Product Overview

Self-awareness and evaluation are essential to one’s personal and professional development. It is important for teachers to recognize and celebrate their strengths, identify improvement opportunities and acknowledge their development needs. Reflecting upon teaching requirements and performance in a meaningful way allows a teacher to continue developing as a competent professional with a true understanding of his/her capabilities.

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ Teacher Edition assists teachers in their own performance planning and professional development efforts. It can also be used in creating coaching, mentoring, succession planning and training strategies. This tool promotes self-evaluation and encourages teachers to engage others in supporting their efforts.

New teachers, those who have years of experience in the classroom or those who are interested in becoming a teacher can use this tool. The process and tools included in the Professional Enhancement Planner™ support ongoing professional development.

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ allows individuals to:

  • Identify the competencies/skills required for teaching success.
  • Build and distribute a survey to assess these competencies/skills.
  • Conduct a self-assessment and/or collect multi-source (360°) feedback.
  • Develop a plan to strengthen competencies/skills that need improvement.

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ is a stand-alone tool that can be used over and over, allowing teachers to create plans for their current position and for any position to which they aspire. They can evaluate their progress on an ongoing basis.

Those using the Professional Enhancement Planner™ are able to instantly generate reports, allowing them to immediately act upon the results. The Skill Development Guide included in this product contains over 300 pages of on-the-job learning and development strategies, readings, recommended skill development courses and feedback sources to support their efforts. They can readily monitor their progress and continuously reassess their level of proficiency.

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ Teacher Edition helps individuals to:

  • Align the competencies/skills required to fulfill positional areas of accountability and primary job functions associated with being a teacher.
  • Manage their own performance planning and professional development efforts.
  • Identify their strengths, improvement opportunities and development needs in the competencies/skills required for teaching success.
  • Target training and professional development resources.
  • Set performance and professional development objectives, track their progress and measure their success.
  • Build communications and a working partnership between the teacher, his/her administrator, colleagues, parents and students.

Through our research and experience we have observed that individuals who direct their own professional development and performance planning are more motivated, less stressed, and have a higher level of job satisfaction.

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Product Components

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ includes the following components:

  • Skill Profiling and Assessment Program©
  • User Manual
  • Skill Profiling and Assessment Workbook
  • Skill Development Guide
  • Skill Development Planner™
  • Sample Self-Directed Skill Development Course

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ has been developed so that an individual can work at his/her own pace and fully manage his/her own unique process independently or within a common framework established by the school or school board (district, authority, etc.). Teachers can complete the entire process step-by-step or choose to use the components that best meet their immediate needs.

The Professional Enhancement Planner™ Teacher Edition is licensed to one individual and can be used indefinitely by that person to track his/her development and reassess his/her learning needs. Both paper and electronic versions of the support materials are included. A detailed tutorial has also been included.

A variety of licensing options can be explored to meet the needs of your school or school board (district, authority, etc.). Volume discounts are available.

INTERACTIONS® Competency/Skill Development Model©

The competency/skill set built into the Professional Enhancement Planner™ is based on INTERACTIONS® Competency/Skill Development Model© for Teachers. It includes the competencies/skills required along with behaviors that demonstrate varying levels of proficiency in each of these skills.

  • Teaching Knowledge
  • Preparing for Student Learning
  • Instructing Students
  • Evaluating Student Progress
  • Personal Initiative Skills
  • Relationship Skills
  • Communication Skills
  • Decision Making Skills
  • Safety, Health and Environment Skills

Individuals select the competencies/skills and behaviors specific to the position they are profiling.

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Create Job Profiles

A Job Profile is the set of competencies/skills required for teaching success. Profiles can be created based on the individual's:

  • Current position
  • Desired future position
  • The specific skills for which the individual wants to conduct a self-assessment or to collect feedback

Using the Skill Profiling and Assessment Program©, an individual selects the competencies/skills specific to the position he/she is profiling. These are the competencies/skills required to carry out the tasks and duties necessary to meet positional areas of accountability. Any number of Job Profiles can be created.


The Skill Profiling and Assessment Workbook provides background information for creating Job Profiles and Skill Assessment Surveys. Worksheets are included should the individual choose to complete a paper process rather than use the Program.


Teachers are encouraged to work with their administrator, colleague, coach, mentor or someone else who understands the positional requirements. The term ‘Administrator’ is used throughout the process to designate the person chosen to assist the individual.

Based on the competency/skill set included in the Program, the individual and his/her ‘Administrator’ will rate each competency/skill according to its importance within the position. This should be done in three steps:

Step One: Self Preliminary Job Profile

This is an opportunity for the individual to independently reflect on the competencies/skills he/she believes are required for teaching success.

Step Two: Administrator Preliminary Job Profile

The person assisting the individual independently rates each of the competencies/skills according to its importance from his/her perspective.

Step Three: Final Job Profile

Together, the individual and his/her ‘Administrator’ use the Preliminary Profiles to create a Final Job Profile. This step provides an opportunity for them to discuss their ratings for each competency/skill. It is an excellent opportunity to review and clarify positional requirements. A Skill Assessment Survey is created during this phase of the process. Individuals can select the behaviors that best reflect the level of proficiency required for each skill selected. These behavior statements form the basis of the survey.

Reports are available on completion of each step in the profiling process. Individuals who choose not to have someone assist them in the profiling process can still create a Skill Assessment Survey.

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Create Skill Assessment Surveys

Once a Skill Assessment Survey has been created, the individual is able to complete a self-assessment and/or collect feedback from others to determine his/her strengths, improvement opportunities and development needs. There are a number of options for distributing the survey, including:

  • Diskette
  • Local area network
  • Email
  • A hard copy can also be generated for those who do not want to or cannot complete the automated survey.


Teachers are encouraged to select those who have observed the work that they do and have a good understanding of their skills to complete the Skill Assessment Survey. The responses given by each rater, with the exception of the individual and the person serving as the Administrator, are combined and individual responses are kept confidential.


Once survey responses have been collected, individuals can instantly produce an Individual Assessment Report. This report lists their strengths, improvement opportunities and development needs.


These results provide the basis for creating meaningful Skill Enhancement Plans.

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Create Skill Enhancement Plans

Individuals can use the Skill Development Guide to create any number of Skill Enhancement Plans. The Skill Development Guide includes:

  • INTERACTIONS® Competency/Skill Development Model©
  • Practical on-the-job Learning and Development Strategies
  • Feedback Sources
  • Suggested Readings
  • Recommended Self-Directed Skill Development Courses


Click here for a sample of the content included for the skill of Classroom Management.

The Skill Development Guide also includes a step-by-step process for creating development objectives and action plans. Content from the Guide can be selected for Skill Enhancement Plans using the Skill Development Planner™.

The Self-Directed Courses listed in the Guide can be obtained by contacting INTERACTIONS®. These comprehensive self-study courses are designed for professional or personal use and are available to further assist teachers in their development efforts. They are filled with exercises, activities, assessments and case studies. The courses are competency/skill-based and are available in a variety of learning formats. A sample course is included in the package.



Summary

Teachers can use the materials included in the Professional Enhancement Planner™ throughout their career paths.

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Customization Options

As creators of this tool, we can customize both the written materials and the Program to reflect the needs of your school and/or school board (district, authority, etc.). We offer three levels of customization:

  • Level One: Brand the tool with your school’s and/or school board’s (district’s, authority’s, etc.) logo.
  • Level Two: Brand the tool with your school’s and/or school board’s (district’s, authority’s, etc.) logo; incorporate references to specific initiatives; tailor the language to reflect the culture of your organization.
  • Level Three: Brand the tool with your school’s and/or school board’s (district’s, authority’s, etc.) logo; incorporate references to specific initiatives; tailor the language to reflect the culture of your school or school board (district, authority, etc.); integrate your school’s, school board’s (district’s, authority’s, etc.) or provincial/state competency/skill profiles and incorporate additional material.

Components included in the Professional Enhancement Planner™ Teacher Edition can be purchased separately.

To use the email option to send out surveys and notices, Microsoft® Outlook Express, Microsoft® Outlook 97 or higher is required.

To use the option to create surveys as Microsoft® Word documents, Microsoft® Word 97 or higher is required.

For a consultation or more information regarding pricing, the system requirements and implementation strategies, contact INTERACTIONS®.

 

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