Identifying the challenge and focus

1. Describe your instructional challenge and how you identified it.

   • Throughout my first two years teaching I have needed a lot of support and direction to manage behaviors and the organization of my classroom. Some of the support I have received has been helpful, and some has not, which led me to the realization that there is a lack of trust between our administration, our school board, and our teachers. In conversations with other teachers I have realized that many do not feel safe sharing their opinion, or they do not trust in our leadership. This is true, despite the fact that we have strong, educated, passionate people at all levels of our school system. By focusing on Coaching and Mentoring I hope to begin the process of uncovering how teachers can best seek out and provide support from one another and from their leadership.

2. Describe your learners (students and diverse stakeholders) for this project and how you selected them.

   • I selected fellow high school educators, my principals, and parents for this project. In future iterations I hope to also include school board members, other educators within the district, and Association members. The students I focused on were my personal classroom students, as I am still working to develop my own personal leadership. It is vital to be a leader for oneself before you can expect to develop and lead for others. For this same reason I chose my other stakeholders, as they directly work with me in my classroom. One educator is my direct mentor, one is our Special Education professional, and others I have asked to observe and provide feedback for me.

3. Why is it important for your learners (students and diverse stakeholders) that this challenge be addressed?

   • Through my first year teaching I dealt with a significant amount of criticism, and looking back I was not prepared to handle it well. This drained me emotionally, physically, and mentally and therefore I struggled more to be a quality educator. A vicious cycle. We need teachers who feel supported and are able to confidently respond to adversity and criticism from the beginning. Sky-high attrition for early career educators can often be attributed to the stress and frustration of feeling alone. We need quality educators to make it through their first five years!

4. In what ways will your addressing the challenge promote or support diversity, equity, cultural competence?

   • Reaching out for different perspectives is the first step to acknowledging your own biases. Additionally, by including parents in my diverse stakeholders as coaches and mentors I intend to develop community relationships. Bridging the gap between school and home emphasizes the importance that not only are teachers going to make mistakes, but parents are as well. It is ESSENTIAL that a platform exists for parents and educators to learn about one another in order to do what is best for students.

5. Is it your intention to change an existing practice/program or implement a new practice/program? Explain.

   • To be honest, I am not sure. This project developed in response to my frustration with my current mentoring program. I felt as though we were given a mentor and monthly trainings to check a box, however what I was missing was how to develop community. So in a way, I would like to change how we approach new educators, especially teachers within their first five years, while implementing a new practice of connecting with parents and community members.

6. Why might this practice/program be a viable solution for your challenge?

   • Creating a better mode of communication between educators, administration, and parents ensures that all parties are on the same page. Clear expectations are a researched based method to prevent conflict both in the classroom and really any group context!

Competencies

7. On which two Overarching Competencies will you focus in addressing the identified challenge? Why are they relevant to this particular challenge?

   • Interpersonal Effectiveness- This challenge requires lots of communication and trust between colleagues and diverse stakeholders! Part of the problem is that trust and respect is not always present.

   • Personal Effectiveness- In order to develop as a leader I must better understand and have confidence in myself. Doubting my abilities and ideas leads to a lack of trust from others, and I have not spent time developing a true understanding of my strengths and how to translate those into action.

8. On which competency within Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competence will you focus in addressing the identified challenge? Why is it important for this particular challenge?

   • Explore and Challenge Inequality- There are some people more affected than others by the lack of trust and communication between our leadership. Why? Knowing what educators, students, and families are more negatively and positively affected by this divide can help start to dismantle that divide. What cultural identities have the greatest say in how our school is run? What cultural identities have little to no say? What cultural identities are shown respect, and which cultural identities are not? How does this affect our school culture for both teachers and students? These questions and more are essential for creating positive, lasting change.

9. Which competency in the Instructional pathway will you focus on in addressing this challenge? Why is it relevant for this particular challenge?

   • I am focusing on Coaching and Mentoring. There are so many ways I could take this challenge, however I believe as an early career educator one of the main areas I see a need is in our system of coaching and mentoring. Though I have found support, much of what I am lacking is feedback. This lack of feedback then translates to difficultly defending myself from criticism and also making choices in order to improve.

10. With whom will you work in addressing your identified challenge? Who else might you recruit beyond your own cultural and/or professional identity group?

    • My intent was to develop a cohort, however I ended up doing much of this work on my own this year. This is one of the largest short-comings of my capstone, and part of the reason I feel I did not make great progress. What a lesson! Moving forward I intend to directly involve my principals, school board, and educators in the process of developing a system of support for teachers who are dealing with criticism.

11. Which resources (people, money, programs, time and space, etc.) do you have to address the challenge? What resources will you need? How will you obtain them?

    • The biggest resource I neglected to address was time and social capital. As a young educator I have noticed I have very little respect both during meetings, one-on-one, and when I work to bring up a concern. My ideas and thoughts are often overlooked or undermined, and the process of earning respect and social capital is essential in having my voice heard.

Evidence