Competency Five Narrative—Engage in Professional Development

Attendance at professional conferences and workshops is a wonderful opportunity for teachers who are
seeking new ideas. As trends and topics change in education it is important to stay abreast of what is new.
As one of the older teachers in our building, I find it important to go to professional development so that I
can learn more about the newer ideas that my younger colleagues bring with them to the field.
Demonstrate the Disposition for Life-long Learning and Continuous Professional Development
I have been privileged to attend several conferences, and have included my reflections from attending
INTESOL in 2017. This item was originally submitted as part of the requirements of the ELL Portfolio
required for licensure. The summary of the sessions I attended that day shows my interest in continued
learning, and also demonstrates the type of reflecting I do after listening to presenters. I sought out sessions
that were related to the licensure I was working on at the time, and were also relevant to the work I do with
my students. I particularly enjoyed Dr. Virak Chan’s teaching about academic language. Prior to attending
this conference, I never thought about the number of times students have to change academic language
throughout their days. This session really broadened my thinking about how much vocabulary our students
have to learn to use. In my course on educational theory, we learned about constructivism. Planning
appropriately for ELL students’ need to learn the language of each subject area requires a teacher to employ
some elements of constructivist theory. The activities for using the words need to be authentic, involve the
use of several modes of presentation, and involve the social aspects of learning. I led a professional
development about academic language for our teachers after hearing this information. Teachers were very
shocked to see how much vocabulary they weren’t teaching explicitly enough for our ELs to really access
the curriculum. The most valuable part of professional development is hearing from those who are doing
current research in the field. I always make it a point to bring back information to share with colleagues at
our Professional Learning Community meetings.