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Hello.  My name is Jessica Pettit.  I am from a small town in West Texas named Crane.  I was sitting in a Crane High School Precalculus class when I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in education.  I have been teaching mathematics for 16 years, and currently I am back in my hometown teaching at my Alma Mater.

I have always loved teaching kids, but as I have had more experiences in teaching adults, my passion has started to follow a new path toward the position of Instructional Specialist.  My graduate program through Angelo State University has helped me develop a skill set directly relevant to the role of an Instructional Specialist, including: learner diversity; curriculum development; instructional design; assessment and evaluation; data analysis; continuous improvement; and collaboration, coaching, and leadership.  I invite you to review my graduate work portfolio that exhibits the mastery of these skills.

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As an educator, I know that every student I teach has a unique and diverse way of learning.  It is my responsibility to understand the needs of all learners and adapt my teaching to meet their needs.  In my graduate program Research course, we were challenged to research a problem in practice.  As a mathematics teacher, I see first hand how struggling learners are sometimes left behind in math class.  Their gap in content starts to deepen because they fall behind in classroom instruction.  I chose to research how using a flipped classroom approach in mathematics could help with the struggling learner.  Through my research, I was able to see how the autonomy of a flipped classroom can meet the needs of all types of learners.  This approach allows the learner to absorb the content in their own unique way.  It also allows for the teacher to individualize instruction based on the way students learn.  My research also revealed how the flipped classroom approach builds confidence in struggling students because it allows them to learn in their own diverse way. As an Instructional Specialist, it is my job to bring new and innovative ways to deliver instruction to all types of learners. Through my research, the flipped classroom would be one way to diversify classroom instruction.  Please take the time to read my Final Prospectus entitled The Flipped Classroom in Secondary Mathematics.

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Curriculum is the road map for delivering content for a specific course of study.  During my graduate studies, I was asked to design and develop a curriculum.  I distinguished my target audience; field of study; educational setting; objectives; assessments; instructional strategies; and resources needed to complete the curriculum.  Looking through the lens of an Instructional Specialist, I developed a curriculum for secondary math teachers in my district.  The field of study included instructional strategies that could be used in their own classrooms.  The delivery of the curriculum would be in the form of short professional development sessions before school throughout the course of the school year.  As the Instructional Specialist, I would record the teachers participating and watch the videos using a rubric to assess whether the mastery of the instructional strategy has been met.  For more information, please take a look at my design plan entitled Instructional and Assessment Design Plan.

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In my graduate program, one course that I found interesting was entitled Learning Theories.  Throughout the course, I studied many different learning theories, for example: behavior learning theory; social learning theory; adult learning theory; situated learning theory; and cognitive learning theory.  Cognitive learning theory caught my attention the most.  Cognitive learning theory focuses on how we process the information we are learning.  As an Instructional Specialist, I will be delivering instructions that should be presented in a way that is understood and retained by the learner.  In the Learning Theories course, I designed a cognitive lesson plan.  I focused my instructional plan on supporting ELLs in the math classroom.  My plan included all key components of a good instructional lesson.  My audience was clear; learning objectives were content specific; the lesson hook was interesting; reinforcement of learning was engaging with appropriate activities; and the transfer of knowledge was presented in a manner that allowed for group collaboration.  For more details, take a look at my plan entitled Cognitive Lesson Design.

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Assessment and evaluation is an integral part of curriculum and instruction.  During my graduate course entitled Curriculum Evaluation, I studied various evaluation models.  The model I feel will work best for evaluating my district’s Algebra 1 curriculum is the CIPP model.  Context, input, process, and product are the steps in this model.  Context refers to the curriculum's objectives and goals, input focuses on content and resources, process targets the delivery, and the product is the outcome and results from the curriculum.  Instructional Specialists can be extremely valuable in the curriculum evaluation process.  Knowledge of how to assess and evaluate instructional programs can help districts move in the right direction to deliver the right curriculum based on their specific needs.  Part of the evaluation process includes creating a rubric for evaluation.  I created my rubric using the CIPP model to evaluate the curriculum for Algebra 1.  Take a closer look at my rubric I created entitled Algebra 1 Curriculum Evaluation Rubric.

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Data collection, analysis, and application are highly essential to any curriculum.  In my graduate program, one of my favorite courses was Data Collection, Analysis, and Application.  Coming from my mathematics background, data has always intrigued me, and I have become the “go to” person to help with any data project in my current district. However, taking this course introduced me to a whole new world of data.  I was able to take knowledge gained from the course and create a complete data plan.  Part of the plan included creating data collection tools.  One tool created was a survey for 2nd to 5th year teachers asking their professional development needs.  Another tool was a classroom observation sheet, designed to evaluate the delivery of instruction.  The next phase of my data plan was how I was going to analyze the data.  This particular step in the data process challenged me.  I was encouraged to explore new data analysis techniques that I was unfamiliar with, and as a result my plan became a plan that I would proudly share.  I invite you to read the details of my plan entitled Data Analysis Plan #1.

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As educators, we should strive for continuous improvement--improvement from our students, administrators, and, most importantly, from ourselves.  One way to keep educators accountable for continuous improvement is by utilizing instructional specialists on campuses.  As part of my data collection course, I created a presentation on how to improve instruction in classrooms by using instructional specialists to observe instructional lessons.  This plan would have instructional specialists in classrooms watching content delivery.  The results of the data collected from these observations would navigate professional development for teachers.  As the instructional specialist, I would be able to individualize PD sessions based on the needs of the teachers.  As teachers start to improve the delivery of instruction, the success of students would start to improve as well.  Dive into my presentation entitled Improving Classroom Instruction for more details.

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During my graduate program, one of the first courses I took was entitled Instructional Strategies: Theory and Practice.  One assignment for this course was creating a micro-credential.  I chose to create a mentoring program where teachers could earn micro-credentials by completing and mastering certain skills needed to be a successful classroom teacher.  My presentation entitled Mentoring Program: A Program Designed for New Teachers, shows a small snippet of what the program would look like.  As a hopeful instructional specialist, mentoring new teachers is a passion of mine.  Collaborating with fresh new teachers and having the opportunity to coach them to be successful in the classroom is a career goal.  This mentoring program would break down some of the essential knowledge and skills new teachers need but may not necessarily have learned on their own.  Having a mentor was one of the best things I had when I first started teaching, and I would like to be that person for someone else.  I invite you to take a closer look at my presentation entitled Mentoring Program: A Program for New Teachers.

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As I look back on over 15 years of teaching experience, I can say without a doubt that I am a great teacher.  My knowledge of mathematics has helped me soar through my teaching career.  The lasting impact my students have had on me has helped me grow into the educator I am today.  I am thankful for the opportunities I have had in my career, and most recently for the opportunity I had to continue my own education through the Curriculum and Instruction graduate program at Angelo State University.

I have always had a passion for math and kids.  The best career option was to combine those two things and become a teacher.  I have learned so much more than just how to teach math.  I have learned to be compassionate, energetic, understanding, patient, encouraging, calm, and even fun.  All of these lessons have impacted me so much more than mathematics.  I would like to give back to the teaching community in the role of an Instructional Specialist.  I would like to share my knowledge of mathematics and so much more with other educators.  I am ready to: plan and deliver professional development; observe teachers in their classrooms and provide feedback to improve instruction; create and lead a successful mentoring program; and explore new and innovative ways to deliver content.

The various samples included here represent a cross-section of the information I have learned and plan on implementing in a new type of classroom--one that is full of my fellow teachers rather than secondary students.  It is my hope that these documents bear testament to what I have learned along the way and serve as a foundation for me to build upon moving forward as an Instructional Specialist.