Reflection Standard 4

4.A.1 Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is an area I have become stronger in as Ive moved to larger schools. Early
in my career, I displayed reflective practice by giving surveys after STEM events I helped plan to
get feedback from other staff and parents on what they liked and asked for suggestions. This
would then be implemented into the next event or the following year. I was the only science
teacher, so I did reflect personally as I figured out what strategies did and didnt work for classes
and individuals. At MCCPS we had more built in professional development and common
planning time, which allowed me to focus on my personal growth. There were times where we
would follow protocols to share plans for exhibition projects and receive feedback from other
teachers on how to improve for that year or future. This was really valuable, because not only
did you get to hear and give feedback on projects from all different areas and grades, you also
helped get more ideas for your own projects. The feedback was also valuable and helped
improve projects and assessments. When planning a brand new project based around March
Madness Mathematics I received a lot of valuable insight on developing writing prompts from
writing specialists. I was also able to connect with the Gym teacher and tie in statistics with a
basketball tournament. Now at Swampscott, I reflect regularly with my mentor and science
teaching partner on how we could improve projects and lessons in the future. There isnt as
much cross disciplinary communication, but we are able to make changes to documents
immediately for the following year and update our notes in our UBD curriculum outlines. I feel
reflection is critical for improving your own practice and plan to continue these efforts in the
future to ensure I am planning projects and lessons to the best of my ability.

4.B.1 Professional Learning and Growth

I started teaching without any education courses and teaching experience other than examples
of good teachers from my own education. I fully went into teaching knowing I had a lot to learn
and readily took advantage of the experience of my colleagues and mentor as well as attending
national and local conferences/workshops. I loved multiple day conferences where I would plan
a week ahead of time a schedule of what sessions to attend, ensuring I picked a good balance
of workshops ranging from content, classroom management, and unique projects. Then as my
classroom management and skills improved I spent more time seeking out workshops on
specific skills, unique projects, or interesting ideas. These were the most fun for me to think
about how I could further engage students. For example, I attended a session on a group of
teachers building remotely controlled underwater vehicles and how they tied it into their
curriculum. I immediately came back that spring and applied for a grant to get sea perch kits to
implement with my 8th graders at Cohen Hillel Academy. The school was extremely supportive
and even adjusted schedules so they had an extra class with me once a week to implement the
program. It was a huge hands-on success and culminated with a pool competition at the end of
school where their sea perches competed in races, obstacle courses, and other tasks. I
continued this with 7th and 8th graders the following year. I have also developed in depth
projects from ideas at conferences such as infographic projects, stop motion photography, and
green screen filming. I am constantly writing grants to get funding for the materials I need to
implement these projects within my classroom. While it is more difficult for me to attend
conferences now at the public school, due to limited funding. I am hopeful that I will be able to
take advantage of free conferences in the future and present at conferences allowing me to
attend for a reduced fee. However, an advantage of a larger school is being able to collaborate
and grow from interactions with my colleagues. I find it valuable to have another science
teacher to plan with as we learn and grow from each other. I look forward to continued growth
as a teacher in the future from these efforts.

4.C.1 Professional Collaboration

My first five years of teaching, I was the only grade level science teacher at the schools I taught.
At Cohen Hillel I taught science for all 6th-8th graders and at MCCPS for all 7th graders. I
collaborated mostly through multidisciplinary projects. This year at Swampscott I am lucky to
have another 7th grade science teacher to collaborate with. We work diligently whenever we
have time to design curriculum and units together. We have completed UBD templates for all
our units this year and are really focused on developing curriculum embedded performance
tasks that are engaging and meaningful. One example is our Ecology unit this year. We were
able to look at the standards and think about what students should be able to explain. Then
came up with the idea of an infographic as the final display of their learning and worked
backwards, what would we need to teach them and what skills would they need to be successful
in creating an infographic. It was a lot of fun during our brainstorming session. I also
collaborated with the Geology teacher this year. They were looking at water situations in
different countries and we were covering water as part of our earth science unit. We came up
with the plan of an engineering activity where they would build water filters working with
materials and budgets available to an assigned country. Then in Geology they did additional
research on the country itself. This was a great way to put the project into context and it
wouldnt have been as engaging if we didnt have the real world location. I find that professional
collaboration is one of my favorite things about being a teacher. Being able to bounce ideas off
of someone and gain insights from someone else always results in a better project, assessment,
lesson, etc. I will continue to collaborate and grow with my colleagues in the future.