PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL

GROWTH PLAN

Sarah Ferguson
Sr. High School
Social 10-1/2, 20-2/1, CALM, 10 Drama
Nipisihkopahk Secondary School

2016

Submitted to:
Alvina Florman
Date: February 16, 2016

September, 2015

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Step 1
Consider last year accomplishments in terms of successes and challenges.
As a first year teacher last year I had many challenges and successes. My first challenge was
organization. It was difficult for me to minimize my resources. I found that there was an
immense amount of resources online, in the classroom, and in the resource room. I was
constantly adding to my resources, but I did not spend the time needed to keep these
resources organized. This presented certain problems; constant searching, and an overall
misuse of time. Another challenge was keeping up with differentiated instruction. Each one
of my students had immense differences and fluctuated in skill and ability levels paired with
excessive absences. I did not acquire a reliable method of keeping track of student progress
and regress. This caused me to feel like I was always behind and unable to maximize a
students potential. Last, my assessments reflected what I had taught within my units, but
because of the variability of student attendance, some students could never be accurately
assessed.
I had many successes with my class last year. I was able to create many engaging lesson plans that I
designed specifically to meet my students skill and outcome requirements. I measured the success
of these lesson plans on the visible and producible skills and outcomes the students displayed
afterwards. I built a great rapport with the students who were in regular attendance, and we were
able to create and achieve many goals across subject areas together. The environment in which I
worked last year was quite unstable; administration and coworkers were frequently leaving.
Expectations were non-existent because of this void, but I was successful in keeping my motivation,
professionalism, and goals. I achieved goals within my classroom and in extracurricular
commitments.

My area of focus this year will be

This year I will be focusing on using methods of technology to instruct and organize my resources
and lesson plans. I will also be concentrating on differentiated instruction and maintaining accurate
and reliable outcomes for each student. Last, I will focus on how essential and valuable group
discussion is (especially in Health and Social Studies) and will endeavor to focus on meaningful
questions that are engaging and require students to critically think.

September, 2015

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Growth Plan Goal One

Objective:
(SMART goal)
Learn and use Gradebook and create outcome
checklists for each student to map students
progress and outcome/skill level.
Is it Specific?

Is it Measurable?

I have specified my goal by identifying the resource/technology and method I will use to obtain
my desired result of recording and monitoring the progress of my students. I will know I have
achieved my goals by placing all of my assessments and weights on Gradebook and completing a
checklist of outcomes for each course. I will use assessments and checklists to monitor the
achievement of outcomes for each of my students.
Is your goal Attainable and Realistic?
Although this goal may seem like second nature to some teachers, I struggle with the behind the
scenes work. I tend to spend more time on coming up with creative lesson plans instead of
designating enough time for examining and understanding precisely where each student is in terms
of grades and outcomes. I need to create these checklists, and focus on what I will do with the
checklists throughout the semester. This goal is attainable because I have support at the school
from coworkers who have used gradebook before and can assist me, and I have the time to create
and track student progress through outcome checklists to monitor progress.

Strategies and Timeline

Description of intended PD Activities

(What Im going to do, and when I expect to be completed)

Gradebook:
February-Enter Gradebook and practice inputting assessments. Organize my assessments in
accordance to my LRP.
March-Have all assessments and weights entered into Gradebook, and input student assessment
results up until this point.
April-Re-evaluate Assessment weights and assessments for the rest of the course.
Student Objectives Checklist Timeline:
February-Create objective checklists for each course with help from other teachers during RTI
meetings, after school, and independently at home.
March-Complete objectives lists. Begin to check off the list for each student and note areas of
concern.
September, 2015

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AprilProgress check. Find out who is meeting all of the outcomes and may need to be challenged
further. Find out which students are keeping up, but are struggling in some areas, identify the
outcomes and work with the student one-on-one. Students who have reached only a few outcomes
will need an intervention.
May-Re-evaluate students on checklists and repeat November procedure with a focus on what
students will need to pass the course. Have one-on-one interviews with each student
May/June-Focus solely on review of the course-what students had trouble with collectively.
Make a plan for each student who have not met all of the outcomes; this includes a plan of how I
intend to make sure that these outcomes are met by before the end assessment.
**This process will be repeated for the next semester.

Comments from Dialogue with Administrator

(Highlights from our conversation in Fall)

(Highlights from our conversation in Winter)

Initial Review Date:

Final Review Date:

Employee Signature:

Employee Signature:

Supervisor Signature:

Supervisor Signature:

September, 2015

Page 4

Growth Plan Goal Two

Objective
(SMART goal)
Increase knowledge and skill with Google
Docs and Smartboard
Is it Specific?
.

Is it Measurable?

Specific Technology is identified for areas of development. Progress will be measured through
ability and skill level. I will produce a list of specific goals for Google Docs and intentions on
how I will incorporate Google Docs into my classroom. Then, progress will be monitored through
ability to instruct successfully using Google Docs and SMARTboard technology.
Is your goal Attainable and Realistic?
During our most recent PD day we were introduced to Google Docs and I have spent time
evaluating the options that Google Docs provides to enhance instruction by shared documents and
numerous ad on features. I plan to incorporate Google Docs into some of my classroom lessons
and assignments. I have started to become familiar with its features and already have an
understanding of how I can utilize it to benefit my instruction. With SMARTboard, I already
possess basic skills, but I know that I am not knowledgeable enough to use it to its full potential,
by identifying what features and skills I am missing, I can spend time mastering this software and
achieve my goal.

Strategies and Timeline

Description of intended PD Activities

(What Im going to do, and when I expect to be completed)

Weebly Website and Google Docs
February: Continue to work on Weebly Website to convert all course material to digital versions.
PD Day-Learn about Google Docs and become familiar with its features and platform. Take the
Google Docs Tour during spare time and follow up by watching tutorial videos of Google Docs.
March: Begin to incorporate Weebly Website into Lesson plans and assignments for my Social
Studies classes so that students can have full access to blog, course materials, and assessments.
April: Have students Share their first Google Docs assignment with me for marking, and have
students review their marked work on Google Docs. They will access the assignment from the
website.
May: Share my first document with the class that we can edit at the same time and print the
outcome.
June: Finish merging all lesson plans onto Website and Google Docs.
September, 2015

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SMARTboard Technology
February: Create a list of available options and features available by using the SMARTboard that
I currently dont use. If it is too long of a list, choose the most valuable amongst the list that
would assist my lesson instruction/student engagement.
March: Improve my selected SMARTboard skills by asking a colleague for assistance, or
watching one of many tutorials available online.
April: Begin using the skills/features in lessons and reflect on how well I was able to use the
SMARTboard, as well as if it was a successful integration.
May: Follow through with the rest of the option/feature list for mastery.
Comments from Dialogue with Administrator
(Highlights from our conversation in Fall)

(Highlights from our conversation in Winter)

Initial Review Date:

Final Review Date:

Employee Signature:

Employee Signature:

Supervisor Signature:

Supervisor Signature:

Growth Plan Goal Three

Objective
(SMART goal)
To improve my questioning skills by
establishing more effective questioning
procedures, asking more open-ended
questions, involving more students, and
making more consistent use of wait-time.

September, 2015

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Is it Specific?
Connection / Link to
PHRD or School Education Goal and/or to the Teacher
Quality Standard

Is it Measurable?
How will you measure your progress and attainment of the
goal?

For my third goal I am focusing specifically on the skill of questioning, and have outlined
particularly what type of questioning skills; effective questioning procedures, open-ended
questions and timing of questions. Presently, I feel that I may be rushing my question time in my
lessons because students are not responding immediately, when this happens I feel the urge to skip
the discussion/questioning time. Instead, I will take more time to try and ask more effective
questions and be more patient with responses. I will measure the attainment of this goal by
reflecting on the effectiveness of my questioning. By keeping notes, I can analyze the possibilities
that my questions are too obvious, or too difficult. I can record questions that were successful and
investigate whether there is a trend to the questions where the students are engaged, and not
engaged.
Is your goal Attainable and Realistic?
Have you analyzed current information to set a goal which you can reach, and which you are willing to work on.

An effective question is at the root of all outcomes in the Social Studies Curriculum. There are
many scholarly articles and resources where I can learn more about effective questions. I plan to
further my research on the topic of questions, and ameliorate my current skills and abilities.
Strategies and Timeline
Description of intended PD Activities

(What Im going to do, and when I expect to be completed)

February: Find resources on the topic of effective questioning. Read and make a list of strategies
and begin to incorporate them in my lesson planning and lessons. I will start a reflection book that
focuses on what strategies I am integrating in my lessons, and my overall experience with the
strategy during class time. Add a check box to lessons beside the lesson question was this
question effective?
March: Read through my reflections from February and reaffirm the patterns from questions that
were successful. Review what strategies were most effective.
April: Look for new resources on questioning and scaffolding, read and make notes.
May: Incorporate new strategies into classroom and reflect on outcomes.
Comments from Dialogue with Administrator
(Highlights from our conversation in Fall)

September, 2015

(Highlights from our conversation in Spring)

Page 7

Initial Review Date:

Final Review Date:

Employee Signature:

Employee Signature:

Supervisor Signature:

Supervisor Signature:

September, 2015

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