Week 11/My Goals

When looking at the competencies of an instructional designer discussed in Chapter 27, I realized that they are similar to goals I have as an educator.

My primary goal is effective communication techniques. In order for a teacher to be successful they must have excellent communication skills. Teachers are required to communicate daily with parents, students and colleagues. My communication methods consist of creating weekly newsletters, calling parents daily to inform them of their child’s progress and conducting monthly parent-teacher socials, where parents are welcomed into the classroom to discuss areas of concern. I continually try new methods of communication in an effort to keep the parent and me abreast of new things. The one thing that has proven to be an obstacle is time. With my busy schedule, it is sometimes hard to contact as many parents as I would like daily. In chapter 27, communication was listed as an essential tool that an ID must possess.

Conducting assessment was also listed in Chapter 27 as a critical tool for ID’s. Assessing is essential when teaching. As a young 3’s teacher, I am responsible for informal and formal assessments. My informal assessment is done daily by merely observing the students as they work and play. I have a notebook for each student and I keep a notepad and pen in my packet to make daily notes. This goal is the hardest for me because organization plays an important role. After 6 years of teaching, I am still trying new ways to improve my organizational skills. By the time I have one form of assessments mastered, either I am a moved to another grade or a new assessment tool is implemented. Teachers have to be versatile because our schedules change daily.

Selecting and using a variety of techniques are other competencies listed for an ID as well as goals that I have set for myself. Each year, teachers must equip themselves with a variety of teaching techniques. As an educator, I try several ways to teach the same objective because all students learn differently. In an effort to achieve this goal, I attend numerous special education seminars and design lessons plans that incorporate the ADDIE process. Currently, all of my lessons are hands-on activities because my students are very young and developmentally delayed in some areas. An obstacle that I am encountering while trying to reach the goal is, again, time. Working two jobs and being a graduate student consume a lot of my time. My weekends now consist of attending seminars or researching new techniques that will help my students.