Examples of Reflective Statements
Below are five examples of reflective statements that teachers have submitted and have been approved by the committee.
Example #1:
During the 2011/2012 teaching year I had an opportunity to be a part of a Professional Learning Community which involved two different components. One component centered on two different book studies dealing with Differentiation. The books were; Differentiation by Rick Wormelli, and Making Differentiation a Habit by Diane Heacox. We were split into smaller groups within the staff in our building and were assigned pages in each book to read followed by discussion groups throughout the school year. The discussions allowed us to learn what other teachers were already doing within their classrooms to differentiate, as well as what could be implemented in our rooms to better meet the needs of individual students. The books provided a wealth of strategies that could be used. At times it was overwhelming, but the key was to pick just a couple things to try each year and then build on those strategies. An important component was using student choice which allows for greater student motivation. Some examples include Tic-Tac-Toe Boards which I am planning on implementing this year in my Social Studies class. Another strategy I will start this year is Show-And-Tell Boards. One strategy that I have used is RAFT - Role, Audience, Format, and Topic for writing projects within my room and will continue to use this strategy. Tiered assignments are another strategy I have used to some degree in the past and hope to use more in the future. This year we have a new curriculum for SS in grade 6 so we will be working together to implement various differentiation strategies. The other part of our PLC groups provided us with an opportunity to observe other teachers (primarily within our building). A form was developed that we could use as we observed our colleagues teach. We were to do 3 half day observations during the school year. This was a rare opportunity for us to observe the excellent teachers we have here at Willow Creek. I had an opportunity to observe teachers at my grade level as well as teachers in grades 7 and 8. Observations included Math, SS, and English teachers. Following our observations we would sit down with the teacher we observed and share our observations in a non-evaluative manner. This was such a positive experience!
Example #2
In my capacity as a Physical and Health Disabilities (P/HD) Consultant and Assistive Technology Coordinator, one of the most important traits I need to bring to my position is the ability to collaborate with colleagues. I believe this is important not only to complete certain tasks but to foster my continual learning as well. Within this five year licensure period, I have been provided with many opportunities to collaborate, learn, and accomplish tasks with many groups within the school and the Rochester Community. One such group in the community is my Region 10 P/HD group. This group consists of ten other P/HD consultants from districts across our region. In the spring of each year, we meet as a group and develop annual goals for the following year. For the 2011-2012 school year, our group worked on learning how to adapt toys for children who need to use switches to access toys. We collected a repository of data sheets that could be used to measure success of students on IEPs towards their goals. We had a guest speaker from the Disability Linkage Line come in and speak to us about statewide resources available to our learners with physical disabilities. In addition to this, we worked on developing and collecting forms to use when observing early childhood learners with disabilities. Currently our group is awaiting the production of a project we worked on together for one and a half years. We developed a "strat pack" which is a document that lists strategies to utilize when working with/teaching students with executive functioning deficits. This is a statewide initiative designed by our group. It is currently with our state P/HD consultant who will be getting it produced into a set of cards so we can distribute it to teachers in our field across the state. Meeting with this group allows me to grow professionally in my field and continue to foster my own love for learning. I look forward to my continued learning with them.
Example #3
This year I had the opportunity to work with the Kellogg Staff and gain a better understanding of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). Our Early Release and Late Start activities were centered on the SIOP strategies and how to best use those ideals in all classrooms. I specifically was interested in what additional resources I could provide for staff to best support their students learning.
In digging into SIOP I did learn that it is research bases, started with sheltered students and focuses on language development. This last part is how I envision using SIOP as we move forward. The language development portion really interests me on how we may apply this to all of our students who could use additional support in these areas. Ideally we would have the students in small groups but at times that isn’t always an option. How can I support student learning by structuring the vocabulary and help the 8 components of SIOP when I interact throughout the day with all students?
I chose to mainly build background in other areas of the school to support teachers. I would often stop by a classroom to see what topics they were discussing. After doing some quick research I would discuss those topics or allude to them in conversations in the hallway or at lunch. Then I would try to catch those students in their class and work to contribute to the class discussion by prompting the students that we conversed with in the common areas.
This technique seemed to be useful in helping students open up and be further engaged in the topics that were happening in class. I hope to expand these possibilities in the future by creating a grid of the times specific topics are coming up in classes. This should help me keep on top of what is going on in the classroom while also supporting the students who need some additional help through SIOP.
Example #4
Much of my professional growth over the past 5 years has been in the form of learning and implementing best practices through the SIOP Model (the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol). The 8 components of SIOP bring many best practices together under one umbrella: Lesson Preparation, Building Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Interaction, Practice/Application, Lesson Delivery and Review/Assessment. I was first exposed to SIOP while I was pursuing my ESL license. Then I was formally trained by the Rochester School District and began to implement the strategies I learned, in particular in my co-taught classes with our ESL teacher (I teach English/Language Arts). Next I was trained as a SIOP coach, and I have spent the past 3 years training the staff at my school in SIOP.As I mentioned, SIOP combines many best practices, so some of the things I learned were review. For example, Building Background and Interaction are things that most English teachers excel at. I always do a number of pre-reading activities, and I always have students work in a variety of groups. Even so, it was good to review these things through the lens of an ESL learner. I realized, for instance, that I often grouped students based on behavior, but I should sometimes base my groups on language skill. Other aspects of SIOP were more challenging. I still continue to work on writing daily content and language objectives. I have to keep reminding myself that objectives should not be a list of activities, but rather, what I want the students to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. Last year was perhaps my most successful year in writing objectives, but I still need to remember to state the objectives at the beginning of class and review them at the end. Now that we have the common core standards in English, I excited to use them to direct my daily objectives. Another area that I worked to improve in my teaching was vocabulary instruction (Building Background). My co-teacher and I have instituted a word wall with words that use common Latin Roots, and we’ve come up with good ways to review those words/roots (Review and Assessment). Improving Strategies in another area that I have worked on, in particular making sure I ask a variety of questions. For example, I looked at one of the novels that I teach, and I realized that most of the questions I asked about it were just basic comprehension questions! It wasn’t until the final test that I asked the Higher Order Thinking Questions. I am currently working on incorporating HOTS questions into every lesson and having students write their own questions. I feel that by learning, implementing and teaching/coaching in SIOP, I have grown tremendously in my teaching. I truly feel that I have been able to implement most of the best practices incorporated in SIOP, and I feel comfortable in coaching other teachers in it as well. I also feel that my implementation of SIOP has benefited my students. They have clearer expectations of what they need to learn and accomplish, and it is more accessible to them due to the SIOP strategies I’ve implemented. I have seen improvements in students’ motivation, grades and MCA scores over the course of the past 5 years, and personally I think I am a better teacher because of this professional development.
Example 5:
How have I supported student learning in the past five years of my educational life? After looking at my PDExpress transcript, I can see evidence of what has been my focus. The greatest number of hours has been in the areas of positive behavior strategies and reading. There is certainly a relationship between these two areas of focus. If one successfully engages students, positive behaviors are more likely to emerge. If students behave respectfully in class, an environment of learning can flourish. Both the Efficacy and Mind Set courses focused on helping students learn to see themselves as capable of limitless success. I shared the knowledge I gained about these topics with my students, invited them to focus on their strengths, and encouraged them to embrace the learning process. I reminded them that errors are to be expected when learning something new, but with effective effort, each one of them was capable of success. For a student who sees him/herself as efficacious, the sky is the limit when it comes to learning. The reality is that sometimes disruptive, negative situations occur in the classroom, and they not only disrupt the learning of the student causing the interruption, but they also hinder the learning of every other child in the class. The classes that focused on positive behavior management provided many ideas for how to help students through these tense situations. Among my favorites were the Love and Logic classes because they offered practical advice for these moments. If a student feels at odds with the teacher, it is likely that the student will not be able to focus on the learning taking place in the classroom. The student may actually be focused on how to disrupt learning. Through these classes, I was reminded of the importance of treating each of my students with respect. I often used techniques from this class when I could tell a student was trying to get attention in destructive ways. Some key concepts in Love and Logic are staying calm and acknowledging the student’s point of view. For example, if a student proclaimed, “I didn’t do that dumb assignment.” I could reply, “Participating in this discussion is certainly difficult and probably frustrating without having done the homework. Let’s talk for a minute after class.” Showing a student respect in front of his/her peers and putting the discussion off until after class where it can take place privately without an audience allows the student to save face and, hopefully, focus on learning. All of the reading classes I have taken have had an influence on my classroom instruction and what I do to support student learning. But, by far, I have found the most effective classes to be the book studies. During this renewal period, I participated in the class in which we read Rick Wormeli’s book, Summarization. This directly supported student learning because a requirement of the class was that we implement at least one strategy and report back at our next meeting. Not only did I learn directly from my own experiences, but I also learned indirectly through the other teachers’ reports. In addition, I kept notes in the front of the book, in which I noted which strategies would work best with each of the topics I teach. This has proven to be invaluable as it has guided my instruction throughout the year. At the beginning of a unit, I can open up the book and remind myself of strategies that will enhance student learning. Reflecting over the past five years, I am appreciative of the staff development opportunities that this district has provided. There is no question that the 300+ hours of professional development have had a direct and extremely positive impact on my ability to enhance student learning. With the tools from the classes I have taken, I will continue to build my classroom community; a welcoming classroom in which each student feels respected, believes in his/her ability to succeed, and is engaged in learning.