Step Three: Identifying key learnings, Areas of Strength and Areas for Professional Growth

CSTP

Key
Learnings

Areas for
Professional Growth

Areas of Strength

Engaging and
Supporting All Students
in Learning

- My students that had difficulty using scissors

loved building with their hands. One student who
always finishes last in cut-paste projects, finished
first and was very proud of his model

- Creating color coded visual resources that students

- Providing multiple meaningful learning activities

can understand and use

- Using physical movement and chanting to practice
academic vocabulary
- Lowering the affective filter through partner talk
discussion, and calling on all students to respond to
questions before telling them the correct answer

for students to engage with when they finish tasks

early

Creating & Maintaining

Effective Environments
for Student Learning

- My students are ok with making mistakes and

- Establishing protocols for speaking and listening

- Designing a center rotation during independent

during partner talk

- Being proactive in engaging students who are prone to
misbehaving during a lesson
- Circulating around the classroom to work with many
students one-on-one

work so that students can benefit from small group

instruction during science
- Planning for volunteers to come in to work with
students to give them the necessary one-on-one
assistance

Understanding &
Organizing Subject
Matter for Student
Learning

- There are many possible skills and standards

- Using a KWL chart to identify student interests and

- Being comfortable with relinquishing complete

plan accordingly
- Referring back to and adding on to the KWL at
beginning and end of the lesson

control of the lesson to ensure that the project is

mostly student-led instead of teacher-suggested
- Designing questions that require various depths of
knowledge

- Thumbs up, thumbs side ways, and thumbs

- Identifying a variety of resources that when combined

- Being able to have supplemental resources readily

down method of quickly evaluating the learning

experience from the students perspective to
give the needed insight for future planning
- Its much more important to let students discover
good ideas as opposed to tell them which ideas
will be good and which arent good.

together can deepen student learning, i.e. videos,

informative texts, literature texts, images, charts,
graphic organizers
- Starting with the end product and planning backwards

available to students in center format, or via

computer technology.
- Planning questions that require various depths of
knowledge

- Despite the various one-on-one quick checks

- Observing conversations and knowing when students

- Developing stronger rubrics to assess projects

- Being conscious of and documenting all different

Planning Instruction &

Designing Learning
Experiences for All
Students

Assessing Student
Learning

Developing as a
Professional Educator

take care to remind and reassure each other

being used all at the same time during project

based learning experiences

during independent work periods, some students

still do not recognize when they need to remove
a leg or take off an eye, and thats ok with me. It
becomes evidence that shows where student
needs more support.

- Google documents have made it possible for

teachers to collaborate beyond their scheduled
PLC meeting time

are having trouble, not participating, or off task and

need extra support

types of assessment (formative, ongoing, and

summative)

- Collaborating with my colleagues to design

- Facilitating a team of teachers to enhance the rigor

curriculum that meets the needs of our students

- Suggesting alternative ideas that integrate tactile
learning experiences

- Facilitating a PBL process with my colleagues that

of lessons

helps us identify the scope and sequence of our

lesson beyond the lesson plan format that has been
given to us at TCSJ