Week 5 PDP

As I developed my 3 year professional development plan I thought about what my superintendent attended to gather more experience and knowledge.  I looked at other district to see what their superintendents were doing to further their skill set and wanted to develop something that was realistic and that I would be able to use in the future.  Most of the trainings are done by the Region Centers and local Universities and that is what I based my plan on.   

Week 5 Site Supervisor Conference

From my conference I have learned many things beyond what I can express in writing and more things that go beyond the domains and competencies.  Much like I garnered so much knowledge from my professors in face to face classes I have learned many things from my superintendent.  As we reflected back on the past 9 months there had been so many on the job experiences such as with personnel and budget that I was allowed experience.  Learning by fire is what my superintendent calls it.  Because my district is small I was able to be a part of a bond issue, budget development, personnel issues, contact the attorney, write a grant for a School-Based Health Clinic for the district, bring a YMCA to the district, develop a district-wide CSCOPE implementation plan, and many more moments where I was allowed to be a part of.  I was able to see the big picture and help with the overall system that I know will give me the ability to know where my weaknesses lie so that I can improve.  I feel confident that I will learn from on the job experiences and even by developing the professional development plan I found some areas that I can develop. 

Reflection

· Describe why reflection is an important skill in leadership.

Reflection is the most important skill for any leader.  It forces you to stop and think about the entire situation and how it affects the entire system.  It helps shape a leader to in becoming more aware of the needs of the organization and to even be cognitive of their own strengths and weaknesses.  I received my masters in education from Lamar and we used this same book and it was really interesting to reflect back on the notes that I took in my book three years ago.  I highlighted the section on page 106 about the Limits to Experience.  As a young administrative prospect I knew that my major weakness was lack of experience, but I was determined through my internship plan and opportunities in my district to put myself in a position to gain experience. This is now my third year as a Principal. Too often leaders feel that weaknesses are negative.  When the reality is that by defining these you are putting yourself in the situation to achieve greatness.  By challenging your weaknesses and reflecting on them a great leader develops these areas through professional development and experiences.  There is so much knowledge in asking for help.  I have surrounded myself with experts in their fields and rely on this knowledge to become my own.  I enjoy the devil’s advocate and the perspectives of others and expect nothing less from everyone on my campus. The greatest task that a leader holds is problem solving and decision-making. Without being a reflective leader one could not develop adequate problem solving skills to move their organization forward.  The common quote “learn from your mistakes” becomes the commonplace in the vocabulary of reflective leaders.  Einstein stated “anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”  Everything in education is a work in progress. New information is being mandated at us each every day.  As we move our districts and campuses to being successful we must get used to making adjustments and never accepting the status quo. 

Provide examples of reflective practices throughout this program citing examples from:

· Course assignment activities

Through the assignments and even the readings I found this information to be so practical for my understanding of the role of the superintendent.  I keep a binder on my desk of information that I may need at arms reach and have many articles and readings from our assignments in it.  Notes on budget and laws are among the most critical to maintain information on. 

· Blogs

Through my blogging experiences I have taken this knowledge and expanded it to my campus.  We are in the process of creating a blog for my campus that allows everyone to share information and ideas at a more rapid pace. It is a constant board for feedback from oneself as a leader and possibly others.  The ability to share information from experts is so valuable in expansion of knowledge.

· Course and campus supervised logs

Through the internship plan and activities I found that many overlapped some of my previous work but that this time I had more in depth and specific questions to seek out.  Looking at the bigger picture leaves you with a perspective that helps you think globally and about the system that your campus is a part of.  Building relationships with other people in the district has been tremendous for me to better my campus and to be a vital part of the district. 

· Assessments

I enjoyed the assessments as they were a comfort zone for me and my ability to recall the information from each class.  I found that they were the most helpful in preparing me for the Comp and hopefully for my Texes exam. 

· Other intern reflection experiences

Even though I prefer to take face-to-face classes I was still able to build a network of colleagues to again take expertise from.  I think that a viable suggestion would be to allow group work in the form of videoconferences with peers in addition to weekly video chats with the professors. 

    

 

Describe how you plan to use reflective practice to improve your leadership skills – provide some specific suggestions for applying the skills of reflection.

I plan to use reflective practice to improve my leadership skills by making it a common language that I share with myself and colleagues daily. Through questioning and seeking knowledge of other experts I plan to continue to develop my reflective skills to maintain a high expectation of problem solving to lead my campus to success.  I want to do more reflecting in my meetings and with my teachers to seek their feedback through surveys and discussion.  I want to develop my skill set of reflection to become more natural and innate by getting comfortable with hearing the negative in order to find a solution to make it a positive. 

Reminder - Scheduling a Conference with the District Site Supervisor to review the SISE 

Please schedule a conference with your District Site Supervisor between now and Week 5 to review the Supervisor’s SISE (Superintendent/Supervisor Internship Summative Evaluation). 

I have a meeting scheduled with my site supervisor next week on Tuesday at 4:00.  

CARE

Concerns – Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.

1.  The Bilingual and ESL programs in grades PK-3 were not vertically aligned and teachers were not clear as to what their roles were.

2.  Campuses across the district were all following different attendance procedure and expectations.  The definition of perfect attendance was different on every campus. 

3.  CBA data varied greatly from campus to campus in both Math and Reading.  

Affirmations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.

1.  After this issue was presented there was an immediate task force implemented. Campus administrators have met several times and a flow chart of expectations for the district was established.  Vertical meetings have been scheduled for every Bilingual and ESL teacher in the district to communicate these expectations.

2.  This issue was discussed in our principals meeting and district established criteria are in the process of being developed along with communication to parents.

3.  Continual investigation of this issue is being discussed at each campus.  There are many contributing factors such as: teacher development of CBAs, administration of CBAs, the rigor of the CBAs, and alignment with the TEKS.

Recommendations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.

1.  Ensure that all members of the LPAC team is trained on the TEC Chapter 29 and TAC Chapter 89.  All bilingual and ESL teachers receive further training and even invite Region Center specialists to come do walk throughs to make recommendations.

2.  Ensure that all campuses are communicating to parents the attendance procedures and expectations that follow state and local board polices.  Utilize site based decision-making teams to establish this criteria on the campus and district levels. 

3. Ensure that all teachers who are developing CBAs have extensive training on how to develop them and have a deep understanding of the TEKS.  Establish district wide administrative procedures and timeline for these assessments.  Establish district wide utilization of this data and determine how this will look for each grade level. 

Evaluate - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.

1.  To evaluate the improvements in bilingual and ESL classrooms utilize teacher and parent surveys as well as walk throughs done by administrators who are trained on what to look for. 

2.  Utilize PEIMS attendance to review the attendance data for each campus.  Utilize parent surveys to check for understanding of this information.

3. Using Eduphoria, monitor CBA data district wide and note any fluctuations or trends of data.  Use teacher surveys to check for understanding of CBAs and continue to provide on-going training for curriculum writers and teachers. 

Competency Review Reflection

As I began to review all of the activities that I had participated in this past nine months I began to see that everything that I do daily in my position relates to the 10 competencies. BUT the real learning happens when as a leader you are cognitive of the expectations and make a tangible effort to achieve these high standards daily that are listed as the competencies.  I have really transition to seeing the forest and the trees this past nine months and find that I am so aware of how what I do on my campus and how it affects the district. I take for granted this new perspective and have caught myself wondering why other campus leaders have not thought about the bigger picture when making campus level choices.  I become so in line with all of the other campuses with procedures, practices, expectations, rules, curriculum, and things that are important for us all to have in common as a district.  For example, I had a student who was bitten by several mosquitos waiting for the bus. I knew with the confirmation of the west nile virus in our county that the district needed to set forth practices for communicating with the community how we are addressing it and what are the protocols for allowing students to bring OFF to school.  I alerted district officials and within hours we had the county out to spray and had a regular schedule for this established and a district procedure for OFF.  We also sent out informative flyers to parents via our web site and public posting areas.  Never before would I have seen this as a big picture issue. I would have taken care of my campus and stayed in own little world.

Self-Assessment Reflection

From looking at my responses now and the ones before I see very clearly the areas where I still need improvement and that is budget and budget forecasting.  As I review all of these competencies again I have found that I sought out more professional development in areas where I needed more training such as human resources, organizational health, and curriculum.  I am reading the book What Great Principals Do Differently and I am reminded of how no matter high up I get in a district I can never lose tough with what is the most important thing we do and that is the kids.  Whitaker writes a book called What Great Teacher Do Differently and I found myself wanting to read that so that I could address best practice in the classrooms.  As a superintendent, I will learn topics such as budget that according to these competencies is only about 5 lines in essence that is a major role of most superintendents. I would find it helpful to keep these competencies close as a reminder of where my main focus should lie – success of all students. 

5399 Week One Part 2

Position Goal

The position that I would like to ultimately pursue is that of the superintendent.  I just moved to a larger district and find that there are more positions such as directors and assistant superintendents that I can pursue within the next 5-8 years.  I am currently the principal at an elementary campus and would love to move to middle school or high school to gain that experience.  I think that the superintendent needs to see all levels in order to understand the nature of a vertically aligned district.  I know that as young as I am I need all of the experience that I can get in other positions to become a better superintendent.  I would love to one teach teachers or principals at the university level and share with them my experiences as I have had the fortune  of working with professors who have helped me learn through their experiences.

Leadership Goal

I want to lead because I have a passion for making progress in public education.  I have a drive and desire to lead a campus and a district to preparing students to enter into the world with success and knowledge that will allow them to make a difference.  I want to accomplish momentum for my campus and district that moves forward.  The educational needs that underlie my motivation are that I never settle for status quo or complacency.  Our students deserve better than that.  My personal needs that underlie my motivation to lead is that I wake up every morning and I am excited to go to work. I lay my head on my pillow at night with no regrets.  My career is what I was meant to do.  The internship has truly allowed me to become a better principal and see things one a larger scale to help my district be more successful.