Nicole Bowman

INTASC Standard #9
Within my professional semester and both of my clinical experiences through Kutztown
University, I attended various professional development meetings and workshops. Though I was
a student teacher without the years of experience of my colleagues, I found a few particular
meetings that were rather beneficial to me.
During my professional semester at Whitfield Elementary School in the Wilson School
District, I attended an in-service day specifically focused on falling in love with reading. The
current principal at the school began with an article from Scholastic, and then introduced
several additional reading assessment techniques to produce data. I found the articles and the
sheet further explaining the purposes of anecdotal notes and running records to be most
beneficial, which are included as artifacts for this standard.
The second meeting I found to be most beneficial in my clinical experience was a
workshop centered on the topic of fractions. A retired teacher came into Muhlenberg
Elementary Center and met with grade level teams and worked with the teachers to think
outside of the box of math, and think more towards the way the Common Core wants to
teachers to think, with multiple ways of completing a problem, outside of the way we may think
to answer it. We used manipulatives, such as number lines, and read over research based
articles. His main point was to have us practice our questioning skills, reinforcing that students
are in control of their own learning, and teachers are the prompters of the classroom discussion
and learning through questioning. Questioning is a critical and powerful tool that is necessary
for any subject, not just in math.
I included some of the handouts from this workshop on fractions and professional
development to represent reflection and continuous growth as a teacher. Working with other
teachers to practice continuous growth is of great importance, but having other professionals
suggest their input is of great necessity as well. Teachers dedicate their lives to becoming
lifelong learners and professional development plays a critical part in that motto.
The first four pages are the articles provided at the in-service day at Whitfield
Elementary School, directed towards reading, during my professional semester. The second
four pages included are represented as evidence from the professional development training
on fractions that I participated in at Muhlenberg Elementary Center during my student
teaching.