STANDARD THREE:
Cultural Leadership
A. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The school executive understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative environment can play in the school’s culture.
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A New TA PLCUnder the new format for schools, I took the Administrator lead for our Teaching Assistant PLC. Using the digital platform of Zoom, the TA's meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually, a very busy group (moving to and from classrooms, driving buses, and often filling the gaps as needed) having regular meetings resulted in a lot of miscommunication between the group. In our new situation (quarantine) because of COVID-19, TAs are still and can participate in a PLC that supports school improvement. I have a TA who has taken the lead of her group, but she is new to this position, so I have been trying to support her. As we progress as a PLC together, I will use what I have learned about healthy PLCs to help foster the success of this new group.
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Creating An Interest-Based PLCMy Problem of Practice (PoP) afforded me the opportunity to work closely with teachers as they examine and learn about restorative practices within the classroom. The nine teachers who were interested in this topic became a subPLC. A Google Classroom was created for our PLC and any information or "assignments" were housed there. The group started with a book study and had an assignment after each chapter using a digital discussion board for their responses. As their reading progressed, individually, they were applying the hacks within their own classrooms. We met as a group face to face and their discussion with one another was so inspiring and collaborative. Together, they discussed what was working for them so far, what wasn't working, and how they adjusted to fit their teaching style or classroom culture. This artifact is an example of their responses.
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B. School Culture and Identity: The school executive develops and uses shared vision, values and goals to define the identity and culture of the school.
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My Culture PlanSchool leaders are responsible for the health and wellbeing of the culture of their school. This monumental task requires a leader to be informed of the elements of school culture, and have a plan to maintain what works, and fix what doesn't. In our Education Culture class Spring of 2019, we created such a plan. Using the elements of Demography, Collaboration, Shared Vision, Performance-Focused Rewards, Empowerment, Collaborative Decision Making, Diversity Considerations, and Systematic Communication. At RES I was able to participate in the important work of diversity considerations with the staff. As part of the SIP, teachers would participate in a book study that would challenge their stereotypes and misconceptions about students. I believe that this process made a positive impact on the way the teachers looked at students who may present as disengaged within their classrooms thereby improving the overall culture of our school.
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Restorative DisciplineAs part of the School Improvement Goal, RES has moved to a focus on restorative practices whenever possible in lieu of punishment. As part of the process, understanding what happened from the student's perspective is critical to having a deeper discussion that could lead to positive change in behavior. Often, as school leaders, we dive into a conversation after a student has been brought to the office with the intention of getting into trouble. I found that I wasn't able to really understand what the motivation was that caused the student to be sent to me from the paperwork and the teacher’s side of the story. The students were often resolved to accepting the punishment and were very quiet. I thought about this as a problem, and my solution was to allow the student the time to reflect-through writing, before getting into a conversation with me. I created a reflection worksheet, that allowed a student to take some time gathering their emotions and write out responses that will help us have a meaningful discussion. This worksheet works better with students who are able to write their thinking in sentences, it was less effective for K-2 students. For the younger students, I decided to use the same questions but verbally. In most instances, I was able to help the student understand how and why their response to a situation was not appropriate. In many cases, we role-played a different, more appropriate outcome to prevent the same situation from occurring again. I believe that discipline is important, but unless a child understands why or how to act differently, discipline loses its effectiveness.
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C. Acknowledges Failures; Celebrates Accomplishments and Rewards: The school executive acknowledges failures and celebrates accomplishments of the school in order to define the identity, culture and performance of the school
Celebrating Staff
Johnston County Public Schools does a phenomenal job of celebrating its teachers, staff, administrators, and district leaders. As part of that celebration, the district asks for visuals to show the impact the person has made on our students. I was honored to be able to make two videos for our Leading with the Heart nomination and our First Year Teacher of the Year nomination. Both videos were to be played during their individual presentation at the ceremonies. I really enjoyed working with the students to create these videos that honor our teachers. We have fabulous teachers at RES and these two teachers are exceptional. As a school leader, it is easy to forget the talent you are surrounded by every day. I only hope that these videos capture the positive impact each teacher has on RES.
D. Efficacy and Empowerment: The school executive develops a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff which influences the school’s identity, culture and performance.
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Animal Personality TestThe RES Assistant Principal is very good at having our teachers look at their own qualities as they reflect on their instruction. This year, she wanted to focus on group dynamics. So the animal test was one way to address different personalities and possible clashes between different personalities. In the first PLC for each grade level and group, the results were shared with the teachers. Their first PLC conversation was centered around recognizing the attributes of each animal and in what ways the dynamic of the team (of animals) could clash. The teachers were very reflective and engaged in a thoughtful and powerful discussion on the potential pitfalls of the new PLC while increasing their own emotional awareness. This created efficacy among the groups immediately. I learned that this simple and fun activity can really bring the quality conversation to a new group of teachers without reference, or blame. It was a low risk, high impact activity that I would like to add to my leader toolbox.
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Classified Staff SurveyIn March of 2020, the NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey (TWCS) was released to teachers across North Carolina. As an admin team, we thought it would be a great idea to create a TWCS for our classified staff. We wanted to survey the custodians, the teacher assistants, the child nutritionists and our office staff using similar questions that our certified staff would be asked. We would use the data collected to add to the data from the TWCS to have a broader look at the status of our school by staff. I took the lead and created the survey with our two goals in mind: 1) Use questions similar to the data from both surveys could be a replication of the whole staff. 2) Create questions that pertained to the specific jobs and responsibilities of our classified staff. The survey questions were kept close to the actual TWCS questions. It was a priority to have all staff member’s voices heard and to empower all of our staff.
We were able to get 100% of our Classified staff to complete before the school closed. We will use the data from this survey to analyze how well the school is working from the perspective of our classified staff. When the results from the TWCS are released, we will be able to add both sets of data for a better overall picture of what needs to be improved. This artifact is a list of the questions we looked at prior to creating the final survey. This draft is NOT the final survey given to our classified staff. |
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