As I move forward into the teaching profession, learning to improve my teaching methods will be important and ongoing. Professional development, setting professional goals, and developing a yearly growth plan will be implemented into my practice.
My Professional Teaching Goals:
Classroom management
This will be an ongoing focus of my learning. Classrooms will be filled with various and perhaps challenging circumstance of which I will have to deal with. I want to learn as much as I can about classroom management as I know that there may be occasions during my teaching that might challenge my ability to teach. I hope to learn strategies from professional development opportunities and have key components in place that will allow me to handle challenging classroom behavior. Every child is different and I do not expect every child to learn exactly the same. Some children may have learning styles which may need more attention, it will be imperative for me to learn how to effectively teach these students.
Collaborating with co-workers
Teaching is not easy, even the very best teachers may have to think outside of his/her own ideals and seek assistance from co-workers. Developing professional partnerships with other professionals within my school will be one goal which I do plan on developing. Seeking out other teaching strategies and information may be very useful in my teaching development and implementation. From ‘Involved parents: The hidden resource in their children’s education’, by Anita Gurjan, PhD “Parents’ active involvement with their child’s education at home and in school brings great rewards and has can have a significant impact on their children’s child’s lives. According to research studies, the children of involved parents:
• are absent less frequently
• behave better
• do better academically from pre-school through high school
• go farther in school
• go to better schools”
Parents, who participate in the educational endeavors of their children, greatly increase the child’s opportunity to achieve success in school. This is an important aspect of my teaching and I will continue to learn strategies to help my students have involved parents.

Collaborating with parents
Developing strategies to ensure parental involvement can assist a teacher with the proficiency of the developing child. As children come and go from school, the educating must be consistent in both environments. Although parents do not have the job of assessing and all of the work of which a teacher must complete through a long school year, the parents must be included. Parental involvement may possess challenges, however as a teacher I will work on finding ways to get the support needed from the parents of my students.
Teaching children to love reading
My final goal will be to ensure that I can clearly facilitate teaching which will challenge children to become avid and competent readers. Children who enjoy reading will develop a deeper and broader understanding of the world and what is beyond. Children who enjoy reading when they are younger could develop positive learning habit which will benefit them later on in their educational endeavours.
Learning is a life-long journey and I will be open to taking further methods courses as I teach. Learning new and useful teaching strategies will be a continued focus for me as I work through my teaching career. Learning to teach more proficiently and effectively will be something of which I will continue to focus on while I teach. It will be not only important for me but also for all of my future students. A teacher’s education does not end once he or she has earned a degree in teaching. Teachers must continue to develop themselves and reach out to improve their classroom teaching abilities.