The professional practice domain represents to me the day-to-day nitty gritty of what we do as teachers during the school year. After the planning, what are the details in terms of homework, assessments, feedback, etc. It’s the response to classroom visits and emails from various sources. It’s keeping it all together personally and executing the professional plan even in February (which to me is my toughest month).
Professionalism | Executive Functioning
My ability and, perhaps, strength in organization shows my high executive functioning. However, that same talent definitely has bias during the school year where I tend to put anything related to the classroom as higher priority than, at times, even my self-care. As a result, I can sometimes get grumpy if I feel that my time is not being used wisely which can come across as unprofessional to colleagues. This mainly happens related to morning meetings which is also not my favorite time of day to have a meeting. That being said, I do value the respect of my peers, students and parents. I hope that my day to day professionalism far outweighs the human weaknesses.
(1) approaches recommendations for improvement receptively and responsively
After years of writing comments for students on report cards or midterm grades, I had the fortune of have Bart Gummere read my comments and share feedback. That feedback I have not only continued to use in my comment writing as well as my communication overall. Bart-Comment Feedback and Reply His comment “Think about the use of but versus and. But always negates the first statement. Lots of time, and fits better” is one that I wish that I had gotten or maybe more accurately had heard earlier in my lifetime.
As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to improve. Over years of observation and feedback, I have had many times to get that from colleagues and peers. I can’t imagine any state where I feel that I have “arrived” as the ideal teacher. I always welcome feedback.
(2) displays openness and comfort with visitors observing class
Since working at High Tech High as my first teaching job where our classrooms where at the very least glass from nearly floor to ceiling, my teaching of high school has always been open for visitors be they strangers, peers or administration. I don’t require advance notice as any lesson is open to viewing although the ones where I am giving assessments may not be as interesting.
Most of the “visitors” that I have had are during admissions tours with parents and prospective students lingering outside the windows of the chemistry class to view student work from labs that were posted in the windows. Examples of student work that was posted including an explanation on offering alternatives to traditional lab reports can be found here in the “Pedagogical Practice” domain: (2) designs class activities and assignments that engage and accommodate for both individual students and a diverse group of learners.
(3) seeks out diverse opinions of others for guidance
I seek out guidance from a variety of people depending on the need and the situation. I have no evidence/emails since these conversations are mainly in person. Perhaps one such piece of evidence is the “Algebra 2 Teaching Group” on Teams that I have been a part of since I taught Algebra 2. This group turned into more than just supporting Algebra 2 but students and peers in general.
The best way to see the evidence of this is my favorite chat groups from last year online. Nasty Women is a group chat with female colleagues that was named after Trump’s comment about Hillary Clinton. We use it to support each other with both classroom support and beyond.
As I have collaborated with others in most classes that I teach at EPS, I work closely with the course team to develop a curriculum that is as uniform across sections as possible while also leaving freedom for individual teaching style and preference. A collaboration that has occurred across multiple years has been with Krissy Russell, 6th grade science teacher, between 6th grade students and 10th grade students. The consistent part over the years has been 10th graders teaching 6th graders about six types of chemical reaction through mini-lessons and demonstration. Due to the fact that Krissy and I are in different divisions, our planning and process had to be well organized and thorough to make it all work. Here is a quote from Krissy about working on that project:
“I have partnered directly with Anne for three years on 6th physical science / 10th chemistry integration. During the first two years, Anne organized for her students to present mini chemistry lessons (complete with experiments) to my students. Because we were remote, the third year Anne organized for her students to video themselves doing experiments so that my students could watch them. In addition, in the second year of collaboration, Anne was open to allowing her students to mentor my students on a presentation they were working on. The overall experience of collaborating with Anne is not only smooth, but enjoyable. She has creative ideas and is open to hearing my ideas as well. Her students are well prepared and it’s clear that the experience for all of the students in the collaboration is deep and rich due to her efforts.”
The first year that we completed that project was not the first year of the project since Nickie Wallace had begun this in years prior to our joining EPS. That first year, we sat down with Nickie and Karen Mills (a fellow 6th grade teacher) to work to bring us up to speed on the project and hear our input. Even with staffing changes and going online, Krissy and I have worked to adjust the score of the project to make it work. The experience for both groups of kids makes it well work spending the extra effort to truly embrace building community across divisions.
(4) manages and prioritizes professional tasks and responsibilities
When my kids still lived with me, they would kiss me goodbye the night before my first day of teacher days at the beginning of the school year and say “see you in June.” I used to laugh at that. As the years have moved on and I have heard that from friends, parents and my partner, I think that I need to work on balancing my personal priorities instead of always putting school first. This is difficult to say in a format such as this since any employer would likely be grateful for the commitment to the job. That being said, I always admired chemistry lab environments when I was in graduate school where the Professor managing the lab would require his/her students to be reading something other than chemistry. I need to do more of that since being more balanced in my personal and work life will undoubtedly make me a better teacher and colleague.
That being said, I use several methods to keep track of what needs to get done including plans after school. One of my most common methods is good old fashion pen and paper. In the image below, you can see my abbreviated weekly calendar on the left that includes plans after school. On the right, you see my checklist that includes mostly work but some personal reminders as well.
(5) communicates and responds to students, parents, and colleagues in a timely and constructive manner
The following communications represent communication with a parent AK Issue-Parent Communication and a student MS Issue-Student Communication. You can see in both that the response was timely and constructive. I have too many emails from colleagues to choose just one given the nature of collaboration at Eastside Prep.
For the parent issue, we discussed a 9th grader’s concern about not having enough time to finish a math test. I worked with our student support coordinator at the time, Robin Christy, to help the mom get more information about what she needed to do in order to have her daughter evaluated to see if a time accommodation was warranted in an official capacity. In the meantime, we offered the time accommodation unofficially. I have the same student in Advanced Chemistry this year as a senior. She has official double time accommodations that she reports that she is going to be able to continue to use when she is in college.
For the student issue was me reaching out to a strong student that had forgotten to submit a lab write up. She reminded me that she had missed class that day and we made arrangements for her to make up the lab.
Assessment Practice
Assessment to me is a broad term that expands past traditional forms of assessment like quizzes, tests, papers and presentations. For content learning, I assess in every question a student asks or task a student engages in. Our interactions around content are all informal assessments on how the student is thinking about the content and about their own process of learning. Even though the grade in Canvas is based on what students turn in, I often take a holistic look as we enter midterm grades for comments or conferences to determine if that grade reflects the learning and vice versa. If there is any disparity, then conversations are had or suggestions are made in comments.
(1) designs major assessments that reflect course outcomes and posts them at the start of each trimester
At the beginning of each trimester, I prepare a calendar that details the lessons for each day including homework, projects, QAs and MAs. The MAs are posted to Canvas at the beginning of the trimester and most if not all of the QAs.
An example can be seen below with the remainder of winter trimester here: Winter Tri cont-Calendar 2022
These assessments are tied to the learning objectives that are outlined at the beginning of the year in a weekly calendar which can be seen here: Weekly Calendar-Adv Chem 2021-22 For the Advanced Chemistry course, it is important to me that the kids know right off the bat what we will cover so that those kids who are planning on taking the AP exam also know what will not be covered and they can plan their study time accordingly.
(2) designs assignments to be graded and returned in a feedback cycle of seven calendar days
This is generally true unless there is an assignment that is due before a break. More often, I tend to provide feedback earlier than seven days especially when that feedback is essential to success and not making similar mistakes on a subsequent activity. For example, in chemistry we do a series of simulations and labs that help the kids develop the key gas laws as seen here:
For these activities, it is critical that I provide feedback on Phet 1 prior to them starting Phet 2. In fact, we spend time at the beginning of class for Phet 2 making sure that kids have reviewed their feedback and have a chance to ask questions.
NOTE:
Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.
(3) ensures the number of assignments in each course is neither excessive nor deficient — providing appropriate time for quality student performance and meaningful teacher feedback
If you look at Winter Tri cont-Calendar 2022, you will note that there is a QA at least a week before the upcoming MA. The QA does not contain all of the material on the MA but it contains most of the critical content. The QA is meant to give the kids practice in demonstrating the knowledge with the use of a graphing calculator, periodic table and the AP equation sheet. These are more low stakes assessments in that the score on the QA can be replaced by the percentage score on their MA, thus encouraging students to learn from their mistakes and demonstrate growth. In rare circumstances (see below), if a student does exceptionally well on the QA and that QA covers most of the MA, then they will only be tasked with completing the portion of the MA that is new material or material that was not on the MA.
So kids had the option to take the full MA or complete just the portion on Free Energy and Equilibrium which was on the last page of the MA. For the most part, the kids decide this based on how to best improve their grade. That being said, some students decided to do the shorter version of the MA due to time constraints that week in terms of other assignments or after school sports.