PDP
PDP
Name: Lucia Padilla Course: EDUC 413L Date: 3/21/20
Professional Development Reflection (PDP) Form
GOAL SETTING: Using the grid below, indicate the NMTEACH DOMAIN STRANDS and ONE related ELEMENT that will guide your PDP.
Domain 1: Planning and Preparation
Professional Learning Goal
NMTEACH Domain 1
NMTEACH Domain 1 Element
(Fill out after 1st Observation)
Professional Learning Goal
Demonstrating knowledge of students
Specifically, I will… build a relationship with my students to understand their needs best.
Rationale:
Why am I focusing on this element?
I believe that creating a relationship with my students will enhance their learning experience and will allow me to offer them better learning opportunities. I will know more about their interests and be able to relay that information and encourage better engagement.
Action Plan:
Possible Activities
What am I planning to do and how?
1. One of the activities that I would take to get to know my students is that I will have a questionnaire called “About Me” with questions about them like what they like, favorite sports, favorite food, etc.
2. The students will have an opportunity to have a class discussion where they will introduce themselves and talk about their likes and dislikes.
3. I will have a “Meet the Teacher Day” to become familiar with each of the students’ families and for families to meet the teacher.
4. I will have them play a game called BINGO. The game will help the students learn more about each other. Each student will have a BINGO handout and will be allowed to go around the classroom to fill out each square. If time is left, the students will talk about their findings.
Anticipated Dates for activities
When am I going to do it?
1. “About Me” questionnaire: First day of school to the first week of school between August 18th.
2. Class discussion: first week of school: From August 18th – August 23rd.
3. “Meet the Teacher Day”: August 23th
4. BINGO: August 26th.
Resources
What/who will I use?
About Me” questionnaire: I will create all the questions that I would want to know about my students.
Class Discussion: The students will lead the discussion.
“Meet the Teacher Day: The parents will receive an email, and the students will have a take-home invitation.
BINGO: I will use the website “Teachers Pay Teachers” to purchase a printout sheet and make copies for each of my students.
Outcomes and Results
What happened?
“About Me” questionnaire: Giving my students the “About Me” questionnaire help me learn a lot about my students. I learned their likes and dislikes and a little about their background and their families. The students were excited to write about themselves.
Class Discussion: The students will initiate a discussion where they will begin telling stories about themselves. I will make it optional to whoever wants to go first, and then the students can raise their hand if they want a turn. The students will have an opportunity to learn about each other and see what they have in common.
The students enjoyed talking about themselves and sometimes would get excited hearing about their peers’ adventures.
Meet the Teacher day: Parents will be invited to their children’s classroom to meet with me and will talk about the classroom rules and how I will be conducting their child’s learning. Parents will have an opportunity to ask any questions that they might have, and I will ask simple questions about their home situations and the kind of support that they will be receiving from their parents or caretakers.
“BINGO – Find someone in our class who…” this game will preferably be played in the second week of school. Once the students are familiar and more comfortable with each other.
The students will have a printout sheet of the game where they will be looking for peers that have the qualities mentioned in the game and write their names in the corresponding squares. The students will get to go around the classroom, asking questions to their peers, and trying to find the students that have those qualities. The students had fun going around asking each other questions, and they were laughing and making new friends.
Reflection
What did I learn?
What will I do differently?
What will I do next?
“About Me”: reading through their questionnaire answers it allowed me to learn about the students’ personalities, backgrounds, families and likes, and dislikes. Something that I would do differently would be to be more specific on the information that they would have to write down. Some of the students just wrote Yes or no for their answers, and I would make it clear that they would have to explain it more in detail.
Class Discussion: What I learn from this activity is that children had a lot of great stories to say. I initially thought that most of the students would have a difficult time speaking about themselves to the whole class, but once one started speaking, others wanted to talk about their stories too. This was helpful to me because it helped me understand each student better. Something that I would do differently with this activity would be that I would probably introduce myself first so that students would learn something about me too.
Meet the Teacher Day: Meeting the parents allowed me to see how involved the parents are in their child’s life. It also gives me an inside to their support system and their diversity. Meeting the parents will also help me to start building a relationship with the parents so that together we can meet the student’s needs.
The activities helped me to connect with the students and the parents and differentiate my lessons to meet their individual needs.
_______ Fill out at beginning of Semester 3 ______ Fill out throughout Semester 3 _______ Fill out at end of Semester 3
Domain 2: Creating an Environment for Learning
Professional Learning Goal
NMTEACH Domain 2
NMTEACH Domain 2 Element
(Fill out after 1st Observation)
Professional Learning Goal
2C Establishing a Culture for Learning
Specifically, I will…
create a classroom where my students will always feel welcome and safe and take responsibility for their learning and build valuable relationships with their peers.
Rationale
Why am I focusing on this element?
I believe that it is important for students to have a positive classroom learning environment where they can feel a sense of belonging and see each other as equal. It is my goal to encouraged them to become better learners and obtain high academic achievements.
Action Plan:
Possible Activities
What am I planning to do and how?
1. Classroom expectations:
The students will be responsible for setting classroom expectations that will help them to be accountable for their learning and their behavior. They will start by having a class discussion where they will argue the kind of behaviors that should be conducted in their classroom. I will make it clear that all students in the classroom should participate and be included. Some of the talking points will be how students like to be treated. Asking them this question will help them to think critically about what they want for their classroom.
The students will have 15 minutes every day for the first week to discuss classroom expectations. One of the requirements is that they all must vote and agree for each expectation. Once the expectations are completed, I will write the five rules on a poster and place them by the door for everyone to see.
2. Seating arrangement:
I will create an assigned sitting that will be flexible throughout the year. The purpose of the sitting arrangements is to help the students get to know each other and build a good learning environment. It will also help me learn their names and assess how they interact with each other.
Anticipated Dates for activities
When am I going to do it?
1. Classroom Expectations: will be set during the first week of school.
2. Assigned Seating: I will be assigning the first assigned sitting on the first day of school and it will change throughout the year.
Resources
What/who will I use?
1. Classroom Expectations: They will be created by the students with the teacher’s help. A good guide for this is: https://theartofeducation.edu/2017/08/08/3-benefits-creating-classroom-expectations-students/
This article helped me think about basic rules and to understand how to implement them in my classroom. My students and I will work together to carefully choose the expectations that will help my students and me to build a learning community.
2. Assigned sitting: I learned this technique when I was working as a long-term teacher for a middle school. I discovered that it was a great classroom management technique.
Outcomes and Results
What happened?
1. Classroom Expectations:
The students can follow their classroom expectations daily. Students will be reminded of the classroom expectations every time that they break the rules. Being that the expectations were created by the students, they will be more willing to follow them. If the classroom if having behavior issues, the students will usually help each other by reminding one another and offering support.
Classroom expectations:
• No bullying
• Have respect for others
• Take care of your classroom
• Always lend a helping hand
• Be ready to learn!
2. Assigned Sitting: The sitting arrangement depends on behavior, students’ disabilities, and other factors. Students can get to know one another better by being able to be indifferent groups every week during the first month. They can learn how to collaborate with one another and practice cooperative learning. If students are not getting along, they will be moved to another group but will eventually have to learn how to work with that peer.
Reflection
What did I learn?
What will I do differently?
What will I do next?
1. Classroom expectations: The idea behind giving the students the responsibility of creating their own classroom expectations was so that the students would become responsible for their own behavior. I believe that they will be more willing to follow the classroom expectations and honor them. Students will be able to see that their classroom is a place for learning and will value their hard work.
I will check periodically and see if the classroom expectations need to be adjusted according to the student's behaviors.
What I would do next will be to have a check back with the students and see how they feel about the classroom expectations and be open to their suggestions.
2. Assigned Sitting: I learned that giving students assigned seats was critical to how the students engage with one another. It helped the students to collaborate better with each other and to create the ideal learning environment. Something that I would do differently would be to let them choose their own seats at the beginning of the year. I will get to know the student better, and it will help me learn who their friends are, and if sitting them together will be beneficial for the classroom.
The students would be able to come to me and talked to me if they don’t feel that they are the right fit for that group. The next thing that I would do is talk to my colleagues and get their input on the sitting arrangement. Since they are familiar with most of the students, they will be able to give me feedback.
_______ Fill out at beginning of Semester 3 Fill out throughout Semester 3 _______ Fill out at end of Semester 3
Domain 3: Teaching for Learning
Professional Learning Goal
NMTEACH Domain 3
NMTEACH Domain 3 Element
(Fill out after 1st Observation)
Professional Learning Goal
3D- Assessment in Instruction
Specifically, I will… make sure that I’m assessing my students’ full range of abilities and that their educational goals are being met.
Rationale:
Why am I focusing on this element?
I believe that assessment in instruction is a vital component of teaching. It is a tool that teachers can use to guide their everyday instruction and help students improve their level of performance.
Action Plan:
Possible Activities
What am I planning to do and how?
To thoroughly understand the meaning of assessment in my instruction, I will start by creating a thematic unit on the History and culture of New Mexico. In this unit, the students will have formative and summative assessments every day. The thematic unit will help me use different activities where I will be able to see how the students are learning.
1. Formative Assessment activities:
• Reading: the students will be reading a book called the “A Child’s Story of New Mexico” individually in class and at home.
•
Class discussions: The students will discuss what they learned about the book on an everyday basis.
• Group activities: Students will work together on completing worksheets.
• Journals: The students will reflect on what they learn.
2. Summative Assessments Final project Play- Students will participate in a play as a class.
Anticipated Dates for activities:
When am I going to do it?
The Thematic Unit will be four weeks long. It will start on January 6th after Christmas break.
1. The Formative Assessment activities will be given every day starting January 6th.
2. The Summative Assessment Final Project Play: The play will happen on January 27th and will go through the last day of the unit on January 31st.
Resources:
What/who will I use?
I will be using the book: • Children’s Literature -A child’s Story of New Mexico. Ann Nolan Clark and Frances Carey. 183 pages. Publisher: The University Publishing Company. 1971.
https://www.kidzone.ws/geography/usa/newmexico/map.htm
Outcomes and Results:
What happened?
1. Formative Assessment activities: The students enjoyed reading the book on the history and the culture of New Mexico. They especially liked that they lived in the same state that they were reading about. Many places mentioned in the book were places that they were familiar with and that their families lived in. The students had the opportunity to show their knowledge during the class discussions and looked forward to them every day. Having the students do class discussions were beneficial. I was able to assess my students' understanding of the topic and see if they were actually reading the book. This also helped me to see the connections that they were making and their understanding. During the group activities, I was able to see that the activity helps them to enhance their understanding and that working together helped their social skills. Working individually on their journals helped the students internalize their understanding and helped their writing skills. I was able to assess their writing skill level and their knowledge on the topic.
. Reflection
3. The Summative Assessment Final project: Help me assess how the students actually internalized their knowledge on the topic.
4. Creating a Thematic Unit to understand assessment in instruction helped me learned how to monitor my students' progress and how to monitor my own. It also helped me understand what I need to do to improve my teaching and improve my students' learning.
5. One of the things that I would do differently is to give my students feedback about their learning so that they will be able to understand their progress.
I will use my understanding of formative and summative assessment practices throughout the year and be able to provide my students with a better learning environment.
What did I learn?
What will I do differently?
What will I do next?
Summative Reflection:
The PDP helped me to reflect on my personal development as a student-teacher and my experience through each semester. Each semester marked a different accomplishment for me because I was able to concentrate on different areas of teaching.
During the three semesters of my student teaching, I worked at a middle school in the math department, teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade. I feel that this was a rich experience for me because I learned a lot about myself as a teacher. I was able to apply each of the domains that I chose with my experience working with all three middle school grades.
One of the most important things that I learned during my first semester student teaching was the importance of getting to know the students and of creating a relationship with them. I understand that being able to connect with them will help me create a proper environment for learning.
During my second semester, I found that establishing a culture for learning was key for my teaching because that was going to direct the way that the students learn in my classroom. I believe in giving students the same opportunities to learn while also establishing high expectations. I think that this will help them to be long-term learners because they will enjoy learning.
In the third semester of my student teaching, things got more challenging because I learned more about assessment in the classroom and how that affected the way that I conducted my teaching.
I feel that the PDP helped me reflect on my experiences during my time as a student-teacher. It also helped me realized that I was prepared to work with students and that teaching is unpredictable and that when we are educators, we should be ready to adjust our lessons to accommodate our students' needs.
_______ Fill out at beginning of Semester 3 ______ Fill out throughout Semester 3 _______ Fill out at end of Semester 3