Professional Development

           Education is a professional faculty, and it is therefore very logical to provide a Professional Development class for the students within the faculty. The main reason Professional Development and Lifelong Learning is a class in the education program is to provide the students with reflective skills and tools that allow for appreciation of the importance of professional development and learning throughout life. Learning and development can occur both in school environments, and in daily life. The main purposes of this class are to allow students to reflect on their learning experiences, how the experiences have shaped them as individuals, and how students can continue to learn from their experiences in the future.
          As an individual I must always strive to develop myself as a professional. On the Alberta Teachers' Association website, templates for Professional Growth Plans are available. I took the time to complete a Professional Growth Plan for my upcoming academic year.

(The Alberta Teachers' Association, 2014)

Due to the fact that I am in the concurrent program of education my professional development goals are closely related to my education. This year I will be very focused on completing my first undergrad. This will allow me to develop my expertise to make me a more successful and professional physical education teacher in the future. 

          At the bottom of my growth plan, there is space to reflect upon my professional development. It is extremely important to reflect on experiences in life as it will make me a more successful teacher and individual. For example, in my specialization I was given the opportunity to participate in teaching a junior high physical education class. I had designed a lesson plan for the class. However, upon my arrival to Connect Charter, I realized that my lesson plan would not work in the size of gym I was given to work with. I quickly changed my lesson plan to an activity that would work. After the completion of the class I took the opportunity to reflect on what I could do better with in the future:

"In the future, when going into a new teaching area, I should develop a plan that does not require a large amount of space. This way, in the event that the space is smaller than anticipated I will still be able to progress forward with my initial plans. Secondly, I need to consider noise levels whilst planning in the future. I was under the impression that the dividing curtain would provide enough sound blocking properties to allow me to use only my voice for directions, such as “Stop”, “Come in”, etc. However, I quickly discovered that my voice was much too quiet to overcome the sound from the other half of the gym. In the future, I must take noise into consideration and potentially use a whistle to help direct my students more effectively."

Through careful reflection and consideration, I feel much more prepared to teach a physical education class the next time an opportunity arises. Through reflection on my teaching, I will be able to develop myself more fully as a professional in society.


                                                                          References

The Alberta Teachers' Association. (2014). Section 3: Develop a professional growth plan. Retrieved from https://www.teachers.ab.ca/For Members/Professional Development/Professional Growth Plans/Section 3/Pages/Section 3-Develop a Professional Growth Plan.aspx