In this course, I chose to focus on Leadership Disposition #4: support intellectually rigorous and coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  My leadership goal related to this disposition was: Before the start of the 2024-2025 school year (August 15, 2025), I will collaborate with administrators and English Language Development teachers at Fort Collins High School, as well as Poudre High School to develop new curriculum for a class, “Newcomer Seminar” for implementation for Newcomer Students at Fort Collins High School this coming year.

This disposition and goal align with Leadership competency from Transforming Professional Practice component 3a- Champions and supports curriculum development including sub-elements such as develops, implements, and revises curriculum, monitors indicators of student success, demands equity and accessibility to curriculum and resources. The goal aligns with component 3b- Advocates for instruction that supports the needs of all learners, including sub-elements provides teachers with data to drive instruction and the training to execute and supports instruction that is engaging, rigorous, and relevant.  Finally, the goal also aligns with component 3d- Incorporates technology to enhance learning, including sub-element expects integration of technology for a 21st century education (Strike et al., 2019).

To meet this goal, I laid out these action steps:

1.     Develop a curriculum collaboration team for “Newcomer Seminar” consisting of FCHS administration, ELD teachers at Fort Collins High School and Poudre High School.

2.     Set the purpose for the class (to provide Newcomer students the basic skills required to navigate school in a new country with new technology).

3.     Outline a curriculum map and learning targets for the class.

4.     Determine who will teach the Newcomer Seminar class, which students will be enrolled in Newcomer Seminar, when will the class be offered within our schedule, and any materials and resources that will be needed.

5.     Connect with the teacher of the course before, mid-way through each quarter, and at the end of each quarter to determine additional curricular needs, and adjustments to be made.

Before the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, I met with members of the ELD team at Fort Collins High School (FCHS) to discuss the needs around implementing a Newcomer Seminar class.  As a team, we brainstormed some of the academic and social-emotional needs that our newcomer students bring with them when they enroll in our newcomer program.  Many of our newcomer students come from discontinuous educational backgrounds.  A large majority of students have limited experience with technology, and our school and district use 1:1 technology.  Additionally, many of our students have experienced some sort of trauma in their backgrounds.  A Newcomer Seminar class, focused on newcomer specific needs when arriving to a new school in a new country, is offered at another high school within our district, Poudre School District.  It has long been a goal of FCHS to also offer Newcomer Seminar to our students, however staff limitations have made it prohibitive.  This coming year, additional staffing has made it possible to develop and offer Newcomer Seminar to our newcomer students.

After working with administration on hiring a new staff member to join our ELD team, I reached out to Poudre High School to collaborate on the development of our Newcomer Seminar course.  I met two challenges in accomplishing my action steps.  The first was, despite multiple efforts to collaborate with Poudre High School, I received no responses to communications.  This is surprising to me, because as the second Newcomer site within PSD, we often collaborate and communicate about our programs.  I assume that because the beginning of the school year is an extremely busy time, that the lack of communication does not equate to a refusal to collaborate.  I will continue to attempt to collaborate within our district with PHS and middle school newcomer sites to refine the draft curriculum for Newcomer Seminar.  Additionally, I have and will continue to seek opportunities outside our district for opportunities to collaborate around the needs of Newcomers, and how other districts might be meeting these needs. 

The second challenge is that our newly hired teacher is still awaiting approval by the Colorado Department of Education to begin working at FCHS.  As an ELD team, in the interim, we have decided that newcomer students can receive the same supports provided through the Newcomer Seminar class within their newcomer specific language arts class.  The language arts teacher is willing to embed portions of the Newcomer Seminar curriculum where appropriate.  This is a fine model for the beginning of the school year, where all students have arrived and started school at relatively the same time.  This is also an option, should funding or staffing again prohibit FCHS from offering Newcomer Seminar as a standalone course.  It is hopeful that once our new staff member has joined our team and been successfully onboarded, we can offer Newcomer Seminar to students who join FCHS in the middle of the school year, Quarters 2-4, which is quite common.

My understanding of the leadership disposition, domain 3 on Instructional Practices, as grown throughout this course.  I was challenged to develop a curriculum outline for a new course and succeeded with input from my ELD team.  Refer to the curriculum outline linked here.  In developing the curriculum outline, I wanted to ensure that I was encompassing the academic, social-emotional, technological and language needs that newcomer students might have.  In addition to providing a positive onboarding experience in a new school in a new country, the goal is to set newcomer students up for a successful academic career ahead.  I look forward to continuing to foster competency in the domain of instruction practices, as I work with educators in our school and district to develop and support unique courses such as Newcomer Seminar that meet the needs of all students.

References: 

Strike, K. T., Sims, P. A., Mann, S. L., & Wilhite, R. K. (2019). Transforming professional practice: A framework for effective leadership (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.