Communication: Effectively listens to others; clearly and effectively presents and understands information orally and in writing; acquires, organizes, analyzes, interprets, maintains information needed to achieve school or team 21st century objectives.
Written and Verbal Communication to Students and Staff:
As the leader of a grade level, I was able to gain a lot of valuable experience in systematic communication. Each week I communicated all updates to my team of teachers through a weekly email. Additionally, I lead grade level meetings with my team of teachers and clearly communicated the vision and plan for various events throughout the school year. I then also communicated similar visions and expectations for trips and events to students during our weekly Pride Time lessons.
As the leader of a grade level, I was able to gain a lot of valuable experience in systematic communication. Each week I communicated all updates to my team of teachers through a weekly email. Additionally, I lead grade level meetings with my team of teachers and clearly communicated the vision and plan for various events throughout the school year. I then also communicated similar visions and expectations for trips and events to students during our weekly Pride Time lessons.
Change Management: Effectively engages staff and community in the change process in a manner that ensures their support of the change and its successful implementation.
Setting Mindsets and Defining the Why
As part of my problem of practice, I planned to ask teachers to start to think differently about their understanding of student behavior and reexamine their own practices in managing students to shift to be more trauma-informed. In order to invest the staff in this shift, I started the change process by engaging staff in a reflection on the statistics linked to the long term impacts that early childhood trauma has on life outcomes. By framing the mindset shift in the big picture why before getting into the why here and now and then the how, teachers were already invested in the overall vision for the change, which made it easy to invest them in implementing the reflection and changes in their practice that were coming to them later.
As part of my problem of practice, I planned to ask teachers to start to think differently about their understanding of student behavior and reexamine their own practices in managing students to shift to be more trauma-informed. In order to invest the staff in this shift, I started the change process by engaging staff in a reflection on the statistics linked to the long term impacts that early childhood trauma has on life outcomes. By framing the mindset shift in the big picture why before getting into the why here and now and then the how, teachers were already invested in the overall vision for the change, which made it easy to invest them in implementing the reflection and changes in their practice that were coming to them later.
Conflict Management: Anticipates or seeks to resolve confrontations, disagreements, or complaints in a constructive manner.
Conflict Resolution with a Parent
As is the nature of any leadership work, there are many opportunities to resolve conflicts that occur with the various stakeholders you lead. As a principal resident, I was able to resolve conflicts involving students, staff and parents. There were multiple times this year when a parent was upset with a situation that occurred with their students and the school. Although these conversations can be challenging, my approach has always been to seek out the conversation as quickly as possible and if possible reach out to the parent before they reach out to you. In one such instance this year, a parent had to wait over 20 minutes for their scheduled conference to begin because the teacher who was hosting the meeting called out with the flu a hour prior to the meeting and in our coverage plan, we failed to realize the conference gap. I was not able to host the meeting and we eventually figured out a way to get another teacher to hold the meeting, but I made sure I reached out to the parent as soon as school ended that day to apologize for the delay. In another instance a student took another student's book and drew all over the cover. I was able to resolve the situation between the students but received a call from the mother asking about the damage to her son's book. I immediately reached out when I got the message and found a way to replace the damaged book. The mother was really thankful and offered to donate the damaged copy to our school library. These are just two examples of the many situations I navigated between families, students, staff to manage conflict throughout the year.
As is the nature of any leadership work, there are many opportunities to resolve conflicts that occur with the various stakeholders you lead. As a principal resident, I was able to resolve conflicts involving students, staff and parents. There were multiple times this year when a parent was upset with a situation that occurred with their students and the school. Although these conversations can be challenging, my approach has always been to seek out the conversation as quickly as possible and if possible reach out to the parent before they reach out to you. In one such instance this year, a parent had to wait over 20 minutes for their scheduled conference to begin because the teacher who was hosting the meeting called out with the flu a hour prior to the meeting and in our coverage plan, we failed to realize the conference gap. I was not able to host the meeting and we eventually figured out a way to get another teacher to hold the meeting, but I made sure I reached out to the parent as soon as school ended that day to apologize for the delay. In another instance a student took another student's book and drew all over the cover. I was able to resolve the situation between the students but received a call from the mother asking about the damage to her son's book. I immediately reached out when I got the message and found a way to replace the damaged book. The mother was really thankful and offered to donate the damaged copy to our school library. These are just two examples of the many situations I navigated between families, students, staff to manage conflict throughout the year.
Creative Thinking: Engages in and fosters an environment for others to engage in innovative thinking.
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Fostering Innovative Thinking from Teacher Leaders As a grade level lead, I spent a lot of time helping my team problem solve the issues they were facing in their classrooms. Often when teachers would approach me with a concern, my immediate response was "how do you think we can fix or problem solve the issue." This response led to a lot more teacher voice in meetings and also a lot more ownership from teachers. The best response to this tactic was a teacher who ended up creating an after school group to invest our most struggling boys in setting goals and reflecting on actions. |
Customer Focus: Understands the students as customers of the work of schooling and the servant nature of leadership and acts accordingly.
Students First
Students are the focus and center of everything we did at my residency school. Ensuring all students had access to quality teachers and curriculum was a primary focus of our work through the intensive instructional coaching model executed by all school leadership. Student culture and exposure to unique experiences was achieved through various trips and events throughout the year (college trips, museum trips, Hispanic Heritage Night, Parent Pride Night, End of Year trip to a major city out of state, and more). Various "Earn It" events (Earn It events are events students work to earn throughout a set period of time based on set criteria) throughout the year were planned to invest students in working toward goals that would help them be successful students in high school and beyond. Regular and consistent communication with families on the progress their children were making and how they/we can best support helped create a unified network of support for students. Opportunities were created to allow older student leadership opportunities throughout the year (leading school wide celebrations, greeters/hosts for visitors, etc). Many events were organized to celebrate student success and growth throughout the year. During my residency experience, I learned what it means to be a customer focused school and how to put students at the forefront of any and everything you do.
Students are the focus and center of everything we did at my residency school. Ensuring all students had access to quality teachers and curriculum was a primary focus of our work through the intensive instructional coaching model executed by all school leadership. Student culture and exposure to unique experiences was achieved through various trips and events throughout the year (college trips, museum trips, Hispanic Heritage Night, Parent Pride Night, End of Year trip to a major city out of state, and more). Various "Earn It" events (Earn It events are events students work to earn throughout a set period of time based on set criteria) throughout the year were planned to invest students in working toward goals that would help them be successful students in high school and beyond. Regular and consistent communication with families on the progress their children were making and how they/we can best support helped create a unified network of support for students. Opportunities were created to allow older student leadership opportunities throughout the year (leading school wide celebrations, greeters/hosts for visitors, etc). Many events were organized to celebrate student success and growth throughout the year. During my residency experience, I learned what it means to be a customer focused school and how to put students at the forefront of any and everything you do.
Delegation: Effectively assigns work tasks to others in ways that provide learning experiences for them and in ways that ensure the efficient operation of the school.
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Utilizing the Team As a grade level lead, I practiced delegation regularly during my residency experienced. Each week there were various events, trips, activities, or tasks that needed to be completed. I regularly assigned or asked the team to volunteer to own different components the each event. The linked artifact shows the final list of delegated tasks for one such event. |
Dialogue/ Inquiry: Is skilled in creating a risk free environment for engaging people in conversations that explore issues, challenges or bad relationships that are hindering school performance.
Beginning of the Year Conversations
At the start of my principal residency, I met with each of the teachers I would lead, either as a grade level lead, or as a coach. During this time, I recognized that one of my teachers had a difficult time trusting those coaching her and often questioned feedback. She was a team player and wanted to learn and grow, but also felt insecure about her practices and masked that by constantly questioning directions and feedback given. Recognizing this pattern early on, I sought out a beginning of the year meeting and asked her to name her biggest strengths and where she'd like to grow this year. I also asked her how she'd like to receive feedback and the biggest things she wanted from a coach. By starting the year off with this type of dialogue, I was able to immediately learn this teacher's preferences and this knowledge allowed me to navigate my future conversations with her. She ended up growing into one of the strongest teachers in the building this year, and while she continued her pattern of appearing to question feedback, I was able to communicate to her how this trait is perceived by others during her midyear evaluation. She was really reflective and eager to consider how to seek clarity in the future without seeming to question the feedback. This conversation and the relationship overall was only able to be achieved because of the open dialogue and communication patterns we established in our first meeting. |
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Emotional Intelligence: Is able to manage oneself through self awareness and self management and is able to manage relationships through empathy, social awareness and relationship management. This competency is critical to building strong, transparent, trusting relationships throughout the school community.
Navigating Difficult Conversations
Throughout my residency experience, I needed to navigate difficult conversations in a number of different situations. All conversations needed to be handled with finesse and the use of emotional intelligence to ensure that teachers felt heard and understood so that they could hear and understand the expectations that needed to be addressed and communicated. The artifact attached are notes I took in preparation and utilized during a conversation I needed to have with a teacher who was responding poorly, in front of students, to feedback from leadership. Her responses were inappropriate, but I also recognized were partly a result of growth she needed to make in her professionalism skills and were partly the result of her feeling overwhelmed and very stressed. I wanted to make sure I approached her in the conversation in a way that enabled her to feel heard and supported but also firmly address the breach in culture she displayed and the impact that breach can have on the team culture overall.
Throughout my residency experience, I needed to navigate difficult conversations in a number of different situations. All conversations needed to be handled with finesse and the use of emotional intelligence to ensure that teachers felt heard and understood so that they could hear and understand the expectations that needed to be addressed and communicated. The artifact attached are notes I took in preparation and utilized during a conversation I needed to have with a teacher who was responding poorly, in front of students, to feedback from leadership. Her responses were inappropriate, but I also recognized were partly a result of growth she needed to make in her professionalism skills and were partly the result of her feeling overwhelmed and very stressed. I wanted to make sure I approached her in the conversation in a way that enabled her to feel heard and supported but also firmly address the breach in culture she displayed and the impact that breach can have on the team culture overall.
Environmental Awareness: Becomes aware and remains informed of external and internal trends, interests and issues with potential impacts on school policies, practices, procedures and positions.
Designing a PD to Address Toxic School Culture Trends
During my residency experience, I recognized a trend in teachers spending time during their planning speaking negatively about their work and our school. This is a behavior that was explicitly named at the start of the school year as something really toxic to our school culture. It was easy for teachers to recognize and name this as something of value before the year started and something equally easy to breach into without noticing during the more challenging parts of the school year. Once I noticed this trend I asked leadership if I could execute a follow up PD to the summer session. I didn't want to just talk to teachers about the importance of speaking in a solutions orientated way, but I wanted to help teachers see and experience the way negative talk can be toxic to the success of a team. With this purpose in mind, I created a role play PD experience where teachers could directly see the impacts of positive versus negative mindsets and then collaboratively discuss these impacts and individually reflect on how which role they most closely modeled in the last few weeks. The PD generated a really powerful discussion and lead to immediate changes in teacher affect and discussion habits. |
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Global Perspective: Understands the competitive nature of the new global economy and is clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in this economy.
Building Perspective into All Experiences
One of the most valuable pieces of insight I gained during my residency experience is how to create a vision for students and make sure to align everything the school does to this vision. Henderson Collegiate's mission is to prepare students to be successful in the global economy and defy the odds typically associated with students graduating from this area. This means that during my residency year, I was able to observe and help facilitate character lessons around shattering paradigms, cultural heritage events, instilling a love of reading diverse books about diverse experiences in students, college tours, field trips for students to experience diverse places and cultures, and a completely unapologetic view that college is for everyone and if you show up and put in the work and effort at this school, this can and will become your future. All of these experiences and mindsets, first and foremost the path to college, are preparing students to have the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in this economy. |
Judgment: Effectively reaching logical conclusions and making high quality decisions based on available information. Giving priority and caution to significant issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex information.
In the moment schedule changes As the grade level lead for seventh grade, I was responsible for making many judgement decisions throughout a day. In particular, recognizing which students were having issues throughout the day that needed immediate attention and those who I could wait to meet with when I finished the current observation or meeting I was involved in. I also got the opportunity to lead my team through many events and activities. Often schedules changes or unforeseen logistical challenges arose, which caused me to need to adapt the plan in the moment and communicate the decision to change the plan to my team immediately. The artifact included highlights one such adjustment in the plan. |
Organizational Ability: Effectively plans and schedules one’s own and the work of others so that resources are sued appropriately, such as scheduling the flow of activities and establishing procedures to monitor projects.
Logistical Details and Calendaring
This is a competency I have been able to practice a lot during my principal residency experience. As a grade level lead, an instructional coach, the testing coordinator, and a graduate student, I had a lot of different responsibilities I needed to execute each week, within a flexible time frame. In order to meet all deadlines and complete all my required tasks, I needed to plan strategically and purposefully how to use my time each week. I accomplished this by calendaring out my time each week, before the week started. Additionally, as a grade level chair, I was also responsible for creating the logistical vision for my team of teachers and students throughout the year and had to learn best practices and procedures to achieve the smoothest logistical plan for various events, activities and schedules. A sample week's calendar and a sample logistical plan are included below.
This is a competency I have been able to practice a lot during my principal residency experience. As a grade level lead, an instructional coach, the testing coordinator, and a graduate student, I had a lot of different responsibilities I needed to execute each week, within a flexible time frame. In order to meet all deadlines and complete all my required tasks, I needed to plan strategically and purposefully how to use my time each week. I accomplished this by calendaring out my time each week, before the week started. Additionally, as a grade level chair, I was also responsible for creating the logistical vision for my team of teachers and students throughout the year and had to learn best practices and procedures to achieve the smoothest logistical plan for various events, activities and schedules. A sample week's calendar and a sample logistical plan are included below.
Personal Ethics and Values: Consistently exhibits high standards in the areas of honesty, integrity, fairness, stewardship, trust, respect, and confidentiality.
Owning Mistakes Learning a new role with innumerable new skills means that I had many opportunities to make and learn from mistakes during my principal residency. The attached email demonstrates how I responded to all mistakes, by being honest and accountable, which helped me learn and grow from my mistakes. |
Personal Responsibility for Performance: Proactively and continuously improves performance by focusing on needed areas of improvement and enhancement of strengths; actively seeks and effectively applies feedback from others; takes full responsibility for one’s own achievements.
Self Evaluation and Seeking Feedback
In addition to using several different rubrics with teachers to set the bar for excellence and track progress toward yearly goals, I also used self evaluation rubrics to reflect on my own performance throughout the year. Additionally, I met with teachers I led quarterly to receive feedback on my performance as their coach or grade level chair. My residency school also sent out anonymous surveys at the end of each semester for staff to reflect on the effectiveness of each of their leaders. Based on each area of feedback and reflection, I developed adjusted plans to best meet the needs of teachers I led.
In addition to using several different rubrics with teachers to set the bar for excellence and track progress toward yearly goals, I also used self evaluation rubrics to reflect on my own performance throughout the year. Additionally, I met with teachers I led quarterly to receive feedback on my performance as their coach or grade level chair. My residency school also sent out anonymous surveys at the end of each semester for staff to reflect on the effectiveness of each of their leaders. Based on each area of feedback and reflection, I developed adjusted plans to best meet the needs of teachers I led.
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Responsiveness: Does not leave issues, inquiries or requirements for information go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated structure for responding to requests/ situations in an expedient manner.
Quick Response Time
My principal residency school, Henderson Collegiate has a norm that no request for information whether from a teacher, student, or parent should take more than 24 hours to respond. I effectively met this expectation throughout the year, preferring to handle inquiries are they came in to stay ahead of an inbox overload.
My principal residency school, Henderson Collegiate has a norm that no request for information whether from a teacher, student, or parent should take more than 24 hours to respond. I effectively met this expectation throughout the year, preferring to handle inquiries are they came in to stay ahead of an inbox overload.
Results Orientation: Effectively assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a decision is required. Takes prompt action as issues emerge. Resolves short-term issues while balancing them against long-term goals.
Using Data to Drive Plans for Growth
One of the most valuable things I learned through my principal residency experience is the need to develop mechanisms to measure growth toward goals and to constantly check in on said progress throughout the year to ensure you are on track to meet your goals. I learned the power of having rubrics to measure teacher growth toward school-wide goals. Rubrics not only paint the vision for excellence, but when created well, serve as a great tool to progress monitor if used regularly throughout the year. I evaluated the teachers I coach weekly on rubrics related to classroom management skills and ability to infuse rigor into the classroom. We also constantly tracked student data. I planned weekly data meeting with teachers where we would target a standard students struggled with on a pervious benchmark, plan a targeted reteach, and then plan when to collect new data, multiple times, to ensure the learning gap was closed. By collecting this data regularly, I was also able to analyze trends when teacher or student growth wasn't improving and pivot my plan to better meets the individual needs of students or teachers.
One of the most valuable things I learned through my principal residency experience is the need to develop mechanisms to measure growth toward goals and to constantly check in on said progress throughout the year to ensure you are on track to meet your goals. I learned the power of having rubrics to measure teacher growth toward school-wide goals. Rubrics not only paint the vision for excellence, but when created well, serve as a great tool to progress monitor if used regularly throughout the year. I evaluated the teachers I coach weekly on rubrics related to classroom management skills and ability to infuse rigor into the classroom. We also constantly tracked student data. I planned weekly data meeting with teachers where we would target a standard students struggled with on a pervious benchmark, plan a targeted reteach, and then plan when to collect new data, multiple times, to ensure the learning gap was closed. By collecting this data regularly, I was also able to analyze trends when teacher or student growth wasn't improving and pivot my plan to better meets the individual needs of students or teachers.
Sensitivity: Effectively perceives the needs and concerns of others; deal tactfully with others in emotionally stressful situations or in conflict. Knows what information to communicate and to whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds.
Handling Challenging Situations
As is the case with life, teachers on the team I led experienced illness, hardships, or general levels of stress related to working in a school with a challenging set of needs. I was able to tactfully navigate many of these situations and problem solve scenarios with minimal disruption to our team and provide ample support to the teachers when needed. The artifact included shows how I navigated a teacher's departure from our school. I learned a teacher planned to quit over Christmas break and worked with other leadership team members to develop a plan so that once the teacher in question announced her departure to the team, we were prepared to present a plan to support the team and set students up for success when we returned from break. I was able to allow the leaving teacher the opportunity to present her news to the team herself, mitigate the team's stress in receiving the news by recognizing the gap this would leave but also providing details on how we would adjust to accommodate the departure.
As is the case with life, teachers on the team I led experienced illness, hardships, or general levels of stress related to working in a school with a challenging set of needs. I was able to tactfully navigate many of these situations and problem solve scenarios with minimal disruption to our team and provide ample support to the teachers when needed. The artifact included shows how I navigated a teacher's departure from our school. I learned a teacher planned to quit over Christmas break and worked with other leadership team members to develop a plan so that once the teacher in question announced her departure to the team, we were prepared to present a plan to support the team and set students up for success when we returned from break. I was able to allow the leaving teacher the opportunity to present her news to the team herself, mitigate the team's stress in receiving the news by recognizing the gap this would leave but also providing details on how we would adjust to accommodate the departure.
Systems Thinking: Understands the interrelationships and impacts of school and district influences, systems and external stakeholders, and applies that understanding to advancing the achievement of the school or team.
Testing Plan
In my work as the testing coordinator for the middle school during my residency experience, I needed to gain a lot of skill in systems thinking. From creating the testing plan to working with teacher schedules, school day schedules, accommodation needs, proctor needs, training, materials organization, and clear communication, many pieces were needed to be organized and streamlined in order for the process to be successful.
In my work as the testing coordinator for the middle school during my residency experience, I needed to gain a lot of skill in systems thinking. From creating the testing plan to working with teacher schedules, school day schedules, accommodation needs, proctor needs, training, materials organization, and clear communication, many pieces were needed to be organized and streamlined in order for the process to be successful.
Technology: Effectively utilizes the latest technologies to continuously improve the management of the school and enhance student instruction.
1:1 Pilot Henderson Collegiate acquired a grant this year to begin to integrate 1:1 learning in a few classrooms this year. One of the teachers I coached was chosen to lead this initiative. I worked with her and the digital learning coach to design lessons to introduce 1:1 learning opportunities in her classroom throughout the year. |
Time Management: Effectively uses available time to complete work tasks and activities that lead to the achievement of desired work or school results. Runs effective meetings.
Google Calendar: I primarily used google calendar to help me effectively manage my time each week. On Thursdays, I set aside time to schedule the different meetings I needed to have with the teachers I coached, I scheduled when I could complete observations of each teacher, and when I needed to complete duties and be presence for the grade level I led. I also used all day events to keep a running list of my to-dos for each day or as a reminder of upcoming deadlines for myself or ones I set for teachers that I needed to follow up on. |
Visionary: Encourages imagineering by creating an environment and structure to capture stakeholders dreams of what the school could become for all the students.
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Creating a Vision with Students, Staff, and Families As evidenced in the artifacts included in Standard 1, I was able to help create and cast a vision for students, families, and staff during my residency work. I was fortunate enough to complete my principal residency at a school that understands the importance of setting a vision and purposefully weaves this vision into many aspects of their work. The artifact here is a student handout from a vision setting lesson I facilitated with the seventh grade at the beginning of the year. |