Ms.

Shelby Johnson
INTERN TEACHER

CONTACT

Lethbridge, AB
(403)-593-4272
shelby.johnson@uleth.ca
johnsons@holyspirit.ab.ca

PROFESSIONAL GROWTH PLAN

Professional Goal One – Engagement

❖ Goal Statement:

➢ I will improve upon the engagement of my students in my classes. I will do this by

linking my professional growth to the second teaching quality standard, career-
long learning. Specifically, sections a, b, and c (listed below).

➢ Engaging in Career-Long Learning:

“A teacher engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical

reflection to improve teaching and learning. Achievement of this competency is
demonstrated by indicators such as:

(a) collaborating with other teachers to build personal and collective professional
capacities and expertise;
(b) actively seeking out feedback to enhance teaching practice;
(c) building capacity to support student success in inclusive, welcoming, caring,
respectful and safe learning environments”

❖ Rationale:

➢ This particular goal is highly tailored towards my 7KR class at St. Francis Junior
High School. This class is considered to be the K&E equivalent for seventh grade. I
noticed very early on with this group that they were quiet, shy and often did not
 want to share their thoughts or opinions. Their silence could be due to many
different reasons, but I’ve encouraged them to try and share their perspectives
often, even if they are worried, anxious, or maybe self-conscious. I want them to
feel safe and always welcome to share their responses. I have already begun to
see some of them opening up a bit more as they are becoming a little more
comfortable with the routines and environment of junior high. Although they are
beginning to open up slowly, I still want to make a focused effort to ensure I am
doing my very best to engage not only, with the students, but also enabling them
to engage with the material.

❖ Timeline:

➢ I think that trying a new activity and/or instructional strategy once per week will
be a solid start for achieving this goal. This particular group has already asked me
multiple times to return to our “Spelling Test Bingo” activity that we did earlier
this week. In it we reviewed the words from our spelling test by matching select
words with associated phrases or definitions on their cards. It was a great review
tool to use and their enthusiasm was quite prevalent. Knowing how greatly they
responded to this particular activity gives me the confidence moving forward with
trying new things with them to support the engagement I like to see in the room.
➢ In regard to this goal, I will constantly be reflecting and gaining strategies
throughout this practicum. In terms of a timeline, I think it is safe to say I hope to
see improvement each week based on the activities that I try. I will learn from my
failures and continue to try and ensure my students are actively engaged with the
material presented to them. By the end of practicum, I will have tried many
different strategies to try and improve upon my ability to keep students engaged.

❖ Strategies:

➢ One of the most important strategies for achieving this goal is not being afraid to
try new things and fail. I learned a valuable lesson in my first and second
practicums that it is okay to fail. It is okay if your lesson does not go terribly well.
It is okay to learn from those bumps in the road. The only way you will know if
something will work with your class is to try – so to ensure I am actively doing my
part to engage students; I will try new things.
➢ Specific strategies and new instructional techniques include:
o Plicker Games
o Bingo
o Jeopardy
o Pictionary
o Gallery Walks
o Jigsaws
o Station Work
o Cutting and Pasting
 o Flip Books
o Group Work
o Token Economies
➢ In addition to these particular strategies, I will also be focusing on collaboration
from the 8 student competencies during our upcoming division collaborative
meeting to try and gain more perspective in regard to engagement. For this
meeting we were asked to choose one of the competencies that we were most
interested in investigating further within our teaching practices. I chose
collaboration while thinking about engagement for this specific class! I will be
sure to add any new and exciting strategies for engagement (tailored to
collaboration) once I’ve attended the meeting.

❖ Performance Indicators:

➢ One of the purest ways of knowing students are engaged with a lesson is if they
are not giving you what I call the “blank stare.” I have experienced this many
times throughout my practicums, as I am sure everyone has in their teaching
careers, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say it is not the greatest
feeling. I am hoping that by trying these new strategies and activities I will see
more smiles and hear more talking amongst the room, rather than blank stares.
➢ Another indicator of my success is if students are excited and motivated to finish
their work during class. I want to try my hardest to ensure they are using their
class time effectively and efficiently in order to get their work done. Creating
incentives for them to complete their work may be an additional strategy
implemented to encourage engagement.
➢ Through feedback from my teaching mentor, fellow colleagues, and
administration team, I will gain a better sense of whether or not I am effectively
engaging my students in our lessons. Often times we, as teachers, need an
additional set of eyes to give us a fresh perspective on our teaching styles and
practices. These fresh perspectives will be gladly welcomed in my classroom!

❖ TQS Connection Explained Further:

➢ Engaging in Career-Long Learning:

“A teacher engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical

reflection to improve teaching and learning. Achievement of this competency is
demonstrated by indicators such as:

(a) collaborating with other teachers to build personal and collective professional
capacities and expertise;
(b) actively seeking out feedback to enhance teaching practice;
(c) building capacity to support student success in inclusive, welcoming, caring,
respectful and safe learning environments”
 ➢ In order to ensure I am not remaining close minded, I will confer with colleagues,
fellow PSIII interns, my teaching mentor, our administration team, and others to
gain new ideas to help spur engagement in the classroom. I will always be open to
any ideas anyone has. Just because I don’t think of something doesn’t mean I
shouldn’t try it!
➢ Throughout my practicum I will actively seek feedback from my teacher mentor
specifically, but also from the administration team at the school. Any time
teachers or admin personnel observe me teaching, I want to take that as an
opportunity to gain feedback to improve my practice. I have already had
conversations with my teaching mentor about suggestions and feedback and how
I am always open to receiving both!
➢ This goal of engagement really lends well to section (c) of the teaching quality
standard two above. I think the only way I will fully enable my students to engage
with the lessons and curriculum is to ensure they feel safe and welcome in our
classroom.

Professional Goal Two - Classroom Management

❖ Goal Statement:

➢ I will increase the number of strategies I have for classroom management. I will
do this by linking my professional growth to the fourth teaching quality standard,
establishing inclusive learning environments. Specifically, section f (listed below).

➢ Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments:

“A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments

where diversity is embraced and every student is welcomed, cared for, respected
and safe. Achievement of this competency is demonstrated by indicators such as:

(f) employing classroom management strategies that promote positive, engaging

learning environments.”

❖ Rationale:

➢ This particular goal arose because of my 7JH class at St. Francis Junior High
School. I see this group of kids for the last two periods of the day, every day of the
week. Needless to say, they are rowdy, sometimes tired, and often times, just
want to go home. I’ve been there before, so I understand where they are coming
from, but at the same time we all have a job to do, and theirs is to come to class
prepared to learn. We cannot expect to do constructive work when the classroom
environment is one of constant chatter and distractions. It is easy to be
overwhelmed by students when there are 30 of them talking over you.
 Throughout my first week and a half at St. Francis, my 7JH group has given me
quite a hard time with classroom management, transitions, talking over me,
touching each other, etc. They are a great group of kids; they just love to chat and
discuss things constantly while in class. For this group in particular, I am not overly
worried about engagement (although I will undoubtedly be trying some strategies
I’ve listed above with them), more so I am just concerned with establishing a
better structure where I don’t need to be constantly talking over them or wasting
time by waiting for them to stop talking.

❖ Timeline:

➢ The general timeline for achieving this goal will be determined through weekly
reflections and considering various questions that pertain to the general
atmosphere of the class, how efficiently students worked, etc. Much like the
timeline above for my first goal, I will consistently be adding classroom
management strategies to my personal repertoire throughout the course of my
practicum. In this sense, there is not a definitively set timeline for when I will
achieve this goal. My hope is to see weekly improvement through implementing
new strategies.

❖ Strategies:

➢ Attention grabbers. These may seem juvenile, but I think they may have an effect
on this group. It will just depend on what the interaction will be for the attention
grabber. Perhaps if we come up with one together, we can make it a classroom
community building exercise.
➢ New seating arrangements. There are a few students who could probably benefit
from being shifted around the classroom. I find that chatting in this class is a
domino effect, where a pair of students talking quickly becomes all 30 students
fighting to hear one another. I will be making a few changes immediately.
➢ Harsher consequences if students abuse the privilege of doing fun activities. Some
advice that my teaching mentor has given me has been to ensure students know
they cannot get away with wasting our collective time. Trying to do exciting and
new activities with this group has often resulted in not getting through the
required material.
➢ Delineating jobs to students. Perhaps giving the distracted, and overly chatty
students a job to complete during class (that isn’t work related) will allow them to
exude their energy outside of disrupting the class.
➢ Silent cheers for when we are doing review like activities. Just this week we
worked through a Plicker review game and we couldn’t get through one question
without a massive outpour of conversation after each answer was revealed.
Students would exclaim whether or not they got it right. Three quarters of the
way through I offhandedly said to give yourself a silent cheer if you got an answer
 correct, and it seemed to help momentarily. I think if I made this a stricter
requirement of the review game, it would help tremendously.

❖ Performance Indicators:

➢ If the number of times I need to raise my voice declines within the first few weeks
of trying new strategies and classroom procedures, then I will be able to more
confidently say the ideas and strategies are working.
➢ Similarly, if my wait time decreases during classes, I will be more inclined to say
the new strategies are working. I will consistently monitor this and take mental
and physical notes to ensure we are reducing the time it takes to transition and
get settled into our tasks.

❖ TQS Connection Explained Further:

➢ Establishing Inclusive Learning Environments:

“A teacher establishes, promotes and sustains inclusive learning environments

where diversity is embraced and every student is welcomed, cared for, respected
and safe. Achievement of this competency is demonstrated by indicators such as:

(f) employing classroom management strategies that promote positive, engaging

learning environments.”

➢ I think this goal of focusing on classroom management will ultimately help our
space become more conducive with positive learning interactions. The hope is
that our time together is not constantly being littered with interruptions,
distractions, and talking over one another. It is just as much my job, as it is theirs,
to try and make this a positive working environment, where we are able to have
fun, yes, but also where we can keep up with curriculum and school wide
expectations.

Professional Goal Three – Broadening Perspectives on Faith

❖ Goal Statement:

➢ Throughout my practicum I aim to broaden my personal perspective on faith and

its role within our school, and my classroom in particular.

❖ Rationale:

➢ Growing up I went to public schools all through kindergarten to grade 12. I never
got to experience what it was like to be part of a school community so inherently
connected to its faith. At St. Francis there is an extra layer of community that has
 been established through the shared faith that permeates throughout every
classroom and hallway in the building. For someone who has never experienced
this presence of faith in school environments, I can say that it is enlightening to
witness it and be part of it every day. I appreciate and respect the added lens that
faith brings to the entire school.
➢ For these reasons, I would like to personally grow and reflect upon how my
viewpoint on faith has shifted and what the role of faith is in my classroom.

❖ Timeline:

➢ Like my two goals above, I am striving to have continual moments of reflection

throughout the entirety of my practicum placement here at St. Francis. This
particular goal will most likely never have an end date, as it will always be an
important aspect to consider if I am lucky enough to continue my teaching
practice in the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division.

❖ Strategies:

➢ Consistent reflection related to passing/significant moments where faith is

prevalent
➢ Engage students in conversations about their Health/Religion classes. Ask
students what they are learning about and how it affects their everyday life
➢ Actively encourage students to reflect and participate in activities related to the
school’s three-year faith plan (“see the holy moments in front of you every day”
interactive white board)
➢ Consider how the Catholic lens is incorporated in the H.I.N.T Policy and how it can
be updated to improve this crucial perspective (PIP Project)

❖ Performance Indicators:

➢ As this is a personal goal that only I can truly gage, I will need to rely upon my
experiences and consistent reflections throughout my practicum to determine my
success in achieving this particular goal.