Jim Shetter Ed.

691 Internship Final Paper Fall 2012

Principals in today's schools face the complex challenge of being both a visionary educational leaders and an effective manager. I found this out this semester as the Intern Principal. The struggle to meet the daily conflicting needs and expectations of the staff, students, the parents and even those in the community is time consuming. As I look back at this semester as an Intern-Principal, The Principals Companion book by Pam Robbins/Harvey B. Alvy that we used in this course was one of the most effective resources Ive seen in education. The concept to create a quality school environment that encourages learning and making the job easier for a principal was the significance of this resource book. The Robbins Book helped me understand the role, culture, relationships, mission, organizing, collaborating and development of the principal, staff and nature of the school. Along with the readings, working closely on a weekly basis with my mentor enhanced my growth and thought process as becoming a Leader as Learner. The ability to review and reflect my mentors philosophy with me towards Martys weekly questions taught me to look at education outside the box and in the classroom. His role and time he puts in on a weekly basis for our school has nothing to do with money. He truly loves his career and the success of his staff, students and people involved in our school. Our relationship has grown being his mentee this semester as he has shared what he finds what works and doesnt work in his personality in communication, relationship development, school mission and frame work running a school. I feel lucky to have his guidance as I enjoy our growth in our professional relationship. I was a bit surprised from the beginning of the Internship how my mentor trusted my abilities to work as his substitute principal. A majority of my intern hours this semester was being the acting principal. A good example of my growth started on my first day as the principal, my first reaction was to hide in his office as I really didnt know what to do. Although he left me

his daily calendar on his normal day routines, I started to think about the Robbins Book and went against my fears in this position. I stepped out of the office and started to process of leading and learning by wandering around the school and saying hi to teachers, students, and all staff in my building. I also walked around all parts of the school to know my surroundings better. This allowed me to start to feel comfortable in this new position. Managing your time as an active principal is a must. Not only do you have to look at your daily activities, youre looking at weekly, monthly, quarterly, semester, and yearly goals. As the acting principal, my list of the activities was long. Starting my day by setting the no parking sign, putting up the national/state flags, greeting families and students as they walked in the building, doing the daily announcements, checking on my at-risk classes as we have two emotional disturbed classroom settings, working on observing teachers and then bus duty at the end of the day. That was only one the daily objectives. The other factor in this position dealt with issues or concerns that arise with teachers, students, parents and community concerns. Developing referrals on students and calling parents toward discipline issues can be time consuming too. I found that most days go by really fast though I enjoyed the challenges that came with the job. Along with my acting hours as the principal, the products helped me develop ownership of my internship. One of the first products for this course I enjoyed developing was the electronic newsletters. I enjoy learning new processes. The factors I didnt know was managing time and developing the newsletter for the following month. Ive seen many newsletters in my tenure and knew that the main goal is to communicate what is happening in the school. I didnt know it was all about timing. Making sure that you have a good format, allowing all the stakeholders (teachers) in the school to get involved to share their classroom events, what is happening in the community and writing a good message thematically for that month as the principal. A good example for the message is always being positive, praising the positives of our school, reflecting our mission statement and the relationships with cultural monthly events. Having a good school mission, the safety of our students, staff and our school environment is a must product. The Crisis Management Plan was a new activity that I have always found myself on the other side of the table. Although, as a teacher your concerns are for the safety of your students in the classroom, but developing policies and procedures for a crisis management plan as a whole is a different role. I found myself looking at this product as an underlying process that is a must. The roles and practicing the roles for the stakeholders in their

position during a crisis takes time to develop but must be practiced and reviewed in case of a crisis. Another important role is developing a resourceful and meaningful staff meeting. The importance to have a well written agenda is another must for yourself and your staff. The ability to stay with an agenda helps you to stay on task and for your staff to be able to follow the importance of the meeting. Here is an example of a foundation of a good meeting: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Breaking it down from an ice-breaker at the being of the meeting. Reflecting district objectives. Re-reviewing the school mission. Having an instructional focus presentation. A Good to the Order message from the staff.

Although this in only the foundation of the meeting. The other is developing a positive relationship with your staff and reflecting a respectful and valued meeting. Developing ownership is another must within your staff towards developing a positive educational system to support both students and staff. Another ongoing product as a principal is your focus towards the SIP or STEPP process. The guidelines and roles that are developed on this ongoing process are for the success for your school. The continuous development for your school to make AYP is a very important product in your school. Without certain policies and procedures developed for your individual school, this is your driving force for student success. This is a similar focus with the Professional Development Plan. The Professional Development Plan product in this course works towards individual teachers to enhance their growth in their profession as does the SIP/STEPP is for the school. I found that this was similar to checks and balances towards collaborating with another teacher/coach to help enhance professional growth. The last major product I found enlightening was the Budget Analysis. I really didnt understand the process and why it matters so much for student enrollment. It all comes down to

funding and teacher retention for your school. Without students, you dont receive funding for the resources either from the district, state or federal allocations for your school. I believe that my growth towards becoming a certified principal is now becoming realistic. Im walking the walk and talking the talk. There are many variables that a principal goes through on the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. With my experience, I will be able to become more effective next semester as my confidence level and my understanding of curriculum development has increased. Developing a positive relationship with my students, my school staff and the community this past semester has increased in a different role as an intern. I plan on continuously growing and reflect my course work in action for next semester.