Context

PART A

My name is Marielle Walker and I teach Spanish at Lone Peak High School in Big Sky, Montana. This is my tenth full year teaching; although I also have a music certification, I have always taught Spanish. I have taught in large and small public schools, private schools, and international schools in New York City and Vietnam.

Lone Peak High school is a rural public school that offers the IB diploma in addition to the standard Montana diploma. There are 20-35 students per grade level on average. Socioeconomically, this is a ski resort town so there are very affluent families alongside blue-collar families. Due to the rural nature of the school, students are grouped by grade level and only one language is offered in-person, although students can elect to take other languages online. The school offers Spanish 9 and 10, and AB Initio Spanish for grades 11 and 12.

I am currently a member of the union and serve in a secretarial function by taking notes at meetings.

PART B

• How does awareness of your own biases, experiences of privilege, and personal values inform your chosen Capstone Project?

My previous schools were largely in affluent communities and had excellent support systems for teachers both new to the career as well as to the district. As a person who moves frequently, I depend upon mentors, staff, and programs to help me acclimate. This helped me identify a need in the district that led to the Capstone Project.

• At the beginning of the TLI program, at which level (emerging, developing, performing, or transforming) in the progressions did you place yourself for each of your four chosen competencies? Provide a rationale for each claim.

~ Overarching Competency #1: Personal Effectiveness

I ranked myself as Pre-Emerging. I was unaware there were different leadership styles and had very little experience with leadership in the past.

~ Overarching Competency #2: Adult Learning

Adult Learning also began at Pre-Emerging. I thought that most neurotypical people generally learned in the same way, regardless of age or other differences.

~ Foundational Competency: Explore & Challenge Inequity

This started at Developing. As a world language teacher, I was aware of my own as well as different cultures and individualism. I continue to self-educate and reflect, and aim for my students to recognize and celebrate differences.

~ Specific Leadership Pathway Competency selection: Instructional Leadership, Coaching & Mentoring

I selected Emerging since I aim to better myself professionally by learning new teaching techniques, soliciting feedback from students, observing, and invite others to observe me teaching.

PART C

• Describe your work with diverse stakeholders, shared learning experiences, and how you anticipate your leadership pathway mindset might evolve during the TLI process.

This project has been a huge learning experience in identifying, communicating with, and involving stakeholders in the process. I am glad that I had a project partner to run ideas by, divide work, and learn about effective communication. I especially enjoyed reading staff surveys and conducting the empathy interviews, which allowed me to get to know my coworkers better as a new teacher as well as understand their perspective. Regarding Coaching & Mentoring, the data showed me that people have such diverse life experiences and skills, and I want to respect that as I refine my Capstone Project.

• Describe how your awareness of those from different cultures, experiences, and backgrounds inform your chosen project.

As mentioned above, the results from staff made me aware of the levels of experience, how people got into their field and certification, and perspectives outside of my own that helped me frame a bigger picture. The consensus of opinion goes to show how important orientation and mentorship are, regardless of position or experience.