PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PROFESSIONAL GOAL

My goal for the 2019-2020 school year is to continue to improve my skills in the classroom. I want to work on increasing student engagement and use more interactive lessons. I also want to collaborate with my staff and provide training to help support our students throughout the year.
This goal is important to me because I provide services to students with a variety of unique needs and abilities. I want my students to be able to access their curriculum and learn from it. Providing interactive lessons will allow my students to learn though play. They will use materials they find enjoyable in academic activities. I enjoy being creative and collaborating with my staff to create and implement new lessons in our classroom centers.

SURPRISE MOMENTS

Working in special education can take on toll on your physical and mental health. My first 3 years of teaching, I struggled to allow myself to take a lunch or my prep. I felt guilty. I should be using that time to prep for my IEPs, develop new lessons, clean the classroom. My list was never ending. However, this year, my assistant principal noticed. She would see me in the office and ask if I had taken my lunch. It got to the point where she would come into my classroom to make sure I was taking time for myself. So I began eating lunch and I allowed myself to sit down and relax. I was surprised of the positive effect taking 30 minutes out of my day was. I know I need to take care of myself so that I can take care of my staff and my students.

NEXT STEPS

​Each year, I am fortunate to get new students in my classroom with a different diagnosis or ability that I am not familiar with. I take these opportunities to improve my method of teaching. I am able to educate myself on their medical diagnosis and see what learning strategies are most effective for them. Educating myself on how each of my students learn best is a goal I continue to pursue.

As new students move up to middle school, many of their aides move with them. This means I have new staff every year. My goal for my staff is to understand that I have high expectations for them as well as our students. I also hold them to these expectations. I will continue to hold weekly meetings with my staff to discuss how we can continue to improve as a team to best support our students. 

I will ask 3 questions

• What is working or going well?

• What are we struggling with?

• How can we fix it?

From here, we are able to discuss in depth: specific students, classroom centers, schedule changes, behavior intervention​ and more.

STAYING CONNECTED

I will continue to stay connected by being an active participant in our whole staff and department meetings. I will also stay updated with RCOE's professional development calendar and attend appropriate trainings.

ADVICE FOR NEW TEACHERS

You WILL succeed. Remember to be flexible with any unforeseen changes. It's okay if things don't go as planned. Set expectations and boundaries for your staff and students. Provide your staff and students with a daily schedule to reference. This allows then know who is supposed to be where, at what time. Give students opportunities to be independent. Our students have special needs, but it is our job to teach them to be as independent as possible. Take time for yourself. Be safe and have fun! Enjoy your time with your students. Before you know it they will be on to high school. You make a difference!