Goals Moving Forward

Published: 2023-07-07 1:05 PM | Updated: 2023-07-09 2:54 PM

Category: Reflection | Tags: graduate, professional, goals, perspective, growth

Coming off my recent post on my changing goals ten years into my degree, now I want to take a look forward and set some learning goals for the coming years.

The last several years of my work have been with adults rather than students and has included significant time at the leadership level. Working as a conduit for leadership to the classroom, I've learned a lot about how to translate broad goal statements into actionable practices with students. At the same time, I've felt a growing tension in my own work because I don't have my own classroom in which to put the methods I'm teaching to work.

With that in mind, there are three areas in particular in which I would like to grow as a classroom teacher and as a teacher-leader: inclusive teaching practices, assessment and reporting, and systems for efficacy.

Inclusive teaching practices

"All means all" is a phrase our team uses to make sure we keep every student in mind as we prepare, execute, and reflect on instruction. Universal Design for Learning is a helpful framework for ensuring that instruction is accessible for all students from the way we prepare materials to our instruction in the classroom. My first goal is to use the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) framework for Universal Design when I'm preparing course materials. In particular, I'm going to focus on the representation domain.

I'm a science teacher by training, so much of my early work was focused on clear explanations of ideas with graphics to help students build mental models of abstract ideas. However, this is a limited mode of representation of ideas and may not be accessible for students, particularly those who speak limited English or struggle with auditory processing. By reflecting critically on ways in which I represent scientific ideas, I'm hoping my classroom instruction becomes more effective for more students.

In addition to content representation, I want to learn more about how to exhibit explicitly anti-racist teaching practices, particularly those described by Dr. Bettina Love. This is an area that will definitely strech me as I reconcile my implicit privilege and ways in which I make my classroom welcoming to all students.

Assessment and reporting

Flowing from making instruction more accessible by all students, I'm interested in developing more effective modes of assessment and ways in which we can report student progress. I've used standards-based (or standards-aligned) assessment and reporting for a long time and there is room for growth in how I collect data, provide feedback on learning targets, and then support students in their continued improvement. As I consider teaching in the classroom, I want to develop clear systems for students to track their own growth and improve communication between myself and parents as we work together to support their student.

Beyond the classroom, I'm interested in how schools as a whole can use agency over grade reporting to give an accurate - and holistic - view of education based on assessment. Beyond content skills reported in the classroom, what goals or skills does the school want to see students develop? How do we report that progress or support students in skill development? A very interesting project I came across recently is the Mastery Transcript Consortium which helps schools re-envision how they communicate student learning and that may be a good place to get some starter ideas.

Systems for efficacy

A good friend of mine is a doctor and he frequently laments the amount of time he spends in front of a computer. A majority of his interaction with patient care is following a quick check with the individual when he's reading lab results, interpreting the data, and then ordering next steps. The digitizing of processes has made the system more efficient at order and reporting tests but has made him feel less effective as a caregiver.

The education technology boom of the late aughts and early 10's has led to a similar situation - teachers and schools have more webistes, apps, and resources to track students but at the cost of engaged learning. We have put time and effort into systems that make us more efficient at measuring but, I would argue, less effective at creating lifelong learners.

I don't feel this goal is in conflict with the previous section, but rather a companion. I want to explore effective teaching strategies as paired with timely, actionable, and insightful moments of assessment which help students grow. In what ways can I structure my classroom so students can explore ideas as well as demonstrate their own understanding without falling into an endless series of assessments? Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are a structure which help teachers define curriculum and assessment collaboratively, which can help with some of this growth I'd like to achieve.

A unified approach

Each of these learning goals supports the other - an inclusive, accessible classroom provides students a safe space to engage with and explore new ideas. Assessing students for learning in ways which provide actionable feedback will be a main method of growth support. Using tools critically and responsibly will allow me to communicate critical information in a way which drives next steps. Removing any one area of growth will hinder another and I think the biggest challenge our of each of these three is finding the right balance.