Abigail Hanson
Deborah Baker
Student Teaching - Spring 2024
April 6, 2024
Action Plan Reflection
My action plans during my semester of student teaching were catered toward improving
my skills as a long-term substitute at my placement. Because I took over for a teacher who
departed from the district in January, I stepped into their role and had to implement a curriculum
that was catered towards three junior college-prep students and one class of sophomore
college-prep students, as well as manage my grade book, and manage my classroom daily.
The first goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the semester was to prepare lesson
plans a week in advance. Part of my action plan was to take a day to complete my day-to-day
lesson plans by using my semester map provided by my mentor. I believe I was successful in
achieving this goal because I have been able to set myself up for consistent and throughout
lessons weekly and I have been able to meet the school's expectations for when grades and
mid-terms to be updated and submitted. As well as successfully map out lessons that are
connected and allow enough time for students to complete their work and submit it.
The second goal set was for me to develop a “teacher voice” when in my classroom
giving instructions or implementing a lesson. Part of my action plan was to be straightforward
when speaking and giving instructions. As well as having a loud voice and projecting it so that
every student can hear and understand me. I believe that I have been successful in developing my
“teacher voice” when giving instructions but when it comes to the speed at which I speak, I know
that I still need to work on slowing down when talking to my students. I have found that even
though my voice is projecting, I am speaking at a pace that students can find hard to follow and
they lose parts of the directions and ask for assistance later on. I will continue to monitor my
volume and the pacing of my voice when I am implementing instruction.
The third goal I set for myself was to learn and remember all of my student's names,
including my homeroom students. Part of my action plan was to have my students create
nametags at the beginning of the semester as a way for me to see their names right in front of
them while I am getting to know them and can put a face to a name. This is a method that I used
during my practicum experience and it worked for me then and it did again this time. I had my
students use their nametags for the first two weeks of the semester and after that, I was able to
call on my students without the nametags so I asked my students to stop using them. Now that
the semester is almost over, I can call on any of my students during class with no issues.
The fourth and final goal that I set for myself was to develop a consistent grading practice
and use a system to keep track of my student's grades and their progress. I was able to develop
and achieve this goal quickly starting at the beginning of the semester because of my position as
a long-term substitute teacher. My placement uses Google Classroom as their main method of
implementing work and it includes a gradebook that automatically logs every student's grades.
The district uses the software “Infinite Campus” as its main platform for school data, student
records, and grades. Through Infinite Campus, parents can see their child’s grades, if they have
had any reports of misbehavior that the teacher has logged, and more. I have been able to use
both software to keep track of my student's work and their grades. I try to update their grades
weekly and grade their work on the weekends (depending on the assignment) so that on Monday,
my students receive their work back with a grade and feedback (if needed).
Overall, I believe that I have accomplished all of the goals I set for myself at the
beginning of the semester. Because of my unique position during my placement, I have been able
to achieve all of my goals due to the nature of my job. I had to learn very quickly how to
implement all of my goals, but through practice, I have been able to learn how I can successfully
improve upon my skills as a developing educator.
