Campus Supervised Internship Status
(as of Aug. 2012)
Thus far, while I feel that my Campus Supervised Internship Program has been moving forward steadily, there have been some circumstances beyond my control that have slowed some of the specific activities that I do want to focus on in the coming school year. Last year, as I embarked on this internship, I had the support of my principal who played an active role in defining the activities. Unfortunately, as the year went on, she was faced with a number of health challenges, which ultimately led to her resigning her position this past May. As a result, several of the planned activities for this past Spring were pushed off. In June, our new principal was named and she has had extensive experience in mentoring future administrators, which I see as a great asset to my own personal growth plan. At this point, we have met to discuss my internship plan and we have taken a number of steps to revise the plan to more accurately reflect the needs of the school now that she is in charge.
To date, I have completed most of the activities that I had identified in support of Domain 1 - School Community Leadership. Among the activities that have been completed are data collection and analysis of standardized test data (which is also in support of my Action Research Plan), various communications efforts to parents and staff regarding a number of new programs that were being implemented at our school, participating as a facilitator in our Grade Level Committee meetings, and planning and implementing co-curricular activities. In addition, as this was a contract year for our district, I was able to gain a place on the negotiating team which negotiated our new collective bargaining agreement and attended many board of education meetings both as an observer and as a participant in various discussions.
I was also given complete responsibility for implementing our afternoon co-curricular programs, which included recruiting teachers, approving their plans for their activities, preparing and distributing enrollment materials to students, tracking class assignments and payment of tuition, and dealing with day to day management of the program, including managing scheduling and dealing with weather-related emergencies. This one program provided a wealth of experiences within my building.
Going forward, I have revised a number of my activities based on my new site supervisor’s request. I will be participating in the latest textbook selection process for our new Social Studies program, and will be working to develop new procedures for student dismissal and staff duty assignments. In addition, I have been asked to present all of our mandatory staff trainings this year. I will also be continuing in my role as campus technology coordinator, which will enable me to focus on some of the Domain III skills such as technology allocation and budgeting.
Overall, while I feel that I faced a setback last Spring, I am confident in my abilities to complete this program on time and with the support of my new administrator, I look forward to working on these fulfilling activities.
Action Research Plan Status
(as of Aug. 2012)
Thus far, my action research project has been progressing slowly, and unfortunately I have had to revisit the original premise, as I described in my revised plan that was submitted for EDLD 5397. I have refocused my research on examining the effects on standardized reading test scores of increased intervention activities aimed at students who were just below and just above the passing score in previous exams - those that we termed “at risk”.
Thus far, my research has focused on identifying background information, including previous year’s test scores and documenting the names of the students who were in our at-risk category in grades 3, 4, and 5. I have also captured information on what was provided as part of our supplemental program for each of these students. Their benchmark information has been captured on a spreadsheet and graphs of the data are being produced.
I have also completed the development of a staff survey that will be fielded to teachers in grades 3, 4, and 5 that is intended to capture their feelings on teh effectiveness of the new reading program which was implemented across the district this past year in grades 3, 4, and 5. This information will be crucial to providing background on what the majority of the students experienced in the year leading up to eh most recent standardized test, as well as allowing a more detailed analysis of the interventional strategies that fell beyond the scope of the traditional program. This survey is being administered through Survey Monkey and the results are expected back by early September.
At this point, other than the survey, we are on hold as far as student data is concerned until the test data is received from the state, which will probably not be until mid-October. In the meantime, I am conducting a literature review to try to identify any other studies that may have outlined the effects of interventional strategies on near-passing students.
While I am happy with where the research is going, I do wish that it had more far-reaching effects. I intend to share the research across the district through our Elementary Roundtable, a monthly meeting held with representatives of each elementary school in the district, in the hopes that this data will also be shared with their respective building faculties. In addition, depending on the timing of the final report, I intend to share the results with the PTA and, if possible, with a larger group of parents on one of our evening literacy programs that we offer twice a year.