require students to think about their learning and help other students learn. Using these different types of assessments next year would help differentiate instruction to help reach all students.
Classroom Management
This year I have learned and tried numerous classroom management strategies for individual students and classes, but I know that I have a great deal of room for improvement. To improve classroom efficiency and making transitions smoother in class, job assignments would help. On a typical day in class bellwork journals or vocabulary folders need to be put away and handouts need to be passed out. Creating weekly job assignments for students not only increase classroom efficiency because students know exactly what their job is and I don’t have to waste time choosing students for each job, it also eliminates choosing students repeatedly and being unfair to all students. I would also like to try different seating arrangements to help improve student behavior. This past year students sat in groups of four or six. These groups were too large and tempted students to talk too much, so I would like to try seating students individually or in pairs to reduce talking. Also, to help create better classroom management I need to be more consistent. As Weinstein and Novodvorsky mention in Middle and Secondary Classroom Management, that teachers who are effective with classroom management are predictable with procedures by students. I can also try more subtle techniques to help get students back on track in class, such as incorporating the student’s name in my instruction. (Weinstein & Novodvorsky, 2011)
Reaching Every Student
All classrooms have a variety of students with broad ranges of intellectual ability, life experiences, and more. With this being said, I will create more differentiated assignments as discussed in Middle and Secondary Classroom management. These assignments would be of varying difficulty so students can challenge themselves intellectually at an appropriate level. I will also strive to differentiate my types of instruction in and out of the classroom to help all different types of “multiple intelligences.” This means some students learn best using reasoning, others learn best using manipulatives and so on. (Weinstein & Novodvorsky, 2011) I not only intend to vary the difficulty of assignments for students, I also intend to vary the type of lessons and assignments for students. This means for example, some assignments I can give students the choice to create their own word problems about the topic we have been discussing, or I can give students problems to solve, or I can give students a project they have to build. This will help give students choice in the classroom as well as apply to all types of learners. I also believe that Weinstein and Novodvorsky discuss an important framework called “Expectancy x Value.” This means “motivation depends on students’ expectation of success and the value they play on the task.” (Weinstein & Novodvorsky, 2011) Making sure the task is not too difficult for students to succeed is important in this idea, so students have the expectation of succeeding. Also, students need to see the value of math they do in math class. Being able provide students with real-life applications of math will highly increase their value. These methods to help reach all students in math class will be challenging, but as a teacher I will strive to make sure all students are being challenged and seeing the importance of math in their everyday life.