Many years, those goals changed based on my incoming
students. The year I taught a young lady with Asperger’s Syndrome, no one had
bothered to tell me about her diagnosis.
My goal for the year for me was learning how to do Literature Circles
well. That went out the window because of the different approaches and
strategies I needed to learn in order to effectively teach my student. I took 2
courses and attended several seminars at my own cost to do this. It was worth
it.
Other years I worked on making my lessons better aligned
with idea of Universal Design, where I could instruct and assess my students so
everyone could get the kind instruction and accommodations they needed. I
worked all year at that and into the next and would probably still be working
on it if I had not retired.
One year early in my career, a half-dozen teachers from our
school attended TESA training sessions all year. Our school goal was learning
to be more effective in our delivery of lessons. TESA stands for Teacher
Expectations/Student Achievement and the course required all of us to observe
each of our colleagues and evaluate whether they had met the goals of the
lesson. All of our discussions were just between the two teachers so we could
get very honest feedback and improve our teaching. What a wonderful goal that
was because I used that information and the techniques every single day from
then on.
There is always something a teacher can learn to do better.
Sometimes it’s working on advanced courses, sometimes doing private research,
and sometimes by observation. Lately I have been doing a lot of research
online, as I do not have the benefit (?) of professional development at school.
One of the sites I discovered a few years ago is The Educator’s Room (http://www.theeducatorsroom.com).
Whether your goals for the year include doing better with
inclusion, better relations with parents, how to organize your self, or
triumphs and frustrations of teaching, the Educator’s Room has it all. There
are book reviews, opinion pieces, and good information. If the Common Core is
giving you conniptions, you can find articles there to help you deal with it.
If you are finding yourself in a place where you cannot defend the Common Core,
you can find articles that share your point of view too.
In the summer, I noticed they were having a conference in
Atlanta on June 25th to 27th and I decided to offer to
share some of my 37 years of experiences in a workshop on Vocal Music in the
Classroom. To my surprise and delight, I was accepted to do the workshop. There
will be “real workshops with real teachers,” not experts who haven’t taught
before. Workshops cover Special Education, Technology, Math and Science,
Differentiated Instruction, Subject Integration, Writing, Common Core, Art,
Improv, Music, and much more.
My personal goals for 2014 include keeping abreast of the
burning issues in Education and conveying that information through blogging. I
have been blogging once a day in 2014 so far and I am certain I can keep
marching toward my goal when I continue to research on the internet and read
books, and disseminate what I’ve learned. I also have a facebook page for
education stuff called It Wasn’t in the Lesson Plan. Come visit and “like” the
page! Keeping my goal into the year, I will also be blogging and tweeting from
the conference in June. My twitter handle is ka3kcj.
What an opportunity to get started for next year on your
personal teaching goals!
Please check out the details for The Educator’s Room (TER)
Conference, “Empowering Teachers As Experts” at http://conference.theeducatorsroom.com/.
I guarantee it will be worth your while. Come on down and maybe we’ll even
meet!
Follow The Educator’s Room on Twitter @ #theedroom #theedconf
On Facebook -
look for The Educator’s Room
Still learning!
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