Professional Communities

Professional Resources Throughout the year, I have used many resources to assist me in my growth as an educator. Resources vary from social networks like Twitter and Edmodo, to outside organizations, and leading a professional development meeting for teachers at my training site. Through these different sources, I have been able to increase my knowledge of the education field, particularly focusing on my content area of Social Studies.

Online Resources I use my professional Twitter account as a way to stay up-to-date on issues in education in general as well as specifically history education and urban education. Twitter is a great way to find information because organizations, journals, education professionals, and news sources post several resources a day. For example, in the screenshot above, there is an article about being college and career ready. I used this article for my sophomore seminar class when discussing college preparation as a tool for discussion. Another social network tool I have used this year is Edmodo. We have been required to have it for two of our courses, but I have found it to be an invaluable tool for collaboration and gaining insight into new educational resources. Members of my class as well as my professor post different resources for educators. One tool I found through a peer's Edmodo posting is Class Dojo. This is an application that tracks student behavior in a classroom, and I tested it out this year. It is useful because it records behavior, and allows the teacher to make charts to track behavior. In my Politics and Policy class, we used SmartBrief as a resource for discussion and current educational news. The website collects articles about education from all over the country, and sends out daily emails with new articles. It is a valuable tool for educators to stay up-to-date with new issues and topics in education. I will use it as a resource for educational news and also a way to find new tools for teaching.		Organizations and Collaborative Groups One outside organization that was extremely effective in pushing my thinking and growth as an educator this year was Facing History and Ourselves. Facing History is an organization for educators in Social Studies and English. The organization holds workshops and seminars on different topics in history as well as educational issues. They also have a lending library online where teachers can borrow materials, and also an extensive online center with lesson plans and teaching strategies. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a 3-day workshop on the Civil Rights Movement in which we examined the larger theme of how individuals impact society. I have used tools from this workshop in my classroom throughout the year such as the graphic organizer below that provided my students with an outline for organizing their documents and evidence to connect back to their argument. I used this graphic organizer with additional units as a standard framework for writing in my classroom. Another organization that has been invaluable to my growth as an educator in the field of history this year has been the Chicago Metro History Education Center. I attended my first meeting with the CMHEC in August to prepare for my year-long journey with Chicago Metro History Fair. One of my courses this year was Sophomore Seminar, a research-based sophomore class, in which my students completed historical research projects to compete in History Fair. I had several students progress from the school-level, to regionals, to Chicago Metro Finals, to State, and now I have three students competing in National History Day competition in Washington D.C. from June 9th-13th. As a new teacher who never did history fair before, this organization has provided me with resources and help along each step of the way. I have made numerous relationships with staff at the CMHEC, and hope to continue with the program at a new school in the fall. This year I was able to participate in a Document-Based Questioning Professional Learning Community (DBQ PLC) meeting. The goal of the meeting that I attended was to align the DBQ Project materials with the CPS Social Studies 3.0 framework. In small groups, we worked on a specific grade level and finding the specific DBQs that aligned with the new topics. It was a valuable experience for me because it is recommended that all CPS teachers are a part of at least one PLC. I got to collaborate with many new social studies teachers in the AUSL network and work closely with the new CPS Social Studies framework which prepared me for my work in the fall. Inductive Reasoning Professional Development Meeting Critical Thinking PD At my training site, my mentor-resident coach asked three of the residents, including myself, to present a critical thinking professional development meeting to the entire staff on inductive reasoning. We had a previous pull-out session on the inductive reasoning process so he believed that we would be a great resource for staff members at our school who had not yet been trained on inductive reasoning. To prepare for the session, we were given the AUSL slides on inductive reasoning, but had to decide who would present the material and in what format. It was a great experience for me because leading professional development meetings is the responsibility of all staff members in schools, and having the experience as a resident prepared me for what I will be doing in the fall.

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