RUNNING HEAD: Professional Development Plan

Abbi Swearingen
Florida Southwestern State College
Practicum I
Practicum II
Internship

Professional Development PlanEdison State College

Pre-service Teacher Professional Development Plan for:

Education Department

Abbi Jeffery

Date:

4/17/14

Directions: Your Professional Development Plan (PDP) serves as a guide toward continuous improvement during your teacher
preparation program. List specific competencies, skills and dispositions you would like to improve on this form, using input from
FEAP evaluation reviewed with your mentor teacher, feedback from your faculty steward, and other sources you deem reliable.

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)
I would like to improve my teacher voice with my students.
Often times during my field experience I would see students do
things they should not be doing, or things that my mentor
teacher would have called out. I would often, quietly tell the
student they needed to be back on task, but I was always so
nervous about it. Sometimes I would not even say anything
because I did not know what to do and I did not think the
students would listen to me anyway. I want to work on being
sterner with my students, so that they know I am serious. Within
this goal, I want to be quicker and more specific when
responding to students who are acting out.

I would like to be more prepared when teaching my lessons.

Often times this semester, I would get everything together for
my lesson the night before I was going to present it to my class.
This had me scrambling to get everything done. I would go to
bed very stressed and wake up the next morning very tired.

2
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
I will achieve this by first, creating more
engaging lessons that work to prevent
students from acting out. I would for
students to be so engaged and excited about
learning that they cannot even think about
acting out.
Next, I will practice. I have always been
told to practice my lessons in front of a
mirror so that I see how the students see
me. I can definitely do this for disciplining
students as well.
Lastly, I will pay more attention to what
my mentor teacher says to his or her
students when they are acting out. If my
mentor teacher has good control of their
class then they are obviously doing
something right when it comes to
discipline. If I use the same or similar
phrases that my students already know
they may be more likely to respond
correctly
First, I am going to try and memorize my
lesson plan. I think that for now, in
practicum and in internship as well, it is
extremely important to have a good and
well-presented lesson plan. The students
may only hear this lesson once from me,
and never again from their teacher. When I
am in my own classroom I could go back
and review, but I do not know what
happens in field experience when I am not

When will I
achieve this?
I hope to achieve
this by the end of
my final internship
so that my future
students will be
well disciplined.

I want to achieve
this goal by the
time I am in my
final internship so
that it can be as
much like my own
classroom as
possible.

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)

I want to improve on accommodating when needed. There are so

many students who need differentiated instruction. A lot of times
I just assume my lesson plan has enough accommodations, and
there is no reason to add more. I have heard from many of my
professors and my peers about how they accommodated for a
student. It is not hard to do! It takes time and thought, but

3
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
there. I think if I memorized my lesson
plan I would know exactly how it should
go, and I also know my alternative lessons
well in case the first lesson did not go as
planned.
Secondly, I am going to ask people I trust,
like my professors and my mentor teacher,
or past mentor teachers to look at my
lesson plan and give me feedback on how
they believe it would go. I would love for
them to tell me things I could change as
well as things that they thought I could
keep.
Lastly, I am going to give myself more
time! I want to have my lessons written out
a week in advance. This way I am fully
prepared and have enough time to
memorize the lesson, get all the materials,
and have plenty of time for someone to
look over it for me. I think if I do all these
things enough in my practicum and
internship that I will always be creating
engaging, well thought out, and prepared
lesson plans when I have my own
classroom.
First, I will get to know my students better.
I need to know a person very well in order
to know what they need in order to succeed
their fullest potential. It is so important to
know your students. I can do this, by
giving students surveys, or asking students

When will I
achieve this?

I want to achieve
this before my
final internship so
that my internship
will run as
smoothly as

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)
students benefit from it so much.

4
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
what they like and dislike. I have always
assumed that I would only do this in my
own classroom, but if my mentor teacher
approves it, I should definitely be giving
surveys to my students in order to get to
know them better!
Next, I should really utilize my mentor
teacher more often. I had a wonderful
mentor teacher this semester and I feel like
I did not gain as much knowledge as I
could from her. I should have been taking
notes every time she talked! I loved
working with her, and she had great insight
about accommodating to her students. I am
going to talk to my mentor teacher much
more about what he or she would do, and
how they would do it next time.
Thirdly, I want to just do more research on
what accommodations work, and why they
work. There is so much research out in the
world about differentiating instruction for
different learners! I will read much more
about this, and how it works.

When will I
achieve this?
possible.

Status update:
I think overall, I am doing well in my field experience. I think there is so much I could work on though! I need to work on all
of the things I mentioned in the above chart. I think that I have a teacher voice, but I need to really improve on utilizing it! I work with

Professional Development Plan

elementary students at my church and I am much more open about talking to the students and correcting them when they are acting
out. I often times feel uncomfortable in my field experience, because I am only there once or twice a week, why should I be able to
discipline these students I do not know all too well? I need to appear more like a teacher to the students. I think they can see right
though me, and know that I just want them to like me.
When it comes to being prepared, I am not. I am very last minute, in all areas of my life. It often times hurts me. I have tried to
get things done more quickly, but I always get easily sidetracked and then I just stop trying. If I took the time to be ahead or on task all
the time I think I would benefit greatly. Anytime I do get things done early I feel great! It is important, so important for me to put the
time in to creating awesome lessons for my students. I need to focus much more on putting my students first when it comes to my time
during the week. I am going to try and create deadlines for myself so that I can get more things done more quickly.
Accommodating our students is something our program cares about a lot! I know this because we talk about them in all of my
classes all of the time. I know how important it is, but I seem to never have enough time. That is terrible! I should always make
enough time to differentiate my instruction so that all of my students can learn and be benefitted from it. I really do think that I could
improve on this a lot, and I think that if I do this, it will benefit everyone in the long run.

Status Update for Professor Rollins:

I am surprised reading this Professional development plan. If I am being totally transparent, I completely forgot about this
PDP, which actually is upsetting because I would have liked to be intentional with some of these improvements. However, I did

Professional Development Plan

improve on some of these goals. The first goal I wrote about was to improve my teacher voice in the classroom. I found that when I
am just walking around the classroom I have a quiet and low voice. When students only see me in this fashion, they do not care to take
me seriously. When I began teaching in my field experience this semester I think the students understood that I was in charge. I spoke
louder and with an informed and assertive tone. Almost all of my students stayed on task and paid attention. This has been an
improvement from last semester!! The best action step I took for this goal was to watch what my mentor teacher did, and how she
responded to students. She would get her students attention by saying, class, class and her students would respond, yes, yes. I
loved this classroom management and I plan on using this in my future classroom.
The next goal I put into place was to work on preparing my lessons well in advance. I am absolutely horrible at this. I always
wait till the last minute to get everything done. I will say that I do not think I have improved on this at all. It is actually really
embarrassing for me to write that here. I included that goal in my goal for next semester. I have to be prepared during internship!! I
want to continue to work on this goal and to hopefully improve greatly!
The last goal I set last semester was, accommodating my students when needed. Last semester, I was in an ESE co-teaching
classroom. I needed to have a lot of accommodations in my lessons, and I didnt. I had so much opportunity to learn from my mentor
teacher and her co-teacher, but I often felt myself being more concerned with other things during the class. This semester I was in a
mainstream classroom in a charter school. My classroom did not have any ELLs, and non of the students were identified as ESE
although I think some of them needed to be. I improved on this goal some just from learning my accommodation in my classes. We

Professional Development Plan

have learned about the SIOP Model in Professor Millers class and that has been a huge help for my learning easier and more effective
ways to accommodate all of my students.

Practicum I
Practicum II
Internship

Edison State College

Education Department

Pre-service Teacher Professional Development Plan

for:

Abbi Swearingen

Date:
12/02/1
4

Directions: Your Professional Development Plan (PDP) serves as a guide toward continuous improvement during your
teacher preparation program. List specific competencies, skills and dispositions you would like to improve on this
form, using input from FEAP evaluation reviewed with your mentor teacher, feedback from your faculty steward, and
other sources you deem reliable.
What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)

How will I achieve this?

(list specific steps you will take)

I would like to be more prepared when teaching my lessons.

Often times this semester, I would get everything together for
my lesson the night before I was going to present it to my class.
This had me scrambling to get everything done. I would go to
bed very stressed and wake up the next morning very tired.

First, I am going to try and memorize my

lesson plan. I think that for now, in practicum
and in internship as well, it is extremely
important to have a good and well-presented
lesson plan. The students may only hear this
lesson once from me, and never again from
their teacher. When I am in my own
classroom I could go back and review, but I
do not know what happens in field
experience when I am not there. I think if I
memorized my lesson plan I would know

When will I
achieve this?
May 2015

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)

8
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)

When will I
achieve this?

exactly how it should go, and I also know my

alternative lessons well in case the first
lesson did not go as planned.
Secondly, I am going to ask people I trust,
like my professors and my mentor teacher, or
past mentor teachers to look at my lesson
plan and give me feedback on how they
believe it would go. I would love for them to
tell me things I could change as well as
things that they thought I could keep.
Lastly, I am going to give myself more time!
I want to have my lessons written out a week
in advance. This way I am fully prepared and
have enough time to memorize the lesson, get
all the materials, and have plenty of time for
someone to look over it for me. I think if I do
all these things enough in my practicum and
internship that I will always be creating
engaging, well thought out, and prepared
lesson plans when I have my own classroom.
My goal is to successfully use a planner during
internship. I need to use a planner to write down and be
able to see exactly what I need to get done by a certain
date. I think the use of a planner will improve my
academic success greatly.

The first step I will take to use a

planner is to buy a planner that fits in
my purse and to carry it around with
me. This way I am able to constantly
have the ability to write in my planner
which sets me up for more success.
The next step I will take to successfully
use a planner is to write down
everything at the beginning of the
semester and when I first meet with my
mentor teacher for field experience. I
want my mentor teacher to inform me

May 2015

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)

I would like to improve on my classroom management

for final internship and to limit distractions that go on in
the classroom.

9
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
of when things are happening and for
me to immediately write it down so
that I cannot forget.
Finally, I want to check my planner at
the beginning and end of each week so
that I can see what is coming up and
how I need to plan for it. I will do this
by setting myself a reminder to go off
each week! I hope that I am able to
attain this goal because I believe it will
allow me to be the best that I can be
during internship!
First, I need to identify these
distractions. In practicum two field
experience, my distractions were two
boys who liked to talk out and say silly
things. I actually enjoyed what one of
them said because it was often times
really funny, but it was distracting and
caused the class to get off track and
lose focus. I hope that during internship
I can identify what there is in a lesson
or in the general classroom that could
potentially be distracting or what is
currently distracting students.
Secondly, I would like to use the
effective classroom management
strategies. I find proximity control
works, but only when you make a
student really uncomfortable, and I do
not like doing that. I also have realized
and need to work on walking away
from the student once they are on task.
If I dont then they just think I am

When will I
achieve this?

May 2015

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)

10
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
standing there for no reason, this
happened during field experience.
Thirdly, like I said in my last PDP, I need
to watch my mentor teacher and learn
from her. She hopefully has a
classroom management style in place
that works and I should try and use
that. This way the students are not
confused on how to respond to my
mentor teacher or myself. I do not want
to present a whole new classroom
management plan to my internship
class because I am only there for a
short time period.

When will I
achieve this?

Status Update:
I still think that I have improved a lot this semester. The three goals that I set last semester were great goals for me, and
honestly they are all goals that I am still working to master. My second goal, about lesson planning is still an area where I need
continual discipline. This goal has actually been a goal of mine since my first practicum! I feel as though, my lesson plans have
improved a lot since my first and second practicum! They are much more well thought-out and engaging lessons. I believe lesson
planning is an area that a teacher is always improving on. Lesson planning is an area that I do not feel that I am highly effective. I
want to be a highly effective teacher, and I can continue to work towards that goal by consistently improving my lesson plans.
I have improved a lot on my classroom management skills. The first grade students in my internship know me well, and I know
them well. Knowing my students and their needs has greatly impacted my classroom management skills. I know what techniques work

Professional Development Plan

11

on what students, because I have learned about them and watched as they interacted with one another. I feel, that in my practicum I
was not with the students enough to know them as well as I know my internship students. I have loved getting to know my students
and I can honestly say that is my favorite part of my internship. I still have areas of classroom management that I am continuing to
work on, mostly keeping students quiet when they are very excited!
My last goal, was to use successfully use a planner. I feel as though I have improved a lot with this goal. I have a planner that I
carry back and forth with me to school and home. I also have a calendar in my kitchen that I use and see everyday. I love having the
calendar in kitchen because I am able to also work with my husband and his very busy schedule. I have also been creating to-do lists
for myself to complete. Doing this has really helped me a lot! I have been able to constantly keep a list of all of the things I need to
have done by a specific time. I have seen how important it is to be prepared and organized in a classroom. I am not organized by
nature; I have been trying to improve on this in many areas of my life, so that I can be more successful as a teacher.
Practicum I
Practicum II
Internship

Edison State College

Education Department

Pre-service Teacher Professional Development Plan

for:

Abbi Swearingen

Date
:

04/05/15

Directions: Your Professional Development Plan (PDP) serves as a guide toward continuous improvement during your
teacher preparation program. List specific competencies, skills and dispositions you would like to improve on this
form, using input from FEAP evaluation reviewed with your mentor teacher, feedback from your faculty steward, and
other sources you deem reliable.

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)
I would like to improve my knowledge of Spaulding
Phonograms and the best practices to having students
use the phonograms while reading.

12
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
The first step in attaining this goal
would be to learn all 72 different
Spaulding phonograms. There are
videos online that I have watched a few
times, but I need to be intentional
about learning all 72 of them. During
my internship this semester, I had the
pleasure of learning a lot of them! My
students have actually helped me a lot
because they already knew many. I
know at least 32 of them.
The second step in attaining this goal
would be to research and read about
Spaulding phonograms. I think that
learning all of the phonograms is
awesome but it is only one part in
helping students use this to benefit
their reading. Many of my students
know all of the phonograms (that we
have learned so far) inside and out, but
they do not use them while reading.
Lastly, I need to implement Spaulding
phonograms into my future classroom.
I would love to teach in the primary
grades. Phonograms are taught in the
primary grades, but many students in
3-5 grade need more phonemic
awareness. I would love to make
phonograms a part of my everyday
routine.

When will I
achieve this?
The end of my
first year as
an educator.

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)
I would like to improve on my use of Kagan structures in
my class. I have always liked Kagan structures, but I
find that I rarely use them during direct instruction. I
would like to successfully use more Kagan structures in
my classroom.

13
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
The first step I will take in using more
Kagan structures in my classroom is by
learning more about Kagan structures.
There are many books about all of the
different Kagan structures and what
they are used for. I would like to attain
one or more of these books and then
take the time to research and read
them. I cannot use Kagan structures
successfully if I do not know how they
are supposed to be used.
Secondly, while writing lesson plans, I
would like to specifically write out what
Kagan structure I plan to use and how I
am going to present this to the
students. Currently, during my lessons,
I will throw in a bottoms up, heads
together activity in, but I did not plan
on it. I think it would be much more
beneficial to both me and my students,
if the activities were planned out ahead
of time.
Lastly, once I am using these Kagan
structures in my classroom I need to be
using formative assessment to see if
these Kagan structures are achieving
their purpose. I will walk around the
room and listen to students and their
conversations with one anther. By
doing this, I can be listening to hear if
students are on task, if they
understood the directions, if they are
comprehending or understanding the
material enough to teach it.

When will I
achieve this?
The end of my
first year as
an educator.

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)
My goal for my first year as a teacher is staying on
schedule, and learning when the schedule needs to
change!

14
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
To achieve this goal, I will start by
making sure that I have a set schedule
in my classroom. In some of the classes
I have worked in, the schedule was
constantly changing, this made things
very confusing for me, and I am sure it
was for the students as well. I will start
to achieve this goal by making a
schedule for my classroom and THEN
following that schedule everyday.
Secondly, I will use timers to help me
stay on the schedule that is set. I have
been doing this in my internship this
semester and it has helped me
tremendously. I set the timer to go off
about 1 to 2 minutes before we need to
switch to the next activity. This gives
me an idea if I need to go ahead and
change the schedule to give more time
to something that might be taking
longer than I would have thought.
Lastly, I have to work on being flexible,
and deciding what is the most
important things for my students to
know. In the primary grades, we do a
lot of crafts and although they serve a
purpose they are not the most
important thing for my students to
learn. I need to make time for math,
reading, science and social studies.
They need to be planned in my day,
and I need to make them a priority over
everything else. Hopefully, as I become
a more experienced teacher I will learn

When will I
achieve this?
The end of my
first year as
an educator.

Professional Development Plan

What do I want to improve?
(list specific improvement goals)

15
How will I achieve this?
(list specific steps you will take)
how to shorten my lessons, and smooth
out my transitions to make them
shorter as well. I think being more
flexible about taking more time with
activities that REALLY matter and
shortening activities that are not as
important or even moving them to
another day.

When will I
achieve this?