Professional Development Plan Template

Use this template as a guide in planning your professional development plan focusing on a
specific teaching skill that you want to target for further development. This plan should be
written in a thorough and specific manner.

1. What is the general focus area of your professional development plan?

Professional This focus area could involve skills related to instructional delivery
Developme (e.g., managing visuals and materials during instruction, providing
nt Plan learners with frequent, specific praise, asking higher-order questions,
Focus giving directions clearly, checking for learner understanding strategically
during instruction). The focus area could involve skills related to
instructional planning (e.g., embedding learner interests within
instruction, differentiating instruction thoroughly to address specific
learner needs, planning instruction to incorporate multi-modal activities,
designing effective means to review content and skills from previous
instruction). The focus could also involve skills related to reflection and
professionalism (e.g., following through with Supervisor and
Cooperating Teacher input, taking initiative by reflecting on progress and
setting goals, actively seeking input and advice from colleagues).

The focus area during my apprentice teaching experience deals with

engaging the students in critical thinking questions and leading them in a
way of thinking that allows for more reflection and questioning. This way
the students can explore concepts that are not only content specific but
relate to other processes in the field of science as well. Using this as my
focus can also strengthen other areas of instruction that would include
content delivery, instructional planning, and how we reflect on new
knowledge as a classroom community. This area of focus is also useful as
a scientist as it would help to understand topics of study more in depth. I
want to provide my students with an accurate example through projection
on what a career in science looks like to inspire some interest in the field.

2. Rationale Why did you choose this general area of focus?

for Focus Consider the following as applicable when formulating your rationale:
Area past experiences in the classroom, past coursework experiences, input
Chosen from your Supervisor and Cooperating Teacher (in both practicum and
Apprentice Teaching as applicable), input from other professionals (e.g.,
course instructors, other colleagues, classmates), professional teaching
literature or resources, professional development experiences, personal
insights and reflections.
 I chose this general area of focus as it allows me to strengthen other areas as
I have mentioned above. These included content delivery, instructional planning,
and reflections processes.
 For content delivery, my focus on critical thinking questions can take big
ideas in the content and expand them to project based learning
strategies. This would encompass multiple parts of one system or theory
and allow students to connect multiple portions of units and lessons into
one idea.
 Instructional planning also takes advantage of utilizing deeper thinking
questions as it allows me to look for differentiated ways of unit/lesson
plan layouts. Blooms taxonomy is also utilized here in instructional
planning as it helps to organize my thoughts and ideas while giving
instructions to the students.
 Reflection processes work for the students as we can talk about the
problem, theory, or big idea of critical thinking questions and turn them
into peer review discussions for better understanding.
During my first few observations my cooperating teacher encouraged me to
ask more engaging and deeper thinking questions to the students to help them
understand the topic. Working with the students in lessons leading up to my
intensives also showed me areas of improvement that could fit into this plan of
development. This along with examples and encouragement from my
cooperating teacher assisted me with this rationale. With my own better
understanding of connecting this concept to other areas of instruction, I thought
this was an optimal choice for improvement as it would increase my productivity
in the classroom within these other areas as well.

3. Thinking about the general area of focus from section one, what is the goal of
Professional your professional development plan?
Developme  What is the target behavior of your plan that is observable and
nt Goal measurable?
 Under what circumstances or conditions will you do this behavior?
 What criteria will you have to meet in order to meet your goal?
Example - if the general focus area is in increasing positive verbal praise to
students during instruction, then:
Target behavior: Deliver specific, verbal praise to individual students by
stating what about a student’s performance, response, or behavior is noteworthy
(e.g., “I like the way you provided a specific rationale for your opinion when you
 answered the question, Henry.” “Thank you for sitting and using whole body
listening, Lilia.”)
Conditions: When providing whole group instruction to students in language
arts
Criteria: Specific, individual praise will be delivered five or more times per 10
minutes of instruction for 5/7 consecutive language arts lessons.

The goal of my professional development plan derives from these

critical thinking questions and expands knowledge within the content.
During my lessons I will be making sure to include wider-based
questioning methods instead of placing small parts of information
together for students. This way they can put these ideas, theories, and
information learned together to understand the big idea/picture.

Target Behavior: During each lesson, I will include questions for

students that is either displayed on the board within notes, or verbally
given to students as a question or concept from me. Delivery does depend
on the content but will include deeper thinking questions that allow more
conversation from the students rather than just from me speaking. These
questions involve vocabulary terms or constructs that combine ideas and
theories that explain more than one phenomenon at once. This could also
include asking students to elaborate on topics for more information to
continue the conversation.

Conditions: These types of question can be placed in multiple situations

depending on the lesson/unit we are conversing. This can include bell
ringers, lecture notes, worksheets, or explanations of one topic in general.

Criteria: At minimum, one specific question that envelopes multiple

content points will be given to the students and passed around to more
than one student for answering. This way there can be cooperation from
the students and use multiple perspectives for gaging understanding.
4. Activities Outline specific steps you will take to design, implement, and reflection on your
of plan including an estimated timeline specifying when each step will be
Professional completed.
Developme **Note: Plans having a goal involving instructional planning or reflection
nt Plan and professionalism (see section 1 above) should include activities that apply
this planning, reflection, or professionalism into your instruction.

As I create and prepare for my lessons, I want to make sure that I include
elements of deeper critical thinking questions that expand on certain criteria. I
can use Blooms Taxonomy as a guide to help maintain this standard of
education. Depending on the lesson for the day, this can be before, during or
 after the content has been delivered and can be placed strategically where
necessary. In addition, I do have my cooperating teacher who will look over my
lesson plan and give any suggestions or advice that would help me to implement
this plan.
Once the lesson is complete, I can reflect on this by going back over my lesson
with my cooperating teacher as well as my students. Depending on their
responses, I can get a sense of how the questing process enhanced their
understanding or still left them needing more guidance.
Professionalism will be maintained thought by going through the lesson
reflection with my cooperating teacher and taking any suggestions or advice
needed to become stronger in this area.
5. Data  How are you collecting data on your goal to make determinations
Collection/ about your progress? (Please include a sample of any data
Progress collection form/template you are using to record your
Monitoring performance.)
 How often will you be collecting data?
 Who will be involved in the data collection process? (Are you solely
responsible for this, or are other people assisting in collecting
data?)
** Note: You should collect data for a minimum of 10 days.
Plans having a goal involving instructional planning or reflection and
professionalism (see section 1 above) should include data collection
that captures the application of this planning, reflection, or
professionalism to your instruction.

1. I will be collecting data by having a written record of my critical

thinking questions written somewhere in my lesson. This can be
done either in the lesson planning, worksheets or bellringers given
to the students to answer. This way I can have the ability to ask
them verbally, or as a credit point in their work for either formative
or summative assessments. Once implemented, I will go over the
questions with my cooperating teacher to make sure the quality
standard is there and add or remove anything necessary. Here is a
sample of what the form will look like for data analysis.
 Date: 10 Unit 6 Question(s) Implementation
Days Total Notes

2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
2.
Data will be collected once a day for the 5th hour but will be asked for
in all the General Biology classes.
3. The collection of data is taken by myself with review of my
cooperating teacher. This form of self-assessment is taken during
the creation and organization of the lesson and therefore can be
calibrated to the daily agenda.

6. Results of ** Complete this section after your data collection is complete.

the Plan  Please provide a summary of your data in visual form.
 What does your data tell you? Did you show improvement? Did you meet
the goal you set?
 Are there any patterns that are apparent in the data? What are some
possible explanations for these patterns?
Date: 10 Unit 6 Question(s) Implementation Notes
Days Total Ecology
3/6/24 How would natural or man- CT: Make sure you let the
made phenomenon affect students answer, even if they
organisms in ecosystems? don’t answer right away.
3/7/24 After watching the video on CT: Great video! This helped the
salmon, what would students get the big idea.
happen if there was a
forest fire that took out all
of the old growth trees?
3/8/24 How would different CT: Maybee lead with an
biomes affect natural animal? Like artic fox and a
selection of mammals? desert fox? Otherwise, nice job
waiting for students to answer.
3/11/24 What type of diet is more CT: I like how you portrayed
costly (in all ways) this question, and how much
Vegetarian, or time was devoted to it. Not to
Omnivorous? Why? long or short.
3/12/24 Where does our energy CT: For this question I think you
come from? How does it should include a short video as
travel from one form to an intro.
another?
3/13/24 Why can’t there be a 5th or CT: Nice! I like how you lead
6th trophic level? Explain. the question after explaining the
different levels. Student
participation was also good.
3/14/24 Why is a food web more CT: This works as well with
realistic than a food chain? instruction. Maybe make this
more in depth and student lead?
Maybe a Jamboard?
3/26/24 After looking at this trophic CT: This was a great transition
pyramid, why is there less question into population ecology.
predators than prey? What Along with asking this question
verbally, you could also make this a
would happen if there were
worksheet question.
equal amounts of both?
3/27/24 Have humans hit our CT: This was great and the
carrying capacity? Why or students were thinking into
why not? future possibilities as well. I
liked how you had them look
things up in the moment.
3/28/24 After watching the video, CT: Your video with this was
why would people bring helpful to answering the
another organism to question. You also let the
another country? students answer it and then
explained the concept
afterwards.
3/29/24 If you were a germ, would CT: Again, great for population
you rather get to a large ecology. This cold also go more
population of people, or a into depth but I know you were
small population of people? worried about time.
Why?
7.  What were successes of the plan?
Reflection  What were difficulties encountered during the plan?
 What did you learn about your teaching practice as a result of
implementing this plan?
 How will this plan affect your future professional work and development?

**Note: The assignment should be written in a clear, concise, professional

manner with attention given to proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

 Any success that I obtain is always dependent on how it benefits my

students. As we went through the lessons in the unit, I could see more
engagement and enthusiasm in the class as well as participation. I also
saw more students willing to try to answer some of these concepts even
if they were wrong. Creating meaningful conversations in the class also
promoted learning for each student, even if they did not verbally
participate.
 Some of the difficulties I had during the plan were deciding where to ask
the deeper thinking questions in the lesson. Though I had plenty of
options I felt that these should be calibrated at the right times to be
effective. I also had some difficulty with timing them into the lesson. I
wanted to make sure I had plenty of time for them to answer, but also
allowing for enough work time for other activities.
 I learned that in my teaching practice I tend to give more leading
questions that only require short answer explanations. Though this is
useful in certain situations, it is not conducive for critical and deep-
thinking attributes students need in the content. This method helped me
to understand that and work through it for a more professional input of
content absorption.
 For my future in education, I plan on taking this informative experience
and adding it to my lesson set up. This way I can guarantee that there
will be these certain question types in the content, and I will be able to
maintain that throughout my units.