Professional Growth

Overall Growth as a Teacher

Over the course of my teaching career, I have become more intentional about using reflection, feedback, and assessment to improve my instruction. I began teaching English as a foreign language in Vietnam without formal teaching experience or training. Initially, I relied on textbook teaching resources, advice from experienced teachers, and online resources. As I gained experience, I experimented with instructional approaches and used student feedback and assessment results to evaluate their effectiveness. Later, I pursued Cambridge examiner training and enrolled at WGU to strengthen my understanding of educational theory, instructional planning, and assessment.

My student teaching experience has also helped me better understand the relationship between students’ academic needs and their classroom behavior. Through conversations with my mentor and other teachers, I have learned that disengagement or challenging behavior may reflect frustration with tasks students struggle to access. This has encouraged me to examine the support students need rather than make assumptions based on their behavior. Overall, I have grown more reflective about my instructional decisions and more aware of the need to adapt instruction while maintaining high expectations.

Professional Development in Subject-Matter Content

During my student teaching placement, professional conversations with my mentor deepened my understanding of valence electrons. While discussing an element research project, we recognized that students researching transition metals could become confused when applying the simplified relationship between an element’s group and its number of valence electrons. My mentor helped me recognize that the patterns commonly taught for main-group elements do not apply consistently to transition metals.

These discussions prompted me to revisit my understanding of valence electrons and their relationship to electron arrangement and the periodic table. I developed a clearer understanding of the limitations of the simplified rules I was teaching and why transition metals require a more complex explanation. This strengthened my subject-matter knowledge and better prepared me to answer students’ questions accurately, address misconceptions, and provide explanations appropriate for seventh-grade science.

Professional Development in Content Pedagogy

Conversations with my mentor also helped me improve how I plan opportunities for practice. Based on her formative observations, she emphasized that students need repeated opportunities to apply concepts, even when the content appears straightforward. This led me to plan multiple opportunities for practice and vary the activities so students could access the content in different ways.

For example, when teaching chemical formulas, students used blocks to build molecules from formulas, examined molecular models to write formulas, and practiced independently on whiteboards to translate between models and formulas. These activities allowed students to revisit the same concepts through physical models, visual representations, and written symbols. Students achieved stronger results on their summative assessment, which reinforced the value of repeated and varied practice in my instruction.

Collaboration to Analyze Student Data

On a professional development day during my student teaching placement, I participated in a science department PLC and a cross-curricular team meeting to collaborate with other teachers and analyze student data.

In the science department meeting, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade teachers shared student achievement data and observations about difficulties with science writing tasks. Our discussion focused on vertically aligning writing expectations and supporting students as they progress between grade levels.

In the cross-curricular meeting, I met with ELA, social studies, and mathematics teachers to discuss our shared students’ academic performance, behavior, and social-emotional needs. We compared observations across classes to identify students experiencing consistent difficulties and discussed approaches that had helped them.

Influence on Future Instruction

The science department meeting highlighted students’ difficulty synthesizing scientific information into written responses. This strengthened my belief that literacy instruction needs to be an intentional part of science teaching. As a result, I plan to incorporate more disciplinary reading and writing practice into my lessons. Specifically, I will provide opportunities for students to identify relevant information in science texts and data, discuss their understanding, and use that information to support written scientific claims. This will give students more practice connecting their content knowledge with the writing skills needed to communicate it.

Growth Through Collaboration

The cross-curricular meeting provided useful insights into individual students I had struggled to engage during my lessons. Other teachers shared specific approaches that had helped students who were experiencing difficulties across subject areas.

For example, I had interpreted one student’s disengagement and emotional responses as a lack of effort and maturity. The ELA teacher helped me recognize that insecurity and low confidence could be contributing to these behaviors. She explained that encouragement and opportunities to build confidence were more effective for this student than the stern approach I had been using.

This experience helped me recognize how my own assumptions can limit my understanding of students’ needs. It also showed me the importance of regularly comparing my observations with information from other teachers. By considering students’ experiences across classrooms, I can make more informed instructional decisions and respond to their difficulties with greater understanding.

Professional Educational Organization

The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) contributed to my professional development through its resource “Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information.” The resource explains that middle school students should combine information from texts and visual representations, evaluate evidence, and communicate scientific ideas orally and in writing (National Science Teaching Association, n.d.). This reinforced what I learned during my PLC discussions and inspired me to consider more structured support for scientific writing. For example, I plan to have students discuss a reading and particle model, construct a scientific explanation together, and use a checklist to review their individual responses. These are ways I could apply the resource’s emphasis on interpreting and communicating scientific information. Reading it helped me identify how literacy skills can become a more intentional part of my science instruction.

Future Professional Growth Goal

My goal is to strengthen my ability to differentiate science instruction for students who perform significantly below grade level in reading and mathematics. I want to make grade-level science concepts more accessible without reducing the rigor of the learning standards. Specifically, I want to improve my use of chunked directions, graphic organizers, visual supports, guided questions, and adapted readings that preserve essential scientific vocabulary and concepts.

Professional Growth Activities

To accomplish this goal, I will continue seeking guidance from experienced teachers about how they support students with different academic needs. I will focus these conversations on specific instructional materials and tasks so that I can apply their suggestions in my classroom. I will also study professional resources on differentiation and literacy support in science, selecting strategies that address barriers I observe in student work.

After implementing these strategies, I will use formative assessments and student work to evaluate whether the supports help students demonstrate their understanding of science concepts. I will discuss the results with colleagues and use their feedback to refine my instruction. This ongoing process will help me become more effective at identifying students’ needs and choosing appropriate supports.

References

National Science Teaching Association. (n.d.). Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. https://my.nsta.org/ngss/Practices.aspx?id=8