Template 3.

Annual Professional Growth Plan Incorporating Reflection

Annual Professional Growth Plan for 01//01/21 to 01/06/21 Name: Rebecca Ochitwa

Assignment and/or Career Goal: Commitment to professional growth, learning and progress.
Goal: Create more opportunity for multiculturalism and cultural diversity to exist, be explored,
and celebrated within the classroom.
Teaching Quality Standard or School Leader Competency Reference:
TQS: Fostering Effective Relationships

c) providing culturally appropriate and meaningful opportunities for students and for
parents/guardians, as partners in education, to support student learning;

f) honouring cultural diversity and promoting intercultural understanding.

Strategies Timeline Resources

Team-building activities to promote trust in
the classroom..
Workshops on how to include
multiculturalism and developing
intercultural understanding may also
be beneficial.
Researching how to respectfully and
authentically include students
identity/culture when students may be
living in foster care or may not have
connections to their family of origin.
Working with students to further
define how their culture and the
culture of others influences their
worldview.
6 months Diversity and Inclusion Activities to
do with your team:
https://crescendowork.com/guide-
start-diversity-inclusion-
strategy/2019/2/26/group-diversity-
inclusion-activities-teams
Read: Here Comes Everyone:
Teaching in a Culturally Diverse
Classroom
5 pages each week over 8 weeks.
Research time 1 hour per 2 weeks X
20 Weeks.
Attend ATA Diversity, Equity and
Human Rights Conference

Give students the opportunity to share

cultural artefacts or experiences from
their own cultures when exploring rich
cultural artefacts from other cultures.
Indicators of Success: (developed as goal is written)
2 x classes of trust-building activities. These activities may be related culture or the Japan unit as
an entry to the unit. Students and teacher take time to create a reflective journal entry regarding
these activities and their importance to building trust and community in the classroom.

Create reflective notes from Here Comes Everyone resource

- Ensure that these notes are organized/filed so that I can access and reflect on them later
on in my practice. Keep a record of when you attended and what practices you would like
to bring to your classroom.

Collection of research articles with annotated notes and ideas for classroom implementation
- Ensure that these notes are organized/filed so that I can access and reflect on them later
on in my practice.

I will have an organized system for ease of access and reference for the ATA workshops that
keep record of attendance and a recorded list of strategies from those conferences/workshops that
I would like to implement in my classroom.

What will successful completion of my goal look like for my Professional Practice? For
Student Learning?

For my professional practice, honouring cultural diversity, encouraging intercultural

understanding and meaningfully encouraging multiculturalism is important not only for my
specialization of Social Studies but is also crucial for the development of safe, understanding
spaces where students feel they have dignity and respect. This promotes the idea that students
feel accepted and can help me to build more positive, authentic relationships not only with the
students but with their families and the community.

For student learning, encouraging this exposure to other cultures for all students, will allow
students to bring their home identities into the classroom. This will allow students to have
meaningful opportunities to share information/artefacts from their own culture which should aid
in developing a deeper pride sense of pride in one’s own identity and promote intercultural
understanding. This also encourages students to make connections between history and present
society. Some rich cultural artefacts that students explore throughout social studies (e.g. Aztec
civilization) no longer exist, so by comparing artefacts that existed in ancient history to the
cultural artefacts that exist today we can promote deep thinking about the significance of culture,
identity, worldviews, and cultural-erasure – which are key elements to Grade 8 Social Studies.
Connecting what students are learning to their own identities or worldviews is what makes social
studies live and breathe for students. It may help to bring the impact of past intercultural contact
and the loss of culture ‘real’ for students.

Goal: Create more connections to Indigenous knowledge and deepen my understanding of Métis knowledge,
practice and traditions.
Teaching Quality Standard or School Leader Competency Reference:
 TQS: Applying Foundational Knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit

A) legislation and agreements negotiated with Métis;

C) using the programs of study to provide opportunities for all students to develop a
knowledge and understanding of, and respect for, the histories, cultures, languages,
contributions, perspectives, experiences and contemporary contexts of First
Nations, Métis and Inuit; and

D) supporting the learning experiences of all students by using resources that

accurately reflect and demonstrate the strength and diversity of First Nations, Métis
and Inuit.

Strategies Timeline Resources

Increase knowledge and understanding of 6 months ESA Professional Development –
Métis traditions, practices, knowledge and Alberta Métis Council Speaker,
history Feburary 3rd

Increase knowledge of curriculum connections Curriculum Links for Grades 3-12 in

to Indigenous stories, practices and Alberta: https://waterlution.org/wp-
knowledge. content/uploads/2019/11/Alberta.pdf
- Read 1 page and spend 1
Connect the current and historical economic hour every 2 weeks
practices of First Nations and Métis in Alberta investigating connections X
with the economic systems that we learn about 20 weeks.
in Grade 9 Social Studies.
Attended Digital Storytelling: A
Visit the Calgary Central Library’s Indigenous Conversation on Cultural Retention
Services Center to view Indigenous resources on November 19th/20 – use the
or speak with Elders. information from this session and
explore the link
https://www.metisvoices.ca to learn
more and find curricular connections.
- Spend 1 hour every 2 weeks
exploring the resource and
curricular connections X 20
weeks.

Long Term Resource/Goal:

Online Indigenous Canada Resource:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/indige
nous-canada
- Completed in 20 hours over
the summer.

Indicators of Success:

Reflective notes from Alberta Métis Council which indicate attendance date, emerging
understandings and practices that could be implemented in the classroom
 - Ensure that these notes are organized/filed so that I can access and reflect on them later
on in my practice. Keep a record of when you attended and what practices you would like
to bring to your classroom.

Collected relevant resources or information from the Calgary Central Public Library. Continuing
to develop a relationship with the Elder’s circle who work and volunteer at the Indigenous
Initiatives and Services center.

Students will add the economic practices of First Nations and Métis groups in Alberta to their
economic line graph and will create documents reflecting on the economic practices of these
Indigenous groups.

Reflective Notes connected to curriculum links that were found in researching and exploring the
Curriculum Links for Grades 3-12 in Alberta website and the Métis Voices website. These
resources will be organized in a way that allow for ease of access and will include information
on potential projects and activities that I would like to bring to the classroom.

Certification of completion for online Indigenous Canada resource.