Summary of "Apply professional growth and improvement strategies"

Video Transcription

Welcome to a summary for the unit Apply Professional Growth and Improvement Strategies. Congratulations, you've completed all of the lessons in this unit. We will now review some of the ideas and concepts that were covered throughout this unit.

We started off the unit by discussing the role of teachers, what a critical role we have. Teachers no doubt have a demanding job. The expectations for measuring our quality and level of effectiveness are many. This leads to a range in quality levels, and it's important to give teachers support and tools they need to develop professionally.

One objective of this unit was to evaluate strategies for engaging in feedback conversations. In this unit we looked at tools used for providing feedback by the coach and the teacher-- feedback forms, videos, student data and feedback, content standards, and the teacher evaluation rubric. Each of these tools has so many benefits.

We looked at active listening and accountable talk. Remember, active listening is where the speaker and listener interact together, and through this interaction the listener responds with verbal and nonverbal communication. Accountable talk is a format of conversation where each involved is asked to provide evidence for the statements they're making.

The next objective of this unit was to develop a professional improvement plan, including goals and expected outcomes. We differentiated between a professional development and professional improvement plan. And we looked at the PDSA cycle to develop a plan. This process has four different steps, and it can be such a useful tool when you're making improvements.

We looked at SMART goals, and how important it is for the coach and teacher to work collaboratively through the process-- reviewing data, developing goals and giving feedback, as well as reflecting, and, possibly, developing more goals.

The third objective of this unit was to monitor progress and implement accountability strategies for professional growth and improvement. We continued exploring that PDSA cycle-- plan, do, study, and act-- and I gave you examples of PDSA, and how it can be used in the coaching relationship to monitor progress.

We also discussed accountability. When teachers, educators, schools, and districts-- all of us-- are held accountable for student performance. We looked at tools that will help monitor progress, like data and feedback of our students, recording lessons, using plus minus deltas, and reflection.

The final objective of this unit was to support reflection strategies through the coaching process. Reflection is beneficial in so many different ways. We're able to deeply examine our own thoughts, as well as examine others thoughts and feedback. And slow down to ensure that we're on track. We're also forced as teachers to create meaning about what we have learned through this process.

We looked at the inner landscape of the teaching itself, or metacognition, and the three stages to critical reflection. Lastly, we walked through reflection strategies, like discussions, interviews, logs and journals, and reflective questions.

The objectives of this unit are connected throughout. It's essential to evaluate strategies for feedback and become comfortable with communication and collaboration, as you will use this with your instructional coach. You then are more prepared to develop a professional improvement plan if needed, including goals and expected outcomes.

And when this plan is developed, you can begin to monitor progress effectively, and implement accountability strategies for your professional growth and improvement.

Finally, when you have a solid understanding of this entire process, you can then support reflection strategies through the coaching process. We use these tools and ideas in any educational environment where we set professional goals and work with an instructional coach.

As we are now at the end of the unit, you should be able to answer the following four questions. How can we evaluate strategies for engaging in feedback conversations? How can we develop a professional improvement plan, including goals and expected outcomes? How can we monitor progress and implement accountability strategies for professional growth and improvement? And how can we support reflection strategies through the coaching process?

Again, I want to thank you for joining me in this unit, Apply Professional Growth and Improvement Strategies. I hope you enjoyed following my video lessons throughout this unit as we learned in depth about bettering yourself as a teacher through professional growth and improvement, and, in turn, enhancing in your students' learning.