TEA Collaborative Learning Group
Overview of Plan

Llong

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Team Members:

What is your role within your team?

What professional growth goals do you and your team members hope to reach through this partnership?

How will you and your team reflect on these goals and on learning and classroom practice (e.g., pedagogy, the use of technology, content, the process of science)?

Mentoring Plan (Revised from Orientation)
Mentoring Plan: Guiding Questions

In regards to the TEA mentoring commitment and professional goals, I have broken those into two areas: general and personal. General goals are those of a collaborative group while the personal goals are specific goals I have in mind for the group. General: A. Establish a core of science teachers who will share ideas. B. Common goals that will allow the collaborative efforts to continue through the three-year commitment. C. Implement shared ideas allowing alignments, changes and improvements into existing curriculums. Personal: A. I would like to see a group of interested teachers share ideas and experiences. B. I would like us to align our resources so that one school does not feel ‘left out’ in comparison to another schools resources or knowledge of a parcticular resource. C. I would like to share many of my experiences while building a larger collaboration effort in our geographical area.

To assess my professional growth and the productivity of the collaborative group I will mainly base the success on the continued commitment of the group and administration. I will also base success on the implementation of ideas that group members have shared. Finally, periodically the group will reassess the goals and need of a group. I have listed priorities of recruiting interested parcticipants: a. First and foremost I am going to try to recruit teachers that I directly work with in 7th grade science and DeLong Middle School (Barb Packard, Beth Howie and 6th grade teachers). Many teachers hear the word mentorship and immediately apply a stigma to the word/event. I would like to talk to our administrator and people that I believe should be interested in establishing a collaborative group describing the purpose of the group. b. Second, I would like to recruit teachers from the other middle schools in our district that teach 7th grades science (Brenda Xiong, Terry Madsen, Tim Harding and…) c. Third, I would like to find outside interest from other 7th grade teachers in outlying schools such as Menomonie, Chippewa Falls and Altoona (Bob Boone, etc…) d. My other idea is to work with feeder elementary schools. An area of concern in this approach is that, as the elementary teachers will benefit however much of what we will do may not affect my teaching as much.

As the collaborative group is established, maintaining interest is most important. Topics will need to be brainstormed and agreed upon. The first goal is to commit to the collaborative team. The process of sharing ideas, grant possibilities, aligning curriculums, etc…. Specific goals I have include: -Meet approximately 40 hours prior to my TEA field experience. -Explain technology needs for TEA Live and to establish how the TEA website can be used. Teachers should be comfortable and interested in TEA and see the usefulness in their teaching. -Sharing ideas about common units. Example: Everyone teachers circulatory system. What are some approaches people of to teaching this topic, what are some creative lessons, ways of integrating this with other units etc? -Establish an environmental station that can be used by all the schools on an area lake. Use time to write grants. -Work on the uses of Vernier probes and how to implement into the classroom

I would like the first session to be more of a talk session where I record ideas that parcticipants have. This session should be relatively short to inspire and not tire or scare people away. To keep parcticipants involved and committed I plan on following the listed strategies: -Provide food, fun and an opportunity to make friendships. -Provide clear goals for each meeting -Change up meeting places and times -Vary goals including -Share -Use technology -Write grants -University visits -Field trip possibilities – zoo, museums, field stations

There are a variety of skills and resources that I will need to use to provide support for the success of the group. One of my strengths is to work with a variety of people. Different perspectives should be welcomed as long as that person is willing to listen to other perspectives. Allowing people to share different ideas and to make their own decisions based on a variety of perspectives is one benefit of a collaborative group. One of my roles is to keep a happy medium and allowing everyone to share their perspectives and to make their own decisions. I feel that I can ‘read’ most peoples body languages allowing me to respond to a variety of situations while accommodating a variety of different perspectives and approaches. One weakness is in regards to on task time. I can easily get frustrated with tangents and need to work on my ability to tactfully keep people on task. The bull in the China shop approach could be viewed as a little harsh! Second, I feel confident with technology. Using e-mail to keep people updated may be the most significant tool to the group. Lastly, I am not shy which allows me to ask for help in regards to people skills, resources, technology, etc…