Two Mid-Year Reflection Talking-Points for Educators

My Assistant Principal and I just completed our Mid-Year Conferences with our teachers.  The format of these conferences are very teacher-centered with the goal to provide opportunities for our teachers to reflect and centralize their continued growth as professionals.

C/o letschangeeducation.com

During these Mid-Year conferences, we are asking every teacher and counselor the same two open-ended questions:

1.  What has been the the concentration of your own professional growth this year thus far?

This is the first year we, as a district, have implemented the autonomous LNChoice PD Your Way program for our faculty and staff.  Teachers were given the ability to identify and select the direction of their own self-paced professional development, customized by their own schedule.  We have required digital reflections that are checked quarterly.

More importantly, this first question asks our teachers to provide self-reflection of simply how they have grown as an educator from the beginning of the year, what they have done differently, the risks they have taken, etc.


Examples: 

Teacher X has focused on Scope and Sequence: Incorporating new skills, based on the feedback from [next level] Teacher Y.

Teacher Z has utilized his Professional Learning Network to connect with other teachers who are utilizing skills-based initiatives in their own classroom.

2.  What are you focus area(s) for the 2nd Semester?

Basically, when we are having these conversations at the end of the year, four months from now, in what areas do you want to have grown as an educator?  This is also open-ended and personalized in that teachers can identify instructional areas, professional desires, or even personal items.

The conversation with the administrator allows us to put an informal accountability with these focus areas.  These focus don't become a checkbox, "Yes or No", formalized goal; we included them in the Mid-Year document primarily to be able to support, as needed, and engage in the same reflection conversations at the end of the year.

Ex.:

Teacher A wants to capitalize on high-quality discussion, especially in areas that may be difficult for students to discuss.  Overall, she wants students to possess the strong enthusiasm to enjoy the reading.

Teacher B will continue to seek out Native Speakers to come engage in dialogue with her Spanish III students, which was successful first semester.  

Teacher C wants to increase the frequency of the skill-checks because he has recognized the value.  He has also recognized students who can “do one thing, but can’t do the next.” [example shared: results appear that the student hasn’t mastered the skill, where really there is only one part of the skill they are yet to master]

For Teacher D's 9th and 10th Grade, students, she will intentional utilize open-ended questions that mirror what students will be assessed on the English 10 EOC to better expose them to these type of questions.

We've come to find that engaging in this open-ended dialogue provides an accountability in a coaching format with a growth mindset.  We are able to identify areas in which we can further support our teachers, while following-up with continued reflection conversations at the end of the year.

Thank you for viewing,

CS

The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith and do not represent the school or district in which he works.