Professional Experience Reaction Paper

For my professional experience as a student teacher, I went to a PAC, or Principal’s Advisory Committee, Meeting. During this meeting, other staff members in attendance and I primarily discussed what next steps would be to meet a school goal of more freshman students feeling like they belonged at the school. This was also meant to help students who were failing one or more subject in conjunction with data that showed students who did not feel like they belonged in some sort of group at the school also tended to do poorly in some school subjects.

Staff members shared their thoughts on the goals and topics, and we discussed planning to meet these goals. I was very glad that I went to this meeting, as it provided me with insight on how policy meetings go at the high school level, and what kind of opportunities interested teachers can have in sharing their ideas for how the school can move forward.  Much less staff than I expected attended this meeting, which shows me that teachers have to take initiative in order to have their voices heard in higher policy discussions, but that the opportunities are there if you look for them.