As a professional, I try to emphasize development opportunities that impact my students

the most. I have attended several conferences and workshops. I also created a Professional

Development Plan to encourage continued growth.

I attended a series of workshops for a Goizueta Grant I received. The first workshop

focused on the assessment of a grant. Dr. Secules, from Piedmont College, led this workshop. At

the workshop, we worked through several charts that helped to guide our thinking on assessing

our grants. The second workshop was about collaboration. At this workshop, we collaborated

with others in the same content area. Although, we all had different grants, it was helpful to get

ideas from one another. The third workshop was about dissemination. This workshop was run by

Blake Nathan. He founded the nonprofit, Educate Me. Educate Me seeks to encourage men and

women of color to enter the teaching profession. As a part of this, Blake, shares what he did as a

teacher and the impact it had. He did a presentation on his own work and then lead us in coming

up with ways to share the work weve done with our grants. All three workshops were an

excellent opportunity to learn skills I may not have otherwise. None of my coursework has

focused on how to share what goes on in my classroom. It also gave me the opportunity to

communicate with Woodrow Wilson Fellows from other universities.

As a part of my grant, I attended the National Science Teachers Association National

Conference in Los Angeles, California. At the conference, I focused on the strand, Mission

Possible. This conference strand was focused on teaching science to diverse learners. One

session I attended focused on how the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices will affect

students in special education. In the session, the presenter simulated learning disabilities for us

and then had us to think about how it would affect the ability use the practices. One important

part of this is having an asset mindset. It is important to think about how our students can excel
using these practices. The whole conference focused on making science accessible to every

student.

I also attended the Georgia Science Teachers Association Conference. This conference is

smaller than NSTAs. I think the most valuable part of the GSTA Conference was meeting

teachers who are also in the Metro Atlanta Districts. I went to a presentation by an instructional

coach at another high school in my district. It was interesting to hear what she is doing in her

school and to be aware of the direction the district is going. Most people at the conference used

the Georgia Performance Standards, so it was interesting to learn how different teachers apply

the same standards.

I also participate in the Atlanta Metro Physics Teachers meetings. These meetings are an

opportunity to learn from other physics teachers from around the area. Teachers from both public

and private schools attend. It is a great opportunity to hear what others are doing their classroom.

My Scientific Practices paper, shown on this webpage, demonstrates my ability to use

practitioner oriented journals. I apply several journal articles to my own teaching. I find that

practitioner oriented journals can be a great source of ideas.

My Professional Development Plan lays out the next steps I would like to take. It starts

with my areas of strength. It is always good to keep developing my strengths and using them to

become a better teacher. My plan moves onto my areas of weakness. These areas came from

feedback from my University Supervisor and Mentor Teacher. I then found resources to help me

improve on my weakness and strive for growth.