Reflect

Evidence of Growth

My capstone project did not make progress like I hoped it would this year due to school closures and COVID-19 and showing evidence of my leadership growth became very difficult but going through the TLI process at this time opened other doors for me and forced paradigm shifts. Because of this experience when I was thrust into online teaching I was able to reflect on my own teaching and student growth and effectively support my teammates and communicate with upper administration as to teacher's needs. I confidently broke down barriers and connected with families to support their student as a learner and help parents become effective educators. I was able to join committees that continue to tackle the challenges of getting kids back to school and I am able to look with new perspective as to how to limit inequities. In addition I was able to connect with professionals from around the nation who are passionate about their growth as educators and give an incredible amount of hope as incredible changes are being made.

• Overarching Competency # 1: Reflective Practices: emerging to performing. I have developed and implemented strategies that promote growth improvement and reflection. Teachers will now take a moment to reflect on student growth and performance and share their findings with other teachers. In addition, with beginning this instructional practice I have helped others to become reflective.

• Overarching Competency # 2: Interpersonal Effectiveness: emerging to performing. I have become an effective communicator and built enough trust that they believed in me to create documents that we all will be using. I have also lead discussions and collected ideas to tackle our shared vision that transitions for students are hard, and we would like to alleviate this by creating reference materials for teachers. I will have an opportunity to continue growth in this area when school resumes in session because I will get to train others on our transition programs.

• Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competence : Exploring and Challenging Inequities: emerging to developing. The greatest change for me in this area has been in self-assessment. Before this process I thought I had a good idea of the inequities that exist in my school. I understood that the population in my building is more advantaged than others in my district, but I learned that there is a lot more to understanding diversity than I previously thought. I can confidently discuss what cultures are dominant in my building and district (caucasian) but more importantly I can identify practices in our classrooms that are culturally insensitive and have begun dialog with colleagues about how we can be more aware of cultural bias and our representation of all cultures in our classrooms. I am excited about continuing my education in this area. Most recently I have been working on the instruction committee for school re-entry in the coming school year. My work through this program has encouraged me to evaluate each of the stories that will be included in our ELA units to ensure that nothing is cut that represents diversity or a representation of other cultures, and that we add in material so that all students will be able to see themselves in the content we are reading.

• Instructional Competency selection: Facilitating Collaborative Relationships developing to performing and early transforming. Leading comes natural for me and one cannot be an effective leader without fully understanding the importance of supporting other's professional needs and making sure that all voices are heard. At the beginning of this process I was a good leader to people with the same vision , but involving diverse stakeholders and differing perspectives results in decisions and products that everyone can stand behind.

Impact

4. • The TLI process has encouraged me to be reflective in my own teaching and leadership skills, but has also encouraged me to engage in meaningful conversation with colleagues outside of my normal social circle and opened my eyes to the inequalities that exist within my district. My learning throughout this process has helped me to keep students the center of all I do and a great reminder to work always to make learning more efficient and meaningful. In addition, prior to this process I was happy to collaborate and work pretty exclusively with like-minded stakeholders. Through this process I learned that it is crucial to involve diverse stake holders when collaborating and that even if it requires more effort and breaking out of my own comfort zone the solutions that will arise will be much more productive than before.

What are your next steps to continue your growth as a teacher leader?

• I will complete my project and continue to be involved in committees at my building and district level. Currently I am serving on teams who are designing what the 2020-2021 school year may look like and I am part of a group who will begin the process of reforming the grading and reporting system in my district. I have also enrolled and started the process to receive the National Board Certification.

What was the most valuable part of the TLI process for you?

• For me, it was important to connect with others from across the country. I think often we are so focused on our schools and communities that we forget that education is an enormous field that exists everywhere. When teachers can collaborate, and share ideas, challenges, and successes we can all grow as professionals. This is especially evident when you have a passionate group of dedicated educators who are working to create change within their communities.

• Opening my eyes to inequities was also important. I live and work within a fairly homogeneous group who, compared to many of their peers around the country, have many supports and advantages. In addition I feel supported in my job and have administrators who respect and value me as a professional The TLI process however, taught me that as i am fortunate to live and work where I do, inequities and bias still exist in my community. poverty, technology barriers, and parental availability and support are huge challenges that many of my students face.