*I wrote this Professional Development Plan in 2 days so it is not as articulate about plans of action and timelines as yours will need to be. As an example, however, I think you can follow its structure and its clarity of goals and actions within those goals. The strengths and weaknesses sections could be greatly improved with short stories or accounts from practice that illustrate these issues. Yours will likely be much more faithful to the original design as described in the syllabus. As an example, however, I think my Professional Development Plan gives a sense of the nature of the beast. I hope it is informative in that regard. Model its clarity if not its brevity.

During the next 3-5 years I hope to continue to grow and develop as a professor of teacher education here at Western. I hope to find ways to nurture my scholarly interests as well as continue to serve the division of teacher education by coordinating the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. I’d like to see the program through some fairly large changes and then sit on those changes for about a year before transitioning out of the coordinator position to focus on scholarly interests.

As a professional, I believe I’m best as a teacher. I pride myself in designing courses around powerful subject matter ideas, compiling excellent collections of readings, and building engaging and educative activities to support student learning. If MAT program revisions bear out, I could find myself in a position to teach a couple new classes so making space to prepare those courses with the same high standards in mind will be a challenge.

As a scholar, I believe my biggest strength is as a writer of though-essays and small-scale research studies. I’m a great "first draft" writer and seem to excel in finding outlets for publication. It will be important to continue to find time to participate in these scholarly activities as other responsibilities compete for my time.

Finally, I think my biggest strength as a professional is as a person. I believe I connect well with students and my colleagues and will continue to nurture these relationships as they give me great pleasure and make my work enjoyable.

As a researcher, I feel as though I have much to learn — particularly in terms of different epistemological and ontological perspectives on research, data analysis (regression analysis and the general linear model in particular) as well as instrument design and validation. I need to continue to nurture these skills and focus them toward a teacher education research agenda.

In terms of managing the day-to-day demands of my professional life, I believe this is where I have the most work to do. I have not yet figured out how to balance scholarship, teaching and advising demands, programmatic initiatives, as well as my family life. Finding ways to streamline my work, say "no" to demands and opportunities that pull me astray from my main areas of emphasis, and work smarter will be critical in the next couple of years.

I also need to explore more systematically grant opportunities to support my various research agenda. With enough money, I could buy myself out of some of my duties and free up some time to read and write.

The following 4 goals will guide my professional development across the next 2-3 years:

Goal #1: Guide the MAT program through programmatic revisions and improvements

• Continue faculty retreats identifying faculty issues, course modifications, articulation of new capstone activity, structure and design of professional development seminar model
• Move program revisions through curriculum committee and TSPC
• Shift programmatic data gathering measures to behaviorally oriented observations protocols — ala TEP-I and TEP-II instruments
• Build core group of partner high schools, administrators, and strong pool of mentor teachers
• Develop better promotional materials — web site, flyers, and posters
• Build institutional program knowledge — mentor letters for each quarter, field book revisions (development of a field book for the part-time program), solidify structures for supervision and placements as well
• Use technology to better organize, manage, and use program data
• Successfully guide the program through NCATE accreditation in 2005

Goal #2: Align my scholarly agenda with my pedagogical agenda

• Write about teacher work sample methodology and accountability in Oregon
• Write about design-based learning as an avenue toward dealing with diverse learners
• Write about video in teacher education pedagogy
• Write about teacher research through a social constructionist framework — ala Gergen
• Complete the Technology in the College Classroom series
• Continue to work with Del and Jerry on the Connecting Teaching and Learning series
• Wrap-up writing around my dissertation research — several more papers here including all the learning data, gender effects, and aesthetics introduction stuff

Goal #3: Become an expert in narrative psychology and narrative research methodology

• Read Mary Gergen’s book on feminist psychology
• Read Dan McAdam’s Stories We Live By
• Re-read the Gudmundstodir chapter on narrative research in the 4^th Handbook of Research on Teaching
• Attend as many narrative presentations as possible at AERA
• Prepare By Teens, For Teachers book proposal — including overview text, writing prompts, analytic structures, and data management
• Secure Foundation support of the By Teens, For Teachers project
• Secure IRB approval for the project as well
• Build a group of local public school collaborators — health and language arts teachers as well as local building administrators
• Experiment with an accompanying survey for the purposes of school profiling

• Investigate counseling psychology programs at OSU

Goal #4: Become more deeply involved in a teacher education research agenda

• Continue to attend AACTE
• Subscribe to Phi Delta Kappa and regularly read Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education, and Action in Teacher Education
• Articulate a research agenda in teacher education around issues of accountability (through work sample methodology), Cook School District simulation, and teacher identity development via narrative (see goal #1)
• Stay involved at the national level through Delta Project and other local and national initiatives

I will focus almost exclusively on goal #1 (programmatic MAT revisions) across the next six months. As my coordinator buy-out time will be reduced fall quarter due to budget cuts, I must focus my immediate energies on negotiating structural changes within the program that will make my life and the lives of our students better in the ‘03-‘04 school year. I will begin to rely more heavily on Lynne, Judie, Craig, and even Angela in this endeavor.

The other goals will have to take a backseat to this goal but will not fall completely off the table. I will work to align my research and pedagogical agenda by authoring conference presentations at AACTE. I will read in narrative psychology and continue to develop the By Teens, For Teachers proposal. I will continue to participate in local, state, and national initiatives related to teacher education and accountability through my affiliation with the Delta group.