My Professional Growth Plan

Goal 1: Be more confident teaching a class by September 2009

In order for me to feel more confident teaching a class, I feel that I need more experience and I need to be able to be comfortable there. Some strategies to allow me to get more experience and develop confidence are:
1) Volunteer in a classroom
2) Take leadership roles in school groups
3) Do more presentations in front of larger groups
4) Take a leadership course

I have already begun this process. I have started to volunteer in a grade 6 classroom, where the teachers will allow me to teach the odd lesson. This will give me more experience. To develop my confidence, I have taken a leadership course through the UCL at the University of Calgary.

Goal 2: Integrate technology into more of my lessons by December 2009

To increase the amount of technology I use in lessons that I create, there are a few things that I need to do. I feel that I need to develop a deeper understanding of how to use technology, I need to know about how to obtain different types of technology, I need to feel more comfortable and confident in the different uses of technology to create meaningful learning experiences. Some strategies are:
1) Take a course about using technology in the classroom
2) Find resources about the different types of technology available for students and teachers
3) Find resources about new and updated technology
4) Take a course to further my knowledge about certain types of technology

I have started to develop my deeper understanding of technology and how to use it effectively as a meaningful learning tool. I have enrolled in the Technology SIPS course where we were told about many types of technology for a wide range of uses. One resource that I am glad to have is www.innovativelearning.com. This shows all types of assistive technology that is available to schools and teachers, and gives a description about what each type of technology is best used for. I also recently came across a magazine called Popular Science. This magazine contains information and articles about a wide variety of new and interesting types of technology and technological advances in many professions from medicine to athletics. There are many courses about technology through SAIT, Mount Royal, and other companies where I can deepen my understanding of the uses of applications such as PowerPoint, iMovie, iWeb, etc. I plan on taking a couple of these courses when I finish the MT program.

Goal 3: Keep a balance between my personal and professional lives by completing all school work by 7:00 pm on school nights by October 1, 2009, 6:00 by October 1, 2010 and 5:00 by October 1, 2011

This is going to be the most difficult thing for me to do because, as a beginning teacher, I will most likely be caught up in trying to plan for every possible thing that could occur in every lesson. I could spend countless hours developing lesson and unit plans and neglecting my family. To accomplish this task, I need to be cognizant of a few things when creating lesson and unit plans:
1) Keep them open-ended, yet structured to give students choice, and to limit the amount of home time I need to spend on the projects
2) Include peer and self assessments to aid me in assessing final projects or assignments
3) Inquiry takes a lot of meaningful planning in the beginning, but limits the amount of planning needed throughout the unit
4) Differentiation comes easier when I know each student’s strengths and weaknesses
5) Formative assessments are very helpful to the students and the teacher at that time as well as when it comes time for the summative assessment piece
6) The best way to make students responsible for their schoolwork is to let them be a player in the creation of their schoolwork. This will limit the amount of home time that I will need to spend on the creation of lessons, units, rubrics, etc.

This is going to be an ongoing battle, but I feel that if I keep all of these statements in mind during my teaching and “homework”, it will help me develop ways in which to accomplish these goals by the dates provided.