Professional Disposition Development
Page Overview
This page shows how I have developed my profession as a teacher in my teaching practice by participating in creative activities to achieve my goals.
Introduction to the Professional Development Plan (PDP) Setting
Personal Development Plan (PDP) refers to activities that improve self-knowledge and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. The concept is not limited to self-development but includes formal and informal activities for developing others as well. Personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems that support human development at the individual level in organizations. A personal development plan is a meticulously designed program which uses psychological tools such as the Personal Effectiveness Scale to create an understanding between a reviewer and an employee of an organization on important areas of development keeping in mind the ways in which these needs would be supported. PDPs are usually developed in companies, and it acknowledges the plan discussed between the employer and employee (Mizell , 2010).
It is important for teachers to create a professional development plan to keep up with trends and best practices in the field. Professional development transforms teachers into better and more apt educators by enabling them to create relevant and tailored course instructions for today’s students. The student achievement can improve by as much as 21 percentile points as a result of teachers’ participation in well-designed professional development programs. It is a path for teachers to pursue professional development and keep up with the latest educational standards to ensure optimal student learning (THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS, 2022).
As a training teacher, I review my previous MCT and MST feedback from semester one to semester seven. I saw that there are some areas for development that I need to work on throughout this semester in order to achieve my PDP goals. Below you can see the evidence of my previous MCT and MST feedback for last semester.
Justification of the Professional Development Goals
This professional development plan provides three goals that will sustain the development of my teaching skills. First, I am aiming to implement the different strategies to motivate students. The second goal is to use creative activities for students. The third aim is to implement different formative assessments in the learning process.
Goal 1: Using different strategies to motivate the students
According to Robert Marzano, “Positive relationships between teachers and students are among the most commonly cited variables associated with effective instruction. If the relationship is strong, instructional strategies seem to be more effective.” Here are some great ways to gain the trust of your students and learn what is meaningful to them.
1. Give students an opportunity to show what they value most.
In the art project pictured right, students cut out silhouettes of themselves and then decorate them with symbols to represent their interests and important experiences. This is a fun way to start your school year, and can give you useful insights into the lives of your students. Consider doing one yourself, so they can learn about you, too!
2. Make better decisions by collecting clear data on your students.
By collecting data digitally, you can instantly refer to it throughout the year when making decisions about class projects and assessments, allowing you to build on the strengths and interests of individual students. Thrively is a great online tool that will provide a detailed picture of each student’s interests and skills.
3. Ask students what they expect from you and make sure you meet their expectations.
When students feel that you have a genuine interest in what you can do to gain their respect, they will be more willing to do what they can to gain yours. Asking for their opinions about what constitutes a good teacher in their eyes, and doing your best to live up to their descriptions, will show students that what they say matters to you( Eichholz, 2016).
Goal 2 : Using different strategies for creative activities
Many child care providers work with mixed-age groups that include children of many different ages. Planning your child care curriculum to include creative art activities that are appropriate (and safe) for infants through school-agers can be challenging. Here are some tips for child care providers to choose creative art activities for multi-age groups.
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Choose materials that appeal to different ages. Activities such as painting, drawing, and working with play dough are art activities that children of all ages can enjoy. Try using materials such as safe, non-toxic play dough; finger paint and large pieces of paper; large crayons and large sheets of paper; soap bubbles; chalk on different kinds of paper; and markers on aluminum foil.
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Encourage age-appropriate exploration. Children of different ages may enjoy using certain art materials in very different ways. Infants and young toddlers may simply scribble with a crayon on a large sheet of paper. Preschoolers may use that same crayon and paper to practice drawing shapes or drawing simple objects. Older children may create an elaborate picture.
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Choose materials that are safe for all ages. Young children are likely to put things in their mouths, so make sure all art materials are non-toxic and safe for different ages.
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Supervise well. Remember that young children are not good at sharing materials. The child care provider may need to sit at the table with children to ensure that the activity is well-supervised.
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Create time or space for “big kid” art. Preschoolers and school-age children need changes to work with more complex materials that are not appropriate for infants and toddlers. Set aside a special area for older children to create art, or plan art activities for older children while younger ones are eating or napping(Childcare, 2016).
Goal 3: Implementing different strategies for formative assessment
Using formative assessment strategies in class during instruction—or “simple assessments,” as they call them—is easy and provides the instant feedback teachers need to identify which learners need more help and adjust their instruction and lesson plans accordingly. There are different techniques of formative assessments such as:
New Clothes
Dos and Don’ts
Three Common Misunderstandings
Yes/No Chart
Three Questions
Explain What Matters
Big Picture
Venn Diagram
Draw It
Self-Directed Response.
There are many great formative assessment strategies for checking on student learning. Be sure to click through to learn more about these formative assessment strategies.
There are more strategies you can use to elicit evidence of student learning such as:
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Entrance Tickets. We’ve blogged about and explained the Exit Ticket, so why not have an Entrance Ticket? Here, the teacher asks a question at the start of a lesson, and students write their responses on index cards or strips of paper. Answers are used to assess initial understanding of something to be discussed in that day’s lesson or as a short summary of understanding of the previous day’s lesson. The teacher designs the lesson around the fact that information on student learning will be coming in at the start of the lesson and can be used to improve the teaching and learning in that lesson. Be sure to write the question so it is easily interpreted and analyzed, allows time for you and/or the students to analyze the responses, and leaves space for you to adjust the lesson if needed.
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Keep the Question Going. With this formative assessment strategy, you’ll ask one student a question and then ask another student if that answer seems reasonable or correct. Then, ask a third student for an explanation of why there is an agreement or not. This helps keep all the students engaged because they must be prepared to either agree or disagree with the answers given and provide explanations.
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30-Second Share. With this strategy, students take a turn to report something learned in a lesson for up to 30 seconds each. Connections to the learning targets or success criteria are what you’ll be looking for in the language used by the student. Make this a routine at the end of a lesson so all students have the opportunity to participate, share insights, and clarify what was learned.
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Parking Lot. This is an underused strategy for students and one that can surface questions before learning, as well as during and after. This tool also offers an anonymous place for questions that may be directly related to the content or tangential to the current topic and provide insight into student thinking. Simply save a spot on your whiteboard to write down ideas or questions that aren’t completely relevant at the moment but should be revisited later.
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One-Minute Paper. This might be considered a type of exit ticket as it is typically done near the end of the day. Ask your students, either individually or with a partner, to respond in writing to a single prompt(Dyer, 2022).
The following button will redirect you to my Professional Development Plan (PDP) document :