Examples of Reflective Statements

Below are five examples of reflective statements that teachers have

Example #1:
During the 2011/2012 teaching year I had an opportunity to be a part of
a Professional Learning Community which involved two different
components. One component centered on two different book studies
dealing with Differentiation. The books were; Differentiation by Rick
Wormelli, and Making Differentiation a Habit by Diane Heacox. We
were split into smaller groups within the staff in our building and were
assigned pages in each book to read followed by discussion groups
throughout the school year. The discussions allowed us to learn what
other teachers were already doing within their classrooms to
differentiate, as well as what could be implemented in our rooms to
better meet the needs of individual students. The books provided a
wealth of strategies that could be used. At times it was overwhelming,
but the key was to pick just a couple things to try each year and then
build on those strategies. An important component was using student
choice which allows for greater student motivation. Some examples
include Tic-Tac-Toe Boards which I am planning on implementing this
year in my Social Studies class. Another strategy I will start this year is
Show-And-Tell Boards. One strategy that I have used is RAFT - Role,
Audience, Format, and Topic for writing projects within my room and
will continue to use this strategy. Tiered assignments are another
strategy I have used to some degree in the past and hope to use more
in the future. This year we have a new curriculum for SS in grade 6 so
we will be working together to implement various differentiation
strategies. The other part of our PLC groups provided us with an
opportunity to observe other teachers (primarily within our building). A
form was developed that we could use as we observed our colleagues
teach. We were to do 3 half day observations during the school year.
This was a rare opportunity for us to observe the excellent teachers we
have here at Willow Creek. I had an opportunity to observe teachers at
my grade level as well as teachers in grades 7 and 8. Observations
included Math, SS, and English teachers. Following our observations we
would sit down with the teacher we observed and share our
observations in a non-evaluative manner. This was such a positive
experience!

Example #2
In my capacity as a Physical and Health Disabilities (P/HD) Consultant
and Assistive Technology Coordinator, one of the most important traits
I need to bring to my position is the ability to collaborate with
colleagues. I believe this is important not only to complete certain
tasks but to foster my continual learning as well. Within this five year
licensure period, I have been provided with many opportunities to
collaborate, learn, and accomplish tasks with many groups within the
school and the Rochester Community. One such group in the
community is my Region 10 P/HD group. This group consists of ten
other P/HD consultants from districts across our region. In the spring of
each year, we meet as a group and develop annual goals for the
following year. For the 2011-2012 school year, our group worked on
learning how to adapt toys for children who need to use switches to
access toys. We collected a repository of data sheets that could be used
to measure success of students on IEPs towards their goals. We had a
guest speaker from the Disability Linkage Line come in and speak to us
about statewide resources available to our learners with physical
disabilities. In addition to this, we worked on developing and collecting
forms to use when observing early childhood learners with disabilities.
Currently our group is awaiting the production of a project we worked
on together for one and a half years. We developed a "strat pack"
which is a document that lists strategies to utilize when working
with/teaching students with executive functioning deficits. This is a
statewide initiative designed by our group. It is currently with our state
P/HD consultant who will be getting it produced into a set of cards so
we can distribute it to teachers in our field across the state. Meeting
with this group allows me to grow professionally in my field and
continue to foster my own love for learning. I look forward to my
continued learning with them.

Example #3
This year I had the opportunity to work with the Kellogg Staff and
gain a better understanding of Sheltered Instruction Observation
Protocol (SIOP). Our Early Release and Late Start activities were
centered on the SIOP strategies and how to best use those ideals in all
classrooms. I specifically was interested in what additional resources I
could provide for staff to best support their students learning.
In digging into SIOP I did learn that it is research bases, started
with sheltered students and focuses on language development. This
last part is how I envision using SIOP as we move forward. The
language development portion really interests me on how we may
apply this to all of our students who could use additional support in
these areas. Ideally we would have the students in small groups but at
times that isn’t always an option. How can I support student learning
by structuring the vocabulary and help the 8 components of SIOP when
I interact throughout the day with all students?
I chose to mainly build background in other areas of the school to
support teachers. I would often stop by a classroom to see what topics
they were discussing. After doing some quick research I would discuss
those topics or allude to them in conversations in the hallway or at
lunch. Then I would try to catch those students in their class and work
to contribute to the class discussion by prompting the students that we
conversed with in the common areas.
This technique seemed to be useful in helping students open up
and be further engaged in the topics that were happening in class. I
hope to expand these possibilities in the future by creating a grid of the
times specific topics are coming up in classes. This should help me keep
on top of what is going on in the classroom while also supporting the
students who need some additional help through SIOP.

Example #4
Much of my professional growth over the past 5 years has been in the
form of learning and implementing best practices through the SIOP
Model (the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol). The 8
components of SIOP bring many best practices together under one
umbrella: Lesson Preparation, Building Background, Comprehensible
Input, Strategies, Interaction, Practice/Application, Lesson Delivery and
Review/Assessment. I was first exposed to SIOP while I was pursuing
my ESL license. Then I was formally trained by the Rochester School
District and began to implement the strategies I learned, in particular in
my co-taught classes with our ESL teacher (I teach English/Language
Arts). Next I was trained as a SIOP coach, and I have spent the past 3
years training the staff at my school in SIOP.As I mentioned, SIOP
combines many best practices, so some of the things I learned were
review. For example, Building Background and Interaction are things
that most English teachers excel at. I always do a number of pre-
reading activities, and I always have students work in a variety of
groups. Even so, it was good to review these things through the lens of
an ESL learner. I realized, for instance, that I often grouped students
based on behavior, but I should sometimes base my groups on
language skill. Other aspects of SIOP were more challenging. I still
continue to work on writing daily content and language objectives. I
have to keep reminding myself that objectives should not be a list of
activities, but rather, what I want the students to know and be able to
do by the end of the lesson. Last year was perhaps my most successful
year in writing objectives, but I still need to remember to state the
objectives at the beginning of class and review them at the end. Now
that we have the common core standards in English, I excited to use
them to direct my daily objectives. Another area that I worked to
improve in my teaching was vocabulary instruction (Building
Background). My co-teacher and I have instituted a word wall with
words that use common Latin Roots, and we’ve come up with good
ways to review those words/roots (Review and Assessment). Improving
Strategies in another area that I have worked on, in particular making
sure I ask a variety of questions. For example, I looked at one of the
novels that I teach, and I realized that most of the questions I asked
about it were just basic comprehension questions! It wasn’t until the
final test that I asked the Higher Order Thinking Questions. I am
currently working on incorporating HOTS questions into every lesson
and having students write their own questions. I feel that by learning,
implementing and teaching/coaching in SIOP, I have grown
tremendously in my teaching. I truly feel that I have been able to
implement most of the best practices incorporated in SIOP, and I feel
comfortable in coaching other teachers in it as well. I also feel that my
implementation of SIOP has benefited my students. They have clearer
expectations of what they need to learn and accomplish, and it is more
accessible to them due to the SIOP strategies I’ve implemented. I have
seen improvements in students’ motivation, grades and MCA scores
over the course of the past 5 years, and personally I think I am a better
teacher because of this professional development.

Example 5:
How have I supported student learning in the past five years of my
educational life? After looking at my PDExpress transcript, I can see
evidence of what has been my focus. The greatest number of hours has
been in the areas of positive behavior strategies and reading. There is
certainly a relationship between these two areas of focus. If one
successfully engages students, positive behaviors are more likely to
emerge. If students behave respectfully in class, an environment of
learning can flourish. Both the Efficacy and Mind Set courses focused
on helping students learn to see themselves as capable of limitless
success. I shared the knowledge I gained about these topics with my
students, invited them to focus on their strengths, and encouraged
them to embrace the learning process. I reminded them that errors are
to be expected when learning something new, but with effective effort,
each one of them was capable of success. For a student who sees
him/herself as efficacious, the sky is the limit when it comes to learning.
The reality is that sometimes disruptive, negative situations occur in the
classroom, and they not only disrupt the learning of the student causing
the interruption, but they also hinder the learning of every other child
in the class. The classes that focused on positive behavior management
provided many ideas for how to help students through these tense
situations. Among my favorites were the Love and Logic classes
because they offered practical advice for these moments. If a student
feels at odds with the teacher, it is likely that the student will not be
able to focus on the learning taking place in the classroom. The student
may actually be focused on how to disrupt learning. Through these
classes, I was reminded of the importance of treating each of my
students with respect. I often used techniques from this class when I
could tell a student was trying to get attention in destructive ways.
Some key concepts in Love and Logic are staying calm and
acknowledging the student’s point of view. For example, if a student
proclaimed, “I didn’t do that dumb assignment.” I could reply,
“Participating in this discussion is certainly difficult and probably
frustrating without having done the homework. Let’s talk for a minute
after class.” Showing a student respect in front of his/her peers and
putting the discussion off until after class where it can take place
privately without an audience allows the student to save face and,
hopefully, focus on learning. All of the reading classes I have taken have
had an influence on my classroom instruction and what I do to support
student learning. But, by far, I have found the most effective classes to
be the book studies. During this renewal period, I participated in the
class in which we read Rick Wormeli’s book, Summarization. This
directly supported student learning because a requirement of the class
was that we implement at least one strategy and report back at our
next meeting. Not only did I learn directly from my own experiences,
but I also learned indirectly through the other teachers’ reports. In
addition, I kept notes in the front of the book, in which I noted which
strategies would work best with each of the topics I teach. This has
proven to be invaluable as it has guided my instruction throughout the
year. At the beginning of a unit, I can open up the book and remind
myself of strategies that will enhance student learning. Reflecting over
the past five years, I am appreciative of the staff development
opportunities that this district has provided. There is no question that
the 300+ hours of professional development have had a direct and
extremely positive impact on my ability to enhance student learning.
With the tools from the classes I have taken, I will continue to build my
classroom community; a welcoming classroom in which each student
feels respected, believes in his/her ability to succeed, and is engaged in
learning.