Telling my story using my PDPQ !

Telling My Story Using My PDPQ

Amy Hutton

National University

TED 690- Professor Weintraub

Abstract:

In the following paper, I am going to look at teacher performance expectations and the

six domains that encompass these expectations. I will be looking more in-depth at domain C,

which has to do with engagement and support of student learning. I will at what I am doing to

reach competency in this domain, what my strengths and needs are, what competencies I can use

in my PDPQ, and why I chose this domain to focus on.

TPE Domains:

In California there are 13 Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) that fall into six

broader learning domains. These domains are:

A. Making Subject Matter Comprehensible for Students

B. Assessing Student Learning

C. Engaging and Supporting Students in Learning

D. Planning instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for Students

E. Creating and Maintaining Effective Learning Environments for Student Learning

F. Developing as a Professional Educator. (California Teaching Performance

Expectations, 2013, p.1)

These domains provide a framework in which we as teachers can use to assess and increase our

competencies as teachers. Not only are the domains broken down into different components of a

competent teacher, but when put together they create a holistic approach that allows us to be

much more effective teachers (California Teaching Performance Expectations, 2013). As Con-

stantine and De Lorenzo (2002) states that not only does our students need standards that they we

teach to and they show mastery in, but we as educators also need standard to hold us account-

able. Focusing on the Teacher Performance Expectations and the corresponding domains, not

only helps us to fulfill these standards but can also help us grow. The portfolio that we create to

showcase our competencies in these domain is also a great tool to help us to grow.

Progress Toward Competencies:

As I am preparing my portfolio I am struck by how much I still need to learn. Although I

feel that I am progressing in each of these domains, I also feel that there is so much more room
Telling my story using my PDPQ !4

for me to grow in each. For the purpose of this paper though I will look at Domain C, “Engaging

and supporting students in learning (California Teaching Performance Expectations, 2013, p. 1).”

This is one domain that I can identify both my strengths and my needs. In my master courses,

my focus was best teaching practices, which can obviously fall under engagement and support. I

have learned a lot about technology that I have started to incorporate into my classroom. I also

spend a lot of time daily reflecting on my lessons and analyzing what went well and what I can

change. During these reflections, I often think about how engaged my class was an how what I

can do differently to make them more engaged. I also am always looking at their progress and

seeing if there are any areas in the classroom I can improve upon to support them. I seek out the

advice of mentor teachers, and have asked for observations by curriculum specialist. I look for

articles that give me more information on how I can become more effective in this area.

Strengths and Needs:

My strengths in Domain C, is that I often create lesson plans that connect to the students

personal lives and therefore most if not all of my students are engaged in the lesson. I also work

to incorporate technology not only as a way to engage the students in the lesson, but also as a

way to give them an educated brain break. Part of keeping students engaged is also realizing

how long their attention span is and utilizing this knowledge to the fullest. My master teacher

once told me that students have an attention span about 2-3 minutes longer than their age. One

they get to this point they start to zone out and the effectiveness of learning is gone. I feel that I

do well watching for this and giving the students the break needed, but rather than just take them

completely off topic, I might show a fun video or play a fun song that has to do with the concept

that we are learning.

I feel like my area for growth or my need in this domain is finding the appropriate ways

to support my students. Through observations and formative assessments, I am able to identify

where my students needs are but I often have difficulty finding the time to provide the additional

small group and one-on-one support the student needs. In my current role, I am a long-term sub-

stitute for a first grade class. I find it very difficult to get small groups working effectively at this

age, which then hinders my abilities to work with these small groups or with one-on-one. With-

out being able to do this, I feel that I am still lacking in my ability to fully support my students in

their learning.

Potenial TPE Competencies:

There are a few different ways that I can show my competencies in Domain C, in my

portfolio. I will go over three possible competencies that I may use, which are:

1. Video clip- I can show myself teaching, and highlight the student interaction. This would

highlight the engagement of the students

2. Lesson plan- This would show how I include many different elements into the teaching

process to keep the students engaged and participating.

3. Self-reflection- After a lesson is complete I can write down my assessment of how the lesson

went. In it I can include my thoughts about engaged the students were, what I did to support

them, and what I need to do next time (Constantino and De Lorenzo, 2002)

Rationale:

I picked domain C to focus on, because I feel that student engagement is very important.

If we cannot engage this students, then they will not retain anything be taught and it would all be

for not. It is such an instrumental component in the learning process that affects so many other
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areas. Also becoming more effective in this domain will have an effect on so many other do-

mains. By providing support to students and getting them engaged in a lesson, a teacher is able

to have the chance to make a subject matter more comprehensible, or make an effective learning

environment for the student. Without engagement or support a student can’t learn and then there

would be nothing to assess, and nothing to plan instruction for.

References:

California Teaching Performance Expectations. (2013, March). Retrieved April 12, 2019

from https://www.ctc.ca.gov/docs/default-source/educator-prep/standards/adopted-

tpes-2013.pdf

Constantino, P.M., and De Lorenzo, M.N. (2002). Developing a professional teaching portfolio:

a guide for success. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.