Debra L' Leach

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Debra L. Leach

• Goal Setting and Reflection
• FY04

I believe that with appropriate coaching, timely
support, and an inviting environment all children
can learn. (Children are) self-stimulating and
self-starting provided conditions are right for
(them). Cashdan (1976)
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Educational Philosophy

• Children know more ways of learning than we know
  of teaching.
• It is an educators job to observe and know the
  ways of learning for students so intimately that
  the teaching and learning interactions look and
  feel natural and fluid, but result in lifting the
  children to more sophisticated problem solving
  and reasoning after each interaction.
• Success breeds success.
• It is an educators job to know what each student
  already knows how to do and design instruction
  that builds on students strengths in order to
  make it easier and most efficient for students to
  learn.
• Children are active constructors of their own
  learning.
• It is an educators job to know what is of
  importance to each student that they provide the
  most appropriate opportunities that result in
  each student being inspired to challenge their
  own thinking and conduct research to find answers
  to their own questions.
• Learning is a social process.
• It is an educators job to give prime attention
  to how students process information (how they
  think or how their brain works) and know the
  zone of proximal development of the individual
  students that each teaching and learning
  interaction is a comfortable social interaction
  resulting in the children initiating more
  independent problem-solving and becoming more and
  more successful, thus building their own
  self-extending system of learning.
• It takes a village to raise a child.
• It is an educators job to know the available
  resources in order to maximize the learning time
  available designing classrooms where all students
  can be successful, independent problem-solvers
  and thinkers.
• Children need a safe and secure environment for
  which to take risks and succeed.
• It is an educators job to provide a learning
  community which is inviting and offers
  opportunities for every student to participate as
  a leader and a learner monitoring and
  self-reflecting on their own progress leading to
  a more and more comfortable environment creating
  more self-confidence and caring individuals
  within the learning community as the students
  grow and learn throughout the school year.

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Professional Goals Reading Recovery Teacher
FY04 School Year

• Design individual programs for identified Reading
  Recovery students and develop a system for
  monitoring student performance data that enables
  students to know how they are performing focusing
  them on continuous improvement
• Establish an individual education plan with
  identified goals/targets for each student
  identified (minimum of 8 students) in
  collaboration with the parent, student and other
  educators involved with the learning of that
  student during the FY04 school year in order to
  reach each childs fullest academic literacy
  potential.
• Monitor and modify each individual education plan
  with parents and students ensuring that each
  individual is making accelerated progress in
  order to benefit from classroom language arts
  instruction.
• Work toward utilizing and focusing all resources
  in order that all first grade students are beyond
  mastering grade level objectives in language arts
  by the end of the school year
• All first grade students will be independently
  reading above a Reading Recovery level 18 (80
  reading above a level 24) with phrasing and
  fluency with a self-extending system motivating
  the child to want to read for pleasure.
• All students will be motivated to write with
  clarity, specificity, and expression for desired
  authentic purposes.

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In order to reach established goals

• Personal Professional Growth
• Conduct an independent study in Project-Based
  Learning
• Attend IL Reading Recovery Teacher Leader
  Ongoing-professional development meetings and
  share/teach Pekin Reading Recovery Site teachers
  the latest thinking in Reading Recovery.
• Observe and learn from the experts with whom I
  work. Ask why? and discover new ways of
  thinking in order for my instruction with
  children to become most efficient.
• Collaborative Worker
• Work in collaboration with colleagues to
  problem-solve students ways of learning and
  monitor progress
• Set up parent/student conferences at the
  beginning of the school year. During this
  conference, further dates for follow-up
  monitoring conferences will be established.
• Planning and Instructional Methods
• Provide differentiated learning opportunities
  that meets the needs of all learners.
• Differentiated learning opportunities will be
  provided through daily one-on-one tutoring
  sessions with identified students.
• Classroom Management/Learning Environment
• Establish an environment in which rules are
  established and understood that enable each
  student to take risks, hold high expectations for
  himself and make accelerated progress.
• Design individual learning folders and portfolios
  to be organized and monitored by the students.
• Introduce everything very slowly in order to
  observe students strengths and enabling me to
  develop the best possible series of Reading
  Recovery lessons for each identified student.

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FY04 Action Plan
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• The whole art of teaching is only the art of
  awakening the natural curiosity of young minds
  for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
• Anatole France