As part of your B.Ed./Dip.Ed. program, you are required to complement your course work and practicum with professional learning of your own design. The possibilities for your professional learning during the program are vast, and reach well beyond what can be addressed in your classes. You are the person who best understands your professional growth needs; that is why this professional learning is self-directed. As a member of the teaching profession in Ontario, as well as in other jurisdictions, you will be expected to engage in professional learning throughout your career. The nature of this will vary according to your teaching situation, but the process and the professional orientation you use here will be appropriate for your future learning. You will share your professional learning plan and your learning activities with a group of your peers at an Exit Conference on the final day of your B. Ed./Dip.Ed. program.

1. Timeline and Activities

In September and during the Fall On-Campus weeks, you need to review the guidelines for the professional learning component of your program with your peers and/or your PROF 190 instructor. Design an initial professional learning plan, using the Annual Learning Plan template provided in your course pack. Use the sample Professional Learning Plan created by a former B. Ed. candidate as a guide -- find it in your Prof 190 course pack.

After your Winter School and Alternate Practica, you need to begin to organize your portfolio to show your professional growth. Select artifacts that help you tell the story of your professional learning this year. Summarize your professional learning and use your summary as an abstract for potential employers as well as your peers during your Exit Conference.

Exit Conference. Be sure you are clear on the time and location of your Exit Conference. Review the guidelines for preparing and managing your time and information sharing. Join two peers and share the process and outcomes of your professional learning in a celebration of your work. You will also participate in the Exit Conference presentation of two peers, and provide them with written comments.

Grading

To graduate from the Faculty of Education, you must participate fully in all parts of this professional learning activity.

2. Your Professional Learning Plan

What goes into your Professional Learning Plan? Review the concerns you identified as you began your B Ed year.  Connect your concerns with the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession of the Ontario College of Teachers. The lists of professional development areas below may also be helpful.  Identify a manageable goal that you feel you can address on your own this year. You may want to share your plan to your course instructor.

Carry out your plan. Select at least 4 activities and document your learning. What are some possible activities?Attend a professional development conference; attend a workshop; give a workshop; watch some videos;complete practical or scholarly extensions of workshop learning; create curriculum, assessment or instructional materials other than assignments; develop new skills: play an instrument, learn to sketch, learn computer software, etc; acquire formal certifications: CPR, First Aid, coaching certificates, etc.; provide service to the community or a school by tutoring or other service; do professional reading that is not assigned; complete an action research project that is not assigned; work with a "critical friend".

Addressing individual needs and differences: establishing inclusive learning environments, diagnosing special needs, individual education plans, school to community programs, school and community support services, programs for at-risk, gifted learners, or other selected populations

Understanding contemporary issues: antiracist/anti-bias education, gender issues in schooling, parent councils, media and learning, school governance, school/community partnerships, substance abuse, violence in schools, bullying

3. Your Professional Portfolio

As part of your B.Ed. program here at Queen's you are required to create a professional portfolio. You will use your portfolio in a variety of ways, to record your professional learning, to support your Exit Conference discussion, and to support your job search and job interviews. If you have already begun to develop a portfolio, simply continue to maintain and expand it throughout the year and use it in relation to your self-directed professional learning. The Ontario College of Teachers requires continuous professional learning as part of its Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession, and your portfolio will be one of the ways for you to document your ongoing professional growth. 

What is a professional portfolio? It is a collection of your professional beliefs, goals, practices, and achievements. It combines process (the actual process of synthesizing learning and selecting artifacts) as well as products (the artifacts). Your portfolio will be a vehicle to capture some of the features of your own teaching and learning.

Typically, your portfolio will be housed in a binder, divided according to the headings provided by the Standards of Practice. Here are the headings: Commitment to Student Learning; Professional Knowledge; Teaching Practice; Leadership and Community; Ongoing Professional Learning. Your portfolio will document: your professional competence; your professional goals and beliefs; your teaching, learning, and professional growth; areas of professional strength and areas for further growth

Your portfolio will be a collection of information about your professional learning and your teaching practice. It will not be a scrapbook or steamer trunk, but rather a set of artifacts collected systematically and arranged thoughtfully to show your understandings, growth, and professional accomplishments. What sorts of artifacts might you include? Statement of Beliefs about teaching and learning; summary of formal professional activities such as workshops; samples of your students' exemplary work with identifying information blacked out;influential professional reading; résumé; notes from your students about your teaching; samples of curriculum, assessment or lesson materials you have developed or adapted; records of strategies you have used to handle classroom management concerns, exceptionalities; samples of any research you have undertaken, for example action research; information about co-curricular involvement during your Practicum placement

Purpose of this portfolio?

• to make you more aware of how you teach and learn
• to improve the quality of your teaching and your students' learning;
• to develop your skills of reflective practice
• to use as part of your materials for employment
• to use as part of your Teacher Performance Appraisal (if employed in Ontario)

Sort through your artifacts and select those which represent your most important learning. Annotate these artifacts and insert them into your portfolio. Understand that your portfolio will always be a work in progress and will likely not be in a paper format at all in a future iteration. Your professional growth will be ongoing throughout your teaching career.

Check the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario website for information and help in creating Annual Learning Plans and portfolios. The site also contains lots of current information for elementary teachers.

• PortfolioMaker.ca — This site will help you create a portfolio.
• Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario — On this website you will find information to help teachers create portfolios and annual learning plans. There are also many other current documents relating to Ontario elementary school teaching and learning.

4. Exit Conference

Each teacher candidate must participate in a peer-attended Exit Conference in order to complete the requirements of the B.Ed/Dip.Ed program at Queen's.  At your Exit Conference you will share and celebrate your professional learning and develop experience in self- and peer assessment. This structured experience will also provide you with feedback and further opportunities to consolidate your learning. The Exit Conference will take place on the final day of our Education term in April. 

You will lead a 35-45 minute conference with two peers. You will describe and summarize your professional growth during the past year, using your Professional Learning Plan and your professional portfolio.

Prior to your Exit Conference, prepare a one-page summary of your professional learning. Make copies for your peer reviewers and your instructor, and bring them to your Exit Conference.

What happens during your Exit Conference?

• First 5 Minutes: distribute your summary of professional learning to two peers and your instructor. Ask a peer to monitor your use of time.
• Next 30 Minutes: Discuss your professional learning goals, activities you chose to address these goals, and growth you feel you have experienced. Use your portfolio to support your discussion.
• Final 5 Minutes: Have peers provide feedback on your presentation.

References

Paulsen, F. Paulsen P, Meyer, C. (1991). What makes a portfolio a portfolio? Educational Leadership 48(5), 60-63.