Student and Staff Success
The candidates demonstrate the ability to promote a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
Wisconsin Administrator Standard 3
The administrator manages by advocating, nurturing and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to pupil learning and staff professional growth.
Revised 5-2016
The following rationale and artifacts demonstrate my development as an emerging leader and provide evidence that the standard has been met.
Self-Reflection/Rationale:
With eleven years of teaching and various leadership positions under my belt, I have learned that understanding and striving for success is essential. Success is not only necessary for student achievement, but also achievement for the district and community. As more focus is put on districts to prove that they are meeting district, state, and national goals/objectives, not only is a successful program important, but proof that success is important. In order to promote a successful school and district, I feel that open communication, goal setting, focus on vision and mission, and, ultimately, professional development are important. First and foremost, success is gained and lost as a team. In order for a team to be effective, not only do they need to communicate, they need to have same ideals, visions, and goals. By promoting an environment in which teachers have time and are encouraged to collaborate, the overall mindset of the staff will be positive, and thus promote success. According to Robert House's Path Goal Leadership Theory, "The Goal is to increase your employee's motivation, empowerment, and satisfaction so they become productive members of the organization." With this in mind, the leader does not have to dictate, but must keep others focused on the goals, praise when needed, and give them reasons to want to improve themselves, others, and the school. As principal, I will also make sure that no one is ever satisfied with their abilities; everyone on the team/staff must understand there is always room for improvement. This may be academic, mental, emotional, personal, team building, etc. I always strive to improve myself by focusing on and working on areas that need improvement. I feel this is also essential for the school/district. I will instill these beliefs in my followers. Third, I feel that constant professional development is necessary to accomplish what is listed above. I envision a school in which staff members attend professional meetings and return to share new ideas or concepts we can incorporate into our school/district. Continuing education is not optional, but is required to keep up with the changing world of education. I want 21st-century educators to be teaching 21st-century students. I feel that this is the only way that students will be adequately prepared for their future: encountering the same problems, activities, technology, etc. that are currently being used in today’s jobs/occupations. In each of my artifacts below, I demonstrate how I now understand that self improvement, reflection, and continued education is essential. I have also shown that I have modeled this behavior as a leader.
My first artifact is my “School Improvement Plan” for Educational Leadership, EDL 725, developed during the Summer of 2014. I received an "A" on this project. The project began over three years ago (2013) when I became Technology Director at Gresham. When doing my research for my “School Improvement Plan,” I noticed that there was a common theme among other schools which had already implemented technology: there was a lack of teacher and student training. These districts spent an enormous amount of money on devices and never trained others how to use them. In some instances, they were not utilized to their maximum potential; in others, they were not even used at all. I saw frustration amongst these districts, and the goals and visions of the initiative were lost. I firmly believe that any concept, idea, or plan needs leaders and followers who are well educated so they can accomplish their goals and tasks. This is the only way to ensure success. In this document, the main area of focus was not the technology devices at Gresham, but training the people who were going to use them. This included the staff, students, community, and myself. Six days were dedicated to staff training, and five days were dedicated to student training. I feel that this made all the difference. Not only did we teach the staff/students how to use the devices, but we allowed them to ask questions, explore, and use the devices, sometimes with and without guidance. Every person had a device in their hands and was essentially told to “play with it” as if they were a child with a new toy. Teachers taught teachers, teachers taught students, and even some students showed teachers how to do new things. There was frustration at times, but it was easily overshadowed by the enormous amount success due to the support, learning, and application. Also very important, the whole idea of "Think, Pair, Share," was embraced, fun, and, in a sense, "celebrated." Overall, before the first official school day began, everyone in the school was confident in the new technology, the purpose, the goals, and use of them! The School Improvement Plan is ongoing and has had some issues. One of the major issues is that we forgot to educate the parents. We did have a technology family night to discuss what we were going to do, but we never taught the parents how to actually use the new technology. Therefore, parents struggled on locating graded homework, finding the students’ agenda, and checking grades. We accomplished a task by putting more responsibility onto the students, but we took responsibility away from the parents without fully explaining our objectives. Because of this, we now have added parent learning nights. Throughout this process, I have learned that you need to do your research and educate yourself. This shows your followers that you have insight and are confident in what you are trying to accomplish. Also, long-term planning, multiple viewpoints, and teamwork are essential for any major decision making or initiatives.
My second artifact is my “Student Support Services Plan,” which is essentially my Pupil Services Project. I developed this during the spring of 2015. This artifact was completed in EDL 745, Student Support Services. I was asked to create a yearly plan in which I could overall improve a support system within the school. As part of my leadership philosophy, I feel that emotional and mental development/learning is just as important as academic development in the students and staff. How can students concentrate on learning if they are dealing with emotional or mental issues? Because of this, I truly believe that emotional and mental support must be available beyond student support services within the school. Students learn best when they are able to connect with teachers, and it shows that teachers really care about their students. As a part of this project, I chose many different aspects of emotional and mental issues: bullying, suicide, building relationships, peer pressure, problem resolution, etc. By incorporating these trainings and learning sessions as part of a district curriculum, not only have I educated myself, but the staff, and finally the students. By showing emotions as a leader, teacher, and person, others understand that you are human, and someone who is truly passionate and caring. The understanding of others’ thoughts and feelings, and being empathetic to them, is essential in creating respect and strong relationships. The overall understanding of others’ hardships and differences allows students to better connect with teachers. Not only will they build rapport, they will learn coping skills and strategies that will prepare them for future out-of-school/workplace emotional stress.
Another artifact that I have chosen to add is copies of the presentations that I created for the 2015 SLATE (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education) Conference. I firmly believe that our technology initiative has been so successful since our leaders (technology committee and myself, "director") researched, educated ourselves, planned short/long term goals, and showed concern for all members within our district. Because of our success, I have taken it upon myself to allow us to share our success on a larger state at the national SLATE conference in Wisconsin Dells. For over six months, I have planned and developed three presentations for SLATE. As shown below, these three conferences showed how to properly go about creating, sharing, educating, and financially supporting a technology initiative. I quickly learned that as a leader, I cannot do everything myself. I myself was lead on each of the presentations; assisting me were the business manager, principal, students, and technology team. Before the presentation, I organized rough outlines, collaboration time, and goals for our presentation. This was all to support the mission: "Share our success, and help others who would like to also become successful." Throughout the creating of the presentations, we again had to try to understand how other schools might perceive what we did and try to anticipate the questions they may ask. Therefore, our presentations not only showed our accomplishments but tried to illustrate how others can be successful within their districts. Because we thoroughly thought through each of the presentations, our end result and feedback were exceptional. I am very proud of what our school and our team was able to accomplish at SLATE. It definitely put our small school on the map!
As a leader, I have definitely grown within the last couple of years. I completely understand that you need to try to understand others’ points of views, consider many options, and make decisions that are supported with a clear vision. Even though I understand this, I am upset that other people within my current school do not. We have had a couple of major instances in which decisions were made that disregarded individuals and/or groups of students and staff members. Our current administration has half-heartedly attempted to address these situations, and therefore, certain problems have become major burdens. I politely offered portions of my EDL 745 project to help ease the tension and create the understanding of the emotions of certain individuals and groups within our school. However, my offerings were declined. When looking at this, I feel that our current administration has been retroactive in regards to the emotional well-being of specific students, staff, and cultures. Due to the fact that my administration rejected my help, I have taken it upon myself (as part of my principal practicum) to quietly address the situation. I have decided to stand by the front door and greet each student with a smile and by name as they enter our building. If someone does not seem like his or her emotions are stable, I take the extra time to talk with him or her. The overall feedback from staff and students has been great. Even community members like the fact that I am there before school, monitoring the door, illustrating school safety, and sparking up conversations with a variety of individuals. Every once in awhile, I get the disgruntled parent who wants to complain to the first person who is wearing professional attire. However, I make every effort to calm down these parents and guide them towards the correct person who can address their concerns. This extra fifteen minutes I have added to my day have definitely been worth the promotion of positive emotions to the students, staff, and also myself. I truly feel that emotional education and awareness is essential within schools. Being proactive and preventing major emotional issues gives your school a sense of care, safety, and community.
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