CSTP 6

This picture is an example of training that my school principal scheduled that I attended along with colleagues after our weekly Friday staff meetings. I establish professional goals and engage in continuous and purposeful professional growth and development by serving on the school committee and maintaining an attitude of lifelong learning. I am part of the school safety committee at my school site. The special education team at my school site also holds bi-weekly meetings to go over topics such as IEP questions and classroom behavior strategies. I have attended various training sessions such as Eureka and Benchmark Advance. The Montebello Teacher Induction Program (MTIP)is helping me grow as a new educator and reflect on my teaching and learning as a lifelong learner. I plan to continue taking post- graduate courses so that I can grow as an educator and as a learner. In the future, I plan to work in a master’s program in Education. I am aware that in the field of education I will never stop learning there are constant changes in this field.

This is a picture of my school site's special education department meeting agenda. My school site psychologist organizes a special education department meeting bi-weekly after our Friday staff meeting. I continue to collaborate with colleagues and the broader professional community to support teacher and student learning. I am constantly working with paraprofessionals, specialists, and other educators in support of teaching practice and student learning. I collaborate with colleagues during grade level meetings, special education meetings, OT collaboration meetings, behavior specialist collaboration meetings, paraprofessional debriefing time, and post IEP team debriefing time. The Montebello Teacher Induction program mentors are supporting me and I am able to in turn help my student achievement. My school paraprofessionals, psychologist, behavior specialist, and speech pathologist are great resources and support for me and my students. We are all working toward a common goal to help student achievement and support student growth by providing the teacher with the tools and resources needed to meet their goals.

This picture is an example of school announcements that I post on my google classroom along with individual parent text messages. I work with families to support student learning by using a number of techniques to thoroughly and comprehensively keep families informed about events such as back-to school-night, open house, parent conferences, parent evenings, and IEP meetings. I provide parents with easy strategies that they can use at home to help their child achieve grade-level standards or their IEP goals. A strategy that parents can do with their child is to practice high-frequency words and spelling words. Many parents only speak Spanish so I tell them that they can help their child by asking them reading comprehension questions even if they are asking in Spanish students can still recall information from what they have read. During IEP meetings and parent conferences I take time to give my parents resources on how they can monitor their child’s learning. All of my student’s parents have my cell phone number and are encouraged to call me whenever they need help with their child’s homework or assignments. They have access to their child’s google classroom so they can monitor their progress and assignments that have not been completed. I have informed my parents that my google classroom has many resources that they can use for their student learning such as videos, high-frequency words read to them, a digital library, math resources, and more. I have established open communication where my parents know that they can always ask me questions regarding their child’s learning outcomes. Students and parents can also leave comments or questions on google classroom.

The induction program helped guide me in setting, modifying, and reflecting on my teaching practice goals. This process has improved my instructional practice and optimized my students' learning. Reflecting in my teaching practice will be something that I will do before a lesson, during a lesson, after the lesson, and during and after assessments. Reflecting while teaching a lesson will help me modify or change the outcome of the lesson . Reflecting after a lesson will help me plan for future lessons for that particular skill or concept. When reflecting after an assessment it will help me guide future instruction . I will continue to remind myself to take the time to reflect, as reflection is a powerful tool for improving the delivery of instruction.

This is an example of collaborating with colleagues through counseling services. I often communicate with colleagues such as the Occupational Therapist, Adaptive Physical Education Teacher, Speech and Language Therapist, School Psychologist, Assistive Technology Specialist, Behavior Specialist, General Education Teachers, and Special Education Teachers regarding my students' needs. I have to communicate with colleagues to advocate and help my students and their families get the resources that need. I attend staff, grade level, school committee, and special education team meetings. Our school special education team also meets up before IEP to staff meetings and we also debrief after the meetings.

I plan to continue to seek, develop, and refine my teaching practice through professional learning opportunities. I think it is important to keep working on teaching methods because culture, ideologies, and studies are ever-changing and developing and teachers have to continue to research and study in order to best meet their students' individual needs. I look forward to these professional learning opportunities so that I will be more confident in my areas of need.