Reflection On Student Professional Development

1: a. Describe your learning from professional development activities you participated in this semester (school, district, university level).

On January 10, 2018, I participated in a school professional development focused on AIG training and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Staff were grouped in grade level teams and were trained in best practices to use with teaching Gifted Students and incorporating these practices into our lessons and classroom culture. Our PBIS training consisted of reviewing how to use the PBIS lessons provided by the PBIS team for each grade level within the classroom.

On January 23, 2018, I participated in a district level professional development focused on the K-3 Formative Assessment Process.

Every other Wednesday morning, staff have an hour and a half AIG certification training that takes staff through modules of readings, assignments, and in person discussions during the meetings. I am able to be a part of this training and work with my grade level team to learn the content and apply it through assignments, such as creating an activity choice board for students that have already mastered the required content. The next steps that I would take would be to continually look for ways to apply the content in the classroom and to share these ideas and lessons with other teachers. Though the training was thorough and provided a lot of helpful information, it is up to the classroom teacher to then find ways to apply these tools in the classroom in practical ways. In the classroom that I am currently placed in, the group of students that are identified as AIG are reading at a much higher level than their peers and need more complex content to challenge them. For example, one of my students is reading and comprehending at a fourth grade level in the second grade, so I would want to create alternate activities that would challenge her and other students academically and that could be done

In this training, I learned about the overall K-3 FAP as well as more in-depth information about the Problem Solving Domain. My Cooperating Educator was the presenter for the training and she trained all K-1 elementary school teachers in the school district on the K-3 FAP. I learned that 1st-3rd grade teachers are going to be expected to record data on a progression of skills for 6 domains that reflect the whole child, not just academics. These domains are perseverance in assigned activities, problem solving, emotion regulation, reading comprehension: monitoring meaning, school related vocabulary, and writing. I also learned that additional resources are on the DPI