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The Instructional Challenge

In identifying what leadership competencies to address for my Teaching Leadership Institute project, I narrowed in on improving my "Instructional Leadership" within my own school. Historically, the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind has served students who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind, visually impaired or deafblind. Classrooms (and the educators teaching the subjects) have traditionally been focused on learners with either a visual OR a hearing need. Indeed, higher education training programs for sensory specific learning are also focused on each of these areas. However, most state schools in our the United States serve both populations on the same campus. I teamed with my coworker (also in TLI) who has a background in Deaf education and primarily teaches Deaf or hard of hearing students (DHH), while I have a background in education for the visually impaired (VI) and deafblind and are typically assigned classes with students of those needs in them. We have developed a TLI project focused on integrating students with sensory needs (either DHH or VI) into shared classrooms.

EVIDENCE A (Learn)

The Learners

The learners for this project will be the educational staff providing and supporting instruction for our students. This will primarily include teachers and paraprofessionals, but may also include educational interpreters and additional support staff (OT, PT, SLP, O&M instructors). The learners have traditionally worked with one sensory need population at a time and are not accustomed to working with both at the same time. We utilized school

EVIDENCE B (Learn)

The Importance of This Challenge

While most educators pride themselves on having back-up plans for in-class instruction or being flexible when it comes to changes to schedules and routines, we are not always as comfortable in meeting the challenges of diverse learners. Even within special education, many teachers focus on a specific concentration (disability category) and struggle to identify ways to assist new learners. As education has evolved and new learning opportunities have become normal (distance learning, on-line learning, etc.), the traditional methods that we have been accustomed to need to adapt. At MSDB, our student population is on the decline thanks to new learning opportunities and resources within local communities for our students, as well as a decline in the disabilities themselves as medial and health practices have improved outcomes. Our teachers need to adapt to these changes and diversify their abilities so that we can meet all student needs collaboratively and strengthen our position as a viable and relevant educational placement in Montana.

Promoting Diversity, Equity and Cultural Competence

The entirety of this project is developed around the idea of promoting diversity in combined sensory need classrooms. Additionally, I believe that these new collaborative classrooms will give students an increase in equity in the classroom as they will benefit from specialties that educators may have in one department but not the other (example: a teacher in the department for students with visual impairments who has certification in the area of coding and could therefor provide those learning opportunities to students in the Deaf department now, too). Staff interact with students with both sensory needs on a daily basis but may not have a good understanding of the culture that comes along with being Deaf or how to meet the specific needs of an individual who is blind in an appropriate manner.

Intentions

I hope that by the end of this project, I will have given educational staff opportunities to work in collaborative situations so that they feel successful working with combined sensory need student groups. I would like to change the existing practice of teaching only one sensory need at a time. This will require both staff and the administrators behind the scheduling to identify ways in which this practice can take place and advocate for these classes.

A Viable Solution

I think the only way to bring out change in which students we work in would be to have the opportunities provided to us. We routinely have whole school assemblies where we get some minor, short-term working situations. During these instances, when given the choice of which student population to work with, most teachers tend to stick to students familiar to them. Likewise, activities are often planned in advance and groupings put in place to maximize the use of those who can use sign to communicate together, versus those needing large print of braille (dependent on activity). It is rare that teachers have the time and assignment to work with a mixed population and to learn and grow from the opportunity. A dedicated class with the mixed population would provide for this chance.

Overarching Competencies

I am focusing on Interpersonal Effectiveness and Adult Learning as my two overarching competencies. One of the competencies that I scored myself 'emerging' was in the area of Adult Learning. I would like to see my skills in this area develop so that I can become a more effective leader in this competency. My capstone project lends itself well to this area, since the majority of the challenge for completing it will be in leading learning activities with other teachers and implementing strategies to help them teach a more diverse population of students. I initially chose Communication as my other competency thinking that the idea of sharing ideas related to communicating with students was the target of my capstone. However, as I reflected on this competency, I realized that 'communication' means many things and for the competency, is it more about how we interact together as teachers. 'Interpersonal Effectiveness' is the competency that is better suited for the capstone project, as a large part of the project will include supporting my colleagues and facilitating training and a change in processes at the school. Evidence C 1-3 (learn) below shows work below regarding my initial placement and my desired outcome stage for my overarching competencies, as well as my competency selections on the "Envisioning Teacher Leadership" diagram

The Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competency

My project will focus on addressing the diversity, equity, and cultural competence area of "Cultivating Socially Just Learning Environments". The very essence of my capstone is to create new learning environments where students from both sensory needs area can learn together. This will require not only recognizing, but cultivating an appreciation for the unique cultures, backgrounds and experiences that each population of students brings with them into the classroom. Without the appreciation and acknowledgement of our differences, the new mix of students will not be successful.

Instructional Leadership Competency

There were two competencies in the area of Instructional Leadership that would lend well to this project; however, I ultimately chose "Facilitating Collaborative Relationships" as it encompasses the idea that all of the educators taking part in this project would be learning and growing from one another. This competency is relevant to my challenge because teachers will need to connect and support one another throughout the process, as well as share their unique perspectives on the shared work for it to advance.

Partners in Excellence

For my TLI project, I will be working with Jen Wasson, a Teacher of the Deaf at MSDB. Jen and I have been colleagues and have served together as officers in our local union. Jen and I have both had some experience in working within classrooms with students with both sensory needs. We have had success with these classes and have enjoyed the challenges (and rewards) that come from the more diverse groupings. We will also want to work on recruiting staff that are themselves Deaf/hard-of-hearing or who are blind/low vision. These staff members will be able to identify unique professional challenges that come along with teaching the mixed classrooms.

EVIDENCE D (Learn)

When identifying partners to work with on this project, some of the first people that we informally interviewed were staff members who had sensory needs themselves. We interviewed six staff members that identified with being Deaf/hard-of-hearing and two staff that were blind. We wanted their perspective on what teachers unfamiliar to the sensory need would require in order to be more effective teachers. The following is a short list of ideas by those interviewed:

• sign language interpreters present in class (and knowledge of how to work with an interpreter)

• basic understanding of braille (and how to utilize braille transcription services to prepare documents)

• understanding of Deaf culture

• training on various assistive technology for students with visual impairments to access print material

• knowledge of specific hearing accommodations, including Cochlear Implants, hearing aides, FM trainers (and how to trouble-shoot them)

• knowledge of mobility and orientation needs of students and setting up a classroom environment

• instruction on the use of various modes of signed communication

Informal interviews conducted in November 2019.

Resources

To address this challenge, we will initially need people (and their positive attitudes) to attempt mixed student groupings. Before any of the work can begin, we need administrative approval to pursue these new ideas and practices. As the project progresses, it may take money to help with securing new assistive technology, We will also need time to deliver training on sensory specific supports for those that have not previously used them. I believe that the school already has the space for this new "classroom" but we may need to adapt the current physical areas to include storage for technology or the addition of desks for larger groups. The majority of the resources needed can be obtained with work order requests and scheduling time to train staff.