Professional Growth Plan In Education
Write a three-part Professional Growth Plan in which you focus upon the following areas of personal and professional growth:
• Part 1: Content Knowledge and Resources
• Part 2: Competencies
• Part 3: Reflective Activities
For Part 1, use the Internet To research professional organizations, grant opportunities, and / or virtual learning communities pertinent to both the theme of your portfolio, and your prospective work environment.
For Part 3, use the Internet to research information on teaching and learning through reflective practice.
Part 1: Content Knowledge and Resources
1. Select at least two (2) of the professional organizations, grant opportunities, and / or virtual learning communities that you have researched, and analyze the manner in which you would utilize the organizations you selected to support your continued professional development.
2. Predict at least three (3) issues that you believe will be of particular significance within the next decade, in education when it relates to core curriculum
3. Select one (1) of the issues or questions you identified in relation to your ???ve and work environment, and construct an annotated bibliography of at least five (5) print and non-print resources to consult in the future.
Part 2: Competencies
• Develop a plan for continued information literacy development as part of your personal and professional growth plan. Your plan must include, at a minimum:
a. Three to five (3-5) information literacy goals
b. Potential means (e.g., organizations and resources that you may utilize) to achieve the information literacy goals
c. Relevant strategies for applying the literacy skills in educational / work environment
• Identify plans for continued writing development as part of your personal and professional growth plan. Create an action plan geared toward both building upon your personal and professional strength(s), which you identified previously in:
a. Three to five (3-5) goals
b. Three to five (3-5) key steps that you plan to take for further evaluation and continuous improvement
c. Potential means (e.g., organizations and resources that you may utilize) to achieve these goals
d. Relevant strategies for applying the plan in educational / work environment
Part 3: Reflective Activities
8. Analyze the significant way(s) and extent to which the process of reflection caused you to become a more reflective practitioner.
9. Propose two to three (2-3) measures that you would use in order to strengthen your reflective process. Provide a rationale to support your response.
10. Propose two to three (2-3) ways that you would apply continued reflective activities within your current or prospective work environment. Provide at least one (1) example of such application to support your response.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
• Apply theoretical and practical knowledge gained in prior program courses to explore a new topic or synthesize understanding in the concentration area
• Develop a working portfolio that focuses on a specific theme or project tied to Education program goals and the learner’s area of concentration.
• Use technology and information resources to research information about education.
• Write clearly and concisely about education using proper writing mechanics.
As a future educator, integrating global education, diversity, technology and core curriculum in the classroom context will require me to channel my inherent strengths to make my philosophy a success. As relates to integrating these tenets, my main strengths include my ability to identify biases and overcome them, my commitment to creating an environment of success, my superb listening and questioning techniques, and my ability to empathize with people with different needs. Additionally, I am always fascinated by technology and technological trends. I believe that this character will play to my advantage as I undertake to incorporate new innovations into the learning experience. Even as I follow the state or district issued curriculum, I am confident that my innate creativity will enable me to make the core curriculum and the other tenets of my philosophy attainable, engaging and interesting.
I believe that it is important for contemporary educators to keep learning and modifying their approach to find the best ways of passing knowledge. In this respect, one of the chief ways that I can amplify my strengths is by continuously learning from the past and present experiences of education professionals, as well as keeping abreast with new trends and incorporating them in the classroom. Today’s learning environment is constantly changing under the influence of diversity concerns and emerging technologies. The ultimate future educator will be the one who keeps abreast with these changes so as to be able to model the said changes to his or her benefit. By maintaining a pool of education-related knowledge, I will also be able to address educational challenges and empathize more with different groups of people.
Fountain, Susan, (1994) Learning Together, Global Education 4-7, WWF UK (World Wildlife Fund for Nature), Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming.