SCED 4989: Professional Learning Plan (Professional Development) and Leadership Assignment Name: _____Joe Woolf___ Major:_Music Education/Choral_

Date: _11/17/13___ Note: This will be placed in your DM6: Teaching Dispositions Section as a Benchmark Assessment. Directions- Write in the information below. Part I: DM4: Reflection: Seek learning experiences (e.g., professional, research, colleagues, community) as sources of reflection to improve teaching. 1. Explain one experience you have used sources (professional, research, colleagues, community, etc.) to help you improve your teaching. During my student teaching, I was presented with the opportunity to take over rehearsing the singing for the cast of The Boyfriend, the 2013 Fall Musical chosen for Desert Hills High School. Mike Winslow, my mentor teacher, asked me if I would take on this responsibility as he had personal obligations that conflicted with his commitment to the musical. In accepting this challenge, I was forced to demonstrate my teaching abilities to students who relied on me to be successful. I found myself a little nervous, but grateful for the opportunity to stretch and improve my level of teaching. 2. List your professional content organization with its website. What resources are available for teaching? As a music educator, music literature is the largest contributor to the content and its organization is critical for any music teachers success. I have a personal collection of music literature in hard copy and a music file on my computer. Schools keep collections of music and use differing styles of organization, but the optimum way in my opinion, is to have an alphabetical library by composition name both in a physical location and on the schools computer. As music educators, we utilize publishing companies similar to core curriculum publishers to purchase new and old music literature. These companies provide access to purchase music conveniently for music educators, by establishing accounts which can be accessed online. These online accounts provide a quick turn-around-time and simplify the process. These companies provide search engines on their sights to isolate any genre of music and even provide grade appropriate ratings for ease of selection. This is a list of the publishing companies which are regarded as the best sources of music literature: 1. J.W. Pepper - http://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/welcome.jsp 2. Alfred Music - http://www.alfred.com/ 3. Hal Leonard - http://www.halleonard.com/index.jsp?subsiteid=5

Part II: DM4: Develop a professional learning plan based on individual needs and the needs of the learners, schools, and educational community. A. The following components are included in a Development Plan 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Description of school and teaching, administrative, or pupil services situation. Description of goal to be addressed. Rationale for the goal. Plan for assessing and documenting the goal. Plan to meet the goal: objectives, activities, timeline, and collaboration. 3-5 pieces of evidence that document professional growth and the effect on student learning.

B. Fill in the information below based on your student teaching experience. 1. Description of your school, faculty teaching, administrative support, and services for students. Desert Hills High and Middle Schools are located in St. George, Utah. These schools are located in a fairly affluent area and funding is a minimal challenge. This is a reflection on the whole and not of individual students as there are those students who need and use financial assistance. The Teachers are engaged in technics and programs to maximize students success, from PLCs to utilizing the latest technologies in the classroom. This is accomplished with an extremely supportive and involved administration which truly practices and follows up with accountability procedures. 2. Identify one area of weakness you have right now you would like to improve and set a goal. a. Weakness:_______Piano Efficiency_____________________________ b. Goal:____Spend time every day practicing piano___________________ 3. Rationale: Write a short reason why it is important to set and reach this goal. Imagine a math teacher who could use a calculator but was slow and had not mastered all of its functions. The piano is such a universal tool in the world of music that its efficient and effective implementation by the teacher/director is priceless for instruction. 4. How will you measure/assess your goal? This goal will be measured by my ability to assist students learning parts of music during class and by my own understanding as a musician when I am effectively using my piano skills.

5. What is the timeline for your goal? I expect to gain efficiency daily and expect never to be as efficient as I would like to be. Though that may sound defeatist, as a musician I understand that mastery of anything musical is a life-long endeavor. 6. Explain if you met your goal and what was the outcome? I have met this goal during my student teaching, or should I say the portion of this goal that I thought was critical for student teaching. I have improved my single line accompanying which is assisting students learn their parts and I have mastered playing scales for warm-up exercises. Part III: DM6: Participate as part of a learning community, sharing responsibility for each students learning by giving and receiving feedback. 1. Explain your experience with participating in a professional learning committee (PLC) at your school. Write a brief essay that explains how the members on the committee shared of responsibilities for each student's learning? Joe Woolf SCED 4100 Inst. Dr. Goldhardt 09/29/2012 PLC Observation On September 11, 2012, I attended a district PLC meeting for the arts, where about 50 were in attendance. We all gathered in a large conference room to address the business and events that affect the entire district. This lasted for about 30 minutes. We were then released to meet together in a less formal, smaller group setting in differing rooms. Mikayla and I followed our practicum teacher to a room where five choral music teachers from intermediate and middle school gathered around a table. Mrs. Workman began our meeting with an introduction of Mikayla and I, then began teaching everyone in the room an instructional strategy, to teach students using popular music in 5/4 time with bean bags. Her lesson tied closely to music standard 2 which is Create. The lesson ended with acclamations given to Mrs. Workman on her clever idea. The meeting then became a large forum of issues from, appropriate music in school performances, to sheet music availability. The forum had no real sequence or structure and was left open to all who wanted to speak. I do believe these meetings enhance teaching and learning. As a secondary music teacher a sense of isolation from other teachers is real based on the volume of music teachers in any given school. This meeting allows teachers in the same discipline to invite and share ideas and classroom experiences with each other. The down side to this particular meeting was that only music teachers were in attendance. Styles and methods in teaching can be gained with a more diverse group setting ie: Math, Science, English, Music, etc. I think the variety of differing content backgrounds meeting together would better enhance the cross content learning that should be promoted for teachers.

2. Explain

how you engage in professional learning to enhance knowledge and skill, to contribute to the knowledge and skill of others and to work collaboratively to advance professional practice. The documentation I used as a PLC district experience is from early in my education program. I was a practicum teacher/student and was mainly in attendance to observe. Since then I have participated in several high school and middle school PLCs as a student teacher. Though I am still on the sidelines of implementation of any policies or procedures, my input is requested and often discussed by the teachers in attendance. I have enjoyed collaborating with the arts department and have been made to feel that my input is valid. In these collaborations, I have learned many valuable lessons and technics for implementing and advancing professional practices.