Destiny Schwartz

Dr. Smith
EDU334
12/1/23

InTASC #9 Professional Development

6, 2023. During this meeting, the teachers talked about different strategies that helped students

grow, what worked best, and what did not. They also discussed the layout of their school and the

pros and cons of a new school building coming in fall 2025. As an entire school during this

meeting, I felt like all of the teachers came together and collaborated.

I have demonstrated performance in 9(c) by collaborating with my mentor teacher in

doing an InTASC chart. During this process we collaborated and talked about each student’s

learning style, scaffolding strategies, diversity strategies, test scores, data, and prior assessments.

This helped me understand what students need assistance with which would allow me to better

support the students. Having ongoing professional development and reflecting on how students

learn can help me as a teacher provide positive feedback to students and always continue to

grow.

I have established 9(d) by asking for resources to help plan a lesson. I have also observed

students throughout the days to see how they interact with others and how my mentor teacher

handles situations. One area of professional development I have focused on is that I have sought

additional online help for different ways to help students engage and how I could help students

better interact with me during my read aloud. As a result, I have been more enthusiastic and

more interested when reading, which in turn encourages the students to act similarly.
 I have displayed 9(b) and 9(h) by using my InTASC 2 chart to help me create my lesson

plan. This chart has helped me understand that students learn at different paces and have different

challenges when learning. To meet each one’s needs, I had all of them in a small group and had

the students who needed help with behavior near me. I also read the problems to the students as

some of them needed to hear their assignment in order to understand it. I could collect data about

learning preferences from students to help me understand what areas they need me to teach more

in depth on.

I have shown 9(i) while I am teaching as I try to offer different perspectives on different

situations. For example, I may think that a certain way to solve a math problem is easier, but I let

the students do whichever way they feel is easiest. This allows them to devise their own strategy.

What I know can help educate students and make them more aware of their surroundings. My

frame of reference can also help me understand and be accepting of different perspectives. If a

student asks me a question and I don’t understand or know the answer, I can find research about

it. I could even look it up with the student as a growth opportunity for both of us to share. In my

clinicals I had this happen and I said to the student, “Hmmm, I don’t know the answer to this.

Could we go back to the previous page of your math book and see if we can find a similar

answer?”

In keeping with 9(m), I am always open minded, and I want what is best for my students.

I have attended parent teacher conferences so that I could interact with and meet most of my

students’ parents. This enabled me to understand their religion, a little about the student’s home

life, and helped me better myself as a teacher. I have learned that building relationships within

the classroom and with your students’ parents or guardians is a major step to succeeding as a

teacher.
 I have learned 9(n) by always reflecting on my teaching every week. I ask my mentor

teacher for feedback on each lesson plan so that I can learn and grow. I am also open-minded

about feedback received so I can correct any issues. Making myself knowledgeable and always

being reflective allows me to meet the needs of my students because something may not work

when I teach it and that is on me. I must find ways that work best for my students so that they

can succeed. I want them to grow and as they grow, I find new opportunities to improve my

teaching. One thing I have noticed over the past semester with clinicals, is that my students often

surprise me and may need more work to do during our time together in a certain subject. As a

teacher you should plan backup lesson plans for when you teach, just in case we have extra time

in our day.

I have exhibited 9(o) by always being professional during my time with students and staff

members. I have followed St. Columbkille’s code of ethics and also arrive at least fifteen minutes

early to school. I have had the opportunity to get to know my students on a personal level and I

had the opportunity during clinicals to sit in on parent-teacher conferences.

I have demonstrated 9(a) by always connecting my lesson plan to the standards. This

allows me to make sure my students are learning. It also assists me as a teacher to understand

what a specific student needs and to set target goals in order for them to grow. I have assessed

myself in different ways. I have asked my mentor teacher for feedback and I have reflected on

every single lesson I have done and found ways I can improve.

I have established 9(j), I have kept confidentiality with knowledge of specific students as

well as when I was talking about them in my observation 2 paper. I have used my clinicals

disposition form to help me understand areas I have strength in and some areas where I need to
keep practicing. I want to be a well-rounded teacher and the disposition form will assist in my

growth beyond my clinicals classroom.

I have shown beyond doubt, 9(k) by creating multiple goals throughout the semester. I

wanted to learn two classroom management skills. I learned that when my mentor teacher pushes

a button, the class should stop and listen because they know that is the quiet down button. I also

noticed that my mentor teacher has a turn in box next to her desk. This allows her to easily grade

students’ work and allows the students to be responsible. Another goal I wanted to focus on was

being able to provide positive feedback to my students, which I did on their worksheets. For

example, “I like how you grouped these over here. Could you regroup these ones like you did

before?” This allows students to fix the incorrect answer but provides them with a positive

correction instead of negative one. My final goal was to understand how my mentor grades

students and how she places them on a rubric. She shared information with me about who scored

what on certain tests. She told me she always sets a goal of 80% on her tests. This is a great goal

to set. If students don’t receive a 80% or higher, she reflects on the way she teaches students.

What can she do to help her students be successful. I have learned during clinicals that the

teacher is partially responsible for whether a student succeeds or not. If they don’t, then a teacher

should reevaluate and consider what they can do to improve.

I demonstrated 9(e) by going to a professional development day. We talked about their

new school being built and what some teaching strategies are that have helped them. This has

shown me that some teachers still have a hard time trying to find new solutions to help their

students learn.

I have pursued 9(f) by using technology as a learning opportunity for students. I used

technology with one of my lessons in clinicals. As I was doing a whole group instruction, I used
technology for PowerPoints about informational texts. We were looking at informational text to

see what they often have and what they always have. This allowed students to compare and

contrast the differences. I also noticed that students love to do their Freckle Math and AR which

is online and helps them be more engaged. These technological resources help students progress

in their math and reading fluency and at their own pace.

I have devised ideas to engage students in my lesson in keeping with 9(g). For example, I

would ask more questions to engage their thinking. During math I give students ideas about how

to solve a problem by asking them questions to assist them to find the answer themselves. I also

give them ideas to draw a picture or break the problem into smaller pieces.

I have demonstrated 9(l) by reflecting on what I did well in a lesson and take time to

reflect and realize what I need to do better next time. I also had a meeting with Dr. Smith and

debriefed on some of my lesson plans to help confirm what my strengths and weaknesses are. If

my students don’t understand the material being taught, I find ways to break it down and help my

students understand, whether that is a visual or a different way to solve the problem.

This semester of clinicals has helped me realize that I can continue to grow each and

every day towards becoming an even better educator. I can always provide positive feedback to

my students and find new ways to problem solve. There are many areas I can focus on that are

strengths when I teach. I am excellent at small group or one on one time with students. One thing

I can work on and improve in is whole group instruction. No matter where I am or what I am

doing in the future, I always know that there are resources and more professional development

opportunities to explore.
 Works Cited:

Council of Chief State School Officers. (2013, April). Interstate Teacher Assessment and

Support Consortium InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning

Progressions for Teachers 1.0: A Resource for Ongoing Teacher Development.

Washington, DC: Author