Running head: COMPETENCY REFLECTIONS 1

Competency Reflections

Marta Arciniega

University of St. Thomas

Dr. Nicole Walters

EDUC 6331 Administrative Internship II

April 28, 2015

Spring 2015
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Internship II Competency Reflections

Competency 001: 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.

To aid in my learning for this competency, I participated in the planning and

implementation of the School Improvement Plan. The authorship of the plan is ultimately role of

the principal and assistant principal; therefore I am thankful they allowed me to take part in

creating such an important vision for the campus. I learned, after many revisions, that ongoing

collaboration with campus leaders and community members is a must. The persons that are most

vital in seeing the plan through to the end must have buy in and input in order for the plan to be a

success. During this process, I also learned that backwards planning is also important on the

administrative end. Going forward, as a member of the Instructional Leadership Team and/or

Administrative Team, I think starting early and continued follow up of measuring goals is

imperative. Once the school year became busier and busier, around February, I was not able to

participate in goal measurement nearly as much as I would have liked.

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Competency 002: 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.

and

Competency 003: The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical

and legal manner.

Activities for these competencies included working with the community partners to offer

support to the families of students with special needs. Additionally, I am in constant

communication with the parents and families of students to coordinate Individual Education

Plans (IEP) and Section 504 service plans. I have coordinated and facilitated over 40 IEP

meetings and 12 Section 504 meetings this school year. As the Section 504 Coordinator and IEP

meeting coordinator/facilitator, I worked to build relationships with parents and teachers on a

regular basis throughout the year. Parents and caregivers of students with special needs must

feel welcomed and must know their input about their childs needs is valued.

At the start of this internship, I was a rookie as far as my legal knowledge of Section 504

& IDEA. I now have a much more vast understanding of how the district can work with parents

to meet the needs of this population of students. Using this knowledge base, I can better lead

teachers that support students with special needs. Meeting their needs goes so much further than

just being in compliance with the law. Communicating compliance laws effectively and with

purpose would assist teachers in their planning and support of students of all levels.

Going forward this knowledge will help my communication with parents and other

caregivers in the most positive way. For continued growth in Competency 003, I would like to
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spend more time promoting the Special Education Parent Education Programs offered once a

month during the school year.

To continue growth for Competency 002, I would love to work on growing our PTO to

increase parent involvement on campus. I have worked on campuses that have experience great

change and growth as a result of the PTO or PTA. Assisting our parents to become involved and

creating a stronger sense of community would be so advantageous.

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Competency 004: 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.

As a part of implementing the Campus Improvement Plan, Dragon Watch Professional

Learning Communities (PLCs) were implemented this year. At a minimum of every three

instructional weeks, the instructional leadership team met with grade level teams to discuss

implications of data from recent assessments. I worked with the campus content specialist to

create a spreadsheet that allows teachers to see the student as a big picture. Using data as a

formative tool, we worked during these PLCs to plan appropriate instructional activities for

struggling students. This involved taking a full assessment of available resources and creating

opportunities for meaningful learning for students in a timely manner.

We used this time to appropriately align students to the correct tier of instruction. The

meetings were also collaborative in nature, allowing teachers the opportunity to share learning

celebrations and discuss issues about things that were not working.
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Competency 005: 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.

Resulting from facilitating the Dragon Watch PLCs and hearing the woes of teachers and

their experience with the RtI process, I was able to campaign for our campus to participate in the

districts one-year pilot program implementation of a new RtI process and resources. Part of this

years learning experience has included collaborating with the district to evaluate and consider

various programs and assessments available for interventions. For my continued growth in this

competency, beginning this summer, I will work with the district assistant director to train

teachers on the new process and resources.

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Competency 006: 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.

Along with the Instructional Leadership Team, I conducted walk-throughs at least twice

week to ensure teachers were implementing Dragon Watch Interventions and targeted

instructional strategies at various times of the day. In doing so, we found that teachers were in

need of staff development opportunities to further improve their knowledge of targeted

instructional strategies. During the second semester, I worked with the Instructional Leadership

Team to plan teacher-learning sessions addressing the instructional strategies chosen by the team

as having the most priority and biggest impact as seen by research.

In the future, my goal is to participate in more PDAS observations as a learning

opportunity for me. Although I have my ILD and PDAS certifications, I would like more

experience in conducting actual observations and conferences before actually going live. I

have served as an instructional coach for a few years. Part of my training for this role included

observations, however, the coachs perspective is different than that of an administrator.

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Competency 007: The principal knows how to apply organizational, decision-making, and

problem-solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment.

The most significant experience I gained for this competency came for coordinating and

implementing our campus first after school STAAR tutorial program. Using data gathered as a

part the Dragon Watch PLCs; I worked with teachers, content specialists, and the administrators

to determine the need for additional intervention time outside of the regular school day. After

teachers were interviewed and chosen to work the afterschool program, they worked with the

content specialists to identify priority objectives to be taught. Formative assessments were

designed and implemented into the schedules as well.

Throughout the process, I found myself in the position of making decisions involving

staffing, discipline, parent requests, and student attendance. I would love to have an after school

program next year. As opportunity to learn from my experience this year, I would set the goal

for employing a research based instructional program to use for academic interventions. One of

the teacher complaints included not having sufficient time to design lessons for each of the

identified objectives.
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Competency 008: 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.

Coordinating the after school program included proposing a budget, requesting funding

from the Title I coordinator, conducting interviews, and communicating cafeteria manager for

student snacks. Goals for development in the competency include possibly authoring grant

proposals to receive other sources of funding. Using Title I funds was very helpful and most

appreciated, however, the strict regulation of what these funds could be used for, proved to be a

challenge. I believe we could serve many more students if we were able to provide an after

school tutorial bus and, as mentioned before, an instructional resources designed for

interventions. While Title I funds could be used for purchase of materials, the majority of the

budget went towards paying the teachers. I would like to convene a team to write a grant

proposal to fund the majority of the program.

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Competency 009: 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.

Competency 009 activities included school bus discipline administrator and revising the

school Emergency Action Plan (EAP). I learned that when communicating with parents about

discipline, remaining calm and respectful are the most important qualities to possess as bad news

is delivered. Often times when I called parents they protested their children being removed from

the bus for various reasons. Getting them to understand that student safety is most important and

distracting the drivers is potential for an accident. With this understanding parents usually

calmed downed and agreed that the safety of the children was most important.

The EAP revision was a great experience as far as allocating duties that matched each

individuals strengths. Reviewing the requirements of the plan and potential issues involved

researching district policies. I also reviewed the plans of other elementary campuses to compare

ours. Fortunately, our plan was well put together and required only minor changes and updates.

This project was definitely an insightful learning experience. The many aspects of planning for a

crisis response are never ending.

I would like to work with a committee to revise our school discipline plan. The district

has implemented a program across all campuses, which has had success in many ways. The

opportunity to include parents, teachers, and students in the creation of a discipline plan that

further addresses the problems we are faced with on our campus would be great.