REVISED Professional Growth Plan Final Report

PART 1

1a. What data are you using to guide the development of your professional learning goal (e.g. reflections on
teaching, teaching observations, mid-program evaluations, student feedback)?

In order to guide my professional development and improve my instruction, I am using video

recordings of myself to evaluate what I do when I teach. I often write reflections that go together with the
videos that I watch so I am really taking the time to analyze and reflect on what I see. When I get observed in
the field, I get evaluations from Dr. Lychner or Dr. Lefils that give me an outside perspective on my teaching.
Something I find valuable and helpful is talking to my colleagues about my instruction so I get their feedback
on what I can improve as well. The more forms of feedback I have, the better off I will be when trying to
evaluate and improve my instruction.

1b. What do the data tell you?

The data has shown that my strengths are engaging students in learning, providing appropriate
encouragement, and providing appropriate content matter. My weakness is mainly pacing. I need to be more
aware of how my students are reacting to the lesson so that I can gage the appropriate steps and actions to
take.

2. Using the information from question 1, what is your focus area (write both the Danielson domain and
the component that you have identified as having the greatest potential for increasing student learning
below)?

Domain: 3. Instruction

Component: 3c. Engaging students in learning (pacing)

3. What goal will enable you to strengthen your practice (write your goal statement below)?

My goal is to engage students at a high level of rigor so that they are challenged and required to think
in complex ways. Pacing will be important because it will be the difference between them understanding
or not. Without proper pacing, the content that I am teaching will not effectively engage the students in the
ways I would want them to be.

4. Describe what will you do to build professional background knowledge related to the domain and
component that you have selected in order for you to achieve your goal (e.g. what articles/books will you
read, what Internet resources will you use, what workshops will you attend, will you interview or observe
teachers)?
 I have been attending the Florida Music Educators Association Conference annually for four years
now, so I always take that opportunity to go to workshops and sessions that will benefit my teaching.
Additionally, I try to maintain awareness in my own classes about my professors and their pacing. I am a
firm believer of using all the resources that I have available to me, and this is one of the ways I take
advantage of my education at Stetson. Going along with this, I will always try to observe others in the
profession to gain new ideas, inspiration, and motivation.

5. What specific activities/actions will you implement to help attain your goal (e.g. administer a student
interest inventory, develop lessons that include multiple project options for students, include the use of
formative assessments during instruction, video tape and critique one’s practice, establish procedures for
the distribution and collection of materials and supplies)?

To help me attain my goal, I will record myself teaching and reflect upon what I see. Since I’m still
getting used to teaching, it’s difficult for me to judge my own pacing. With the recordings, I can step
outside of myself and look back on the lessons to pinpoint areas that I could’ve had better pacing on. I also
plan to teach units that include projects that will correlate with repertoire we are playing so that they are
being engaged and challenged in a variety of ways.

6. How will you collaborate with other professionals to meet your goal?

I will collaborate with my professors, colleagues, and other educators in the profession. Since my
colleagues and professors see me teach often, they will be able to give me advice on ways to improve my
instruction further. Watching others in the profession teach their classes will help me with my goal as their
experience is always something I learn from. My cooperating teacher will also give me opportunities to
teach and workshop in their classroom so that I can get as comfortable as possible with this before I get a
job.

7. What evidence/artifacts will you collect to demonstrate that your goal is being met?

I will use video recordings to see if my pacing is truly improving. I will also use lesson plans to keep
me organized, data from assessments to gage student learning, and any feedback I receive from my
colleagues, supervisors, and cooperating teacher.
 PART 2

1. What did you do to build your professional background knowledge related to the domain and
component that you selected? Did you add any new professional learning opportunities during your
intern?

To begin with, I made sure to educate myself on exactly what it is that my component was
asking of me. I used the music Danielson framework to read detailed descriptions about my
component. I continuously read books and articles on teaching to strengthen my foundations and
become aware of new strategies available to me. I have been attending the Florida Music Educators
Association Conference annually for four years now, so I always take that opportunity to go to
workshops and sessions that will benefit my teaching. Additionally, I try to maintain awareness in my
own classes about my professors and their pacing. I am a firm believer of using all the resources that I
have available to me, and this is one of the ways I take advantage of my education at Stetson. Going
along with this, I did the same thing with my cooperating teacher. We also sat down together to discuss
my teaching specifically related to my component. I attended all professional development
opportunities at my school as well.

2. What specific activities/actions did you implement to help attain your goal? Describe at least 4 specific
activities.

Activity 1: I would record myself teaching and evaluate it at home that same night. I would
specifically wait until I was home in the evening, so I had time to think about how I think it
went based on what I remembered. In most cases, when I would re-watch the videos, they were
almost never as bad as I remembered to be. I loved doing this because it gave me a chance to
come up with a game plan to do some things differently that hadn’t gone well previously. It is
motivating to see that video after video, I was actually improving on the things I was
consciously trying to improve by re-watching the videos and coming up with solutions.

Activity 2: I had my cooperating teacher specifically watch for my pacing so that we could
discuss it afterwards. Along with recordings, this was helpful because we were able to come up
with solutions together. It was nice to have his experience to guide my in the right direction.

Activity 3: If I was ever spending too much time on a student, a concept, or an explanation, I
made it a point to step away from it and move on. While sometimes it is necessary to spend
time on things until it is understood, there are also times where that can derail the entire flow of
a class/rehearsal. When I did this, often we would come back to it the next day and it would be
fine. This was a crucial part in being able to manage my pacing issues.

Activity 4: I started writing down projected times of when I wanted to be covering something
in class and keeping it on my podium. For example, if I knew I wanted to spend 15 minutes on
a piece of music and 10 minutes on another, I would estimate the specific time that that would
occur in class. By keeping this on my podium, I was able to check the clock in the room and
see how I was doing. This helped me evaluate if I was on track, and if I wasn’t, I could evaluate
why and determine whether getting off the schedule was for good reason or not.
3. Did you meet your intended goal? Describe the evidence and artifacts that demonstrate the professional
learning goal was met (include at least four descriptions of evidence). One piece of evidence must be
the focused observations by your cooperating teacher in your selected area of growth (attach the
feedback provided by your cooperating teacher). Label and describe each piece of evidence and
explain why each piece helps meet your intended goal. Attach the artifacts to the end of the
report.

Artifact 1: My first artifact is the focused PGP observation from my cooperating teacher. This
helps me reach my intended goal because it is a good indicator of how I am doing regarding my
goal. My cooperating teacher was able to tell me how to fix the issues I was having along with
telling me my strengths. This helps me reflect on how my lesson went and how I can improve
for the next time.

Artifact 2: My second artifact is the first assessment C completed by Dr. LeFils. In this
assessment, he gives me specific feedback on not just my goal component, but all the
components on the Danielson rubric. This gives me a basis on where I stand with my goal. I
used this to realize where I was and where I wanted to be in comparison. After the observation,
Dr. LeFils and I got to discuss strategies to improve on my goal as well.

Artifact 3: My third artifact is an email reflection from earlier in the semester. In this reflection
I acknowledge that my pacing was indeed improving and I was feeling more confident about it.
This reflection is important because it shows that I am taking time to look back and analyze
how I am doing. As an educator, if I am not taking the time to do this, I cannot expect to
improve and adapt to what my students need.

Artifact 4: My fourth artifact is the second and final assessment C completed by Dr. LeFils.
This assessment helped me gage my progress with my goal. By this point, I was feeling more
confident in front of the ensemble and was showing major improvements in pacing. Even with
improvements, though, I took time to continue to ask Dr. LeFils what else I could do to
improve my pacing. He gave me good suggestions and I began to try them out before schools
got cancelled.

4. How did you collaborate with other professionals to meet your goal?

I collaborated with my professors, colleagues, cooperating teacher, and other educators in the
profession to guide me in reaching my goal. My professors were always there if I was seeking advice
about my goal and specifically, Dr. LeFils was able to see me in action and gave me adequate
feedback. My colleagues helped in sharing their experiences and how they handled their struggles with
pacing. Talking about it and sharing ideas was useful in the way I approached my rehearsals. My
cooperating teacher was my main resource being that he watched me teach every day. We would
discuss things that went well or things that needed improvement, and we would come up with solutions
to fix the things that did not go as well. Finally, I collaborated with other teachers in my county to gain
strategies from them as well. Many of them are seasoned educators who had much to say about pacing
and how to best manage that.
5. What new learning did you acquire as a result of the professional learning opportunities in which you
engaged?

I learned a great deal about the classroom environment and how to gage what my students need
at a particular point in time. Teacher withitness is highly valuable and important, and I felt like my
teacher withitness has greatly improved since beginning my internship. Further, I learned about myself
and my students in a way that benefitted both parties. It is important to understand yourself and your
tendencies, especially the things that you cannot change, so you can use that to your advantage and be
the best teacher you can possibly be. Knowing your students goes hand-in-hand with that.

6. What impact did the changes in instructional practice have on you as a professional?

They had a tremendous impact on my teaching. The pace of a rehearsal determines a good one
from a bad one. Effectiveness and productivity in rehearsal can boost the ensemble’s morale just as
much as the teacher’s, so it is important to have those kinds of rehearsals as much as possible. I feel
more confident when it comes to pacing which is directly tied to my confidence on the podium. Rather
than freaking out when things aren’t going the way I want them to, I can take a deep breath and really
see what’s in front of me. This awareness is important because it is he first step to reaching a solution.

7. What impact did the changes in instructional practice have on your students’ learning?

Once I started getting better at pacing, I noticed an immediate change in student learning.
Everyone seemed much more engaged and they were able to keep up with what I was doing. It is still a
fine line to be walking on because pacing is never going to be exactly the same for each learning
experience. I am more confident in evaluating the room to see what it needs and therefore, I can get
faster results from my students.

8. How will you continue to develop in this area?

I will continue to record myself and evaluate it afterwards. I found this to be successful and
extremely helpful. I plan to reach out to my colleagues so I can observe them teach when I get the
chance. This way, I am still going out and seeing different strategies that are being used by people who
are more experienced than I am. Seeking and going to professional development opportunities is
something I have always done and will continue to do as I am a firm believer in life-long learning.
Finally, I will bring others into my classroom to evaluate me and give me feedback. This is another
crucial action that I plan to take advantage of when I have my own job.

Artifact 1: Focused PGP observation from my cooperating teacher

Artifact 2: First assessment C completed by Dr. LeFils

Artifact 3: Email reflection

Artifact 4: Second and final assessment C completed by Dr. LeFils

 Artifact 3 – Email Reflection 5

Last week, we hosted middle school Jazz MPA and it was great for me to experience. Learning about

all the logistics of the planning and seeing what happened while the event was running is important since I

may have to host events in the future. It was also good for me to be able to hear/watch the schools who

participated as I am continuing to develop my ears. Because it was an all-day event and we needed student

volunteers to help so that everything ran smoothly, I got to interact with more of the students for a longer

period of time, and it resulted in me developing better relationships with them. I can tell that their trust in me

is continuing to grow, which I greatly value. In terms of teaching, I got to redeem myself in AP Theory by

teaching a lesson about texture that went really well. I’ve been doing a lot of research on warm-ups to get

ideas for them so I can keep them exciting, engaging, and effective. I was able to apply one of the ideas on

Friday, and the band responded well to it. I was so pleased about it afterwards that it felt like an energy boost.

Those moments are important for me when I usually feel like I’m not teaching them anything. Specifically, I

was trying to work on my pacing along with incorporating new warm-up strategies. I found that every day, I

have been getting better at my pacing. I am improving in reading the room and determining what the students

need. It is great to have a cooperating teacher who sits down with me after I teach and encourages me while

giving me constructive feedback that will help me. I am currently trying to decide on pieces for the

percussionists to start learning as well as thinking about who will be in what chamber groups, so that has been

fun. This week coming up will be the first “normal” week in a while since we’ve had MPA and middle school

assemblies that have disrupted instruction time. The weeks feel long, but I can’t believe we’re already

approaching the halfway mark. I’m having a great time and I am excited for what post-MPA will look like!