Professional Growth Plan
As part of my final practicum requirements, I created a professional growth plan. I had two main goals:
- To improve my questioning skills by establishing more effective questioning procedures, asking more open-ended questions, involving more students, and consistently providing students with enough wait time.
- To improve my classroom management skills by encouraging students to take responsibility for their own actions, clearly conveying expectations, and consistently upholding expectations.
Reflections on Professional Growth Plan
Questioning Skills
I found that identifying key questions prior to lessons, and imagining possible questions that may arise during my lessons, really helped me improve my questioning skills. Pre-planning my questions was effective because then I could put thought into the questions that I was asking, and ensure that I included high-level thinking questions. This is still an area that I would like to see some growth in, because I still sometimes have difficultly coming up with good "why" questions on the spot. However, I am pleased with the growth I have made in this area.
I am also proud to say that my pre-planning has impacted my students abilities to understand what it is that I am asking them. In the past few months, more of my students have been answering questions in class. It was great to see increased participation in classroom discussions because it indicated to me that my questioning techniques had improved.
Management Skills
From the onset of my practicum I was quite clear with the expectations that I had for my students. However, it did take some time for my students to fully realize that I really meant what I said. In the past few months, I have been firmer with my students. This has helped them realized that expectations must be met.
I think that I have done a good job with being clear about my expectations. In the future, I would like to continue working on being firm, and consistent, in order to ensure my students meet expectations.
I found that identifying key questions prior to lessons, and imagining possible questions that may arise during my lessons, really helped me improve my questioning skills. Pre-planning my questions was effective because then I could put thought into the questions that I was asking, and ensure that I included high-level thinking questions. This is still an area that I would like to see some growth in, because I still sometimes have difficultly coming up with good "why" questions on the spot. However, I am pleased with the growth I have made in this area.
I am also proud to say that my pre-planning has impacted my students abilities to understand what it is that I am asking them. In the past few months, more of my students have been answering questions in class. It was great to see increased participation in classroom discussions because it indicated to me that my questioning techniques had improved.
Management Skills
From the onset of my practicum I was quite clear with the expectations that I had for my students. However, it did take some time for my students to fully realize that I really meant what I said. In the past few months, I have been firmer with my students. This has helped them realized that expectations must be met.
I think that I have done a good job with being clear about my expectations. In the future, I would like to continue working on being firm, and consistent, in order to ensure my students meet expectations.