RUNNING HEAD: PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PLAN

Professional Growth Plan

Thomas Caggianelli

PEDU 671
RUNNING HEAD: PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PLAN

Description of chosen teacher:

After a talk with my principal and assistant principal, they both suggested a teacher who is in his third

year of teaching within the same department that I am. In the science department, there is a biology

teacher who primarily taught the Honors Biology and Anatomy and Physiology in his previous two years

of employment. This year, however, the teacher was given three sections of Anatomy and Physiology,

two sections of General Biology, and one section of General Inclusion Biology with a co-teacher. We

came up with plan that the content teacher, whom I am working with, will meet and plan after school

with the Special Education teacher after school on Thursdays to plan out the entire week. During this

planning, they should divvy up the work, lessons, and make sure any group work is compatible with the

students.

1. What did the process look like for choosing this particular area of study with the teacher? How

did you and the teacher go about choosing this particular area of study?

While sitting down and talking to this teacher about possible areas that he could work on, while

using the insight from both administrators that suggested him, we came up with a list of things

that I had done while teaching General Biology and General Inclusion Biology. We discussed

what had worked and what has not worked. We then discussed my strengths of relationship

building with students, and his strengths of connecting material to many different topics when it

came to student interest. The one thing that he was most worried about was the co-teacher.

Up to this point, he did not have any push-in teacher at all, while I have had one for at least one

class every semester. We decided that we would focus on the working with and utilization of

co-teachers within an inclusive classroom.

2. In focusing on this area of study, what do you hope that the teacher might improve upon and

learn in relation to improving student achievement?

RUNNING HEAD: PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PLAN

While focusing on how to work with co-teacher, I hope that my teacher will work on his

communication with other teachers, primarily the Special Education teacher that works with

him. Communication is the number one most important tool that is needed when working with

a co-teacher. Allowing that co-teacher access to all materials that is needed for that week and

unit is imperative to getting great results from the students. Another area that I would like to

see improvement on from the content teacher would be his ability to cede control to another

highly qualified teacher in the classroom. From experience, and his personality, most content

teachers have a hard time conceding control over the classroom to a co-teacher. The content

teacher would need to be able to feel comfortable allowing the co-teacher to work with

students without undermining her.

3. How might you plan on ensuring that this teacher will improve in this area? What might this look

like for you and the teacher?

As of right now, the content teacher and I have agreed that I will observe his lessons once every

two weeks. The Co-teacher has been brought up to speed with what the plan in and she

completely agrees. She explained that she would love to be more than just an “assistant,” but

rather teach lessons as well. I have attended the first planning between the two of them and

plan on sitting down with the teachers during the co-planning every week that I observe the

lessons. In doing so, I can share insight with what worked with me when I had co-teachers and

what had not worked. I can share with the SPED teacher, who does not have a science

background what the best lessons for her may be that she could teach. All at the same time,

providing feedback to the content teacher who I am working with.

Academic Pledge: I have neither given nor received help on this work, nor am I aware of any
infraction of the Honor Code. – Thomas Caggianelli