Teacher Professional Growth Plan

PS II Intern: Leah Benson Semester: Spring 2018 (January 8th- April 27th)
Grade Level: 3/4 School: Tilley School
Teacher Mentor: Janice Jensen School Administrator: Stu Pietersma

University Consultant: Noella Piquette

Professional Goal 1: Communication

Rationale: Communication between school and home is crucial and alleviates the barriers between what
happens at school and what is going on at home. I want to build communication with my student’s
parents and develop relationships with them so that they feel comfortable talking to me about their child
so that I can ensure that all of their child’s needs are being met in the classroom. I also want to build
strong relationships that foster communication within my students to ensure that they are comfortable
communicating with me.
Links to KSA: G, H, L,N,O,P
Actions to be Taken Resources Connection to How and When
(Growth Plan) Internship Achieved
Teacher Mentor
Receive emails and This connects to my How will this be
phone numbers from Bloomz App internship as it is truly achieved? By
Janice important to have an discussing with my TM
Parent Teacher active communication strategies and ways to
Get set up with Bloomz Interviews with parents. I want contact parents. I will
parents to feel achieve this goal by
Post on Bloomz for comfortable coming to posting on the Bloomz
weekly to update me with an issue their app what we are up to
parents child may be facing and each week, and to send
creating an open notes and phone calls
Parent Teacher communication with home about positive
Interviews parents to discuss how I and negative events
can help their child that have happened at
have an optimal school. I will continually
learning experience at work on this goal
school. throughout my
practicum.
 Have I met Professional Goal 1?

 To what extent are my actions helping me achieve this professional goal?

o The actions that I have definitely helped me grow as an educator and achieve this
goal. My fantastic mentor has always made herself available to me to reflect and
discuss each day. Having an open communication with my mentor has allowed
for me to grow as an educator and has made my practicum such an incredible
experience. Using Bloomz to communicate with parents has been an excellent
form of communication. I am able to be connected to parents all the time and I
have the ability to reach out when necessary.
 In what ways is my professional practice improving toward these KSAs?
o I have been able to develop relationships with the parents through Bloomz,
parent-teacher interviews, and report cards. Building the relationship and the
communication between teacher, students and parents will create a successful
learning environment for students. I am able to be aware of what a child may be
going through at home and parents are able to know what may have happened at
school and how we can work through any challenges that we may face.
Communication allows for me to create an optimal learning environment for all
students.
 To what extent are my actions impacting student learning?
o Bloomz is a great communication technique between myself and parents. I am
able to post pictures of what we have been working on, announcements of what is
upcoming, and having individual messages with parents when need be. My goal
of posting once a week was not always met. Going forward into my teaching
career, I want to make this goal a priority each and every year.
Professional Goal 2: Confidence
Rationale: I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself and if a lesson or day does not go as planned, I have
a hard time shrugging it off. In PSII a suggestion to work on was to become a duck and to let things roll
off of my back and just keep moving. Throughout my PS III practicum, I want to develop strategies to
develop confidence and hope that this confidence will translate in the classroom in front of my students.
Links to KSA: C, D,F
Actions to be Taken Resources Connection to How and When
(Growth Plan) Internship Achieved
Reflection
Blog and reflect This connects to my An indicator of success
Self-Evaluation internship, as I want to will be planned for the
Accept mistakes, develop ways and full week by the end of
develop a growth strategies to be a the previous week and
mindset confident and to reflect weekly. This
successful teacher. I goal will be achieved
Time Management want to develop a throughout my entire
positive growth mindset practicum but will be re-
that also reflects on my evaluated every week
students and instills that as I reflect on the week
attitude within their as a whole.
educational career.
 Have I met Professional Goal 2?

 To what extent are my actions helping me achieve this professional goal?

o I have always struggled with confidence, and I think this will always be a small
goal of mine that I keep working towards. I always ensured that have my lessons
planned well in advance so that I could take the time that I need for myself to
ensure that I am maintaining a healthy mind. I have focused on taking the time to
reflect daily and at the end of every week to go through the positives and the
negatives. Something that I truly focused on was finding the good in each and
every day rather than only focusing on the challenges or bumps that I faced.
 In what ways is my professional practice improving toward these KSAs?
o Having the ability to reflect and to focus on the positives in the day has allowed
for my confidence to increase. Not only am I more confident when giving a
lesson, but also, I am able to take risks and try something new. Rather than
focusing on lessons that meet the outcomes and can be considered “safe” lessons,
I reached out and took value in the activities that not only are students going to
enjoy and learn the outcomes but creating activities that students will get the most
out of. Focusing on providing these types of activities has also allowed for me to
be confident in the material that I am teaching.
 To what extent are my actions impacting student learning?
o Having increased confidence in my lessons has allowed for me to focus on other
parts of my lesson and improve overall as an educator. Like I have stated before,
confidence is something that I have always struggled with and so developing a
growth mindset has been truly challenging for me but I am able to see the value in
the struggle. I try to foster the growth mindset within my students as well so that
they learn to value the struggles that they face. We are both learners, as I am still
learning something new every day and so it is important that they understand that
too.
Professional Goal 3: Involvement
Rationale: With only teaching half of the time, I have the ability to contribute my time where I can. If the
opportunity for after-school activities is not available then I will volunteer my time in other areas
throughout the day, such as band or music classes that my TM will be teaching. I want to contribute my
time to as many activities that I can without becoming burnt out and developing a balance between
planning, extracurricular and home life.
Links to KSA: N
Actions to be Taken Resources Connection to How and When
(Growth Plan) Internship Achieved
School Opportunities
Join the jazz band class Being involved in the How will I achieve this?
(Tues/Thurs Lunch) Tilley School Staff school is so important I will achieve this goal
as It allows for all by giving up my prep
Join the Band (period 8 Teacher Mentor students to develop a time to work with my TM
and 9 on Mon/Wed) relationship with you. to complete these
Other community Being in a small school, goals. An indicator of
Assist with Music members/ parents (if I have the opportunity to success is I want to
Festival in March they are in charge of an know every child’s observe at least 3
extra-curricular) name and I want them classrooms/teachers,
Observe other to know me. seeing the music and
classroom teachers band pieces come
together.
 Have I met Professional Goal 3?

 To what extent are my actions helping me achieve this professional goal?

o I had the opportunity to be involved in the music and band program as my mentor
is also the music/band teacher for the school. This was such an amazing
opportunity to take part in and play instruments with the students grade 3-7. This
opportunity allowed for me to connect with students that I do not teach and
develop relationships with those students as well. Not only was I given the
opportunity to assist with music festival but I was even able to direct a musical
piece for the k-2 music class under the direction of my mentor. Towards the end
of my practicum, I will be working with my students to prepare them for
Grasslands Sings, which is an opportunity for students across the division to
perform songs as a large group.
 In what ways is my professional practice improving toward these KSAs?
o By having the opportunity to explore music among all grade levels, I am able to
gain strategies and tools to put in my toolbox toward creating an environment for
all students. I am able to gain a variety of ways to incorporate music into all
curricular areas.
o Having conversations and developing relationships with other educators allows
me to develop lessons, develop a broad range of instructional strategies,
assessment techniques, and a variety of technologies.
 To what extent are my actions impacting student learning?
o I have had the opportunity to observe other teachers in my last few weeks of
practicum which has allowed for me to approach learning in a variety of ways. If I
didn’t have the opportunity to observe I tried to connect with other teachers to see
what they are doing within their classrooms and to add strategies to my toolbox.
Having these conversations with other educators allows for me to find new ways
to teach my students and bring new ideas to the classroom.
o Connecting with the other students allowed me to make a presence throughout the
whole school community and develop relationships with other students among
different grade levels.
Professional Goal 4: Questioning
Rationale: During my previous practicum, this was one of my goals, and my teacher associate in PSII
shared in my evaluation that my questioning was one of my weaknesses at the beginning of PSII but
ended up being a strength by the end of practicum Therefore, I showed huge growth in this aspect
already. I still want to continue to work on my questioning techniques and ensure that I am reaching
those higher-level thinking skills. However, I want to work on the questioning techniques that I provide
students when I am working with them during an assessment or activity. I want to ensure that I am
providing guiding questions so that they can determine the answer themselves rather than giving them
hints and giving away the answer.
Links to KSA: There is no direct KSA that links to directly to questioning skills.
Actions to be Taken Resources Connection to How and When
(Growth Plan) Internship Achieved
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Use Blooms Taxonomy Having a range of How will I achieve this?
to ensure that I am Resources or books student’s abilities will I will achieve this goal
targeting higher level that discuss different allow for me to be by taking the time
thinking within my questioning techniques mindful of the types of during my planning to
questions questions I am asking thoroughly think of
University of Lethbridge my students and how I different levels of
I will work to include Library am asking them to questioning. I will
deeper level thinking respond. ensure that I have my
questions throughout key questions
every lesson. highlighted and that I
touch on the questions
every lesson.

When will I know this

goal is achieved? I will
achieve this goal
continually throughout
practicum by continuing
to better my questioning
techniques. This goal
will not have an end
date as I want to
continually work
through it.
 Have I met Professional Goal 4?

 To what extent are my actions helping me achieve this professional goal?

o This has been one of my goals during my previous practicum. Although I showed
growth in this area, I knew I could improve even more. During my lessons, I
really tried to focus on asking higher-level questions but also focus on how I was
delivering those questions. This was a challenge for me throughout my whole
practicum and I truly wanted to continue to improve to work toward this goal. I
continually used my Bloom’s Taxonomy wheel to create learning objectives but
would then translate those to create deeper level thinking questions.
o I had my principal observe me and had his feedback geared towards how I can
improve my questioning techniques. In math, I struggled with the question
phrasing of “Can you...?” rather than “How can you...?”. Starting the question off
with “can” gives students the opportunity for choice and say no. After discussion
with my mentor and principal, I was able to take that feedback and focus on
developing my questioning technique to provide students the opportunity to
engage in their learning. When my principal had come back a second time, my
questioning had immensely improved.
 In what ways is my professional practice improving toward these KSAs?
o There is no direct link to questioning to a KSA, but I am able to understand what
students are capable of and what they are expected to know, to transfer into
questions to guide students learning. Being confident in the material that I taught
helped prepare the key questions that I wanted students to be able to answer after
each lesson.
 To what extent are my actions impacting student learning?
o Focussing on my questioning techniques allowed for students learning to go
towards a deeper level of cognitive thinking. Having questions prepared in my
lesson plans allowed for me to already have pre-planned what I wanted students
to answer so that allowed for me to be confident in what I wanted the students to
know.
Professional Goal 5: Differentiation
Rationale: I want to work on developing ways that I can differentiate my lessons to provide an optimal
learning experience for all of my students. This may be seen through accommodating students with a
modified assignment or assessment or may be seen through modifying activities to best suit their
behavioral needs.
Links to KSA: E, F, I
Actions to be Taken Resources Connection to How and When
(Growth Plan) Internship Achieved
Discuss with fellow
Highlighting questions teachers at Tilley I have a few students How will I achieve this?
that students need to School that have behavioral I will achieve this by
complete (shortening the issues within my developing
number of questions) U of L Education classroom, rather than relationships with
Professors having to worry about these students to see
Implementing student differentiating the what works for them
choice Books and resources academic content, I and what does not.
discussing different need to consider how I Having those one-on-
Developing a relationship differentiation can differentiate the one conferences will
with the EA to ensure techniques, lesson to foster the allow for me to
successful differentiation. best learning determine what I need
environment for each to improve and change
Seek out resources and student. in my lessons to
advice from TM as well. provide them with
optimal learning
experiences.

When will I know that I

have achieved this
goal? This goal will be
continued for as long
as I am a teacher, but
for a short-term goal
finding strategies that
inhibit our meltdowns
or tantrums. Also,
having an engaged
class will allow for me
to know if I have
reached my goal or
not.
 Have I met Professional Goal 5?

 To what extent are my actions helping me achieve this professional goal?

o The actions that I have set up to be taken to achieve this goal has allowed for me
to grow as an educator to provide quality education for all students.
Differentiating academic content was not near as much of a challenge for me as it
was to differentiate my lessons to foster the best learning environment to avoid a
behavioural issue. I was able to have an open communication relationship with
my mentor and she was able to provide me with many strategies that I can keep in
my toolbox for future years of educating to come.
o I developed strong relationships with any EA in my classroom to work with
students to get the one-on-one attention that they required.
o In math, for some students, I created a student choice for a few of my students to
complete their mad minute by doing half the questions in half the time,
completing all odds or even questions, and to have the EA sit with them to keep
them on track. In science, I provided a student with a different assignment to help
him seek success in his learning.
 In what ways is my professional practice improving toward these KSAs?
o By creating actions that needed to take place to achieve this goal, I was able to
differentiate the learning or the environments that students needed to have in
order to be successful in their learning careers. These actions towards my goal
allowed for to gain strategies in different instructional strategies, assessment
techniques, and to provide meaningful learning activities for all students.
 To what extent are my actions impacting student learning?
o My actions directly impacted student learning as I was able to work through
different strategies to find what works for each individual student and how I can
approach learning outcomes from a variety of different angles to ensure all
students understood the content and the most optimal learning experience.
Professional Goal 6: Technology
Rationale: The use of technology in the classroom will always be a goal that I will be working on
because I am really challenged with how I can use technology to enhance learning rather than just using
it as an added extra. I had this goal in PSII and I didn’t feel that I fully met this goal and so I want to
continue to increase my knowledge with technology as it is becoming a larger part of our lives and being
incorporated into the classroom more and more each day.
Links to KSA: j
Actions to be Taken Resources Connection to How and When
(Growth Plan) Internship Achieved
Access to PD resources
Use technology in This goal links with my This goal will be
regard to assessment, Conference that I will be Professional Inquiry achieved throughout the
instruction, and attending in Saskatoon Project (PIP) as I want semester. I want to
curriculum. on February 24/25 to focus on the uses of incorporate technology
technology in at least once a week
Use technology at least SWATCA Sessions Curriculum, Instruction and to broaden my
once a week. and Assessment. How ways of using
TM, Administrator, and can I use technology in technology.
Seek out resources Division Tech my classroom to
from TM, administrator, Specialist. enhance my lessons? Through my PIP due at
as well as division Our classroom is the the end of the
technology specialist. only green screen semester, I will be able
classroom within the to show all of my
division and so I want to learning and what I
determine how I can have been able to
use technology to provide to other
enhance student teachers as a resource.
learning opportunities.
Not only will I be able to
reflect and develop my
lessons but by creating
a project around this
content area I am able
to provide other
teachers with this
information.
 Have I met Professional Goal 6?

 To what extent are my actions helping me achieve this professional goal?

o This goal goes allowed for me to achieve an idea for my professional inquiry
project.
o The actions that I set out to achieve this goal were very beneficial. My wonderful
mentor provided me with the opportunity to attend an EdTech Google Summit
Conference in Saskatoon. During this conference, I was able to learn so much and
develop strategies to use technology in my class day-to-day. I was able to connect
with my mentor daily to learn new ways to incorporate technology that will
benefit students.
o An action that I had prepared to use to meet my goal that I did not follow through
with was using technology every week. I used it frequently, but I also made sure
that when I did use it, I wasn’t using it just to use it as I wanted to make sure that
the technology experience was beneficial.
 In what ways is my professional practice improving toward these KSAs?
o This goal directly links towards a KSA as I was able to use a variety of
technology to meet different student’s needs. Not only was I able to use
technology, but attending the EdTech conference allowed for me to create a
toolbox of strategies that I did not technically use in this practicum but can be
used in my future classroom.
 To what extent are my actions impacting student learning?
o When incorporating technology into my lessons, I truly found students more
engaged and really took responsibility for their learning. I saw the impacts that
technology had and so I decided to reframe my whole final unit as an inquiry-
based approach where students found the information on their own and created a
Google slide. When slideshows were finished, students went around the room and
scanned the QR code associated with each slideshow to learn about each animal
family group. This learning experience was much more powerful than a direct
instruction lesson on each animal family.