Professional Growth Plan – Part 1

1a. What data are you using to guide the development of your professional learning goal (e.g.
reflections on teaching, teaching observations, mid-program evaluations, student feedback)?

The data I am using to guide the development of my professional learning goal is teaching observations and
feedback between my professors and my cooperating teachers. Between the Spring and Fall semesters of
2023, I have been able to gather data to review my teaching, such as my own reflections on my teaching
completed after every lesson I taught, reviewing and discussing teacher observations with my professors and
my cooperating teacher, looking at my Danielson Assessment C completed by my professors, as well as get-
ting student feedback.
1b. What do the data tell you? Describe your areas of strengths and weaknesses based on the data
collected above.
The data tells me that I am a very professional presence when in the classroom, I have smooth transi-
tions throughout my teaching and move at a pace where little to no instruction time is lost. Another
strength I have found in the data is that I am able to engage students in learning, having opportunities
for discussions and creating engaging activities. An area of weakness I have found in the data is man-
aging student behavior and using proximity control as well as with my academic level of questioning.
I understand that the classroom I was in was not mine, and it made me feel as though I could not, I
don’t want to say punish or scold, but I felt as though I had to be nice even when the students were
not paying attention or listening.

2. Using the information from question 1, what is your focus area (write both the Danielson do-
main and the component that you have identified as having the greatest potential for increasing
student learning below)? Remember to choose from Domains 2 and 3.
Domain: 2d
Component: Monitoring behavior
3. What goal will enable you to strengthen your practice (write your goal statement using the
Danielson Framework language)?
In order to strengthen my practice, my goal is to work on building into the classroom environment of
the classes I intern in, as well as monitor behavior in more engaging and efficient ways and respond
to student misbehavior consistently in an effective manner.
4. Describe what will you do to build professional background knowledge related to the domain
and component that you have selected in order for you to achieve your goal (e.g. what articles/
books will you read, what Internet resources will you use, what workshops will you attend, will you
interview or observe teachers)? Describe four specific professional development activities.
In order to build professional background knowledge related to Danielson domain 2 component 2d, I will
take various actions to achieve my goal of better monitoring behavior and responding to misbehavior consis-
tently. The first professional development activity I will engage in to help me achieve my goal is observing
my future cooperating teacher as well as reflecting on observations of past cooperating teachers and how
they monitored and handled behaviors. I have spent a lot of time in classrooms, having the chance to observe
how different teachers monitor and handle behaviors, so I hope that with my observations I can pull ideas on
how to better monitor and respond to behavior in mu future instruction.
Going off of the first activity I will use, a second activity I will engage in is interviewing classroom teachers,
as well as my professors, on different strategies to managing behavior in the classroom. Having the opportu-
nity to hear different behavioral management strategies from those who are currently in a classroom using
behavioral management strategies daily, hearing what works for them or how they handle behavior in their
classroom, will allow me to take into consideration what strategies will be helpful and useful during my in-
struction. Also hearing from my professors, who may not be in an elementary classroom anymore, will give
me even more skills I can add to my “teacher toolbox.”

The third activity I will engage in to build my professional background knowledge is reading books and re-
searching articles relating to managing student behavior. Some examples of books and articles I plan to read
and use to build more knowledge on managing student behavior include “Teach Like a Champion” by Doug
Lemon, as well as reading articles from different online sources such as renaissance.com, edutopia.org, and
an online article written by the University of Washington.

The fourth and final activity I will engage in is reflective practice in order to evaluate and improve my stu-
dent behavior management skills. This will involve reflecting after each lesson I instruct, describing my ex-
periences and what I felt was a glow, as well as things I seemed to have struggled with and how I feel I could
grow as an educator. I will also want to receive feedback from students and colleagues, hearing different
ways I could improve as a professional educator.

5. What activities/actions will you implement to help attain your goal (e.g. administer a student in-
terest inventory, develop lessons that include multiple project options for students, include the use
of formative assessments during instruction, video tape and critique one’s practice, establish proce-
dures for the distribution and collection of materials and supplies)? How will these help you attain
your goal? Describe three specific activities based on current professional background knowledge
related to your goal (this section will be updated during student teaching as you continue to build
your professional background knowledge described in question 4).

First, I will administer a student interest inventory at the beginning of my teaching experience. This will
provide me with more information on each student in order to get to know them better and what each in-
dividual learning style is. Knowing more about the students will allow me to know what their interests
and learning styles are and how I can incorporate them into my lessons to try and diminish behaviors dur-
ing instruction.

Next, I will want to create a routine for procedures and expectations during instruction, making sure that
students know what I expect from them will hold students accountable for their learning as well as cre-
ates the environment of respect and rapport for not only myself as the instructor, but for their fellow
peers and their education.

Finally, I will want to critique my own practice using video tapes. Sometimes during a lesson, I will tend
to miss over behaviors or I will react in a certain way that later I look back on and I think to myself “I
wish I would have handled that differently.” Recording and using the video tapes will allow me to see
how I am currently managing behavior during instruction and will allow me to evaluate and see how I
can improve managing behavior using the different behavior management strategies I have mentioned
above.
6. How will you collaborate with other professionals to meet your goal?
I plan to collaborate with my future cooperating teacher by observing and learning their behavioral man-
agement strategies that they use in the classroom. By observing and collaborating with my future cooper-
ating teacher on how they plan and manage behavior in their classroom, I will be able to learn different
techniques that I could use during my instruction, as well as receive feedback and support as I practice
managing students’ behavior on my own. Additionally, I plan to collaborate with my professors, such as
Dr. Tichenor and Dr. Piechura-Couture to gain a better understanding of behavior management and how
to promote positive behavior in the classroom. Finally, I plan to collaborate with past Stetson University
education students who are now in the classroom as a professional educator, such as Gretchen Nerber.
Collaborating with those who have been in my shoes and had to learn at a young age how to manage be-
havior in the classroom and what they do will give me the chance to gain even more insight and strate-
gies on how to manage student behavior during my own instruction.
7. What evidence/artifacts will you collect to demonstrate that your goal is being met? List three
specific evidence/artifacts you will collect.

To demonstrate that my goal is being met, I plan to collect three specific pieces artifacts/evidence. First, I
plan to analyze and reflect on the Danielson Assessment C reports that will be completed during the
course of my student teaching. Reviewing and reflecting on these reports will provide me with feed-
back from not only my cooperating teacher, but through my professors as well on my strengths and
areas of improvement for managing classroom behavior. This will allow me to reflect and adjust my
behavior management strategies I use in the classroom.

Second, I will collect and analyze video recordings during my instruction. By recording my instruction, I
am able to see how students respond to my behavior management strategies, as well as observe what
I may have missed upon that is causing inconsistency in my behavior management or what I nay want
to change about my strategies.

Finally, I will use my lesson plan reflections in where I state how the lesson went and describe different
things that happened during my lesson that I may have liked/disliked. Using my reflections will allow
me to reflect and prepare and plan for my future lessons. For example, if during my prior lesson I had
a behavior problem with a certain student doing something, I will know to plan ahead and create
strategies to use in case a behavior problem were to happen again.