John Higgins Teacher Self Evaluation Utilizing 5D 2013-2014

P2 Purpose
Standards: Connection to previous and future lessons
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
The lesson is rarely or never
linked to previous and future
lessons.
The lesson is clearly linked to
previous and future lessons.
The lesson is clearly linked to
previous and future lessons.
Lessons build on each other
in a logical progression.
The lesson is clearly linked to
previous and future lessons.
Lessons build on each other
in ways that enhance student
learning. Students
understand how the lesson
P1 Purpose
Standards: Connection to standards, broader purpose and transferable skill
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
The lesson is not based on
grade level standards. There
are no learning targets
aligned to the standard. The
lesson does not link to
broader purpose or a
transferable skill.
The lesson is based on
grade level standards and
the learning target(s) align to
the standard. The lesson is
occasionally linked to
broader purpose or a
transferable skill.
The lesson is based on
grade level standards and
the learning target(s) align to
the standard. The lesson is
frequently linked to broader
purpose or a transferable
skill.
The lesson is based on
grade level standards and
the learning target(s) align to
the standard. The lesson is
consistently linked to
broader purpose or a
transferable skill.
I feel I deserve a 3 in this area. I consciously follow the Social Studies GLECS. I coordinate with fellow social studies staff to ensure
that needed skills are hit throughout 6
th
, 7
th
, & 8
th
grade levels in a spiraling fashion. Once instructed in learning targets, I shared these
with students on a regular basis. I also spiraled my instruction so that by the end of the year students are utilizing state mandated social
studies skills & topics to creatively share projects. See Portfolio for one example.


relates to previous lesson.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. I use a spiraling technique where I often refer back to previous lessons as well as letting students know
how this skill or idea will be utilized later in the year. For example, before writing their Copan papers students got out a previous
paragraph they had written to see how to make improvements. At the end of the year we applied our 86 key facts & concepts to different
areas we had studied. In doing their capstone project, students utilized much of their social studies concepts, facts, & skills to creatively
take a stand on how to solve conflict in the Amazon Rainforest.


P3

Purpose
Teaching Point: Teaching point(s) are based on students learning needs
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never
bases the teaching point(s)
on students learning needs
academic background, life
experiences, culture and
language.
Teacher bases the teaching
point(s) on limited aspects of
students learning needs
academic background, life
experiences, culture and
language.
Teacher bases the teaching
point(s) on the learning
needs academic
background, life experiences,
culture and language for
some groups of students.
Teacher bases the teaching
point(s) on the learning
needs academic
background, life experiences,
culture and language for
groups of students and
individual students.
I feel I deserve a 3 in this area. Throughout my teaching & learning exercises I constantly adapt lessons to connect with students in our
area. I allow a broad range of choice on projects that allow students to connect their interests and creativity to the task at hand. I often
individualize instruction to individuals as well as groups. For example several students broke their hands or had missing fingers so we
learned how to utilize the talk to text feature on the Mac computers. Please see the computer help website for the tutorial. Along with
Carrie Anderson, we set up structured sheets for most lessons to help students who need more support. I also try to connect concepts
through language and experiences that connect with our students. For example when talking about Sustainable development bring up
deer hunting and unsustainable development the slaughter of our local passenger pigeons in the late 1800s.

Sometimes I may get a bit too caught up in the details and may not provide as clear a teaching point as possible. This is an area I will
continue to focus on next year.



P4 Purpose
Learning Target: Communication of learning target(s)
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never
states or communicates with
students about the learning
target(s).
Teacher states the learning
target(s) at the beginning of
each lesson.
Teacher communicates the
learning target(s) through
verbal and visual strategies
and checks for student
understanding of what the
target(s) are.
Teacher communicates the
learning target(s) through
verbal and visual strategies,
checks for student
understanding of what the
target(s) are and references
the target throughout
instruction.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. I consistently communicated the target through verbal & visual strategies. I referred back to these
throughout instruction. Had students explain what the targets meant to each other and to me. This allowed me to check for understanding.





P5 Purpose
Learning Target: Success criteria and performance task(s)
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
The success criteria for the
learning target(s) are
nonexistent or arent clear to
students.
The success criteria for the
learning target(s) are clear to
students. The performance
tasks align to the success
criteria in a limited manner.
The success criteria for the
learning target(s) are clear to
students. The performance
tasks align to the success
criteria.
The success criteria for the
learning target(s) are clear to
students. The performance
tasks align to the success
criteria. Students refer to
success criteria and use
them for improvement.
I feel I deserve a 3 in this area. I aligned the success criteria to performance tasks. I often have rubrics as well as online tutorials through
our Weebly site, Edmodo, and often printed copies. One area I can improve is on limiting the number of performance tasks that I focus on
during a lesson. Part of this is my natural inclination to connect many ideas. Another part was my initial belief that in a lesson we were
supposed to be hitting nearly all of the 5D standards.



SE1 Student Engagement
Intellectual Work: Quality of questioning
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never asks
questions to probe and
deepen students
understanding or uncover
misconceptions.
Teacher occasionally asks
questions to probe and
deepen students
understanding or uncover
misconceptions.
Teacher frequently asks
questions to probe and
deepen students
understanding or uncover
misconceptions. Teacher
assists students in clarifying
their thinking with one
another.
Teacher frequently asks
questions to probe and
deepen students
understanding or uncover
misconceptions. Teacher
assists students in clarifying
and assessing their thinking
with one another. Students
question one another to probe
for deeper thinking.
I feel I deserve a 3 in this area. I think I definitely do probe to deepen understanding and uncover misconceptions. I also have students give
feedback to one another to say share proof or what could be done to improve project or ideas. However I do feel I can use some
technology such as exit tickets and google docs to enhance this area further.



SE2 Student Engagement
Intellectual Work: Ownership of learning
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never
provides opportunities and
strategies for students to
take ownership of their own
Teacher occasionally
provides opportunities and
strategies for students to
take ownership of their
Teacher provides
opportunities and strategies
for students to take
ownership of their learning.
Teacher consistently
provides opportunities and
strategies for students to
take ownership of their
learning to develop, test and
refine their thinking.
learning. Locus of control is
with teacher.
Some locus of control is with
students in ways that support
students learning.
learning. Most locus of
control is with students in
ways that support students
learning.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. In the beginning of the year I definitely would not rate myself as high. However as the year went on I
challenged myself to experiment in giving more locus of control to students. I implemented some of the RAISE training ideas that
Molly Jones shared with me. I also experimented with giving students a larger role in deciding what topic they would like to share some
higher level thinking with projects. The students also took on major roles with creating support websites and screencasts (both of which
were new for me). The students also were given much choice what form the project would be displayed. I also experimented more with
giving students a larger role in scheduling quizzes based on their schedules and even coming up with some limited quiz questions.



SE3 Student Engagement
Engagement Strategies: High cognitive demand
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher expectations and
strategies engage few or no
students in work of high
cognitive demand.
Teacher expectations and
strategies engage some students in
work of high cognitive demand.
Teacher expectations and
strategies engage most students in
work of high cognitive demand.
Teacher
expectations
and
strategies
engage all
students in
work of high
cognitive
demand.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. I often push students to truly understand and be able to explain topics and ideas. I also expect students
to be able to explain ideas. Furthermore, I have started to put challenge areas on rubrics. This has students share what steps they did to
challenge themselves and truly push their thinking and skills. See direction & rubric sheet for Amazon Conflict on portfolio.



SE4 Student Engagement
Engagement Strategies: Strategies that capitalize on learning needs of students
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never uses
strategies based on the
learning needs of students
academic background, life
experiences, culture and
language of students.
Teacher uses strategies that
capitalize and are based on
learning needs of students
academic background, life
experience and culture and
language of students for
the whole group.
Teacher uses strategies that
capitalize and are based on
learning needs of students
academic background, life
experiences, culture and
language of students for
the whole group and small
groups of students.
Teacher uses strategies that
capitalize and build upon
learning needs of students
academic background, life
experiences, culture and
language of students for
the whole group, small
groups of students and
individual students.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. Throughout my teaching & learning exercises I constantly adapt lessons to connect with students in our
area. I allow a broad range of choice on projects that allow students to connect their interests and creativity to the task at hand. I often
individualize instruction to individuals as well as groups. For example several students broke their hands or had missing fingers so we
learned how to utilize the talk to text feature on the Mac computers. Please see the computer help website for the tutorial. Along with
Carrie Anderson, we set up structured sheets for most lessons to help students who need more support. On many projects and tests I
individualize with shortened assignments, allow different ways to show mastery of concepts, and have test read etc. I also try to connect
concepts through language and experiences that connect with our students. For example when talking about Sustainable development
bring up deer hunting and unsustainable development the slaughter of our local passenger pigeons in the late 1800s.





SE5 Student Engagement
Engagement Strategies: Expectation, support and opportunity for participation and meaning
making
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never uses Teacher uses engagement Teacher sets expectation Teacher sets expectation
engagement strategies and
structures that facilitate
participation and meaning
making by all students. Few
students have the
opportunity to engage in
quality talk.
strategies and structures that
facilitate participation and
meaning making by students.
Some students have the
opportunity to engage in
quality talk.
and provides support for a
variety of engagement
strategies and structures that
facilitate participation and
meaning making by students.
Most students have the
opportunity to engage in
quality talk.
and provides support for a
variety of engagement
strategies and structures that
facilitate participation and
meaning making by students.
All students have the
opportunity to engage in
quality talk. Routines are
often student-led.
I feel I deserve a 3 in this area. At the beginning of the year I would have been below this level but by the end of the year I believe I was
proficient + level. As the year went on I handed more control over to the students and many of them engaged in quality talk with a focus
on improvement. Together we used shoulder partners, structured feedback guided by rubrics, etc. I feel this was also helped by the
wonderful efforts of all staff in the 6
th
grade team. For example I could refer to the debate the language arts teachers had done earlier in
the year. As well as connecting some science topics and techniques since I occasionally observed Jen teaching. Also we connected math
concepts that Rochelle was working on. I definitely saw most students improve in this area.


SE6 Student Engagement
Talk: Substance of student talk
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Student talk is nonexistent or
is unrelated to content or is
limited to single-word
responses or incomplete
sentences directed to
teacher.
Student talk is directed to
teacher. Talk associated with
content occurs between
students, but students do not
provide evidence for their
thinking.
Student-to-student talk
reflects knowledge and ways
of thinking associated with
the content. Students
provide evidence to support
their thinking.
Student-to-student talk
reflects knowledge and ways
of thinking associated with
the content. Students provide
evidence to support their
arguments and new ideas.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. With spiraling activities, essays and projects students needed to have evidence to support their ideas.
Also with implementing some of the TCI strategies and curriculum, students on the Central Highlands worked with partners to connect
actual pictures and charts with the correct elevation zone. Then they had to explain how the image showed adaptation to the elevation
zone. Then for the first time with the help of Dave Taylor and Thom Blanck, I improved a TCI project into a poster project. Students
picked a region of the world where mountains are located and did research on that region. Then they needed to compare and contrast
some of the differences. Finally students needed to explain reasons why they thought differences existed. Another fine example of
excellent student talk was a student generated discussion on the Incas. Emma G. & Megan W. wondered why the Aztec religion was so
much more brutal than the Inca religion. They then conjectured that maybe the Aztec area was more prone to natural disasters such as
earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. than the Incan environment. Through research Emma learned that the Incas also had these disasters as well.
We then discussed perhaps the Aztecs were inspired to think the world had been destroyed several times before (a key tenet of their
religions) due to the abandoned city and huge pyramids (abandoned even in Aztec times) of a close by ruin. This also may have
encouraged the Aztecs to build their huge temples. By asking the students to share connections, questions, and wonderings was the key
to this fascinating discussion and research.



PCC1 Professional Collaboration & Communication
Professional Learning and Collaboration: Collaboration with peers and administrators to
improve student learning
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never
collaborates with peers or
engages in reflective inquiry
for the purpose of improving
instructional practice or
student learning.
Teacher collaborates and
engages in reflective inquiry
with peers and
administrators for the
purpose of improving
instructional practice and
student learning. Teacher
provides minimal
contributions.
Teacher collaborates and
engages in reflective inquiry
with peers and
administrators for the
purpose of improving
instructional practice and
student learning. Teacher
contributes to collaborative
work.
Teacher collaborates and
engages in reflective inquiry
with peers and
administrators for the
purpose of improving
instructional practice, and
student and teacher
learning. Teacher
occasionally leads
collaborative work.
I feel I deserve a 4 in this area. I often collaborate with staff. This year I often checked with Megan and Ellen to try to dovetail my
expectations and rubrics to what they were doing in language arts. I also often asked topics and what they were covering so I could
refer to it. I often have gone to Dave Taylor and Monica for advice on how to improve my instructional practice. In recent years
Carrie Anderson and I had a standing weekly meeting (usually for over an hour) to create adapted assignments and projects for
students. I spent hours and hours this year on the web with peers across the country and world to improve my social studies and
computer instruction. I used such sites as Edmodo communities (connect with fellow teachers across the world to share ideas),
Technology 4 teachers, and many others.
I often would help a broad range of individual teachers with computer questions and some social studies questions.



PCC2 Professional Collaboration & Communication
Professional Learning and Collaboration: Professional and collegial relationships
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never
develops or sustains
professional and collegial
relationships for the purpose
of student, staff or district
growth. Teacher may
subvert professional and
collegial relationships.
Teacher develops limited
professional and collegial
relationships for the purpose
of student, staff or district
growth.
Teacher develops and
sustains professional and
collegial relationships for the
purpose of student, staff or
district growth.
Teacher develops and
sustains professional and
collegial relationships for the
purpose of student, staff or
district growth. Teacher
serves as a mentor for
others growth and
development.
I feel I deserve a 4 in this area. Please see videos in this section of my online portfolio for evidence. I feel blessed to work with such a
wonderful staff. I have assisted others & constantly am looking to improve myself. I hosted a thank you lunch for all of the staff this
spring. I have helped Molly, Monica, Kim, and Samantha with different issues at different times.




PCC3 Professional Collaboration & Communication
Communication and Collaboration: Parents and guardians
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher rarely or never
communicates in any
manner with parents and
guardians about student
progress.
Teacher occasionally
communicates with all
parents and guardians about
goals of instruction and
student progress, but
usually relies on only one
method for communication
or requires support or
Teacher communicates with
all parents and guardians
about goals of instruction
and student progress and
uses multiple tools to
communicate in a timely and
positive manner. Teacher
effectively engages in two-
Teacher communicates with
all parents and guardians
about goals of instruction
and student progress using
multiple tools to
communicate in a timely and
positive manner. Teacher
considers the language
reminders. way forms of communication
and is responsive to parent
and guardian insights.
needs of parents and
guardians. Teacher
effectively engages in two-
way forms of communication
and is responsive to parent
and guardian insights.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. I make many parent calls, send emails, send out hundreds of posts on Edmodo & Weebly.





PCC4 Professional Collaboration & Communication
Communication and Collaboration: Communication within the school community about
student progress
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher maintains minimal
student records. Teacher
rarely communicates
student progress information
to relevant individuals within
the school community.
Teacher communicates
student progress information
to relevant individuals within
the school community;
however, performance data
may have minor flaws or be
narrowly defined (e.g., test
scores only).
Teacher maintains accurate
and systematic student
records. Teacher
communicates student
progress information to
relevant individuals within
the school community in a
timely way, accurately, and
in an organized manner,
including both successes
and challenges.
Teacher maintains accurate
and systematic student
records. Teacher
communicates student
progress information to
relevant individuals within
the school community in a
timely way. Teacher and
student communicate
accurately and positively
about student successes
and challenges.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. I share with all staff and special education department.




PCC5 Professional Collaboration & Communication
Professional Responsibilities: Supports school, district, and state curriculum, policy and
initiatives
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teacher is unaware of or
does not support school,
district, or state initiatives.
Teacher violates a district
policy or rarely or never
follows district
curriculum/pacing guide.
Teacher supports and has a
basic understanding of
school, district, and state
initiatives. Teacher follows
district policies and
curriculum/pacing guide.
Teacher supports and has
solid understanding of
school, district, and state
initiatives. Teacher follows
district policies and
implements district curricula
and policy. Teacher makes
pacing adjustments as
appropriate, to meet whole
group needs without
compromising an aligned
curriculum.
Teacher supports and looks
for opportunities to take on
leadership roles in
developing and
implementing school,
district, and state initiatives.
Teacher follows district
policies and implements
district curricula and policy.
Teacher makes pacing
adjustments as appropriate
to meet whole group and
individual needs, without
compromising an aligned
curriculum.
I feel I deserve a 3.5 in this area. I seriously work on social studies mapping & computer research. Often spending much time in the
summer on this. I support district policies and initiatives.




PCC6 Professional Collaboration & Communication
Professional Responsibilities: Ethics and advocacy
Unsatisfactory Basic Proficient Distinguished
Teachers professional role
toward adults and students
Teachers professional role
toward adults and students
Teachers professional role
toward adults and students
Teachers professional role
toward adults and students
is unfriendly or demeaning,
crosses ethical boundaries,
or is unprofessional.
is friendly, ethical, and
professional and supports
learning for all students,
including the historically
underserved.
is friendly, ethical, and
professional and supports
learning for all students,
including the historically
underserved. Teacher
advocates for fair and
equitable practices for all
students.
is friendly, ethical, and
professional and supports
learning for all students,
including the historically
underserved. Teacher
advocates for fair and
equitable practices for all
students. Teacher
challenges adult attitudes
and practices that may be
harmful or demeaning to
students.
I feel I deserve a 3 in this area. I speak up for students & believe all people should be treated with respect.