Design

• Describe your plan of action and how each of your four chosen competencies will influence its design and implementation.

Reflective Practice: I will give two surveys by means of google forms. The first survey will gauge how many of my students know details about the Montana Native Americas. I will use this data to determine how and what I need to teach to my students. The second survey I will give, will go to all of the teachers in the building I teach at. I would like to know if teachers infuse IEFA lessons into the curriculum. This will not affect the Clovis Child lesson I will create; I simply want to get a sense for if lessons are being taught.

Personal Effectiveness: First I must say that I was more effective in my previous district. The principal I worked for encouraged her staff to collaborate on projects and lead committees. She guided us and supported us in all of our efforts. I was the 6th Grade Team Leader and held weekly meetings. wrote social studies curriculum, wrote English assessments and assisted in the development of city and state writing assessment rubrics based on the 6 Traits of Writing, under the direction of Montana OPI Director of Assessment. I was also part of the training of teachers on how to grade writing assessments. I do not have any documentation or evidence as this was in the 1990's and we did not have the technology we do now.

This past year I was able to rethink and further develop my teacher leadership skills and converse with stakeholders in regard to being on the IEFA Leadership Team and being a TLI Fellow. I was able to provide my Clovis Child lesson for professional development during the IEFA Symposium.

Explore and Challenge Inequity: I had to explore and challenge my own biases and challenge the inequity and white privilege I did not believe I had. One of the implicit bias tests I took was that of Native IAT and my results were that I had a strong association for white Americans. I knew at this time that there was divine intervention working through me. I had already met with an IEFA coach to help me develop monthly lessons for my social studies classes. When she and I met, I had the opportunity to have a heart to heart with her in regards to my own bias and ask her for clarification of my feelings. I spent the rest of the school year, which ended early during to COVID, making certain I was interacting fairly with all of my students. I made certain that I gave each and every student what they needed to be successful. I also allowed students from other cultures to share their rich histories. Even though it was a short year, it was full of growth for me personally. Along with my own personal growth, I was invited to work with the IEFA Leadership Team to develop IEFA lessons to be integrated in social studies.

Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competence: Coaching and Mentoring: My teaching partner, who is now retired, was a master teacher. Many times I would ask her to critique my lessons to be certain they encompassed all necessary parts. We also would share our lessons with two other social studies teachers to make sure we were preparing our 6th graders for 7th and 8th grade curriculum. We did this mostly during our PLC time. There were some difficulties with a trustworthy environment. Hopefully this year I can find ways to create a more welcoming environment.

• How will your leadership leverage the strengths and address the needs of diverse stakeholders to support the plan of action, develop capacity, broaden decision-making, and learn collaboratively?

I was able to get my principal's blessing for being a part of TLI. He was very supportive. He was also supportive in allowing my to meet with one of the IEFA Coaches to develop monthly lessons. I had the support of the IEFA Coaches and the director of IEFA. I feel that being a part of the IEFA Teacher Leadership Team allowed me to gain even more support and knowledge from other coaches and teachers involved in that team. When I shared with my students they would get to learn about early man and how we could connect what we learned with the Clovis Child (and that we would have a guest speaker) they were thrilled.

• How will you use collaboration, questioning, data, and reflection during the implementation of your action plan?

As I have stated, I was able to collaborate with my teaching partner, as we planned and taught many lessons together. We "shared" students and felt like a real team. I was able to collaborate with my principal to and other 6th grade teachers to allow all of our students to view and interact with my guest speaker. I collaborated monthly with the other IEFA Teacher Leadership Team members. The documentation is below.

The one problem that I reflected on several times revolves around my google form survey I sent to every teacher in my building. I asked my colleagues if they infused IEFA lessons and if they did not, why they did not. I did not get any responses. I had to send an email to my social studies team asking for them to please respond. Even then, I only got two responses. I am still reflecting on this; I do not understand why I did not get responses.

• How will you address obstacles that you may encounter in implementing your plan?

I did not believe I would encounter any obstacles. I had the support of all stakeholders. I did encounter one issue and that was mailing back the Footlocker to Helena. I was told the district would cover the cost, but in the end I had to use my school funds. The Footlocker is an amazing tool and I wouldn't want to not use it. I have a feeling I will not be able to use it this coming fall because all of the activities are manipulatives and students have to share and work in groups. I do not see that COVID will allow for interaction between peers. There is nothing I can do about that.