Learn

Describe your Capstone Challenge and how you identified it.

My first idea for a capstone was to set up more collaboration through asynchronous work or synchronous work outside of PLC time. When I asked my staff in my first needs assessment, I learned that it was not something the majority of our staff wanted shown in Learn Artifact 1 below.  As our Building Learning Facilitator at West, every week I realized I have been sending out a needs assessment through a google form and in that form I ask about any needs shown in Learn Artifact 2 below. I brought this concern up to my principal as shown in Learn Artifact 3. My overall capstone challenge was creating moments where other colleagues had the opportunities to lead PLC professional developments instead of relying on the same group of teachers to lead them. 

Learn Artifact 1: First needs assessment where I learned about collaboration needs of my colleagues which led me to look and ask coworkers about what they truly needed instead of thinking about what I thought they needed. 

Describe your diverse stakeholders and how you selected them, such as colleagues, parents, students, association members, community members, state or local partners, etc. 

My diverse stakeholders include all of my colleagues, administrators, students, and their families. My fellow teachers and administrators range in years of experience and diverse teaching philosophies.  Our students and families come from a wide range of socioeconomic statuses including around 40 ELL students.

Why is it important for your diverse stakeholders that the Capstone Challenge be addressed?

This project's goal was to allow me to advocate and organize other teachers who have more training to be teacher leaders in our whole school PLC process. I wanted to give other colleagues the opportunity to share what they have learned in their various trainings and conferences. I also believe that our staff needed the chance to learn from other teachers who come from various backgrounds.

In what ways will addressing the Capstone Challenge promote or support the foundational competencies?

In looking at the Foundational Competencies, I focused on the collaboration with purpose.  I recognize that I have my own teaching practices and philosophies which are different then other teachers at my school which can lead to professional developments not being as effective. I recognize that other teachers learn best from teachers who are more similar to them. This capstone challenge promotes the foundational competencies of diversity, equity, and culture since I am organizing a diverse team of teachers to teach at our PLC professional developments. 

Is it your intention to broaden the existing vision, values and/or culture of the association or to create a cultural shift? 

It is my vision to broaden the existing vision by having more and more colleagues feel comfortable and able to present on a topic to our whole school PLC. We have already been having most of our professional developments at our school level be teacher driven. This is the beginning of more people feeling comfortable in our school with presenting to their colleagues. 

Why might this strategy be a viable solution for your Capstone Challenge?

This strategy is a viable solution because it allows the beginning of a cultural shift to more free sharing of ideas across the whole school. Our school is large and we need the ability to have professional development ideas grow from individuals to whole school improvement. This beginning of organizing teachers to feel comfortable to present and listen to their ideas is important for change at our school. 

On which two Overarching Competencies will you focus in addressing your Capstone Challenge?  Why are they relevant? 

The two overarching competencies I will be focusing on are Continuing Learning and Education and Technological Facility. My current level for Continuing Learning and Education is developing. I currently share new ideas with others, but I want to extend into performing to help organize my colleagues to be able to present themselves. My current level for Technological Facility is emerging but will move to developing when I have other teachers help collaborate on presenting synchronously and asynchronously. 

Which Leadership Pathway competency will you focus on in your Capstone Challenge?  Why is it relevant? 

I choose the instructional pathway with the competency being Facilitating Collaborative Relationships.  I wanted to focus on a pathway that I have already been developing in and stretch it to help build others up in their own collaborative relationship with other colleagues. I also had the goal of focusing our team on professional development that mattered to our colleagues. 

With whom will you work in addressing your Capstone Challenge?  Who else might you recruit beyond your own cultural and/or professional identity group? 

In this challenge I will work with two teams that will present on two different topics. Some of the team members overlap in each group. The first team will focus on multi-language learning and the SIOP method consists of our ELL/MLL coordinator, a science teacher, a special education teacher, and a librarian. The second team that will refocus our visible learning commitment consists of a math teacher, German teacher, history teacher, English teacher, science teacher, and special education teacher. Our principal and one of our assistant principals will help with ideas and guidance.  In the future, we would like to keep building the capacity of different teachers stepping up to present on topics that they are more experienced in. 

Which resources (such as, people, money, programs, time and space, etc.) do you have to address in your Capstone Challenge?   What resources will you need?  How will you obtain them? 

As the Building Learning Facilitator I reached out to my principal for input in our plan to have other people present at our whole school PLCs. I then emailed our ELL coordinator and other teachers who have gone to trainings to see if they would be willing to participate. Since they were presenting for our school we were able to pay them for their time using district funds. We were able to meet during PLC times and after school when applicable and able to spend some time working asynchronously with each other as well.