Michelle Yates EDUC 6331 - Internship II Spring 2014

Domain I: School Community Leadership

Competency 1: The principal knows how to shape campus culture by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.
I am currently in a prekindergarten, district leadership role so it is important that I facilitate, articulate, implement, and be a steward of our teams vision of learning. Although I know there is not nor ever will be 100% agreement in everything we do, I also know that our prekindergarten team is more cohesive than it has been in the recent years due to verbal comments and confidential surveys that have been shared. It is imperative that as a leader, I continue to bring each of us together in a common goal for the benefit of our school community. We will continue to work on our districts early childhood culture by sharing our own ideas, practice, current research in the field and then validating these against our shared vision. In order to live this shared vision Team Pre-K will continue to post annual surveys, use a Core Team of teachers each year to build consistency, host a summer Prekindergarten Institute for our teachers and paraprofessionals, have sustainable trainings from year to year, offer monthly Pre-K Huddles on prekindergarten campuses to share classroom efforts and mini sessions on Pre-K topics, and have at least two classroom support visits during the year to guarantee the use of district components. This will enable us to be stronger and more consistent district-wide.

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.
As a teacher it never occurred to me how much planning and effort it takes for an administrator to be a good communicator. I spend a great deal of my early childhood coordinators job planning communication. Even as I try to think about the message, write it, read what I wrote, and reread it again, I still cannot be totally confident that everyone will understand the message the way I intended. This of course is due to a variety of reasons, such as varying experiences, levels of knowledge and the readers current frame of mind. During the last year, I have worked with various organizations to facilitate specific programs. One such partnership was between the Victoria Adult Literacy Council and F.W. Gross Elementary. Together we structured both ESL and GED classes for community members, which are held after hours at the elementary school. Another project between the Victoria Rotary Club, Discovery Toys and the Victoria ISD Teen Parent Connection Center also took quite a bit of communication through grant writing, acceptance speeches, phone conversations, emails and so forth. The Rotary Club and a Discovery Toys consultant donated monies through a grant I wrote for teen parents to check-out age appropriate toys each week for their babies and toddlers.

Competency 3: The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner. Whether you are a teacher in a classroom or an administrator of a school, it is important to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner. Principals however set the precedence for their campus. Knowing what is legal is vital, as learned in the educational law course, but it also says something to staff morale when the principal treats everyone with respect and impartiality. Being consistent in messages sent to staff, whether verbal or non-verbal can be an asset for a leader. During the last year as a director of Teen Parent Connection Center, I have taken this competency very seriously when maintaining fairness with all staff members. This has been done with staff evaluations, employee expectations using our district handbooks, and keeping our day care in compliance with state licensing standards.

Domain II: Instructional Leadership Competency 4: The principal knows how to facilitate the design and implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessment; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance. The design and implementation of curricula and strategic plans must be intentional in order to ensure the benefits of student performance. During the last two years, I have worked with a team of teachers and district administrators to align the prekindergarten program both horizontally and vertically. This was accomplished through many planning meetings with knowledgeable educators from local and regional service centers. Core staff developments were established that could form sustainable trainings for our new teachers and paraprofessionals supporting these early childhood classrooms for years to come. Being part of the conversation concerning the districts Response to Intervention allowed curriculum leaders, like myself, to organize a systematic approach with campus supports for students who fill each tier of instruction. Resources were aligned and tiered across the district so opportunities from campus to campus were equally accessible. Prekindergarten is not using formal RtI meetings, as recommended by an RtI district consultant however, teachers are collecting data based on portfolio requirements that will be presented to kindergarten teachers receiving these students the following year. This will help communicate where the student is developmentally and provide baseline data if the student is not performing on grade level for early intervention efforts in the fall.

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. There are many instructional programs on a campus at any given time. In fact, many of these are district-initiated. However, just because a program is district-initiated doesnt mean it is sustained totally by the district through professional development. Either way, a principal must keep close records of which teachers have been trained on each program and ensure new teachers receive previous trainings for currently used programs. As a previous teacher for twenty years, I have seen the misalignment of trainings. From year to year the same training was not offered which often left teachers confused with which program was being used and new teachers not being trained on programs that were in current use. Today, as I plan for our early childhood program, I have helped establish sustainable trainings for new teachers assigned to this grade level as well as for those teachers who want a refresher. In addition to these repeated trainings we also weave in trainings for other areas and make-it, take-its for building shared resources for our early childhood team. If teachers know what the philosophy is and this is continuously part of our culture, then we are all moving in the same direction.

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. Although I am not certified to implement a staff evaluation from the PDAS model at this time, I was able to visit classrooms and take notes on what was happening within them with my mentor using the districts walk-through model. Afterwards we compared our observations. I was able to see how she used this documentation to find both positive occurrences and areas needing support. We discussed how she would use this tool to improve her staff performance. It was also helpful to listen to the legalities of personnel management and to know that the Human Resources Department is there when you need them to review the legal requirements. I have had experience evaluating paraprofessionals at our districts day care since I am a director there. The first year I evaluated the employees, I found it difficult to explain to the staff the difference between meeting expectations and exceeding expectations using the tool provided by the district. This evaluation form lent itself to paraprofessionals in the classroom setting more so than our day care setting. Because of this I started investigating other evaluation tools from other district child care centers. Working with the employees at a staff meeting, we collaboratively compared our evaluation form with that of another district. It was at this time that we merged the two into a document and everyone seemed satisfied with. After presenting our new evaluation tool to Human Resources, it was approved and is now a viable resource that is being utilized.

Competency 7: The principal knows how to apply organizational, decision-making, and problem-solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment. The fact that prekindergarten attendance across the district was the lowest of all the grade levels PK-12 in the 2012-2013 school year raised many questions for me. I initiated an action research project to problem-solve this dilemma. Through reading previous research, talking to prekindergarten parents, and searching for ideas, I partnered with my mentoring campus to provide a family engagement event called The Spectacular School Race. This parent night was successful and one prekindergarten classroom encouraged parent volunteers to help during the school day, particularly at center time. Although there wasnt enough of a difference in attendance results from the six weeks of this study, the comments from parents and teachers were enough to help the district to decide to incorporate this parental involvement into all the prekindergarten campuses and classrooms in the 2014-2015 school year. This action research will continue next year and with the concerted efforts of parents and teachers, we hope to see a decrease in prekindergarten student absenteeism across the district.

Domain III: Administrative Leadership 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. Organization has always been my strength. I have utilized these skills for managing the multitude of tasks that have come my way while coordinating our districts prekindergarten program and teen parent day care. On a small scale I have successfully managed the day cares budget for over a year. Once priorities are realized, budgeting the dollars for these areas is key. Keeping up with the spending so the campus stays in the black is a task that needs a system, otherwise an administrator can become quickly caught off-guard. Grant writing is a way I have obtained extra resources for our day care and prekindergarten program. It is time consuming but essential when the budget does stretch far enough. Partnerships with H.E.B.s Read 3 has helped me put books in the hands of our 4-year olds, The Victoria Rotary Grant and Discovery Toys has provided money and toys for our teens Take-Home Backpack program, and the Education Foundation has rewarded me with a classroom technology grant. When there is truly a need, a principal can find a way to fulfill it, if they take the time.

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. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has many laws to ensure a safe environment for children in day care and I have had to apply these laws in order to stay in compliance for licensing. For example, it is the directors job to make sure that the liability insurance is paid, the building has been inspected for fire hazards, the health department has approved the kitchen, caregivers are trained in CPR/First Aid and have the necessary child development trainings, and safety plans are in place and practiced for fire, tornado, lockdown, bomb threat and Shelter in Place. The same will be true for a school campus but on a much larger scale. Knowing the district has experienced personnel who partner with campus administrators to evaluate these systems is important because accessing this resource will be essential for ensuring a safe and effective learning environment, which is the most important part of a principals job.