Growth Reflection and Growth Plan

As a teacher thus far I have learned that no matter how much I plan and how well I know the content, it will never be perfect. There will always be a student that will not understand the assignment or does not get everything out of the assignment. Technology will go down and my students will just sit there staring at me looking for direction. Or perhaps you thought you planned a great engaging and fun lesson that your students end up finding boring. Thus far I have learned as a teacher to just relax and go with the flow, don't expect things to be perfect.

One of the biggest professional development activities I have been introduced to is the WILD curriculum. A co-teacher that went through the program sat down with me and shared the basics of the program. This curriculum has amazing cross-curriculum activities for environmental science. This summer I'm attending the WLD, WET, and Teach Tree curriculum professional development program. This will be based in a Georgia state park and focuses on environmental needs in Georgia. This program will deepen my understanding of how the WET, WILD, and TT curriculum directly connects the Georgia standards of excellence for environmental through in-field active research. This understanding is important when teaching concepts because having knowledge of the most current and relevant research, helps me as a teacher engage students in current real-world connections.

The second professional development is in-service experience, as the teacher planning out all my classes' lessons I develop a deeper understanding of the content. I take the time to become reconnected to the content and look into new advancements in the field. I feel that the best way I develop as a teacher is by doing and keeping trying. In-service experience allows you time as a teacher to try different strategies and to add strategies to your "teacher bag". Some strategies when developing styles of differentiation or ways to apply productive reward efforts, are developed over time.

A specific example of collaborating for 9th-grade environmental science is being a cross-country representative for my high school. I meet the environmental science representative from the other county high school to choose the power standards, curriculum map, and common assessments for 9th-grade environmental science. We have our student take the same common assessments on illuminate, where all environmental class in the county's data is uploaded into one overlook. We use this to one see how each teacher is doing, is one teacher standing out in their teaching practice. If this stands out is seen the teacher shares what is working for them. As a teacher with majority inclusion classes, I use the data to ensure my students are on track with their peers. I want to see that the scaffolding, is enough for my students with IEP, low readers, and 504s. One specific example of using our students' data to evaluate student performance, includes the data on our last environmental test. We notice more than one teacher's students were answered the same question incorrectly. We had less than 15 percent of students answer the question correctly. We reviewed the question to find out that the students lacked the ability to answer the question without a graph. WIthout the graph, the question was over their ability to critically thinking for the given question.

The data collected influences my planning of instruction by taking the data and comparing the grades with general level and above level students' grades. When my students are struggling below other classes compared to other classes in the county, I look into why, does my student not know the content, do they lack testing skills, do they lack vocab understanding, or is there something else at play. For example, if my students are showing a lack of understanding of content vocabulary I would incorporate more vocabulary graphic organizers and vocabulary interactive activities. Along with the given example, this data of students not having the skill for critical thinking, drives me to incorporate more opportunities for my students to practice this skill in the classroom.

As an educator, especially as a new teacher, the data can direct my planning for the future lesson to make sure my students are receiving the best education possible. If I notice that another teacher is consistently receiving high test scores I would talk to her/him about observing their class and to see if they would do a planning session to give me points. As I continue to get years of experience I would use my data to make sure I do not settle into a rut and stop growing as a teacher. Every year and even class to class, I have to adjust my planning to maintain a good and high assessment of students' understanding. Also from the given above example, as an educator, I forget that critical thinking is a learned skill not a natural skill for most. See data show the whole in my teacher helps me know I need to try something different for the good of my students. At the same time, the data on the same test showed me my approach to teaching students graph evaluation works for my students at an 85 percent pass rate.

The professional educational organization I selected is North American Association for Environmental Educators (NAAEE). NAAEE is a great resource for me as an environmental science high school because there is great current research and connection to grow my understanding of my content field. As a member, you have access to student-led research-based projects, professional development webinars, and conferences. The organization gives educators information on classroom grant money applications and information. As an environmental teacher, I want to stay up to date on the field of environmental science and incorporate more research-based learning activities.

NAAEE has the opportunity to help me achieve both my goals on this one organization's website. One great resource to learn about current and updated research is the 2021 and 2022 research symposium that NAAEE puts on. Through April 2022 I have the access to 2021 research symposium to watch over 400 recordings on-demand. Secondly NAAEE recourse available like Lessons of Our Lands which includes over 20 different concept lessons for outdoor project learning. These resources would be the last step for creating a curriculum from my 9th grades to incorporate a community nature trail and garden.