Professional Growth

Plan
Nam
e

Johannah Wirzba

Established
Date
Review
Date

Jan. 1, 2015
April 7, 2015

Goal #1: Building Character

By April 24, 2015 I will utilize strategies help my students build resiliency, grit
and joy in the classroom to make them more ethical citizens and balanced
individuals.
Related KSA(s)
1. Contextual Variables
7. Student Needs
8. Relationships
15. Professional Learning
Indicator(s) of Success
Have lesson plans that help to build resiliency, grit and joy
Have website with resources and information for teachers and parents on
character strengths
Reflect on assessments given to students and progress made blog post
on effectiveness of assessment and strategies
Blog post once per month about research/information gathered
Action
Resource(s)
Timeline
Ideally, begin
Relay GSE Online
1. Create set of lesson plans to
teaching these
Course
help teachers/administrators
lessons/strategies by
Carol Dweck/Carol second week of
teach about character
Ann Tomlinson
development.
practicum. Continue
Textbook
throughout.
2. Create a website with
Weebly website
information, resources and
Starting January 5th

Angela
Duckworth
research about building
through April 24th.
research
character strengths
3. Create pre-, mid- and postPre-assessment
Relay GSE
assessments for students to see
week of January 12th
coursework
their development in building
Angela Duckworth Mid-assessment
resiliency, grit and joy.
week of Feb. 9th
survey
Post-assessment

week of April 20th

4. Research strategies to build
grit and resiliency in the
classroom. Read at least one
article per week, or one book
per month.

Angela Duckworth
grit strategies
Character and
Opportunity
essays
Academic Tenacity
Carol Dweck
TBA

Once per
week/month starting
Feb. 1

Reflection
This goal provided me with an interesting challenge throughout my
internship. I was able to create a website that included a variety of resources
and activities for teachers to utilize. I decided against traditional lesson plans
and instead gave lists and links to provide easy, accessible contact for
teachers. Due to time constraints I was not able to create pre-, mid- and postassessments for my students and their parents to gather information about
their growth in character development. I did however construct and
administer a baseline survey for parents, students and teachers about each
individual student. IN the future I would like to utilize this survey and tabulate
the results for more meaningful information. I did read several articles and
pieces about developing grit and resiliency in the classroom including several
studies by Angela Duckworth and Carol Dweck. I also did some general
research about how schools and school divisions are teaching and monitoring
grit and resiliency in their students.
Goal #2: Communication with Parents
By April 24, 2015 I will utilize strategies to open channels of communication
between my classroom and the parents of my students to effectively,
positively communicate information and grow the classroom community.
Related KSA(s)
10. Technology
12. Parental Involvement
Indicator(s) of Success
Weekly classroom blog posts/webcasts
Feedback from parents about communication
Action
Resource(s)
Timeline
1. Contact parents at the
YouTube video
beginning of practicum to
Completed prior to
Letter home
introduce myself and ask about
start of practicum.

TA
contact
best communication methods.
2. Create a classroom blog with TA
Update classroom
up to date information and
blog at least once
Weebly blog
activities from our classroom.
per week, starting
YouTube
the week of Jan. 5 up

3. Contact parents for positive

reasons.

TA
Classroom
anecdotal info

until April 24.

At least once per
week, starting Feb. 1
up until April 24.

4. Create communication survey

to be completed at the end of
To be completed in
Admin
practicum indicating how
the final week of
informed parents felt about their TA
practicum.
childs education.
Reflection
Overall I feel like I accomplished this goal. I did contact parents prior to my
practicum starting with both a written letter and a YouTube video. I also
created a classroom blog with weekly info about what went on in the
classroom. I also used this site to give additional links and videos for students
who were away or wanted additional resources. The weekly positive notes
home were a great success and I got a lot of positive feedback from parents
and students about them. I found that several students really took the
messages to heart and I could see noticeable changes in their behavior at
school. The one action I did not take was to administer a communication
survey at the end of practicum. I feel that because my internship happened
well after the school year had started that means of communication had
already been put in place with my Teacher Mentor and I often communicated
through her rather than independently. Because of this, I dont believe the
information from the communication survey would not have been valuable.
This being said, in my own classroom, I would definitely have this sort of
survey for parents at least once per year if not more often.
Goal #3: Assessment Tracking
By April 24, 2015 I will utilize strategies to effectively track the progress and
formative assessments of my students to better adjust my teaching to meet
student needs. This goal will also help me develop professionally to find a
method that suits my needs and teaching style.
Related KSA(s)
6. Planning
7. Student Needs
11. Assessment
15. Professional Learning
Indicator(s) of Success
Write a blog post reflecting on the different methods of assessment
tracking
Keep notes from conversations/observations of other teachers and reflect
on how their strategies will work for me
Action
Resource(s)
Timeline
1. Try a minimum of three (3)
Test various methods
My TA
methods/strategies of tracking
up until Feb. 1. Use

assessment.

Other teachers
University
Consultant
Teacher Blogs

best method(s)
throughout
remainder of
practicum.
Throughout
practicum up until
April 24.

2. Discuss assessment tracking

My TA
with at least three (3) teachers
Other teachers
at the school.
Reflection
My assessment tracking goal was the hardest for me to accomplish as I had a
difficult time making it a priority. I was able to use two definite strategies in
the classroom (anecdotal notes and detailed spreadsheets) to keep track of
student learning and growth. I also researched several additional methods,
including a great app called ThreeRing, but was not able to try them out in
the classroom. Throughout the course of my internship I was able to observe
and discuss with many of the teachers in the school about their assessment
practices and how they tracked their students learning. In future I would like
to make this goal a priority and continue to try a variety of other strategies.