Design

Plan of Action

I will be collaborating with Jen Wasson (Teacher of the Deaf and fellow TLI participant) to complete an action plan and begin forming a capstone project. Jen brings her knowledge of working with the Deaf/hard of hearing students, as well as information in regards to the successes she has had in teaching mixed sensory need classrooms. I will do the same from working on the blind/visually impaired side of education. We will develop a survey to give to teachers (Evidence B posted below) to gauge obstacles in advance of trialing mixed sensory need group activities. I will review my Module 2 coursework (Evidence A posted below) to help identify prompts to include on the survey. My four competencies will influence the action plan's design and implementation. The action plan will include preparing for adult learning (one of my overarching competency areas) by utilizing a survey to gauge adult learner needs. Additionally, the survey lends itself towards interpersonal effectiveness (my other overarching competency area) by gaining familiarity with colleagues' needs so that I can better support them throughout this project. My diversity competency will be driving the outcomes of this project so that ultimately, our school is more inclusive and we have created new learning groups with increased diversity. Initial steps in the action plan address the instructional leadership competency area of "Facilitating Collaborative Relationships" by determining our current collaborative culture and working to grow that culture so that staff work between departments more frequently (and effectively).

Leadership

Initial leadership for this project is needed in the area of organization. We need to organize the data from our survey to select educators willing to work with both sensory need populations, as well as identify teachers that can be potential "mentor teachers" in providing accessibility training to staff. Most teachers don't want to be given teaching assignments, but want to feel as though they helped make decisions in regards to what subjects they teach. Teachers like working within familiar, comfortable and successful parameters. As a teacher leader, I need to work collaboratively with the educators at MSDB and use their strengths to broaden the scope of students they are working with.

Implementation

My action plan will require working with administration to identify logical times to begin phasing in pieces of the ultimate goal of the capstone project,--to have more sensory diverse classrooms on campus. We need to review the calendar and see if there are opportunities for training and short collaborative events for teachers to get a 'taste' of working with both populations at once. As we work with teachers to include both sensory needs within a group, we need time to review the successes and challenges for each event and use this information to revise trainings and identify appropriate placements for students and for the teaching opportunities for the educators.

Obstacles

The first way to address obstacles is to have educators identify what they already see as a challenge in advance of working with both sensory needs at once. If we can alleviate some of the fears and provide them with the tools they need prior to working with their new student populations, we are setting them up for success. We will conduct a survey to gauge educator understanding of the needs of each population and ask them directly what they feel they would need to be successful within this "new" teaching environment. As our plan unfolds, we can address additional obstacles as they arrive--perhaps through training or resources or team teaching. Evidence B shows the initial survey used to identify obstacles prior to working with both populations.

Success

We will know if our initial action plan is successful by beginning to offer training for working with both populations and selecting teachers willing to receive our leadership in trialing mixed sensory need student group events.