Achievement+of+Program+Goals

=Evidence of Program Goals: =


 * #1: Envision and guide organizational change **

As I have gone through this program, I have continued to grow in getting use to change. My teaching position has changed once again while working on this masters degree, in which now I am teaching in a charter school developed through project-based learning. With this change came a complete change in teaching style, interaction with students, environment in which I am teaching, and the amount in which I work closely with other teachers.

As a charter school teacher, my role as a teacher is a lot more along the lines of a facilitator. I do some direct instruction, but a majority of my teaching is student directed based on their needs, levels and abilities. For example, in teaching math students work in an online program which is self paced. As their teacher, I highlight areas students are struggling in and work with small groups or individuals on those topics. I have had to change my teaching style to meet the needs of all of my students; some need more instruction from me, some run wild with the freedom and do well. In other subjects, a lot of the content is taught through student exploration and research in which students guide their learning with their interests and abilities. Some of the information is given to the students, but the majority of it is discovered and applied by them to show their learning.

Another major change was the environment I teach in. Rather than having one classroom, I move rooms almost hourly as the students do. In our school we have a math lab, reading lab, etc. so the students and teachers move to the room they are teaching in for that subject.

Finally, and probably most significantly, I have had to adjust to the change of how much I work and team teach with others. Previously, I was used to collaborating with colleagues and then running my own room. As we started the year, the other 6th grade teacher and myself saw that the 52 6th grade students preferred and did well learning all together as a large group. Since we had the physical space to do so, we decided to give it a shot. It has worked well, with the expected good days and bad days. I have had to get used to the change of sharing the authority and control of the classroom with another person. Overall, it has really opened my eyes to different strategies that work well in teaching, seeing other people's perspectives, and being flexible to the daily schedule.

Not all of these changes have come easy and without any difficulty, but I have seen myself grow as a professional and improve student learning. I constantly find myself asking, "Is this best for the kids?" If I can answer yes to that question, I am willing to try anything and give it a shot. I look forward to becoming more and more flexible as a teacher and comfortable with the constant change in my teaching environment.


 * #2: Communicate effectively, engage constituents, develop people and build community **

This goal has been very important to me throughout this program. I find it very important to communicate well with colleagues, parents and students in order to be an effective teacher. Through this graduate program, I have grown in my ability to speak up for myself and what I believe in. Prior to this program I felt very much like a new teacher and that my ideas were not as weighted or significant to others with more experience. Over the past year and a half I have worked on speaking up and doing so in a respectful way that gets the point across and still respects others ideas. I still have work to do here, but that is one of my continual personal goals.

With the opening of our new school, we instilled a time period called advisory to build community with students across grade levels. In this class that meets twice a week for 20 minutes at a time, students and staff are able to build relationships, develop connections, and work toward individual goals as a team. My research proposal during this graduate program focused on the impact of advisory on developing a sense of community and achieving goals. By focusing on this and the idea of advisory, students and staff have gotten to know others they normally never would have interacted with. This has helped students to feel more comfortable at school and work together on activities and projects.

==== **#3: Advocate and promote equity for diverse populations and respect for individuals ** ====

This program goal has always been important to me even as I started my undergraduate program at the University of Wisconsin. By teaching in Madison for all of my practicum and student teaching placements, I gained a lot of experience working with diverse populations. In coming to Ripon for my first job, I was eager to be part of the VIP (Valuing Individual Personalities) group in order to focus on diverse topics and issues in our school. Throughout the time of this program I have become an active member of this group by attending monthly meetings, presenting topics to staff at faculty meetings and writing articles in a bi-monthly newsletter sent out to school and district employees.

With this experience, I have began standing up for my students in order to respect myself and others. For example, a fellow teacher wanted to do an activity in school to create ornaments to decorate a tree that represented our school as a fundraiser for Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society. I initially thought the project was going to be done solely by students outside of school, but realized later a few teachers were planning it for the school day. Even though the ornaments needed to be science, green, and technology focused, I knew many of the students would associate the activity with Christmas. Knowing not all of our students would be comfortable or want to participate in this activity whether they believed in Christmas or not, I created another activity for students to do for the 30 minutes dedicated to this "team building" activity that students could choose from. Students mixed up and moved around to both activities without feeling any pressure or seclusion as some students just were not interested in the project. My fellow teachers wanted to use more class time for the activity and I had to stand up to say I was uncomfortable using class time for this activity as it is too closely related to Christmas. The teachers kindly understood and opted to give students the option to stay in for recess or after school to work on the project if they wanted. It was hard for me to stand up to the teachers about this since they are veteran teachers and I respect them, but I was proud that I spoke my mind on something I knew was not okay to do. I hope to continue to do this in the respectful and purposeful way in the future.


 * #4: Integrate theory, data, research and ethical standards into the context of one’s practice through continuous learning **

One specific and significant change that this goal has had on me since starting this graduate program is I am now very willing and interested to read new articles on various educational topics to learn the new things happening in the news, review current research, or improve my teaching. Prior to this program I felt as if I did not have time to do this. It is not that I have more time now, but I see the importance of it and the impact is has had on me and my students. I have seen myself become more current on new developments, ideas, and theories. I have also applied these new strategies into the classroom in order to improve my teaching and learning for my students.

Additionally, this goal has reinforced the importance of constant reflection on lessons and projects each day. Now that I am doing so much team teaching and planning, I have seen the importance in doing this with coworkers to develop open communication. We have daily meetings as a Catalyst team (4 core teachers) to reflect on the day, tweak things for the next day, and go over specifics for the following day. In the beginning it was hard to not take it to heart if things did not go as well as planned. Now I have learned that it is part of the job. I can take the things that need to be changed, reflect on them, modify them, and make changes for the next lesson or day. I have also started a document on what we could do differently next year to be more successful. The saying is true, "You live and you learn".

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: small;">Finally, this graduate program has opened my eyes and instilled the desire to go on to more education after my masters degree to receive my principal's license. I have always been intrigued by the idea of being a principal, but I was not sure if I would ever do it. I wasn't even sure how soon I would go back to get my masters degree after beginning to work, but looking back on it now, I could not be happier with my decision to start my graduate work a year and a half after completing my undergraduate degree. I always enjoyed the business field and to me, being a principal is more of the business side of education. This program, and specifically this goal, has opened my eyes that side of education. I look forward to expanding my practice and continuous learning.