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Individual Learning Plan Part 1

Master of Science in Education, Walden University

EDUC-6610: Teacher As Professional

June 22, 2020

Individual Learning Plan Part 1

Throughout this course, I have studied and acquired knowledge on the National Board Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) five Core Propositions, the Professional Dispositions, and the RWRCOEL Technology Proficiencies. Each of the propositions, dispositions, and proficiencies has helped me identify my areas of weakness and areas of strength.

Professional Dispositions

When it comes to the RWRCOEL Candidate Dispositions, one area I am proficient in is demonstrating professional appearance and behavior in both the school and my classroom. One example I can provide that shows this is I would always arrive to work 15 minutes early, and my attire would still be business casual even on Fridays. I state this because, on Fridays, my colleagues and I would be allowed to dress down. In addition to my appearances, I would greet my students with enthusiasm. I would never raise my voice at the students but instead, speak to them with a calm and respectful tone. This would often provide students with a sense of assurance and openness. Moreover, my strength lies in equity, advocacy, professional development/growth, and professional obligations. I would often meet with some of my colleagues to discuss how we can improve students' wellbeing. As the year went on, I was able to build professional relationships with my colleagues, the administrators, the custodians, the students, and the rest of the staff. In my classroom, students felt most welcome to express themselves and engage in the various lessons provided by me. There is no such thing as a “wrong answer” when answering questions. Everyone had an equal chance to learn and grow. I went above and beyond in making sure that I advocated for any student’s educational needs. An action plan for continued growth in my areas of strength is I will gather up instructional resources that will help make my lessons more relatable to the students and help brighten up my classroom before the next school year begins. Also, I will get to know the colleagues that I did not speak to this past school year, before meeting them when the next school year starts. I am currently studying the Arabic language and the Hispanic language. This way, I will be well versed in communicating with any Hispanic student or Arabic student that ends up being in my class. The action plan previously stated will be an ongoing plan throughout my years as an educator.

When it comes to the RWRCOEL Candidate Dispositions, one area I am below average in is asking probing, thoughtful questions to elicit meaningful responses from the students. This past school year, I only focused on asking level one and two questions during my lessons. I would often ask ‘yes and no’ questions, and problems that did not require the students to explain further. I could not figure out how to ask high-level questions that would get the students thinking out of the box. Also, I did not want to provide any reason for any of the students to feel discouraged in learning math.

Furthermore, communication and collaboration are also some of my many areas of improvement. Apart from using technology as a means of accessing and engaging the students, I did not use technology in any other way. Also, I had only been in contact with some of my student’s parents/guardians. It seemed almost impossible to get in contact with approximately 30% of the parents/guardians due to language barrier, incorrect contact numbers, and lack of active emails. As a result, I was unable to involve the families of the students by promoting positive social change in the school and community. One smart goal I have conducted to help me strengthen my areas of improvement is from the start of the first quarter to the end of second quarter, I will use 30 minutes of class time to ask level three and four questions, and acquire all parent' s/guardian’s email addresses and phone numbers the first two weeks of school. To make sure this goal is successful, I will have a planner that specifies what kind of questions I ask, how many of them are high-level questions, how long does it take for the students to answer each question, did I re-use any of the questions, and what is one pro and con for each question. This would all go under the reflection portion of my lesson plan.

NBPTS Core Propositions

I strongly believe in core proposition one, two, three, and five. However, my strength lies in core proposition one, two, and three. Throughout this school year, I have mainly focused on committing myself to students and their learning, finding ways to teach math to the students, and taking responsibility for managing and monitoring student learning. For instance, for every concept that the majority or a small group of the students were confused about, I would go back and teach the concept in another way. Also, for one of my classes, I would write the math vocabulary terms in Spanish and somewhat teach in Spanish. Usually, there would be a student that would translate for me. I had done this because 88% of the students in that class were Hispanic and had little to no knowledge of how to communicate in English. I wanted the students to not only understand each math concept I taught but feel welcomed and involved in the class. I believe that understanding student’s differences and understanding how they learn, interact, and develop should take top priority. This is not to say that being familiar with the various instructional strategies, and working with other professionals on the many developments in the school is not of importance. They all hold high values of importance in education. An action plan for continued growth in my areas of strength is:

1. I will look online for math resources and activities. Within each resource will be methods of teaching various components of math. The language of each resource will be in

Spanish, English, and any other language.

1. I will compare my findings to my colleagues have. This way, I can see if they used some or all in their class, and what were the results afterward.
2. I will take three weeks as experimentation weeks. During this time, I will be using each resource I found online and seeing what works best for the students.
3. At the start of the fourth week, until the year ends, I will be using the resources I concluded to work best for the students.

Steps one and two will be conducted two weeks before the school year begins. Through this action plan, I will keep the students both engaged and motivated to learning math.

Being a first-year teacher, I need improvement in learning how to build partnerships with community groups/businesses. Moreover, I do not have much teaching experience to evaluate school progress and its' allocation of resources. A smart goal I will have to assist in strengthening my areas of improvement is to attend three-fourths of the leadership meetings provided by the school. During each session, I will take notes on how to become a professional leader that builds partnerships with community groups that are associated with the school. To monitor that I am on the right path, I will volunteer and take part in school activities such as pep rallies, field trips, parent-teacher conferences, and planning of small celebrations. Also, I will take leadership in making sure parents and other family members are actively involved with the events that go on in the school.

Technology Proficiencies

When it comes to Technology Proficiencies, my strength lies in fostering learning environments, engaging all students in exploring real-world issues, using appropriate technologies for assessments, and communicating relevant information to students, parents/guardians, and colleagues. For example, during this distance learning, I used Zoom, Google Classroom, Blackboard, and Google Hangouts to facilitate student instruction and communicate with my students' families. Using virtual manipulatives and taking notes on what the students like, I connected real-world problems to how to formulate inequalities, linear equations, and how to find a constant proportionality of a table or graph. At the end of each lesson, I would use IXL.com to provide five to 10 question quizzes on what was taught. An action plan for continuing growth in my areas of strength is to find other mathematical manipulative and websites that will foster student learning. I will try multiple combinations of various sites and see which combination the students respond best to.

Although I use technology in my classroom and even during the distance learning cycle, I still need improvement in using technology for professional research, legal issues, and ethical expectations. I do not possess those qualifications skills yet. A smart goal that will help me improve in these areas is, implementing the use of technology in 85% of my lessons. While I am putting the goal into action, I will keep track of what form of technology is being used, in what way are the students using the technology, and how is it improving their educational skills. This will be my monitoring plan.

In conclusion, while studying and learning the various components that lie within Technology Proficiencies, Professional Dispositions, and NBPTS Core Propositions, I was able to take notes on my areas of strength and weakness. This has helped me to learn a bit more about my teaching skills and to devise plans on how I could better improve myself as a 21st-century educator. Though my smart goals may be different, my action plan is the same for every component.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Are your goals S.M.A.R.T.? [Multimedia]. Walden University. https://class.waldenu.edu

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