Journey to
EXCELLENC
E
Learning
Projects
1. What is a learning project?
2. What are the components?
3. What is the process?
4. How long does it take?
5. What does it involve?
6. What needs to be completed?
7. What is handed in?
8. How does it link to district/building PD?
The purpose of
Learning Projects is to
build a good
foundation for future
practice by examining
performance,
understanding the
Iowa Teaching
Standards and Criteria,
and continuing
professional learning.
Pacing of Learning Projects:
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
May
Year 1
Intro
Day,
ITS
8,
ITS 6 LP
ITS 3 LP
ITS 4 LP
ITS 7 LP
Classroom
Management
Planning &
Preparation
Instruction
Professional
Growth &
Year One
Celebration
ITS 2 LP
ITS 5 LP
ITS 1 LP
ITS 7 LP
Content
Knowledge
Monitoring
Student
Learning
Student
Achievement
Professional
Growth &
Year Two
Celebration
Goals
LP

Year 2
Goals
LP
and
ITS 6

Journey to Excellence
Program and Learning Project
Overview (LP Y1 tab)
Individually… (4 minutes)
1. Skim these pages and ‘code’
* important to know
? I need to know more
+ this was new to me
At your tables… (5 minutes)
1. What did you learn about the program and the
learning projects?
2. What questions do you still have – write on a
post it and post these.
Learning Projects process: …
Learning Projects are organized around a process adapted from Dr. W. Edwards Deming and include
the following steps.
 Assessing Needs
 Focus –
 Study –
Determine area to learn more about & current level of performance
Determine alternative actions available – observing, research, etc.
 Planning
– Decide how to apply alternative actions
 Implementing/Apply – Use the alternative actions
 Evaluating/Reflect –Think about how things went when compared to intent
The purpose of learning projects is to build a good foundation for future practice by examining
performance, understanding the Iowa Teaching Standards and Criteria, and continuing
professional learning.
Learning
Projects
“Process”
Focus
Study
Reflect
Plan
Apply
LEARNING PROJECTS
Content
Commitment
Process
 Scheduling regular TIME to meet
 Scheduling PLACE to meet
 To keep our meetings productive we will…
 BALANCE (personal / professional)
 Ways to contact each other beyond scheduled times;
impromptu, informal
 Messaging/phone guidelines
“Who is going to see this
work?”
Mentor
Anyone else the BE chooses to share it
Beginning Educators
Growth:
 Built into the learning projects will
be self-assessment activities for the
mentor and the beginning teacher
using the book - A Framework for
Understanding the Iowa Teaching
Standards and Criteria.
Beginning Educator Growth Planning
 Will be included within many of the learning projects
It’s
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT =
For growth of BE over
time:
◦ To “inform”
 Data-based
 Occurs regularly
 On-going
Objective
 Reflective
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
◦ “helping to shape, develop”
Webster
◦ “…the evidence is actually
used to adapt the teaching
to meet student needs.”
(Inside the Black Box, Black & Wiliam)
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT …
Maintains confidentiality
between mentor and beginning
educator
Mentor
Evaluator
Beginning
Educator
Mentor
Evaluator
Mentor
Beginning
Educator
Evaluator
Review Journey to Excellence – goals, roles, pac
Clarify Evaulator’s expectations, timeline, etc
Assumptions about Mentoring
Mentoring Matters, p. x - xi
 Induction is an investment in retention, integration
and continual growth
 Emotional safety is necessary to produce cognitive
complexity
 Mentoring relationships offer opportunity for reciprocal
growth and learning
 The central goal … is to improve student learning
 A successful mentoring program will be integral to the
implementation of other school and district
initiatives.