Professional Development Plan
TASK 1
SUBJECT MATTER: The subject matter being taught in my unit will be Science. I will be teaching 3d grade science and my Unit will be about the Solar System. Many demonstrations in science need to be hands on so there will be a great deal of interaction. All my lessons will be aligned with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards.
STUDENT LEARNING: For any subject it is important to differentiated instruction so for my lessons demonstration will be verbal, visual, and hands on to get the full potential of each student. The students will have their chances to create their own solar system and also use many other objects to learn the phases of the moon.
DIVERSITY of LEARNERS: As stated above differentiated instruction will be a huge part of learning. For the class I am teaching there are four students with IEPs. No person learns the same exact way as any other person and that is what I will keep in mind while teaching for every student.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: Every teacher handles their class in a certain way and I believe there is no one way to do it. We have created class rules together which take care of many problems and give a great deal of responsibility to the students. Keeping students attention is a huge part of classroom management and I believe as long as their having fun they are going to learn.
ASSESSMENT: The students will be assessed throughout this unit in many different ways. Through homework, projects, quizzes, and tests. The assessment is what will tell me what needs to be worked on or modified for the students.
TECHNOLOGY: Technology is used in my classroom everyday by the use of a smart board. The students get a chance to come to the board at least once throughout the day. It is a great part of my teaching because it keeps the children interested and most of all they have fun.
COMMUNICATION: This is the biggest part to running an effective classroom. A teacher must communicate well with the students on their level as well as communicating with the parents. Our homework books are a huge help for this because the parents are to sign them every night to make sure the student has done their job. We also have a class website in which the parents can communicate anytime with myself or Mr. McCann.
STUDENT LEARNING: For any subject it is important to differentiated instruction so for my lessons demonstration will be verbal, visual, and hands on to get the full potential of each student. The students will have their chances to create their own solar system and also use many other objects to learn the phases of the moon.
DIVERSITY of LEARNERS: As stated above differentiated instruction will be a huge part of learning. For the class I am teaching there are four students with IEPs. No person learns the same exact way as any other person and that is what I will keep in mind while teaching for every student.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: Every teacher handles their class in a certain way and I believe there is no one way to do it. We have created class rules together which take care of many problems and give a great deal of responsibility to the students. Keeping students attention is a huge part of classroom management and I believe as long as their having fun they are going to learn.
ASSESSMENT: The students will be assessed throughout this unit in many different ways. Through homework, projects, quizzes, and tests. The assessment is what will tell me what needs to be worked on or modified for the students.
TECHNOLOGY: Technology is used in my classroom everyday by the use of a smart board. The students get a chance to come to the board at least once throughout the day. It is a great part of my teaching because it keeps the children interested and most of all they have fun.
COMMUNICATION: This is the biggest part to running an effective classroom. A teacher must communicate well with the students on their level as well as communicating with the parents. Our homework books are a huge help for this because the parents are to sign them every night to make sure the student has done their job. We also have a class website in which the parents can communicate anytime with myself or Mr. McCann.
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS
TASK 2
THE COMMUNITY:
The town of South Plainfield is a small borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey. According to a Census from 2010 the population was 23,385 which is a 7% increase over ten years. The total area of the town is 8.4 square miles. South Plainfield is bordered by 3 towns, Piscataway township, Edison Township, and Plainfield Township. South Plainfield was once considered Piscataway but was deemed South Plainfield after an act by the New Jersey Legislation was passed in 1926.
According to the 2010 Census, South Plainfield’s population was 23,385 people with 6,175 families and 7,876 homes. There are 2,808 people per square mile with 971.9 houses per square mile. The town is also a very diverse area. South Plainfield is made up of 66% White, 10% African American, .37% Native American, 14% Asian, 13% Hispanic of Latino, 5% made of other races. Out of all the homes 35% of them have children under the age of 18, while 62% of the make up of the town being married couples. The town of South Plainfield is a tight-nit town where everyone knows everyone. Sometimes that is good sometimes not, but it makes the teacher-parent connection very strong.
THE DISTRICT:
The South Plainfield Public School district provides education for students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. There are 4 elementary schools, 1 5th-6th grade school, 1 Pre-K school, 1 Middle School (7th-8th), and 1 High School. The school district provides many extracurricular activities including, sports, music, drama, etc.
THE SCHOOL:
John F. Kennedy Elementary School is kindergarten through fourth grade school. The school consists of 272 students from an ethnically diverse population. The core standards are used for English language arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. There are 37 people on staff including Principals, secretaries, teachers, assistance, and custodians. According to the 2011 NJ Report Card, Kennedy School had 51 students in the third grade level. There are three third grade classes with an average of 17 students a classroom.
CLASSROOM FACTORS:
The classroom I am in has two computers mainly for teacher use which is attendance, internet, and grades. There are some activities done where the students can use in class computers but there is a computer lab, and a set of portable Ipads. The classroom is an average size with 18 students, 22 student desks, one teachers desk, a table for the inclass support, and cubby area. Technology is widely used with a Smart-Board. There are two chalk boards along the front wall as well. The middle of the room is consumed the projector and a circle table for reading use. The desks are situated in groups of 4 to 5 to allow maximum room.
STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS:
The population of my third grade class consists of the diverse background of the South Plainfield area. There are 12 white students, 2 black students, 3 Hispanic students, and 1 Asian student. It is very important to recognize the type of background the students come from. Knowing this ahead of time helps a teacher with ways of developing and enhancing students skills. These students vary with many different abilities. The basis of this level class is to enhance the learning of Reading, Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Math skills for each student. The class consists of 6 IEPS. This is also a very important thing to know before the class because it is all done on the internet and a teacher must be aware of the special ways students learn. This half of the year I am involved with developing the students to become for 4th grade next year. Reading, Writing, and Math are key to getting the students to the level they need to be for the fourth grade. Every student in the class has their own personality and own way of learning. It is the teachers job to figure out the best ways to help all the students. I also know many of the students will not be doing hours of homework because some of them do not even have people that help them at home. The key is to get the students to learn to their maximum level during the class period. Although the students are third grade there are forms of assessment done throughout the day with most being formative assessment. All of this information together helps a teacher maintain maximum learning throughout a school year.
FAMILY COMMUNICAIONS PAPER
TASK 3
I am teaching third grade at John F. Kennedy Elementary school, in South Plainfield. Here at the school, communication is of upmost importance. It is not only important for teacher to teacher communication, but also parent to teacher. Teacher to teacher communication is very important because each grade works as a team. Parent to teacher is the most important in my opinion, because the teacher and parents must be on the same page. Attending back to school night for my class was an eye opener. I noticed how much the parents like to be in contact, which was highly expected because it is their child’s learning. In my class alone, there are six students with IEPs.
The classified students are great to have in the classroom, because it helps my experience in how to diversify my teaching modalities. Four of the students have a general IEP for all subjects which, requires an in-class support for majority of the day. Once the students begin reading they proceed to "pull-out" with another teacher. I believe this relates well with communication because we as their homeroom teachers must be in communication with the support, teachers in third grade, and their parents. Communicating with the support is very important because we need to teach the same information at all times. One technique we use is simply, meeting with the support at least once a week so we can plan out everything for the week and the lessons. This two-way communication is easy because we have the support so often. However to communicate with the parents is a little bit different.
For parent to teacher communication everything is the same for all the parents. Their first choice is to contact us through email or cellphone. We give this information out for anything important that we must talk or meet about. The second technique is by use of our classroom website. Mr. McCann has his own individual classroom website which allows the parents to find answers to their questions before they have to email or make a call. I like this technique because it allows the parents to find an answer and if they need to talk about specifics if they can not reach the teacher. Most parents in this community will email to get in touch with us but some would like to call or even meet and that is fine as well.
Our needs in the classroom are assessed in many different ways. For one example, at the start of the year we gave inventory tests for each subject which would allow the teachers to determine where to start with each subject. This is also very useful because we send it home so the parents or guardian can see the reasoning for why someone is learning what they are learning. From these inventories we then plan our lessons in the order we would like to teach specific skills for each subject. This is done so we can accommodate to each students’ needs. This is also a very useful tool in determining how and what the support will help the students with IEPs. Of course the IEP will state the issues that support is needed but sometimes those change and these inventories tell us that.
As far as our plan for communication we use all our resources as I stated above. We will use e-mail, cell phone, and personal meetings. We know we do not expect everyone to have internet access to email or our website so we can communicate by phone to set up specific meetings if needed. One other resource we use for communication is the students’ homework pads. This is great because on the first page there is a list of spaces to sign for what they parent sees the student needs help with or simply if they’re doing their homework. This is a positive one for the parents because they receive personal notes back answering their comments.
As I said earlier I am very impressed with the techniques of communication. I like to see when parents or guardians care about the work their child is doing. It is great to see letters back from parents thanking for helping with something or simply asking a question about a homework situation. I believe communication is made so much easier now because of all the technology. Our website is a big hit and it is something I would look into doing when I become a teacher, so that all the parents have access to and support they need. The communication in this school with the parents, community, and other teachers is great.
TASK 3
I am teaching third grade at John F. Kennedy Elementary school, in South Plainfield. Here at the school, communication is of upmost importance. It is not only important for teacher to teacher communication, but also parent to teacher. Teacher to teacher communication is very important because each grade works as a team. Parent to teacher is the most important in my opinion, because the teacher and parents must be on the same page. Attending back to school night for my class was an eye opener. I noticed how much the parents like to be in contact, which was highly expected because it is their child’s learning. In my class alone, there are six students with IEPs.
The classified students are great to have in the classroom, because it helps my experience in how to diversify my teaching modalities. Four of the students have a general IEP for all subjects which, requires an in-class support for majority of the day. Once the students begin reading they proceed to "pull-out" with another teacher. I believe this relates well with communication because we as their homeroom teachers must be in communication with the support, teachers in third grade, and their parents. Communicating with the support is very important because we need to teach the same information at all times. One technique we use is simply, meeting with the support at least once a week so we can plan out everything for the week and the lessons. This two-way communication is easy because we have the support so often. However to communicate with the parents is a little bit different.
For parent to teacher communication everything is the same for all the parents. Their first choice is to contact us through email or cellphone. We give this information out for anything important that we must talk or meet about. The second technique is by use of our classroom website. Mr. McCann has his own individual classroom website which allows the parents to find answers to their questions before they have to email or make a call. I like this technique because it allows the parents to find an answer and if they need to talk about specifics if they can not reach the teacher. Most parents in this community will email to get in touch with us but some would like to call or even meet and that is fine as well.
Our needs in the classroom are assessed in many different ways. For one example, at the start of the year we gave inventory tests for each subject which would allow the teachers to determine where to start with each subject. This is also very useful because we send it home so the parents or guardian can see the reasoning for why someone is learning what they are learning. From these inventories we then plan our lessons in the order we would like to teach specific skills for each subject. This is done so we can accommodate to each students’ needs. This is also a very useful tool in determining how and what the support will help the students with IEPs. Of course the IEP will state the issues that support is needed but sometimes those change and these inventories tell us that.
As far as our plan for communication we use all our resources as I stated above. We will use e-mail, cell phone, and personal meetings. We know we do not expect everyone to have internet access to email or our website so we can communicate by phone to set up specific meetings if needed. One other resource we use for communication is the students’ homework pads. This is great because on the first page there is a list of spaces to sign for what they parent sees the student needs help with or simply if they’re doing their homework. This is a positive one for the parents because they receive personal notes back answering their comments.
As I said earlier I am very impressed with the techniques of communication. I like to see when parents or guardians care about the work their child is doing. It is great to see letters back from parents thanking for helping with something or simply asking a question about a homework situation. I believe communication is made so much easier now because of all the technology. Our website is a big hit and it is something I would look into doing when I become a teacher, so that all the parents have access to and support they need. The communication in this school with the parents, community, and other teachers is great.