Annual Professional Growth Plan Incorporating Reflection

Annual Professional Growth Plan for 2017 to 2018 Name: Sayde Evahnenko

Assignment and/or Career Goal: PS3

Goal: Research and implement a minimum of 4 new teaching strategies.

Teaching Quality Standard or School Leader Competency Reference: Demonstrating a

Professional Body of Knowledge (2). A teacher applies a current and comprehensive
repertoire of teaching and learning strategies to meet the learning needs of every
student.

Strategies Timeline Resources

- Research new techniques September- Teachers Pay Teachers

every other weekend December
- Try to try new strategies bi- Curriculum Laboratory
weekly
- Push myself out of my Mentor teachers resources
comfort zone to try new
things Student advice/polls/exit slips
- Accepting that things may
not go perfectly at first
attempt but trying them
anyways
- Asking students what types
of learning activities they
enjoy with biweekly exit slips
- Avoid using slides or power
points more than once a
week
Indicators of Success: (developed as goal is written)

1. What will successful completion of my goal look like for my

Professional Practice? For Student Learning?

Success with this goal will be having at least 8 new strategies in my lesson
plans that I have reflected on and experimented with throughout the
practicum. I will become more comfortable trying new things and be less likely
to fall back on making a slideshow to present information and using other
methods instead. This will enrich and diversify my experience by giving me the
confidence to keep adapting my practise as I go forward and taking in the
student's needs and interests as I go.
For my students learning, using a range of methods, will help meet multiple
learning styles and encourage them to be comfortable sharing which activities
they like and dislike. This will hopefully promote them to be more involved in
their learning and keep them interested by changing up the activities and
giving them more diversity in their day to day learning as well.

Reflection on Indicator of Success (end of practicum)

a) Throughout this practicum I have tried many new teaching strategies.

These include: jigsaw, silent discussion (passing pieces of paper with the
questions around instead of discussing them orally to include the quieter
students), literacy circles, role playing, job applications (pretending they are
different organelles applying for jobs within the cell), building and essay by
arranging sentences in a hands on way, and many others. I feel like I have been
successful in meeting my goal and have diversified my instructional tool-kit.

b) How has my professional practice improved?

My professional practice has improved through my consistent research for
new teaching strategies and my willingness to step out of my comfort zone and
try new things. As a professional I feel more inclined to try new things and risk
lessons not going as planned, as everything is fixable and a learning
experience. I have learned to adapt lessons to create more diversity rather than
doing the same things.

c) How has student learning improved?

My students always seem open to trying new things and are appreciative of
opportunities to give me feedback on what types of activities they like the best.
When something doesnt go as planned they are generally understanding and
are comfortable expressing to me in a polite way if they felt like they enjoyed
an activity. I do feel that having diversity in my instruction keeps their interest
and promotes them to learn more actively.

Annual Professional Growth Plan Incorporating Reflection

Annual Professional Growth Plan for 2017 to 2018 Name: Sayde

Evahnenko

Assignment and/or Career Goal: PS3

Goal: Forming positive student-teacher relationships to support an effective
learning community.
Teaching Quality Standard or School Leader Competency Reference:Fostering
Effective Relationships (3). A teacher builds and fosters relationships to
support students.
Strategies Timeline Resources
-Work on using fluctuation in September to Advice from TM
my voice to gain and keep December
students attention Exit slips

-Work on setting a tone for my Student Surveys

classroom that is less serious
so I can create a fun and safe
environment

- Tell stories and jokes or share

occasional humorous videos
with students to connect with
them in a less formal way

-Provide opportunities for

students to respond personally
to subject matter and use my
own personal experiences as
examples

-Leave positive feedback on

students work

-Take students interests and

preferences into account

-Get feedback periodically

from students and allow them
to reflect on my teaching

-Assist with the school play

and volunteer at sports events
to support their extracurricular
talents and interests.

Indicators of Success: (developed as goal is written)

1. What will successful completion of my goal look like for my Professional

Practice? For Student Learning?
Forming positive relationships will be evident through student respect and
their willingness to cooperate with my activities. By adjusting my tone and
fluctuation in my voice through getting more confident and comfortable with
my teaching abilities I will be able to have more fun with the students and be
apart of the learning community rather than in complete control of the
learning community. Maintaining a leadership role will be key, but using my
leadership role to leave room for students opinions and interests will create an
environment that helps foster relationships. I will have their feedback
frequently and take it into consideration to promote student engagement and
acknowledge their individual roles and value in the classroom. This type of
environment will support student learning and will be evident through
engagement with the material.

Reflection on Indicator of Success (end of practicum)

a) How successful have I been in meeting my goal?

As I prepare to leave PS3 I truly feel like I have built positive

relationships with all my students, as well as students who arent in my classes
that come and talk with me on a daily basis. I started off the year as an
assistant coach for the junior high girls volleyball teams, which I feel really
contributed to helping me build relationships with the girls. Although I dont
have a strong background in volleyball I helped where I could and was an extra
support and cheerleader for the girls during games. I missed one tournament
due to another commitment and after that multiple girls on the team would
come and check with me before every game that I was going to be there and
would say thank goodness when I assured them I would be there. I really
appreciated this as I could tell that being there to support them really did make
a difference for the players.

A couple times every week I try to put a new joke on the board, and
multiple times throughout my lessons I try to get my students laughing with
humour. If I can find a funny video that is relevant to the topic I will always
include it, and I often persuade the students that I will tell them a funny story
at the end of class if they work hard. It is usually effective and I find the
students often telling me you have a funny story about everything Mrs. E! I
take my time in my marking to make sure I can provide a good balance of
constructive and encouraging feedback and when the students have asked if I
mark things and I share I am still working on them they have said we
understand, you always leave a lot of feedback and we like that.

My students ask me multiple times every week to stay and teach here and
have even sought out administration at the school to ask them to hire me here.
They are incredibly sweet with encouraging me that I am doing a good job and
that they like having me here. Ive promised to come back for visits and hope to
watch some of the basket games over my last semester here in Lethbridge.

b) How has my professional practice improved?

Focussing on my relationships with the students this practicum has made a

world of difference for me! In my past practicums I would get stressed about
the time confines and it was evident to the students. Only being with my past
groups for 4-6 weeks made it really challenging to build relationships with the
students. This practicum being 4 months it has given me the time to not stress
about the material and feel like I can take the time to bond with the students.
Now that I have strived to enjoy my time and not stress as much about
perfection and rather focus on one class at a time, and making sure everyone is
enjoying class and learning that day, I feel so confident in my relationships
with the kids! Of course there are plenty of classes where we are serious and
working hard, but I found that having more of a balance has contributed to
both myself and the students having fun and not being stressed. Including
moments of silliness and humour really makes me come home everyday with a
smile on my face and to be excited to come back the next day.

c) How has student learning improved?

I feel that making class fun and reducing stress with laughter has made a
difference for student learning. The students tell me they like to come to my
classes and one of them said she feels she has learned more in my science class
then she has in science in the past. This is really reassuring for me as science is
out of my major. I do give the students quite a bit of time and focus as much as
I can on the quality of their learning rather than the quantity. The students
seem fairly alert with me even during more lecture style lessons as they
know I will be making jokes or funny analogies as we go. It definitely keeps
their interest and makes a difference on how focussed they are.