Competency Reflections Katherine Fisher April 8 2013 Competency

Competency Reflections Katherine Fisher April 8, 2013

Competency 001 Over the past seven years, I have been a part of a leadership team at three different schools in the Houston area. I have had the advantage of being in a position to help shape, facilitate, develop, nurture, and support the campus culture, climate, and most importantly the vision. These experiences have been at both a public and charter school. My most recent experience was June, 2012, when our leadership team hosted a two-week culture building professional development at the school. Since ninety-four percent of the staff was new to the campus due to a high volume of teacher turnover, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to build teacher morale, while focusing on the culture of the school. The administrative team, which I am a part of, planned and develop a professional development, called “The First 48”. For forty eight hours teachers analyzed data about the school and campus improvement plan, read case studies, reviewed state standards, built aligned pacing calendars, backwards planned, were introduced to Teach Like a Champion techniques, met parents and students, reviewed operating norms, and took a tour of various places in the community within a two mile radius. The most powerful thing I learned from this experience was how to organize, facilitate, and articulate the campus vision through building culture and teacher buy-in. In my opinion, the teachers felt empowered and valued, because they played a vital role in setting the tone for the upcoming school year. My goal is to continue to seek advice from my current principal and other educational leaders.

Competency 001 Shaping Campus Culture: “The First 48” Internship in Action

Competency 001 Shaping Campus Culture: “The First 48” Internship in Action

Competency 002 As an intern, I have communicated and established relationships with many members of the school community, including parents and community leaders. This year I am in charge of the Houston Independent School District’s Visitors in Public Schools (VIPS) program for my campus. The school has several volunteer programs this year. The first volunteer program is a partnership between Carnegie Vanguard High School and Gregory-Lincoln Education Center. Students with off campus work study have an opportunity gain volunteer hours for graduation credit. Students work in the capacity of mentoring students in grades second through eighth, pushing into classroom as a tutor, or serving as a teacher assistant. Currently, the school has approximately thirty student volunteers. Another volunteer program on campus is affiliated with a local church. Members of the church volunteer their time to tutor students in the lower grades that are struggling with basic reading and math concepts. I assist teachers with coordinating lessons for the tutors, providing an open line of communication with the tutors through email, and collecting data through volunteer surveys I have developed. Company employees with BASF, a local oil company, also provided students with a rewarding experience in the area of science while working with them on our campus and a field experience to their offices. In addition, volunteers from Baylor College of Medicine are working with twenty-two of our fifth grade girls building self-esteem through running with the final goal of having them participate in the Girls on the Run 5 k Marathon in Houston. Each of these programs have proven to be very successful on our campus. My goals for the future is to establish a relationship with the local colleges and universities to seek students who would like to volunteer their time by tutoring struggling students, including English Language Learners.

Many experiences were gained from being the coordinator of BASF, a local oil company, volunteering their time for an entire year at Gregory-Lincoln to show there is fun in science Internship in Action

Competency 003 states that the principal should act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner. What I have learned from this competency is to treat all children equally and with fairness no matter their race, gender, or creed. All students deserve a high quality education in a public school system; so as an educational leader it is my duty to ensure that each child is given this opportunity at the expense of no one. As an intern, I have been an advocate for all students on my campus. For example, there was a particular student who you could clearly tell needed new clothing; I personally brought clothing to the school and donated it the student. Another case includes contacting the father of one student and having a heartfelt conversation about the appearance of neglect. We discussed options for ensuring that the child comes to school clean and orderly; a parent contract was developed and signed to ensure the parent calls the teacher once a week to check on the child’s progress. After reading chapter five, my goal as a future administrator is to become more acquainted with legal guidelines in relations to students with disabilities and bilingual education. I feel by becoming more knowledgeable with these two legal guidelines, ARD (admission, review, and/or dismissal) and LEP (Limited English Proficiency), I will better prepare myself to speak about these matters with teachers and parents.

Competency 004 What I learned from Competency 004 is that the principal is not only a school community leader, but an instructional leader. The principal may not know everything about one particular subject, but needs to know how to delegate, facilitate, empower, and seek teacher leaders to be instructional leaders within the school. As the Teacher Specialist at my campus, my main function is to facilitate, implement, and align curriculum and instruction. During the course of my Internship, I have facilitated department and grade level meetings on campus. During these meetings, teachers were analyzing data to affirm or adjust instruction, collaborating with other teachers, district curriculum specialists, and administration in order to design campus-wide three week benchmark assessments aligned to instruction, facilitating discussions around authentic student work and the alignment to state standards, and evaluating resources with teachers to meet the needs of all students. Additionally, as an intern, I have been afforded more opportunities to lead staff development to meet the diverse needs of the school. For example, in January I trained third through eighth grade teachers on the importance of building academic vocabulary with English Language Learners to enhance their understanding of multiple concepts in specific content areas. In order to further develop myself in this competency, I am attending a Marzano conference for school leaders, I will continue to read professional literature with an emphasis on curriculum and instruction, and seek more opportunities to lead teachers in curriculum and instruction.

Competency 004 I facilitated this team meeting Internship in Action

Example of the board configuration which aligns state standards with curriculum taught in the classroom I was responsible for implementing school-wide Internship in Action

Competency 005 As the principal advocating, nurturing, and sustaining an instructional program and a campus culture conducive to student learning is vital to the success of all campus stakeholders, including parents and community members. Wilmore talks about creating conditions that encourage families and the community to strive to achieve the campus vision. During this internship, I am responsible for conducting monthly parent meetings and securing community members and other leaders as mystery career guest speakers for our students. Parent monthly meetings consist of parents being trained by me or the teachers on ways to help their child outside of the classroom or while at home. Parents learned about state curriculum and participated in Make and Take activities for at home use with their child. At some of the meetings, parents had an opportunity to review their child’s data, so they could see the importance of working together with the school. Also, each month I am responsible for securing guest speakers to support our college bound culture initiative. Various speakers come to the campus and speak to students about their educational experiences and how making smart choices impacted their life and career. In addition, I have secured a company called Brill Talks who secures famous guest speakers to visit the school and engage with our students at no cost to the school. One of my goals for next year is to secure more teacher leaders on campus to train parents and also offer trainings on Saturday as an added convenience for our parents.

Competency 005 I coordinated this mystery career guest speaker event. Students met the first African American male nurse to graduate from Prairie View A & M University, who later went on to obtain two patents. Internship in Action

Competency 006 One of my responsibilities as the Teacher Specialist is to appraise teachers. I am currently appraising nine teachers using the newly adopted appraisal system in the Houston Independent School District. The appraisal system is called Teacher Appraisal and Development System. Over the course of my internship year, I have conducted preconferences, post conferences, affirmed or adjusted student learning goals with teachers, and placed two teachers on a Prescriptive Plan for Assistance based on below average ratings throughout the school year. Wilmore mentions in chapter eight that two things are always required of a principal: visibility and communication. Wilmore also states that a principal can not isolate themselves in their office. In my opinion, our administration creates an environment where all appraisers are visible and communicate with the teachers they are appraising. At my school we have a teacher board that must be cleared twice a week. This means once an appraiser has observed a teacher, they remove the teacher’s name from the board. This process is done twice a week to ensure teachers are teaching state standards, student learning is evident, and feedback is given to affirm or adjust instruction in a timely manner. I have learned throughout this process that feedback is key for teachers and that the feedback needs to be specific in regards to affirming or adjusting teacher behaviors, including assisting teachers in identifying professional development to enhance their instructional practice. My goal is to become an expert documenter resembling my current principal.

Competency 006 Consultant setting up for professional development Internship in Action

Competency 006 Teachers listening intensely to the consultant Internship in Action

Competency 006 Bilingual teacher working with instructional materials during professional development Internship in Action

Competency 006 This board is used to ensure appraisers observe their teachers at least twice a week Internship in Action

Competency 007 There are no two days alike in the educational field. Things are always changing or being implemented. So, in some degree, organizational, decision-making, and problemsolving skills must be applied daily to ensure an effective learning environment. During my internship, I have had to apply these skills numerous times on a daily basis. The most important thing to take into consideration when applying these skills is, how will your decision impact student learning and/or safety. More importantly, as chapter nine references in Wilmore’s book, use data when making instructional decisions. There a many examples where I have applied decision-making and/or problem solving skills. This year I made a decision to place a teacher on a Prescriptive Plan for Assistance (PPA), because of consistent below average ratings on evaluations. Another example involves a first grade teacher and student. The first grade teacher expressed concern, because the student repeatedly came to school an hour after instruction and/or was absent. This behavior had a direct impact on the student’s learning and academic grades. In collaboration with the attendance clerk, we filed truancy charges on the parent. In summary, as a principal any one decision or problem should not be solved in isolation. It is imperative to refer to data, collaborate with stakeholders, and make decisions that are in the best interest of children, not adults.

Competency 008 Over the course of the year, I have worked directly with the school principal in relationship to campus budgeting, personnel, financial management, use of resources and technology. For example, in mid October, fluency data determined a large percentage of first and second grade students were reading below grade level. In an effort to raise fluency scores, I worked in collaboration with the school principal to develop a plan to hire three academic tutors to work with students in these grades. The first step of the process was to determine the funding per tutor working six hours from November to May. We determined each tutor would cost approximately six thousands dollars. Next, we had the school secretary move roughly nineteen thousands dollars from one budget strand to another. During this process, I learned that money in specific budget strands can only be used to pay for hourly personnel. Once the money was placed in the correct budget strand, I was in charge of hiring the academic tutors. This included facilitating the posting of the positions on the district’s portal, using Applitrack to print potential candidate resumes, interviewing candidates, and hiring the academic tutors. Throughout this process, I realized retaining qualified personnel working for about nine dollars an hour is not an easy task. One tutor resigned one month into the job and another did not pass the district’s background check. During a Shared Decision Making Meeting including teachers, administration, and parents, we voted on hiring seven tutors for next school year, with more flexible working hours to meet the needs of the campus.

Competency 008 Ms. Batiste, our academic tutor, working with a small group of first graders who read 6 words per minute. Internship in Action

Competency 009 It is important that schools provide a safe learning environment for all stakeholders. This includes fire and other disasters that may impact student safety. This year, I am in charge of ensuring that the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten wing on our campus is cleared during fire drills, in the event a real fire was to happen on campus. I met with the assistant principal, the campus safety coordinator, to review procedures during a fire or fire drill, how to properly check rooms for students, and ways to determine if there are missing students or personnel. The school routinely performs fire drills monthly, in which I am responsible for carrying out the aforementioned duties. As a result of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, the administration (which I am a part of) and campus police officer met to review district and campus intruder emergency plans. After reviewing the policy and talking with teachers, the administration quickly addressed a few concerns. During a faculty meeting, another copy of intruder procedures was distributed and reviewed with the faculty and staff. To guarantee the effectiveness of the plan, a mock intruder drill was conducted on campus with faculty and students. In addition, a security system was installed requiring campus visitors to buzz in order to gain access to the building. From these experiences, I learned nothing can ever prepare you for a real emergency, but advanced planning helps to better prepare the safety of students and personnel during a tragic event.