Each profession has its own plans to improve and teachers use a new school year to design their TPGP. Some schools and school divisions may have a template for teachers to follow while others have specific criteria that should be included. As well a teacher organization (provincial, territorial, state or national) may also have a template, examples or even an online tool.
I will share a basic template that can be used or adjusted as you see fit. Professionally, I believe that 2-3 goals are the maximum that an individual teacher should be taking on during a school year. Try to align as closely to school and division goals. You may also be doing a group TPGP where your teaching team for the year has similar goals so you decide to design a growth plan together.
In Alberta, teachers can also view ATA’s Teacher Professional Growth Plans site with some great resources. I also like to complete the Self-Reflection on My Professional Practice online tool. Each section of the TQS is included and teachers see a visual graph of each of their responses. Comment boxes are also included.
Stuck on some goal statements? Here are some ideas:
Performance Assessment:
Design and implement two high‐quality performance assessments per academic year that require transfer and application of new learning.
Continue the development of performance tasks by developing new tasks and aligning the rubrics to tasks and standards.
I will improve my ability to create authentic performance assessments that are valid and reliable and accurately measure competencies.
Design and implement at least one new performance assessment per year, provide rich performance tasks with clear and relevant targets for learning.
Design and implement (at least one per year) rich performance tasks to provide clear and relevant targets for learning.
Learner Outcomes:
Increasing students’ proficiency in student outcomes through design and implementation of authentic engaging lessons aligned with the five episodes of instructional design.
Deepen my understanding of the student outcomes in order to accurately assess student progress toward mastery.
To gain a deeper understanding of the student outcomes in _______________ (specific subject) in order to unpack the outcomes and develop units that align to _________________ (specific subject).
Deepen my understanding of the Alberta ________________ (specific subject) Curriculum by looking at outcomes and establishing clear, meaningful learning goals for my students.
Use the outcomes to establish clear and measurable learning goals/targets to prepare students for learning and help them to apply and demonstrate their learning.
Formative Assessment:
Incorporate a wide variety of formative assessment techniques to assess student learning and target instruction to students’ needs.
Progress monitoring will be used, as well as the ____________ benchmarks _______ times a year.
To learn more about assessment, including diagnostic screening to assess students’ learning profiles and needs, formative assessment to inform instruction, and summative assessment to evaluate student progress.
Technology:
To improve and enhance the technology in order to prepare students for 21st century learning.
Use technology to truly enhance student learning, by incorporating two new tools a year into classroom instruction and redesigning one student activity to offer more technology choices.
Differentiated Instruction:
Differentiate instruction through a wide range of activities, styles, and opportunities to foster engagement and meet the needs of all my students
Differentiate instruction and assessment to meet students’ intelligence, needs, and learning styles.
Design and implement authentic performance assessments that are inclusive of every child in my room.
At the end of three years, the assessments will be inclusive for every student in the room.
Explore and become more knowledgeable about differentiated instruction and assessment.
Engage students with powerful articles, timely topics that interest them the most, and one-of-a-kind stories that capture their attention.
Other:
To improve student learning by expanding knowledge of instructional strategies related to learning in all curriculum areas, especially involving writing skills.
Foster the responsibility of students to serve as active citizens by focusing on 21st century skills of global awareness, informational technology, creativity, problem solving, curiosity, communication and critical thinking in their writing pieces.
Develop students’ ability to effectively write in the most important writing genres (arguments, explanations, narratives).
Design and conduct a variety of developmentally appropriate units and lessons to engage students and foster facility with reading and the writing process, measuring student success through a myriad of assessments: authentic, formative, summative, portfolio, self‐assessments, and discussion as appropriate throughout the year.
Use essential questions to guide instruction and cultivate a community of questioning to inform and engage students throughout the learning process.
To improve student learning by increasing the level of student engagement and improved understanding through the use of a wide variety of tools, strategies, and resources (e.g. manipulatives, models, games, multi‐media, etc.).
To utilize more high‐level DOK (depth of knowledge) tasks in my classroom and support my students in successfully displaying mastery of deeper learning.
To work on classroom management and organization.
I will research, implement, and evaluate balanced literacy in my classroom with emphasis on guided reading so that by year three, the students will make substantial yearly gains based on beginning and ending assessments on my school’s grade level benchmarks.
Incorporate math games that can inspire students while they work on the fundamentals.
However you write up a Professional Growth Plan, make sure you can review it throughout the year and add your reflections.
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