.​ Professional Growth Plan​ ..

Name Naomi J. Akkermans Established Date March 1, 2019

Review Date April 17, 2019

Goal

I hope to effectively use a variety of classroom management techniques to increase control of the
classroom, increase participation and improve focus from students.

Related Teaching Quality Standard

4. A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments where diversity
is embraced and every student is welcomed, cared for, respected and safe.
● (f) employing classroom management strategies that promote positive, engaging
learning environments;

Indicator(s) of Success

● Decreased level of volume during classroom work time

● Less time on transitions between classes and material
● More focused and productive class time
● Students are quicker to respond to strategies
● Less side chat
● More respect towards myself the teacher

Action Resource(s) Timeline

Research various ● Teacher Associate Immediate and ongoing

classroom strategies ● University Consultant
● LearnAlberta

Discuss with T.A already ● Teacher Associate Immediate

attempted strategies to
understand what has
worked in the past and
what has not

Explain and Implement ● Edutopia Ongoing

various strategies within ● Prodigy Game
classroom and reflect on ● LearnAlberta
effectiveness
Reflection

How successful have I been in meeting my goal?

● I think I did improve my classroom management skills. I do still think there is room for
improvement and I will continue to try and learn more strategies. I believe that having
my own class long term will make it easier to employ year long strategies that will
reduce the amount of time the class is not focused.

How has my professional practice improved?

● I believe that from the beginning I set it up for the students to pay attention when I
spoke. I started off very strong to ensure they would take me serious and respect me in
the classroom. By observing Mrs. Lindsay I was able to pick up on what consequences
were appropriate for which behaviours. I learned early on which battles to pick and
which to ignore

How has student learning improved?

● Being quicker at getting student’s attention means we wasted less time and spent more
time learning. It also meant I could allow the students to be a little silly and have fun at
times knowing that I would be able to pull them back on task when the time came. There
was less side chat and overall the students were more respectful towards me. A peaceful
classroom allows for greater learning directly.
Goal #2

I would like to improve on the pace of my teaching specifically slowing down my speech to help
with students comprehension which will be extremely important in this class which consists of
English Language Learners.

Related Teaching Quality Standard

4. A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments where diversity
is embraced and every student is welcomed, cared for, respected and safe.
● (b) using appropriate universal and targeted strategies and supports to address students’
strengths, learning challenges and areas for growth;
● (c) communicating a philosophy of education affirming that every student can learn and
be successful;
● (e) recognizing and responding to specific learning needs of the individual or small
groups of students and, when needed, collaborating with service providers and other
specialists to design and provide targeted and specialized supports to enable
achievement of the learning outcomes

Indicator(s) of Success

● Improved student comprehension

○ Less questions after explanations are given
○ Less blank stares back
● Use of an appropriate amount of class time to cover ideas
● Maintaining easy breathing and pace throughout lessons

Action Resource(s) Timeline

Remembering to stop at Ongoing

periods in sentences

Discuss with T.A about ● Teacher Associate Ongoing

pace after lessons and ask
for her to look at pace
during my teaching time
 Record lesson to ● Recording device Beginning, middle of
playback to see where I practicum and at the end
speed up and what parts I
should work on
improving

Reflection

How successful have I been in meeting my goal?

● Somewhat successful but this is still one of my weaknesses. I will have to continue
catching myself and working towards making my natural pace of speech slower. Ideally,
this will become second nature at one point in my teaching career but as of now, it is
still something I have to think about.

How has my professional practice improved?

● I do believe that I am more aware of the pace I speak at. I am quicker to catch when I
have been going too fast and recognize it on students. I am comfortable going back,
slowing down, and recovering material that possibly was missed. I have also been able
to recognize challenging words more frequently and discovering how to explain/describe
words.

How has student learning improved?

● Student learning would be improving as they can actually have the change to absorb
information. Slowing down, even more, would provide more processing time for the
students as they are ELL and often some are younger than the targeted age group for
specific material. The more chances students have to hear information and work with it
the quicker they will learn.