Classroom Management Stance
I believe in being a clearly recognized authority who leads my students with a firm yet gentle hand. In whatever context I am teaching, the goal is to make music together and learn about it along the way. In order to accomplish this effectively, I need to have clearly defined rules for my students to follow, as this is a vital part of managing my classroom (Marzano et al, 2003). It is important to me that I be recognized as an approachable authority; that is, someone who you know is in charge, but who will also be understanding. To the extent I am able, I wish to be not only a teacher figure but also a father figure for my students. Students are far more likely to learn in a setting they feel comfortable with, and the disposition and character of the teacher are the most important factor in creating a comfortable classroom (Milner et al., 2019).
My classroom is centered around these ideas. Figure 1, shown below, is an illustration of what my ideal music classroom would look at all levels I might teach. The students are seated in an arc with several rows all focused on the front and center of the classroom. In a general music classroom a piano or keyboard will occupy this focal point; in middle or high school ensembles this spot will be occupied by a conductor’s podium. The reason for this setup, particularly in ensembles, is to establish a singularity of focus. Every seat is facing one point: I, as the teacher and director, am that point. The idea is that I am the leader in a musical journey, and all who are on this journey with me need to have a singular focus on their guide so that they can all be together. In an elementary classroom this seating arrangement might look slightly different, inasmuch as there would be only one row of seats aligning more closely to the walls. This seating arrangement would allow for a larger open space in the center for different musical activities. In this setting, the focal point is still me, since I am the guide no matter what level or context I am teaching in. The instruments and music are stored in cases behind where the students are sitting so that they are out of the way. The boxes on the diagram labeled “instrument storage” are where I envision cabinets or shelves would be; it is very likely that the entirety of the back wall would be instrument storage, both shelves and floor space. If I had a desk, it would be off to one side, outside of that focus point of attention. As a music teacher, I will not be doing most of my teaching from a desk, and the only time I would be using a desk during class time would be to manipulate something on the SMARTBoard, which would be situated behind either the keyboard or podium in the focal point. Each part of this setup is intended to be the most conducive to an enjoyable and productive experience in the music classroom.
References
Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S., & Pickering, D. J. (2003) Classroom management that works: Research-based strategies for every teacher. ASCD.
Milner, H. R., Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L., & Kestenberg, E. G. (2019). These kids are out of control: Why we must reimagine “classroom management” for equity. Corwin.
Engaging Instruction
There is any number of teachers who can stand in front of a class and deliver subject content to students for hours a day. The students may hear the material being presented, but it is anybody’s guess how much material the students actually retain. Pure lecturing is the easiest way to teach; it is also the worst way. Children, especially in the elementary grades, should not be sitting for hours at a time listening to lectures. It is, therefore, vitally important that teachers learn and develop the fine art of classroom engagement: teaching students so that they are able not only to hear but actually absorb content and giving every student the opportunity to demonstrate what they are learning. Good teachers can effectively interact with and engage their pupils so that they are actively participating in learning, discussing, and demonstrating what is being taught. Not only do the students actually learn and absorb the material, but effective engagement is also the best means of having a well-managed classroom. When kids are invested and enthusiastic about what they are doing, they will be much less likely to disrespect others or interrupt the flow of the class.
As a future music teacher, I have a great number of opportunities and methods by which I can engage students in my classrooms and give them opportunities to demonstrate what they are learning. By its very nature, music is a social subject; students can sing and play along with each other to no end, and there is almost no limit to the ways you can use music to engage people and get them to work together to learn not only about music but also more about themselves. There is little room in a music classroom for treating students as listening objects whom I am merely lecturing to (Himmele & Himmele, 2017). Music is not so much content to be learned as it is new experiences to discover, and the content that does need to be learned can be fit very easily into this context of experience.
There are a great number of different methodologies of music education, and all of them deal with how to make music more relevant and enjoyable for students, giving them the ability not only to hear music but to participate in it and explore it as a means of self-expression. Whether it is the group singing activities of SongWorks, the body movements and dancing of Delcroze, the simple hand shapes of Kodály, or the exotic instruments of Orff, there is no end to the ways that I can engage my students and bring them along with me in an exciting musical journey. Also, since music is such an integral part of any culture, students could even suggest their favorite songs that they would like to sing along to or dance to in class. This would give students an opportunity to express themselves in a unique way and for everyone to learn something about different cultures (Milner et al., 2019).
The different music education methodologies mentioned above are all excellent ways to engage students and to get them not just thinking about but experiencing music. SongWorks and Delcroze are two which I believe are particularly excellent in this regard. SongWorks functions around singing and movements related to what is being sung. Students are able to sing along, move with the song, and interact with each other in a number of wild, wacky, and fun ways. The SongWorks methodology does an excellent job at creating a high student engagement in the content, building the class community, and enjoyable content framing, three of the four elements of effective instruction for classroom management (Milner et al., 2019) The Delcroze method involves playing a short musical excerpt and having the students move how they feel the music wants them to move. This is an exceptional way to fulfill a different set of three elements from Milner and colleagues (2019): high student engagement in content, positive framing, and critical reflective practices.
As an educator, I believe that it is my responsibility to have students learn as much as they are able to while under my tutelage. As a music educator, I also must deal with the knowledge that the majority of my students will not actively use anything I teach them past high school. Yet, I believe that because music is such a powerful and universal form of human expression, that I am depriving my students of an untold amount of enrichment and fulfillment if I do not teach them music. Humans are unique amongst all of Nature in that we possess two universal means of expressive communication: language and music. Of these two, music is the higher and more universal. It is at once commonly understood and unfathomably mysterious. I would be defrauding my students of immeasurable joy and enrichment if I did not do everything within my ability to give them a glimpse of the power and wonder of music.
While guiding my students into the marvels of music, it is important that I determine how engaged they are, and I can do this in various ways. I could have a class discussion now and then, going around the room and asking the children what they like about different kinds of music. I could watch how the kids react to different activities, seeing their faces light up with joy during activities they love. Also, the children themselves will likely give verbal indications of their enjoyment of the class, as I have seen many students do in the classroom.
Being an educator is a high and difficult calling. Knowledge of the various ways that I can get my students engaged in class will be an invaluable asset as I try to teach my students whatever I can in the short period of their lives I have with them. Effective engagement will be essential to stellar classroom management and growing the intellectual and emotional ranges of my students.
References
Himmele, P. and Himmele, W. (2017). Total participation techniques: Making every student an active learner (2nd ed.). ASCD.
Milner, H. R., Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L, & Kestenberg, E. G. (2019). “These kids are out of control”: Why we must reimagine “classroom management” for equity. Corwin.
Relationship-Building Activities
Education is a very important part of a child’s development. Children are generally in school for at least 12 years, often longer. However, they may not retain what is learned if they feel emotionally disconnected in the classroom. When children first start school, they spend several hours a day away from the caring environment of the home that they are used to. It is important that they receive emotional support from their teachers to help them transition and enjoy learning while in school. It is also important that they are held to high expectations so that each student can achieve their best (Milner et al., 2019). As children mature, the need for this emotional and academic support remains through every stage of their development. The best way to get students to feel comfortable is to develop relationships with them. As a teacher, it is my job to be the primary facilitator of the formation of relationships while students are in class. In my future classrooms, I want to make sure that my students know that I sincerely care about them as people and want to see them succeed. Therefore, it is essential that I develop good relationships with each of my students. Additionally, I must help the students get to know each other so that they feel comfortable around each other and will more readily learn and express what they learn. Children enjoy doing activities of many kinds, so naturally, the best way for me to develop relationships between myself and the students, as well as between the students themselves, is to engage in different activities with my students that help us get to know one another better.
One easily applicable activity that I could use to foster relationships is called “Find Someone Who” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d.). It essentially operates as a scavenger hunt to find other people in the class who can do a specific thing, have a specific thing, know a specific thing, or like a specific thing. For instance, one item on a student’s checklist could be “Find someone who has a dog”; the student would then ask classmates and perhaps even the teacher if they have a dog, and in doing so, find out something about each person. A guideline that fosters even more interaction only allows students to use any given person once on their checklist. For example, if Sarah has a dog and plays guitar, and both of those things are on Charles’ “Find Someone Who” checklist, Charles could only put down Sarah for his guitar item and would have to find someone else who owns a dog to put down for the dog item. This sort of general icebreaker could be an excellent way for me to get to know the students and for everyone to find out something interesting about each of their classmates. As a music teacher, there are several ways that I could implement this as more than a general icebreaker. Especially above 3rd grade, one question on a checklist could be “Find Someone Who Plays a Musical Instrument,” or perhaps “Find Someone Who Has a Family Member That Plays a Musical Instrument.” Another, more involved way I could use this is by having students anonymously choose different musical challenges to do, then have a “Find Someone Who” item for each of the challenges once every student has completed a challenge. Then, whenever students find people who have done a challenge that they did not do, they can talk about why they chose that challenge. This activity would be most appropriate if I taught in an elementary school.
For higher grades, especially into high school, a very important way that I can build relationships is through setting high behavioral and academic standards for my students and encouraging them in every possible way to achieve those standards to the best of their abilities. A California high school teacher named Tyler Hester gave an excellent example of this (Agape Management, 2014). He has guidelines for his students that, to some, would seem very strict, such as 60 minutes of detention for not turning in the previous day’s homework and not talking when you’re not supposed to be talking. However severe such rules may seem, his reasoning behind these guidelines is the most important thing to be considered: he wants these students to succeed. He wants them to go to college. And he is going to push them and focus them and give them every help necessary to achieve that goal. As a music teacher, this concept is definitely something I can apply. I want my students to be able to play and enjoy beautiful music for their whole lives and not just give up playing or singing once they leave high school or college. So I can set strict guidelines, enforce those guidelines fairly, and in doing so, channel the energy and attention of my students towards the high expectations I set. In doing so they will be able to learn about me, why I do what I do, and in their focus, they will also learn more about themselves and each other. This is certainly a less direct form of developing relationships than Find Someone Who, but it has much more profound and far-reaching results: the knowledge that their teacher cared about them enough to discipline them and channel their potential so that they could achieve their best, as well as the knowledge that when they try, they can succeed.
A simple practice I could engage in no matter what grade I am teaching would be greeting students by name at the door with a hello and a handshake. This would especially work well in an elementary school. Perhaps I could take a page out of Barry White’s book and develop a personalized handshake with each student (Hanson, 2017). It would probably be more appropriate as a music teacher for me to come up with a short jingle of each student’s name that I greet them with when they come to class. I might need to tweak this concept a little bit if I were teaching in middle or high school, where I would be directing group instrument classes and ensembles instead of teaching a general music class. Even then, I could still greet students with their jingles. If I were teaching in a high school, where students will have some experience with their instruments as opposed to when they are just starting in middle school, maybe something fun I could do would be to teach every student how to play their jingle on their instrument. I could take roll by calling out students’ names and listening for their jingle. This concept could also foster relations between the students by being an easy and fun way to remember the names of fellow students.
It is very important for me as a teacher to put a great amount of effort into getting to know my students so that they feel comfortable with me. It is of equal importance that I facilitate relationships between the students to the extent I am able in a classroom setting. Children are much more willing to learn when they are actively engaged in the course material. They are especially comfortable learning when they know the person at the front of the classroom actually cares about them as people. The activities I have described above are just a sampling of the ways that I could develop relationships with and between my students. There is a number of ways to develop relationships in my classroom that I could research or invent myself. The most important thing is that it happens, for it is vital to student success.
References
Milner, H. R., Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L., & Kestenberg, E. G. (2019). “These kids are out of control”: Why we must reimagine “classroom management” for equity. Corwin, 97.
The Teacher Toolkit. (n.d.). Find someone who. The Teacher Toolkit. http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/find-someone-who
Agape Management. (2014, March 2). Classroom management – meet Mr. Hester. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdF5ry5g5-w
Hanson, M. (2017, January 31). Teacher’s twist on a high-five has students smiling. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/video/teacher-s-twist-on-a-high-five-has-students-smiling-867194947871
Documentation and Communication Plan
Knowing the material that you are responsible for teaching is essential for an educator since you cannot teach what you do not know. However, what is arguably far more important in the act of teaching a group of children is how you manage the classroom. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to be the facilitator and director of the classroom, ensuring that there are definite rules and procedures that are consistently employed, in addition to clear and universally applied consequences for disobeying the rules or disrupting the procedures. This sort of consistency is absolutely necessary, for without a clearly defined set of rules and procedures to follow, countless hours will be wasted because I won’t have the class under control enough to teach them what they are supposed to be learning (Marzano et al., 2003). In addition to a clear and consistent structure, it is important that I have plans for documenting the good and bad things that happen in my classroom so that I can foster deeper relationships with my students by praising them for good behavior and rebuking them for bad behavior. This documentation is also necessary for communicating with the parents and guardians of the children, who provide for the majority of the child’s needs and bear the main responsibility for the child’s development outside of school. Because of their importance in the instruction and maturation of their children, which in many ways is far greater than my own, they have every right to know exactly what is going on with them. Finally, I need to have definite strategies for communicating to children and parents what I have documented, because it is one thing to write down what’s happening and another to communicate what I have recorded to the students and their families.
Rules and Consequences
In my classroom setup, there will be a great number of rules that will work to make the classroom as efficient and educational as possible. At the beginning of the school year, I will explain the basic rules of the classroom to each set of students I have throughout the week. The majority of these will be mere common courtesy rules, such as demonstrating respect for their classmates and me. Since I am a music teacher, some of the classroom rules will be unique to me, such as not touching any instruments until I tell them they can. For the younger grades (K-3), I will decide the rules that everybody must follow and enforce them universally. However, for the older grades (4-12), I will present the basic rules I have for all my classes, then I will ask the kids to come up with rules that they think would help the class run smoothly Marzano et al.). I would do this in a class discussion format, in which I would recognize different students who wished to speak and facilitate discussion about the rules suggested. After that first class, I would type up these special class rules, and I would print out a sheet for each student to sign during the next class that would be documentation of their agreement to follow these rules.
For every rule in place, I will need to administer clear and consistent consequences to students who break those rules. Most of these rules would have a “three strikes you’re out” progression. An application of this to the rule of not verbally or physically disturbing other students, for example, would be as follows: the first time it happens, I will give a stern verbal rebuke to the student in front of the class. The second time it happens, I will give a warning to the student that they will need to leave the classroom if they do it again. The third time it happens is the “strikeout,” and I remove the student from the situation by asking them to sit outside the classroom for a few minutes, after which I will ask the student if they are ready to not disturb the rest of the class. It is helpful for the experience of the other students that disruptive behavior is removed so that the class can run smoothly. The “three strikes you’re out” system gives a buffer for this, so that students only get a timeout if they are consistently disrupting the flow of the class. It is not fair to the students who are paying attention for me to keep a student in the class who is actively distracting their classmates and causing them not to be able to learn as well. If they are having a rough day and not wanting to concentrate on what is happening in the class, I understand that; however, I will not accept them causing other students to lose their focus just because they, for whatever reason, are not wanting to focus.
Procedures and Routines
Aside from the rules, there are also different day-to-day routines that I will need to employ in my classroom. I need to have ways to engage the students throughout the class period. A simple routine for getting students’ attention that I have observed in a practicum is having all the students “give me five” – that is, raising their hand in the air. It is a quick practice that involves gross motor response to my command and is thus more likely to get their attention. Another procedure that I may use in my classroom is a form of reward system, in which the class as a whole gets awarded for good behavior and reprimanded for bad behavior. If a class completes challenges and stays focused during class, I reward them with points, but if they aren’t able to successfully complete a challenge or they are not staying focused, they will not get points. If they have a certain number of points by the end of class, they will get a Big Point. Once they have a certain number of Big Points, they get a special reward, such as candy or a song of their choice to dance to during the next class.
With the existence of the different classroom rules comes the necessity to formally document occurrences in which these rules are broken. Grave offenses, such as physical violence towards myself or other students, would immediately incur a time out and a note in my log, bypassing the “three-strikes” system described above. For regular classroom disturbances of the less grievous nature that would be dealt with using the “three-strikes” system, I would make a formal note only if they reached the third strike and thus incurred a timeout. If three or more of these notes were made within the course of four weeks, I would corroborate with the student’s other teachers to see if this behavior is universal or if it occurs only when they are in my class. If their inappropriate behavior is limited to my class, I would ask them to speak with me after school on the next day that I see them. If the student is exhibiting disrespectful behavior in all their classes, I will leave the issue to their primary teacher. Below is an example of how I would log notably disruptive behavior.
| Student | Teacher | Offense |
| John Doe | Ms. Jones (2nd grade) | Pinched his neighbor Barry Smith three times during the class, deserving a 2-minute timeout. Second notable offense in the past 4 weeks. |
Communication
If any students were performing poorly academically in my class, I would again check with the student’s other teachers to see if they were performing poorly only in my class or in all their classes. This is merely to see if they are generally academically challenged or if they are mainly having a problem with music class. In any case, I will meet with the student and ascertain what they are having difficulty understanding, then find ways in my future classes to help them better understand the content. I will also document what I told the student I would do to help them learn more effectively in a comment format such as the following:
| Student | Teacher | Academic Discussion Summary |
| Heather Jameson | Mr. Kendrick (6th grade) | Heather and I discussed how she has difficulty hearing herself play oboe to see if she is playing the right notes because there are so many other players in the band. I told her that I would help her be able to hear herself better by going through exercises instrument by instrument, thus allowing her to have less instruments to hear herself over. |
In my communication with the students who accrue three notable offenses within four weeks and for whom their misbehavior is limited to my class, I will explain that they have broken the rules enough times that I need to talk with them about what is going on. I will be sure to tell them that I have spoken with their other teachers and have learned that they only behave this way when they are in my classroom. Since, as a music teacher, I will not have a single group of students that I am responsible for above all others, I will schedule these types of meetings with misbehaving students only if their behavior is limited to my class. Universal inappropriate behavior will be dealt with primarily by their main teacher. I will ask the student what it is about music class that is causing them to behave in this way. I will speak gently and making it clear that I am not upset with them, but am merely concerned and curious as to why they broke the rules in my class because I want them to be good members of the music class and the school. (Milner et al., 2019) After these conversations, I will summarize what the student was feeling disengaged by and what I said I would do to accommodate. Below is an example of this summary for John Doe breaking the class rule of personal space.
| Student | Teacher | Conversation summary |
| John Doe | Ms. Jones (2nd grade) | John said that he didn’t like that he was not called on as much as some of the other students and that that was why he kept trying to get my attention by breaking the personal space rule. I told him that I did not realize that I don’t call on him as much as other students and that I will try to call on him more in the future. I also made it clear that the way in which he tried to get my attention, by breaking the personal space rule, was not an acceptable way of trying to get my attention, and that if there is something he’s not happy about, he should take it up with me or Ms. Jones instead of disturbing the other students. |
If a student’s misbehavior continues even after I have met with them, I will arrange a meeting with the student’s parents/guardians. This meeting will occur if noteworthy offenses of the same or similar nature occur three times in four weeks after our conversation. In the comments for each of these offenses, I will reflect upon how well I have done what I said I would do to determine if any part of the student’s continued misbehavior could be my fault for not holding up my end of the agreement. In the meeting with the student’s parents/guardians, I will demonstrate my documentation of the student’s misbehavior prior to our meeting, what was discussed in our meeting, and how the student has misbehaved since then, including my reflections on how the student’s continued misbehavior is related to my fidelity to the agreement. I will talk with the parents/guardians about what is going on in their home life that might be causing the student to misbehave at school. We will discuss any issues that exist and think of ways to counteract the negative effects of any adverse circumstances upon the student.
Not all my communication with parents will be instigated by negative incidences. If a student is doing very well in class, I will write a note of praise for the student to take home to their parents, keeping them informed as to how well their student is doing in class. On a more neutral note, I will send home monthly progress reports that cover how a student is doing and what their grade in the class is. I will always keep a copy of these communications for my own records as well.
It is important that I be aware of what is going on with my students, even though, as a music teacher, I might only see them once or twice a week. I must give them a clear and definite structure for them to follow when they are in my class, ensuring that they understand my rules and, in the case of the older grades, have the opportunity to contribute to our classroom order. I am primarily responsible for enforcing these rules and punishing students when they break the rules. It is a necessary practice for me to document any extraordinarily good or bad things that students do. This will enable me to help them overcome whatever struggles or issues they may be dealing with so that they can learn to the best of their ability and praise them for a job well done. I must be able to communicate reasonably, patiently, and charitably what I document with the students and their parents. Although I have spent most of this paper expounding what I will do in negative circumstances, I will follow many of the same procedures for when children excel above their peers, documenting their accomplishments and finding ways to reward and praise them for it. As a teacher, I bear responsibility and authority that I must rightly exercise, and the methods and procedures I have described will, as far as I can foresee, help me in the proper execution of my office as an educator.
References
Marzano, R. J., Marzano, J. S. & Pickering, D. B. (2003). Classroom management that works: Research-based strategies for every teacher. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Milner, H. R., Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L. & Kestenberg, E. G. (2019). These kids are out of control: Why we must reimagine “classroom management” for equity. Corwin.
Data-Based Reflection Plan
Teachers are constantly exposed to numerous kinds of data. This data conveys information about different aspects of their teaching, such as how effective their instruction is, how well their disciplinary practices keep order in the classroom, and how the life situation of students affects their learning. It is important for me, as a teacher, to have a systematic means by which I can collect data comprehensively and evaluate my teaching so that I can find ways to make it better. Being able to fluently collect and utilize data for professional development in the classroom is called data literacy for teachers (DLFT). It is formally defined by Mandinach and Gummer (2016): “Data literacy for teaching is the ability to transform information into actionable instructional knowledge and practices by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting all types of data (assessment, school climate, behavioral, snapshot, longitudinal, moment-to-moment, etc.) to help determine instructional steps. It combines an understanding of data with standards, disciplinary knowledge and practices, curricular knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and an understanding of how children learn” (p. 367). This literacy is a valuable asset for me as a teacher so that I always have methods by which I can analyze the fruits of my teaching through many types of data sets.
One of the most important ways that I can collect data as a teacher is by developing relationships with my students. If I know and understand things like their home life, their areas of interest, and how they best learn, I will have a very useful collection of information at my disposal. However, I personally have reservations concerning the amount of reliance I could have on this method. Because I am a music teacher, I do not have charge of a class of twenty or so students; rather, every student in the building walks through my door over the course of a school week. In order to effectively utilize this method of data collection, I would have to develop these kinds of relationships with every student in the school, perhaps a couple hundred children or more. That is a very difficult task, and because of the sheer number of students that I interact within any given week, I cannot rely too much on this means to get feedback. The difficulties with having so many students to get to know extend to my relationships with their parents as well, so it is the unfortunate circumstance of a music teacher that renders me incapable of effectively utilizing these excellent methods of data collection. However, it is far from the only method in existence. One method that would be very useful for me is to ask the students at random intervals how they like music class, perhaps utilizing it as a topic for group discussions on how the class could be made better. To give students greater confidence in sharing what they think, another way I could collect data is by having an anonymous survey in which students will write their thoughts about the class and how well they are learning. However, this may not be an option for children below 3rd grade due to their general lack of linguistic fluency.
Another very useful method of data collection would be analysis and self-reflection on my part. Possibly at the end of every class and certainly at the end of every school day, I could take a few minutes to sit down and reflect. I would think about things that happened, good or bad, and how I handled them, as well as what I feel I could have done differently in the positive or negative situations that occurred. I would write down my reflections in a log so that I have a reference not only as a guide for future development but also as a record of what development I have undergone in the past. Additional data I could receive would be from evaluations performed by the school system and comments in my end-of-year performance reviews. Finally, an important data set is my knowledge of various things related to what I teach, such as course content, curriculum, pedagogical knowledge, and educational contexts.
Having access to all this data is certainly beneficial in and of itself. Still, it has no practical merit unless I take measures to adapt my teaching practices according to this wealth of information. If I find in the student surveys that students do not like a specific part of the way I run class, I can adjust my practice so that the students feel more comfortable and engaged. In my reflections I can see how I might have done things differently in various situations or see what I did that was wise and effective and continue doing that. To the limited extent that I am able to be aware of the individual life situations of each of my students, I can accommodate anything that is going on in their lives that affects their academics and their behavior in class. Finally, knowing more about the course content, curriculum, and pedagogical techniques can enable me to draw on the wisdom and study of others and apply this to my teaching.
Being a teacher is a process of continual evolution as I grow in experience and knowledge of my practice. Because of the nature of my profession, constant development is absolutely necessary, so being sufficiently fluent in data literacy is an excellent skill to have. It is important for me to be able to collect feedback on my performance as a teacher from a great variety of sources and be able to apply that information to my teaching. In my opinion, the development of an educator is equally the result of experience as it is the result of knowledge, perhaps even to a greater extent. The strategies and plans I have described are theoretical, but I believe that they will be useful in the future. As I grow in my teaching practice, I will always keep foremost in my mind how I can best use such varieties of data to improve and perfect my craft.
References
Mandinach, E. B. & Gummer, E. S. (2016). What does it mean for teachers to be data literate: Laying out the skills, knowledge, and dispositions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 60, 367. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.07.011