Competencies ReflectionAdministrative Internship II (EDUC

6331 KP1)

Rim Mohamed

Due April 8, 2013

Professor: Dr. Haro

Competency 1: The principal knows how to

shape campus culture by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of shared learning that is shared and supported by the

school communityComing in to my new school, I wanted to foster a sense of leadership in my high-performing teachers while providing all teachers a mentor teacher system. So, I created a leadership team called the Instructional Leadership Council (ILC), and we were able to collaborate on creating a vision for the school year. Our goals for the year, which focused on improving student learning included the following:1.Re-designing the daily schedule to include a social studies as well as Arabic classes in every grade level every day instead of three days per week. We also increased the length of each period from thirty minutes to forty minutes for all subjects.2.We also increased the school day by an additional 30 minutes to ensure that students receive a daily recess of 30 minutes that is separate from lunch. 3.We also included a new teacher requirement that mandates all teachers to attend at least 12 hours per semester of professional development in the areas addressed in our school’s Needs Assessment. 4.Parental involvement is a requirement, so we mandated that all parents must attend at least one event per semester. To help the parents meet this new requirement, we made sure to provide multiple events throughout the semester held at different times of the day, on different days, and even on weekends to provide parents with variety of choices.

One of the projects I worked on at my school addressed this competency perfectly because it required a lot of communication between varying parties. I worked closely with Scholastic Books, our Parent Teacher Association (PTA), teachers, parents, and community members to put together a Scholastic Book Fair for an entire week in our school to help raise funds for our school PTA as well as encourage students to read for leisure. We had exciting games and prizes as well as specific days with parents like “Donuts with Dad,” “Muffins with Moms,” “Croissants with Cousins,” “Apple Bopping with Aunts and Uncles,” and “Gummie Worms with Grandparents.” Each day of the week had a theme depending on whose day it was. To put this massive week-long project, we had to initially work with Scholastic to find the best deal for us to help our students as well as raise money for PTA.

Then, we had to coordinate with community members and business partners to find donors for the food, games, drinks, and prizes. After that, we had to work on the logistics of arranging volunteers, class schedules for classes to come and visit the Book Fair through out the day, arrange for volunteer chaperones to help parents and visitors coming in find their children and take them to the Book Fair, and we had to designate areas for the games and prizes. Finally, I had to arrange with the custodial staff for the additional responsibilities of cleaning up, and collaborate with the teachers on creating their Class Book Wish List. So, to be a successful and effective project, I had to communicate collaborate with various members of the school and community.

Competency 2: The principal knows how to communicate and

collaborate with all members of the school community, respond to diverse interests and needs, and mobilize resources to promote student success.

Darul Arqam Southwest School is a diverse school with a diverse staff and student population. Nonetheless, a majority of the school’s staff and students are from the Indo-Pakistani region. Previously, many of the staff, students, and parents experienced some favoritism and bias from the administration in certain cases. So, this year, I wanted to vigilantly change this mentality and culture in the school. So, I eliminated all dialectical conversation between school personnel and between staff and students and parents. Thus, all formal interaction and communication had to take place in English.

Also, all school rules and policies were outlined clearly with all personnel, students, and parents and were posted all around the school and on our school’s website, including discipline policy, financial aid, and communication expectations. This way, we ensured that all students are treated equally by teachers and administration and are held to the same standards and expectations.

Additionally, I had to establish procedures for staff to communicate with one another and for administration to communicate with staff. We wanted to express the culture and mentality of all, which meant that we did not break the rules for one teacher and not for another. All personnel “clicks” were separated by posting them in different duty times and in different places and giving them varied lunch times to force teachers to collaborate with other teachers in the school. In our professional development and staff meetings, I make it a point to discuss the importance of professional communication with all stakeholders and each other, and we participate in varied team building activities to build a family environment in the school itself.

Competency 3: The principal knows how to act with integrity,

fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner

Since our private school prides itself on teaching Arabic in all grade levels, we wanted to ensure that the Arabic program in our school is a major success. So, I sent all of the Arabic teachers to professional development and training on teaching foreign languages to learn and implement new and efficient strategies to teach Arabic as a foreign language. I have also attended these training with the teachers to ensure the correct and consistent implementations of the trainings throughout the school and to learn how to evaluate the teachers in their content area. While I adjusted my budget for this academic school year to include funding for Arabic resources and teacher training in teaching foreign languages, I knew I need to secure additional funds to further help the teachers in their classrooms with their instruction. So, I communicated with the local school district about how to secure government money for professional development to which private schools are entitled. At last, I was able to secure some of the Title II money we received from the local public school to purchase new resources and instructional materials to be used in the classroom to enhance the instructional process. All assessments for the Arabic classes were also redesigned to include the new instructional objectives being taught in the classroom and to accurately assess student progress in the retention of the Arabic language as a foreign language.

Competency 4: The principal knows how to facilitate the design and

implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignments of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessment; and promote

the use of varied assessments to measure student performance.

As a private school, we do not receive government funding as the public schools do. However, we are entitled to receive Title II and Title III money depending on our student population from the local public school that our students would normally attend. To receive these funds, as an administrator, I had to collect a lot of background information initially and make contacts with the local districts to which our students are zoned. I was willing to do anything to be able to receive funding for Title II (professional development) and funding and testing for our Title III students (Language English Proficient and English Language Learners).

We were successfully able to identify the students we have that are zoned to Fort Bend ISD, and we were able to secure some funding to spend on our teachers for professional development based on the number of students we have enrolled. As for the Title III funding, we had to collect student scores, request a district representative to give the Oral Proficiency Exam to the students, assess students who did not have standardized scores, and identify students eligible for the Title III fund.

Competency 5: The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and

sustain an instructional program and a campus culture that are conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.

Currently, my school does not use the Professional Development Appraisal System (PDAS) to evaluate the teachers. So, I attended the PDAS evaluator training with the University of St. Thomas to become a certified PDAS evaluator. I also researched about the PDAS and provided all of my teachers an information session on this system in preparation for its implementation this year.

To better prepare the teachers for the 45-minute PDAS evaluations, I started doing routine walk-throughs and formal evaluations on the teachers throughout the year. I always made sure to debrief the teachers on my observations and setup conferences with them to discuss areas of strengths as well as weaknesses. I always made sure to follow up with teachers that had specific weaknesses to ensure they are addressing their weaknesses and are working on improving them. I also based the majority of my professional development selections for the individual teachers on the feedback from their observations. So, if I noticed a teacher was weak in technology while another is weak in classroom management, I would send the first teacher to a professional development or a training dealing with technology while I sent the other teacher to a training on discipline or classroom management.

Competency 6: The principal knows how to implement a staff

evaluation and development system to improve the performance of all staff members, select and implement appropriate models for supervision and staff development, and

apply the legal requirements for personnel management.

Competency 7: The principal knows how to apply organizational,

decision-making, and problem-solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment.

One of great Arabic teachers had a personal dilemma arise with her work and home schedule. She initially had all of her conference periods earlier in the day, and had a class during the last period of the day. Due to a personal issue that arose at home, she was no longer able to stay the entire full day everyday as required, and had to leave by 3:00 PM, which is the middle of the last period of the day. Her home situation was completely rigid, and she had no means of working anything out to rearrange her home schedule. So, I was faced with the decision of either having to let a great teacher go or work something out to address her needs and our needs as well to where the students’ educational needs are not jeopardized.

So, I decided to work to keep her while affecting the classes as little as possible. I looked closely at the teachers’ schedules for that grade level to see if there is anyway I can switch this particular teacher’s class with another teacher that teaches the same grade level. Luckily, I found a teacher whose conference period was the last period of the day who also taught that grade level. So, after meeting with that teacher, I was able to switch both classes to better fit the needs of this teacher to avoid losing her and at the same time ensuring that the students’ learning was not jeopardized, and I was able to do the switch with as little disruption to other teachers and to that grade level as possible.

Initially, one of my Arabic language teachers was not performing at the level expected of all teachers, and he had several severe weaknesses in his classroom management and teaching style. So, I assigned him a “buddy teacher” who was the lead Arabic language teacher in my class. She was also one of the members of the Instructional Leadership Council (ILC) members. She worked closely with him to help him implement new classroom management as well as new instructional strategies. I continued to monitor him and work with him and his buddy teacher. However, although there was an attempt to improve, the ability was simply not there, so I had to make the tough decision of letting him go.

While this decision was not an easy decision to make, I had to think about the students. Before I informed the teacher that I was going to release him, I started interviewing new candidates for the position until I found the perfect candidate. I then spoke to the teacher, and he was on board and agreed with my decision because he knew that he was simply not able to perform to the high standards. However, he was gracious enough to accept to stay on for the last week of the term during exams week while the new teacher shadowed him to get familiar with the classes and the students to ensure a smooth transition.

Competency 8: The principal knows how to apply principles of

effective leadership and management in relation to campus budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, financial management, and technology use.

Since my school has grades as low as Pre-K I (three year olds), I have to make sure that I not only comply with state rules and regulations for academics and safety but also comply with the Childcare rules and regulations. Our playground was a mixed playground with no clear separation between the elementary and toddler play equipment. So, to comply with the Childcare regulations for safety, we separated the playground equipment and created an elementary playground and a toddler playground in separate parts of the playground area. I also adjusted the recess time for the toddlers and elementary students to ensure as little congestion in the playground as possible.

After the recent tragic school shootings, playground equipment was no longer the only thing on our minds in terms of safety, especially for the parents. So, I had to implement new policies to ensure a more secure and safe environment for all employees, students, parents, and even visitors, especially during morning assembly, classroom transitions, water/bathroom breaks, and dismissal. I also contacted the local police department to conduct a security needs assessment for our building to identify threat areas in the building and on the grounds to ensure that we cover those areas. Additionally, I sent all of my staff and PTA members as well to trainings on School security and safety to ensure that all regular members on campus are trained in the event of an emergency. Finally, I had several officers and law enforcement agents come to the school to speak to our staff and students about recognizing danger, avoiding danger, and means to escape dangerous situations either at school, home, or anywhere else.

Competency 9: The principal knows how to apply principles of

leadership and management to the campus physical plant and support systems to ensure a safe and effective learning environment.