Design

Design Artifact 1

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

My action plan focuses on starting conversations regarding how best to retain quality teachers in Billings. My plan is to interview and administer Google Forms to teachers of various grade levels and positions in Billings. Once I have their feedback, I will analyze that data and create a list of talking points to bring up to the Billings Education Association. 

As I create the questions and form, I will be focused on my Leadership Pathway - Association- Organizational Effectiveness: Leading with Vision. Since the union's main role is supporting teachers they will be a good ally that can lead to effective change for educators in our district. My Overarching Competencies- Communication and Interpersonal Effectiveness go together well. I will work towards building trusting relationships so I can hold confidential conversations with my colleagues to get a dialogue started regarding their needs and concerns. I will also focus on my Foundational Competency- Diversity, Equality, and Cultural Competence: Explore and Challenge Inequity- by engaging in self reflection, self education, and self assessment throughout my interviews with colleagues. I will work towards promoting equitable practices in our community. The biggest focus of this project is to create an environment for educators to be able to freely express concerns as well as ideas that can lead to meaningful change regarding retaining quality educators.

Design Artifact 3-7 

Email correspondences. These emails were sent to coordinate interviews regarding my Capstone Project.

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?

Throughout my interviews and conversations I will give educators a space to express their concerns and ideas regarding their profession. I will take this information and share with members of the Billings Education Association. Together we can open a dialogue that can lead towards improvement in teacher retention.

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

Collaboration is key to implementing my action plan. I plan to interview and speak with educators of diverse backgrounds. I will use the data I receive to pass on information to my union. 

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

An obstacle I may encounter is time management. Educators have a lot to accomplish throughout their day. Finding time to sit for an interview could be difficult for some people. Some may not want to be completely honest about their thoughts so I will work towards creating meaningful and trusting relationships.

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

In the long term, my action plan will be successful when my colleagues are feeling supported in their position, fewer educators feel the need to leave the profession, and fewer positions across the district are needed to be filled. To meet these goals, my action plan will need to continue after the completion of this Capstone. Working towards the big question of how to retain quality educators is not something that will be fixed quickly. In the short term, I will know that my action plan is successful when the Billings Education Association and district administration are having conversations and making strides toward working on the points brought up by teachers in my interviews.