Design

Write Up from May

Describe your action plan and how each of your four chosen competencies will influence its design and implementation.

I wanted to find out if specialists, specifically teachers that teach art, library, STEM, gym, and music, are included in planning for the academic needs of students. More so, do they feel they feel that their input is valued and taken into consideration. I want to build the relationship amongst the specialist and general education teachers, specifically for my team of first grade teachers. I took into consideration all the teachers and administrators in the building. I conducted empathy interviews, took a survey, and spoke to many stakeholders in a general sense. The overall consensus was that if teachers collaborated on what was being taught in the general education classroom, the specialist teacher could reinforce skills. Specialists know what teachers are teaching in the classroom because I will create a shared document on Google Drive.

The pathway I chose to accomplish my plan was Instructional Leadership with the competency of Facilitating Collaborative Relationships. To accomplish this I first needed to understand and have an awareness of the difference in the cultural groups in my school. I need to recognize that different backgrounds affect perspectives.

My foundational competency is Explore and Challenge Inequity. I have had to explore my own biases. Through the bias tests I learned to be cognizant of what I am thinking and how I am thinking it. I needed to understand that bias doesn’t have to be skin color, there were many other inequities I hadn’t considered could be happening in my school. Such as bias included being white, growing up in a middle class home, age, and even teaching styles.

Interpersonal Effectiveness was chosen as one of my overarching competencies because I want to be a teacher leader in supporting colleagues. I want to build the relationships so we (colleagues) can work together for the betterment of our students.

I chose Group Process as my second overreaching competency because I want to be able to effectively participate in groups and understand how to effectively lead groups. Currently, I can participate, respect, and engage in groups but do not feel comfortable speaking in front of the group in any way. (Managing, mediating, modeling)

How will your leadership leverage the strengths and address the needs of diverse stakeholders to support the action plan, develop capacity, broaden decision-making, and learn collaboratively?

The principal and many coworkers supported and encouraged this project. Several colleagues see me as a teacher leader and come to me to help solve problems. My hope is that by creating support among the teaching staff, we will be able to inspire change in the decision making for our school. Educators will work and learn collaboratively so the students can prosper.

How will you use collaboration, questioning, data, and reflection during the implementation of your action plan?

I will first use collaboration on a small scale with my fist grade team and work out from there. I will use questionnaires to collect data, as well as interviews and small group meetings with specialists. When my data is compiled I will reflect on what was said and how my stakeholders feel about cross collaboration and make a plan based on that information.

How will you address obstacles that you may encounter in implementing your plan?

I may incur obstacles such as other teachers not wanting “one more thing to do.” Also, I have trouble speaking in front of adults trying to do something, even just answering a survey. Since I avoid conflict. will have to overcome some of that as it may inconvenience some and they may not want to participate.

How will you know if your action plan is successful? What evidence would support your claim?

Evidence will be based on use of the collaborative document that I created. Did stakeholders fill in areas for the specialist to use? I will also use interviews and feedback from the survey to measure if the plan was successful. My evidence will be what other educators tell me was helpful or not helpful and if the collaborative document was used and filled out.