Professional Development
Page overview:
This page highlights how I have developed professionally as a teacher during my practices through participating in various activities in achieving various goals.
Professional Development Plan (PDP)
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Goals
I had three goals that I planned to fulfill for this semester as a way to develop as a teacher. The following table outlines each goal:
Planning for challenging activities for the low achievers
Plan of Action
1. Identify the low achievers in the classroom
2. Plan for homework activities based on the lessons that are taught
3. Implement strategies during the lesson such as encouraging students to utilize different tools
4. Create challenging activities that activate students' Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).
5. Give Mentoring School Teacher (MST) a checklist to rate students' performance based on my strategies
Reducing Teacher Talking Time (TTT)
Plan of Action
1. Use questioning strategies from Bloom's taxonomy that target both lower and higher thinking skills
2. Involve students in discussions
3. Include targeted activities during the lesson which emphasize the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening)
4. Use the gamification strategy to make lessons more engaging and student-centered
5. Have MST rate students' involvement and speaking time with a rating scale
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Develop my knowledge and skills of reflective practices through structured reflective writing to produce productive reflections
Plan of Action
1. Engage in weekly journaling using the ABC-123 method
2. Use Gibbs reflective cycle to reflect on particular areas of a lesson that need attention
3. Use a checklist to guide reflection
4. Create a written action plan and provide evidence of implementation
4. Share reflective writing with others, such as MST and have them fill out a rubric to assess reflection quality
Mentor Feedback
Goal 1: Plan for challenging activities for the low achievers
Previous Semester
My MCT believed that I needed to push learners to be more independent, and therefore I needed to provide them with more challenge. If the activities are too simple, then students are not being stretched to their full potential.
Current Semester
This semester, by planning thoroughly and creating a variety of activities for students, I was able to improve my skills in creating challenging activities.
Goal 2: Reduce Teacher Talking Time
Previous Semester
Current Semester
Previously, I did not take into consideration that not everyone will get a chance to participate and many children would sit idly during my activities.
My mentor commented on my ability to engage learners with the help of online tools which made students more active, and my role as a teacher became less prominent.
Goal 3: Develop my knowledge and skills of reflective practices through structured reflective writing to produce productive reflections
Previous Semester
Current Semester
Professional Reading
Rationale
Reading about topics you would like to explore serve a great purpose in the success of your actions. It gives you information about what is already known about the topic, and tells you what strategies might work in your classroom based on the circumstances you are in. Moreover, it helps to plan for lessons more effectively.
Previous feedback outlined the importance of reflecting on practices in order to know what is best for students.
It was apparent that after using structured writing templates, my reflective writing became in-depth and more productive.
Action Research
Research Overview
Professional Development Sessions
Rationale
Attending other teachers' sessions is a form of professional development as it involves exchanging knowledge with other teachers and gaining new insight on pedagogy (Buckner, Chedda and Kindreich, 2016). It also shows our commitment to the profession of teaching and improving our approaches. After observing the teachers, I implemented some of the strategies they used as I found them very effective.
Description
I was able to attend various sessions by other teachers and observe their teaching strategies during my online teaching practice. I observed science and english classes.
Description
While researching about strategies to use in order to achieve my PDP goals, I did a lot of reading and research. The above table displays the titles of the readings and what I learned from them.
Description
The title of the research is "The Effect of Leveled Reading on Second Language Learners". The main aim is to find students' instructional levels in reading, which refers to a book that is not too easy, nor too difficult to read. Then, reading interventions are applied as the child practices reading skills with the level they have been assigned. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this research was implemented using digital tools such as e-books.
Rationale
According to Adams (1990), when readers encounter difficult words, they should be prompted to read them rather than skip them (n.p.). Encountering difficulties enables a child to use their problem-solving skills, which is important for the attainment of new knowledge. Findings from my research indicate that learners need adequate challenge in order to develop. A part of this research links to my teaching philosophy, as one area of pedagogy I advocate is to provide students with adequate challenge in their learning.
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Public Speaking
Description
I participated in a lecture that spoke about special needs, in which I presented an overview about Epilepsy, which is a central nervous system disorder where brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures. I prepared a presentation and practiced my speaking skills in order to perform well.
Rationale
Public speaking skills are important for teachers because it is part of the job. Teachers must have skills that allow them to coherently deliver lessons to large groups of students, in addition to managing the classroom environment and behavior. Participating in this lecture helped me learn how to use body language and speech to communicate with an audience, which is great practice to help improve my public speaking skills, and ultimately contribute to my teaching skills.
References
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Buckner, E., Chedda, S., & Kindreich, J. (2016, June). Teacher professional
development in the UAE: What do teachers actually want? Sheikh Saud bin
Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research. https://www.academia.edu/
25943209/
Teacher_Professional_Development_in_the_UAE_What_Do_Teachers_Actually_Want