Professional Growth Reflection

Jessica Ciolkosz

The Saint Mary’s University Master’s Degree program was always a little thought in the

back of my mind from my work with Project Teaching. I am so thankful to have made the call

and start the program when I did.

Each and every one of the classes needed for the MA in Education was valuable in its

own way. Learning new technology and not fearing it, thinking at a different level and outside

of the box, digging deeper to find more information, looking for data to help support

conclusions, and collaborating with other education professionals helped me grow in

knowledge, confidence, patience and contentment.

The timeliness of the way my professional life changed while taking the course through

SMU was impeccable. There were many instances where the information I was learning helped

in my teaching. I was able to use my “filters” from the ethic course to help decide if a new job

would be the right choice. I was able to teach new technology, the IXL program, at Loyal. IXL,

an online resource for math, science, language arts, and social studies, was new to the school. I

was able to share my knowledge about IXL with the teachers and my students. I found that

some of the students I taught in high school logged into the IXL program at home and worked

on some math problems. How rewarding!

While working at Loyal, a person from CESA 10 came to school and helped a few of us

teachers use Wise Dash for math data. She was very helpful and I was able to put some of that

information to use with my SMU class that overlapped at the time.

 Collaboration is huge in any profession, but I feel especially in teaching. We learn that

reinventing the wheel is not always necessary. Working with and bouncing ideas off of each

other is a very important learning tool. We need to be reminded once in a while why we are in

the teaching profession. We are first and foremost learners. We need to be open to learn the

concepts in a variety of ways in order to present the curriculum to our students. Our students’

successes and failures are related to our professional ability. My students are gaining

knowledge and experience because I have taken the opportunity to collaborate with others and

to learn new technologies that go along with the curriculum.

Teaching in two different schools, collaboration has been key to any of my successes. I

needed to be confident to ask for help and to make connections. I have been able to connect

with other peers from different schools, have had opportunities for professional growth at both

Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) and Northcentral Technical College (NTC) by teaching

Dual Credit/Tran-scripted Credit classes, and have met wonderful mentors at both schools. I

have met other professionals through the Rural Virtual Academy (RVA) Physics class I am

teaching. Some of the professionals that I work with are from out of state. How exciting to be

able to reach out to so many different areas for knowledge!

I know that I can teach and that I can relate to students but I have not always had the

confidence to feel equal to my peers. Through the lessons I’ve learned and the instructors I’ve

had, I have gained confidence in my professional ability to ask for help and to offer assistance.

In my future I see so many opportunities for growth. I plan on staying with the courses I

teach this year so that I am better prepared for the content next year. I will continue to
collaborate with my CVTC mentors for the Transcripted credit classes I teach. I will reach out

for extra support when I need it and feel confident that it is OK to ask for help. I plan on

continuing my learning about concussions so that I can help be a guide for our students and

staff. I also will be attending a three day meeting for our PLC training this summer in Saint Paul.

I will run past our first year Principal the idea of starting the BLAST group in school. I believe in

here somewhere I will need to add Physics to my teacher certification. So, there are many

plans for my professional growth, but among all these extras, I will keep in mind that my

students need to be first. I will do my best to grow for myself which in turn will help my

students, but while it is happening, I will not let their learning suffer.