Teacher: Sarah Cowley 

School: St. Teresa of Calcutta 

For: January 2019 - April 2019
 
 
Teacher’s Professional Growth Plan 
 
Learning Goal #1: 
Increase positive parent communication and engagement in the classroom.  
 

Teaching Quality Standard Competency: 

A teacher builds positive and productive relationships with students, parents/guardians, peers 
and others in the school and local community to support student learning.  
 
Achievement of this competency is demonstrated by indicators such as:  
(a) acting consistently with fairness, respect and integrity;  
(b) demonstrating empathy and a genuine caring for others;  
(c) providing culturally appropriate and meaningful opportunities for students and for 
parents/guardians, as partners in education, to support student learning;  
(d) inviting First Nations, Métis and Inuit parents/ guardians, Elders/knowledge keepers, 
cultural advisors and local community members into the school and classroom;  
(e) collaborating with community service professionals, including mental health, social 
services, justice, health and law enforcement;  
(f) honouring cultural diversity and promoting intercultural understanding. 

Inquiry Question: 
How can parent engagement be increased the classroom? 

Resources: 
FreshGrade 
Class Dojo 
Bulletin board 
Teacher mentor 
 
Strategy  Timeline  Indicators of Success 

❏ Compose a letter home to  1 week deadline.  Every parent responds with an 
parents using FreshGrade to  Occurs monthly.  answer to the question within 
answer the question, ​“What  the timeline set.  
about your child’s learning this 
month are you the most proud 
of?” 

❏ Call home to parents to answer  2 days past the  Parents that did not respond to 
the question, “​ What about your  letter response  the digital letter will provide an 
child’s learning this month are  deadline.   oral response.  
you the most proud of?” 
Teacher: Sarah Cowley 
School: St. Teresa of Calcutta 
For: January 2019 - April 2019
 

❏ Collaboratively build a bulletin  1-3 days.  “Parent Pride” board is a 

board to showcase the  visually pleasing display of 
parent’s responses to their  parent responses outside of 
child’s learning.    the classroom.  
 

❏ Celebrate student success  Daily and weekly.  Notify the parents of 2 families 
with parents in Physical  weekly of “Hip Hip Hoorays” 
Education.   that are given in physical 
education by messaging them 
on Class Dojo. 
 
Formative Reflection: 
 
Contacting the parents and receiving notice back from them was more challenging than I 
anticipated. When I sent the letter home, I received about half of the student’s letters back 
after 2-3 days. My next step was to message parents individually using Class Dojo. Once I 
messaged these parents, they responded back within a couple of hours the same day that I 
sent the individualized message out.  
 

Summative Reflection: 
 
Parents responded very quickly back to the individual messages that I sent to them on Class 
Dojo. I believe that this was due to two reasons: 1) because I used their names in the 
message and expressed my interest in their student, and 2) because the message was sent 
directly to their phones and they were able to respond back to me via text. I think that using 
Phone apps and other technology similar to Class Dojo is beneficial to build relationships 
between school and home. Although, I did not formally interview parents about how they felt 
about my messages sent through Class Dojo or the bulletin board, I could infer that Class 
Dojo was a significantly better way to communicate and strengthen the rapport between 
school and home as opposed to written letters sent home. Inviting parents to comment on 
their child’s achievements invited parent support into the classroom and demonstrated both 
empathy and an attitude of caring.  
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Teacher: Sarah Cowley 
School: St. Teresa of Calcutta 
For: January 2019 - April 2019
 
 
 
 
 
Learning Goal #2: 
To create purposeful and meaningful moments that strengthen student-teacher and staff 
relationships.  
 

Teaching Quality Standard Competency: 

A teacher builds positive and productive relationships with students, parents/guardians, peers 
and others in the school and local community to support student learning.  
 
Achievement of this competency is demonstrated by indicators such as:  
(a) acting consistently with fairness, respect and integrity;  
(b) demonstrating empathy and a genuine caring for others;  
(c) providing culturally appropriate and meaningful opportunities for students and for 
parents/guardians, as partners in education, to support student learning;  
(d) inviting First Nations, Métis and Inuit parents/ guardians, Elders/knowledge keepers, 
cultural advisors and local community members into the school and classroom;  
(e) collaborating with community service professionals, including mental health, social 
services, justice, health and law enforcement;  
(f) honouring cultural diversity and promoting intercultural understanding. 

Inquiry Question: 
How does creating meaningful and purposeful moments impact relationships? 
 

Resources: 
Teacher mentor (Annie Greeno) 
Fresh Grade 
Calendar  
 
Strategy  Timeline  Indicators of Success 

❏ Celebrate student success by  Ongoing.  Students feel a sense of 

providing students with “Hip  accomplishment and inclusion in 
Hip Hoorays” at the end of  the classroom.  
every physical education 
class.  

❏ Participate in organization  January 2019,  Attend Science Fair meetings 

and assistance with the  March 2019.  each Wednesdays.  
Science Fair.  
Teacher: Sarah Cowley 
School: St. Teresa of Calcutta 
For: January 2019 - April 2019
❏ Ask if staff would be  February 2019  Organize and coach a free staff 
interested in attending a free  workout on Saturday in February.  
Saturday workout hosted for 
them.  

❏ Schedule a day to attend a  Weekly.   Schedule one day per week that 
weekly activity in my  will be spent participating in 
homeroom or another  activities with students.  
classroom.  
 
Formative Reflection: 
 
Celebrating student success and rewarding positive behaviours with “Hip Hip Hoorays” has 
been successful in reinforcing positive classroom management and celebrating 
achievements of students. I think that these “Hip Hip Hoorays” have strengthened my 
relationships with the students and demonstrated empathy and genuine caring for others.   
I chose to change one of my goals from “hosting a staff workout” to a goal that I thought 
would suit the school community and the students better once I started my practicum. I 
contacted the FNMI liaison worker in search of an individual who could come present hoop 
dancing to the students. I thought that this goal would be more specific to meeting the TPGP 
indicators of success that pertain to cultural diversity, inviting FNMI guests into the 
classroom, and providing culturally appropriate and meaningful opportunities for students. 
 

Summative Reflection: 
 
Throughout the last 15 weeks, I have had the opportunity to observe and participate in several 
different classes at St Teresa of Calcutta. I also had the opportunity to participate in the 
school’s Science Fair. I think that these two efforts increased my participation and 
engagement in the school community, as well as provided new opportunities for relationship 
building and collaboration. Being engaged in the school community strengthened my 
relationships with both staff, students, and parents/guardians. I think it is vital as a new 
teacher to “get yourself out there” and step outside of your comfort zone to involve yourself in 
community and extracurricular activities. Seeing students excel in these areas (other than just 
academic alone) opened my eyes to other skills and talents that they excelled at.  
 
Teacher: Sarah Cowley 
School: St. Teresa of Calcutta 
For: January 2019 - April 2019