ME.d
Program Standard 4
Teacher
leaders will engage in analysis of teaching and collaborative practices.
Courses
Aligned with Standard:
EDU
6528 Accomplished Teaching
Original
Beliefs and Experience
Prior to this program, I was incredibly reflective,
and thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with my colleagues, but did not have the
tools as expertise to do this as effectively as possible. When I consider the teacher leadership
standard address in this course, “Engage in analysis of teaching and
collaborative practices” I feel as I presume my third graders feel when they
use the work as evidence to determine that they have reached their learning
target for the day. I can say, with absolute certainty that this program has
guided me to meet Teacher Leadership Standard 4. I will address my improvement
when analyzing my teaching individually, and collectively and reflecting to
improve my practice. Prior to this course and in my initial response, I
described myself as “agonizingly reflective.” This was true; I spent far too
much energy replaying every minute of my lesson in my head, and overthinking
every instructional decision that I made. Now, I pour my energy into reflecting
through a data-driven lens that will allow me to improve educational outcomes
for my students. I still spend as much time reflecting, and improving my
practice, yet I do this is a productive, concrete manner. I look closely at
student performance, and am able to determine clearly how to improve my
instruction and practice.
New
Learning
I
use data to alter and improve my practice, and the practice of my colleagues. This
takes place in both individual reflective practices, and as a PLC. Individually,
I now analyze my instruction, and my student lens with a focus on “improving
teaching, not proving that students got it” (Duel, 2009). It is
vital to use student work to clarify the specific components that students need
support with in order to design effective interventions. Data-driven reflection
is an integral component of impactful PLC work. As leader, it is essential that
I cultivate a deeply trusting, respectful environment. In order to attain a
trusting environment, I must be willing to take ownership of instructional
mistakes, and model using authentic, imperfect data to improve my practice, or “to
honestly and thoroughly reveal professional struggle” (Nicholson, Capitelli,
Richert & Bonetti, 2016).
Ultimately,
it is imperative to understand that impactful teaching requires constant
adjustment, and through a lens of imperfection and growth. At the beginning of
the course, I facilitated productive PLC meetings, but the way in which we have
approached data analysis has shifted immensely after further exposure to best
practice in this class. Prior to this class, we would bring our data to
meetings; identify students requiring interventions, and plan appropriate
interventions for those students. This course has driven me to
fine-tune this process to maximize our precious time together. I was
given the idea to frontload the majority of this process. I now send our
analysis questions in advance to ensure that my teammates come to the meeting
prepared to sharing.
Impact
on Practice
Moving forward, I will
continue to lead PLC meetings in a manner that recognizes that the most
important component of PLC work is to use formative data to improve student
learning (Defour & Reeves, 2016). I will not only continue to analyze data
with my team to plan interventions for struggling students, but will also work with my team to determine
the most impactful, appropriate interventions that
“employ systematic, intensive, focused, and immediate small-group instruction”
(Defour & Reeves, 2016). I
will also continue to recognize that the most crucial PLC work is only possible
to complete when a warm, mutually-respectful environment is created and
maintained.
Through my coaching sessions with my
colleagues, my research, and deeper analysis of the Marzano Framework, my
lesson design, planning techniques, and lesson delivery have positively
improved. In my initial reflection, I indicated that I delve deeply into the
Marzano framework solely during my observation time. With my growing
understanding and comfort with this framework, it has now become an extremely
useful, formative tool when designing lessons. For each criterion, there are
examples elucidating specifically what an unsatisfactory, basic, proficient,
and a distinguished rating would look like. This is a very beneficial tool in
improving teaching practices as these examples show precisely what steps I must
take in order to improve. For example, as illustrated in my lesson plan, in my
lesson planning session with my classmates, my goal was to strengthen accessing
my student’s prior knowledge, and building background knowledge. We used the
provided Accomplished Teaching Lesson Guide for Effective instruction to map
out how content-specific prior knowledge would be activated, and how I could
build background knowledge to ensure that all students have access to the
content, and to promote student engagement, and buy-in. We also discussed as a
group, the importance of using our student’s background knowledge and
experiences to strengthen their understanding of the content, and to promote
diversity. Jiang (2014) claims that by recognizing differences and “by being
open to diverse ideas, teacher[s] establish a safe classroom environment.”
(p.301). It was incredibly powerful to brainstorm ideas with other
professionals to choose the most impactful strategies. As a result of this
experience, my lesson design improved, and, ultimately, my students were
successful.
In the future, I will continue to use
these resources to help inform and improve my planning, and my instruction.
Being that the Marzano Framework is incredibly comprehensive, I will always
have areas to focus upon to improve my practice, and specific examples to
support my improvement. As
a teacher in UPSD, I have always adhered to the UPSD basics of instruction,
which align exceptionally well with the Marzano framework, but I now recognize
the power of collaboratively planning with peers to gains ideas to strengthen
my lessons. I will continue to utilize my teammates’ perspectives to strength
my practice, and to recognize each of them as the invaluable resource that they
are.
Throughout this program, my
collaborative practice, my reflective practice and my lesson design have all
improved. As a result, the educational experience my students have been
provided with has also improved. Ultimately, I have learned that the most
essential skill an accomplished teacher can develop is a strong belief that we
are never done learning, and to maintain that growth mindset indefinitely. I
look forward to continuing to apply all that I have learned and to constantly
refine my craft to become the best educator and PLC leader possible.
References:
Defour, R., Reeves, D. (2016) The Futility of PLC lite. Retrieved from
Deul, A. Holmlund, M. Slavit, D., Kennedy, A. (2009), Looking at Student Work. Educational
Leadership. Retrieved from http:ww.ascud.org/lookingatstudentwork
Nicholson, J. Capitelli, A., Richert, A.
& Bonetti, S. (2016) The Affordances of Using a
Teacher Leadership Network to Support Leadership Development.
Teacher Leadership Network to Support Leadership Development.
Jian, y. (2014). Exploring Teacher Questioning as a Formative Assessment Strategy. RELC Journal:
A Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 45 (3), 286-304.
York Barr, J., Sommers, W.A., Ghere, G.S., &
Montie, J. (2006). Reflective Practice to Improve
Schools:An
Action Guide for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Artifacts
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