Annual Professional Growth Plan Incorporating Reflection

Professional Growth Plan for Nov. 15, 2021 - 20 Dec. 16, 2021
Name: Gracie Morbeck
Assignment: Grade 2 at Horace Allen School
Goal: Students will participate in activities that accurately reflect and demonstrate the strength
and diversity of FNMI knowledge.
Teaching Quality Standard: #5: “A teacher develops and applies foundational knowledge
about First Nations, Métis and Inuit for the benefit of all students.”
Specifically, TQS 5(c): uses 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
Strategies Timeline Resources

- Where possible in my lessons, I will teach - Curriculum lab

students about local contributions and Week 1-5 website
historic FNMI knowledge. I will know
students learned what I intended through - FNMI uleth
their participation in class or the database
production of their work.
- Internet resources
- Think of ways that FNMI knowledge can
be incorporated into every subject. For - University library or
example, read Indigenous authors’ books Horace Allen library
as well as books about Indigenous heroes, Week 1-5
histories, and knowledge. - Horace Allen
teachers + my
- Design lesson plans reflecting FNMI Nov. 15- university professors
culture. Aim for ¼ of my lessons to have Dec. 16 from this semester
FNMI knowledge.
- Notes from our PSI
- Survey other teachers at Horace Allen by Indigenous
observing their classrooms during Nov. 15- workshops
scheduled times they incorporate FNMI Dec. 16
into lessons or simply ask them to explain
or to see past lesson plans.

Indicators of Success: (developed as goal is written)

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

© 2006 The Alberta Teachers’ Association

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 a. I will know my goal is completed when my students can tell me about Indigenous
peoples’ values and ways of being verbally, through drawings, or in writing.

Midway Reflection (Week 3)

Before my practicum began, I started to accumulate resources that would help me
incorporate FNMI knowledge into my teaching. I utilized numerous resources which I listed in
the “resources” column above. Unfortunately, I was unable to observe other teachers at Horace
Allen due to COVID-19 cohorting protocols. My T.A. was very helpful; she shared a lot of the
websites and activities she uses to try and fill in this gap in my original plan. She has a wealth of
materials as one of her minors was Indigenous Studies. She greets the students every morning by
saying good morning in Blackfoot as well as refers to absent/ missing students in the language.
All of the numbers on her number line have the Blackfoot name, and many stories are embedded
into all of the subjects. For example, I observed a science lesson that she taught about the fuel
that is used in furnaces to heat homes. She embedded FNMI knowledge by stating that tipis were
heated by burning buffalo manure. Taking notes from her and conversations I had with other
teachers (in the staff room at lunch time), I started compiling a list of ways to incorporate FNMI
knowledge into every subject. This is a working document that I try and add to at the end of each
week.
I did have to make a slight adjustment to my goal. ¼ of my lessons including FNMI
knowledge was ambitious considering I did not realize how much I had to learn. I have to
strengthen my foundational knowledge before I embed Indigenous lessons into my own lessons
so it does not come off as tokenism. Thus, I am changing my goal to four lessons which
incorporate FNMI knowledge.

Reflection on Indicator of Success (end of Year)

a) How successful have I been in meeting my goal?

I have been fairly successful in meeting my goal. I taught 4 lessons that included FNMI
knowledge, and the students understood the main messages because their verbal exit slips were
correct. One of my students is Cree, so I incorporated her culture into one of my lessons about
the Saskatchewan Cree. She is very proud, and if my practicum was longer, I would have worked
to get an Elder into the school. Unfortunately, with COVID, my T.A. told me that this process
was unlikely to happen. Overall, I am happy that I took the time to grow my own learning about
First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. I can look back on the documents I created in the future.

b) How has my professional practice improved?

My professional practice has improved because I feel much more confident with embedding
FNMI knowledge into my lessons seamlessly. I no longer am afraid that I am simply checking
off TQS 5 when I write my lessons; I am actively thinking about how I can weave the two
“worlds” together.

c) How has student learning improved?

At first, I felt that the students did not have a grand understanding of my FNMI lessons. Thus, I
was down on myself. My T.A. assured me that in elementary, the focus is on introducing and
normalizing FNMI knowledge rather than having supreme educational conversations. It excites

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me that I was a part of the exposure process that is vital to reconciliation. It is my belief that the
chances of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples being Othered is decreased if their knowledge
and culture is consistently brought up in classrooms.

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