27 August 2014: PDPs, MLP, Symbaloo and More

Welcome to a great first week of school. I am excited about my sixth year as an instructional coach. My job gives me the opportunity to work with some of most dedicated, hard-working teachers in North Carolina. Amongst the various roles I play as an IC, communicating with teachers about instructional strategies, technology, and the everyday stuff of teaching is one of the most important; however, I tend to get overzealous with the emails. Following Mrs. Jacobson’s lead, I am going to attempt to reduce the number of emails I send this semester by sharing strategies, links, and ideas in a weekly blog, right here at flinchclass.com. I hope you’ll take the time to read.

Powerschool Gradebook
I know most people have already set up their grade books, but in case you want some assistance, I am sharing this screencast video. Let me know if you need help.

Writing Your PDP
As you may already have forgotten–I know I almost did–Teacher Self Evaluations and PDPs (Professional Development Plans) are due on September 8. You access them through the NCEES link on Powerschool. I want to offer a few thoughts for writing your PDP goals. 1. Complete the self-evaluation first. As you do, look for two areas–two specific goals–you want to focus on when you write your PDP. You might pick two goals on which you score yourself lowest. Or, you might choose the goals that best match what you have been focusing on so far this year. Either way, you want to find two goals that speak to the growth you intend to make as a teacher this year. Copy them so you can enter them into your PDP. 2. Think ahead. Before you describe activities for your PDP goals, jump over to box three and describe the outcomes you want to see at the end of the year. At the end of the semester, and again at the end of the year, you are going assess your progress toward these outcomes. Think ahead to that final evaluation, when you’re asking yourself, “Did I meet this goal? How do I know if I was successful?” A little foresight will help you write better goals. At their best, they will be SMART goals:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant and
  • Time-bound

For example, 75% of students will score 80% or higher on benchmark assessments each six week grading period. 3. List actions you will take to achieve the desired outcome. In the second column, tell what it is you will do to accomplish your goal (1st column) and produce the outcomes (3rd column). The activities and actions might be teaching strategies, professional development opportunities, or steps you take to improve the instruction that occurs in your class. So the columns end up answering these questions: 1st: In what goals will I demonstrate growth this year? 2nd: What steps will I take in and out of the classroom to demonstrate that growth? What will I do? 3rd: What concrete evidence will show that the actions I took produced the growth I was trying to achieve? Perhaps this video will help make it more clear:As always, I am happy to help you write your PDP goals.

Sybaloo
Find links to useful websites and important documents–especially our discipline forms and Rampant Reviews–at symbaloo.com/mix/jhrose. I suggest either bookmarking it (click the star on the omnibar if you’re in Google Chrome) or creating a shortcut to it by dragging the paper icon beside the url to your desktop. If you’re feeling fancy, I can also show you how to make it open automatically whenever you open Chrome. It works like this.

My Learning Plan
If you recently attended or plan on attending any professional development opportunities, including classes, conferences, and workshops, make sure you submit the appropriate forms through My Learning Plan. Login with your full email address and either “changeme” or whatever you changed to. Remember to submit evaluations for PD you completed and Application Level forms for any PD between six and nine hours long. This video shows what you need to know. As an aside, the state does still recognize decimals when calculating CEUs, so a 24 hour workshop would still equate to 2.4 CEUs. What they don’t accept are workshops less than 10 hours, unless you complete the Application Level form to bump six hours up to ten. Unclear? Just ask.

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