Organizational Competencies: Blanding Elementary School

Once the team’s vision had been established, we became very honest about our personal and professional strengths and our target areas of growth. From this conversation, the team was able to clearly define the focus and responsibilities of the PLC Leader and individual team members. The meeting was successful and everyone is excited about working together. Our vision will remain in the forefront of our meetings, reminding us to always provide a climate in our classrooms that fosters thoughtful and respectful consideration of all viewpoints.

Ms. Avery, the principal instituted specific curriculum goals and objectives that aligned with the school district. She organized a team of parents and teachers who was in charge of developing new

In order to support social and emotional development and provide positive guidance I make sure the child knows that they are important to me. I do this by acknowledging them from the first day I meet them. I warmly greet my students every day. I ask them how they are feeling and we discuss our feelings during our morning routine. I encourage participation by reminding the children that all feelings are okay and that how we re-act to those feelings is most important. I model empathy, compassion listening skills and encouraging behavior on a daily basis. Children learn by example. When I display a positive outlook and appropriate

One of K-State’s top priorities is ensuring that the students feel safe on campus. The university offers a training called A.L.I.C.E., which teaches people what to do in an active shooter situation. Though the training is offered through the university, it is not very often a public training. I feel Mortar Board could, with the help of the university police, host a public A.L.I.C.E., host an open to the public training session. This training helps develop skills you hope you will never need to use. But when faced with an active shooter situation could be life saving. Hosting a training would allow more people to learn these skills and would help K-State take another step to ensuring campus safety.

Brunswick is comprised of six board members, Those that presented were Vikki Snider, Bobby Taylor head of Department of National service for Early release from schools, and teacher of the Casey Smith. Schools that were spotlighted expressed concerns new roofing, electrical work, in numerous schools within the district. In addition the request for adding an auditorium to any High School to be used to showcase the talents of the children within the school district. The most prominent concern was testing. Many teachers felt that the students are being tested too much and that their curriculums have now changed to teach to the standardized exams, and not what is beneficial for students once they leave school. The subject of minimizing the amount of test will be under review and was not resolved at that meeting. Watching this video of how other school districts function shows that many schools face similar problems. It also provides a realistic portrayal of the challenges teachers

Prior to coming to Hoke County, Dr. Williamson had already served in a plethora of diverse roles in his educational career (e.g., teacher, assistant principal, vocational-educational director, principal, director of secondary and middle school education, director of personnel, associate superintendent, and a boys and girls basketball coach), therefore becoming a superintendent was inevitable; the school board knew he could advance the Hoke County’s School System, however the “key” was: he was a willing vessel.

KIPP was founded by Michael Feinburg and David Levin, with only the two of them creativity allowed for an exceptional learning environment. However as KIPP has grown so has the bureaucracy and the management. At KIPP Houston each subject in each grade is taught by one teacher. Each teacher reports to a grade-level chair and a department chair (who is responsible for aligning the curriculum for all grade levels). The next level of management is decided by the individual principals at each school, some schools have have both a Dean of Instruction and a Dean of Students while other schools have combined the duties of these two positions into a single assistant principal position. The top management position at the school is the principal whose unique vision was used to create the school. The principal reports to one of the four Heads of Schools located at Houston’s regional office. The Heads of Schools then report to Superintendent Sehba Ali. As KIPP Houston has grown it has lost some of the creativity which made for a uniquely exceptional learning environment. The bureaucracy associated with the growth has led KIPP to becoming more regionally aligned losing some of the uniqueness embraced by the school

The principal conducted several meetings with stakeholders during the summer months to collect data and feedback to assess needs of the school. Our professional learning community team and principal participated in district training throughout the year over the summer.

The text states that it is essential that superintendents and school board members communicate effectively to find the best solutions to problems. Effective communication requiring everyone to be heard in an honest and forthright exchange of viewpoints has proven to be best for children. Therefore report on Curriculum by Dr. Byron Haynes and reports on start of the year were given by Principal J. Griffin, Principal B. Cleark and Principal M.

As mentioned in previous writings, East Bridgewater has gone through a reorganizational period throughout the last 4 years. Although positive aspects have emerged including an increase in technology to meet the needs of the 21st century student, a new state of the art building, and an increase in funding for the school district to sustain the new building, there has also been negative facets as well. After the reorganization of the district in the 2012 - 2013 academic year, East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High school went from a Level 1 9-12 school to a Level 2 7 - 12 school. Student enrollment, which has increased due to the new building and school choice, currently serves approximately 1016 students

In general, as stated in the Standards for Advanced Programs in Educational Leadership by The NPBEA, educational leaders need to place teaching and learning as the focus for schools and districts. To this effect, all educational leaders from district to school level are responsible to ensure that decisions about curriculum, instructional strategies

During my second preclinical experience at Westview Hills Middle School, I learned the importance of cooperation and collaboration among teachers at a school. I was able to observe team and department meetings during this experience. It became clear that it is important for teachers to work together in order to provide a positive atmosphere at a school and in a specific department. Although it became obvious that personalities and teaching styles were different throughout the school, the teachers still acted professionally and used each other as resources in

Administrators and teachers must work together to develop the PLC plan addressing the needs of their students. This means administrators need to trust teachers and allow them to work in a way that is autonomous from leadership. Delegating more responsibilities to staff was a way of creating a more knowledgeable community that could cope with the diversity of demands created by schools moving from being relatively simple organizations to highly complex ones. It was also recognized as in accord with the rhetoric of distributed leadership recommended as a strategy for school improvement and raising pupil attainment (Bolam et al. 2005, Webb, et al.

Professional development principles Ben embraces are Rigor, Relationships, Relevance and Realness. Mr. Rhodes continually emphasizes that work needs to have relevance and rigor in assignments and that the relationships teachers build with students is essential for success. Specific content used for staff development goals are Glenn Singleton’s work (Equity), National Achievement Gap, High Performing Schools, 90/90/90 Studies, 21st Century Skills, Marzano’s Instructional Strategies, and Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ literacy work. A variety of activities for teaching new skills to teachers occurs throughout the year. These include study groups, guest speakers, ERO (staff development classes), open classroom visits, master teachers sharing best practices in literacy, differentiated instruction, , math, and culturally responsive teaching, conference opportunities, mentors, district content area inservices, building inservice days, monthly district content area meetings, partnerships with universities, Collaborative Action Research for Equity (C.A.R.E.) cadre, and monthly building equity meetings. Mr. Rhodes uses the district Teaching Learning Cycle (Plan-Teach-Monitor- Adjust) to evaluate and assess the learning goals and make improvements. Ben also meets with Ben and the leadership team about the goals and creates the timeline to provide training and analyze progress. Evaluation of the learning goals using the SIP (as a living document) and individual goals are important

I’ve had quite the learning experience over the last few weeks. I had a chance to obtain valuable information and support from my principal. I learned so much about the administration role and how difficult it can be. When I began my interview, I felt overwhelmed and excited at the same time. My principal is also my mentor; she has been very supportive of me pursuing my dreams to be in administrator. As I conducted my interview I learned so much about the principal’s role. I asked my principal a series of questions. The questions were based on the Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium Standards (ISLLC). My first question was based on educational programs. The educational programs at any school need balance. While we live in a test results world, there needs to be a balance of focus. I look at the type of student I want my school to produce and I surround myself with a faculty and other staffs that not only share in the mission, but also will help every student succeed. In addition, as an administrator, I need to provide my faculty and staff with the tools and resources necessary to make everyone feel successful.