Three Year Plan-5399

Year One

Goal- to continue to develop skills that allow me to  become more proficient with budget and finance	TExES Competency and Domain Domain III Competency 8	Objective (What do you want to improve?) To learn budget codes and areas that funds can be spent utilizing local, state and federal funds	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?) Budget workshop offered by my District Financial Officer and Title One Director, TEA budget code information tools	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?) Title One District coordinator, District Finance Officer	Date of Completion Work on the budget and spending all year 12-13, analyze monthly expenditure and correlate with funds avaliable	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?) Analyze the  spending of my allotted funds on specific needs, materials, supervision, technology and trainings and use data and staff feedback to determine that what was purchased benefited my students’ learning and success
Goal- to provide positive leadership in the develop-ment of instructional training for the new STAAR testing	TExES Competency and Domain Domain II Competency 6	Objective (What do you want to improve?)Continue to develop my knowledge and skills concerning the new testing implement STAAR and lead my teachers in developing strategies and techniques that will provide them with the knowledge, skills and data to better instruct the students of our campus	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?) TEA information on the STAAR testing , TEPSA webinars and trainings, Region XI trainings, webinars and video conferences on instruction, rigor and testing data	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?) District Curriculum Coordinator, Curriculum Specialists, Principals, Leadership Team	Date of Completion  Use data provided in Fall of 12 and then data the will be available at the end of school year 12-13	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?) Analyze benchmark data, Aware testing data, common assessments, STAAR data from state results, and six weeks data from report cards and staff input

Year Two

Goal-provide tech-nology skills for classroom teachers to implement tech-nology in their profession and with their classes	TExES Competency and Domain Domain II Competency 7	Objective (What do you want to improve?) Increase my knowledge and awareness of technology to provide trainings for my staff to increase their knowledge of technology and how to implement that knowledge to classroom lessons utilizing technology TEKS and new technology devices such as ipad, ebeam, interactive big books	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?) Region XI Conferences on Technology,  Cleburne Technology Department seminars, TEA website, Technology Conference	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?) District Technology Specialist, District Curriculum Director, Computer Lab instructor	Date of Completion Lessons will be implemented bi-monthly on the campus to teach teachers skills for technology usage and lessons for students	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?) Teacher/staff feedback, technology surveys, product presentations, classroom projects
Goal-to implement a school schedule that enhances the cur-riculum	TExES Competency and Domain Domain II Competency 5	Objective (What do you want to improve?) Better usage of time and intervention strategies for school wide scheduling	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?)RTI conference, seminars from Service Center, Simplifying Response to Intervention by Austin Buffum	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?) Campus Staff, Title One Teachers, Title One Coordinator, Assistant Superintendent, District Campus Principals	Date of Completion- Schedule develop-ment designed and distributed by first week of school year 13-14, mid-year evaluation of first semester, end of year evaluation	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?) Staff, students, parent involvement survey suggestions, report card grades, intervention assessments, computer analysis of skills presented and developed throughout school year

Year Three

Goal-develop community involvement mentoring programs and after school activity programs	TExES Competency and Domain- Domain I Competency 3	Objective (What do you want to improve?) My ability to develop programs and activities that help my students develop support and belief in themselves and creation of love for learning and lifelong learning	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?) Extend the mentoring program to involve more community members and to create after school learning programs that focus on my teachers’ talents and skills to be shared with my students loves	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?) Mentors, staff, students	Date of Completion- Each semester design mini after school activity programs and continue mentoring program per year	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?) Measure student involvement in mentoring program and after school program participation, parent survey, teacher and community members input and critique of programs
Goal- improve the outdoor cement playground  area of my campus	TExES Competency and Domain- Domain III Competency 9	Objective (What do you want to improve?) Improve the esthetics of the campus, provide outdoor recreation area, and implement positive learning environment	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?) Become familiar with Facilities Design and campus blueprints, utilize safety procedures and playground rules and laws	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?) District Maintenance and Operations Director, Grounds Facilitator, Physical Education Instructor, Staff	Date of Completion Begin design and input from all involved, put in place by spring of 2015	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?) Successful design, implementation and usage of outdoor recreation area

Reflection as a Leadership Skill - Week 4 5399

·       Describe why reflection is an important skill in leadership.

A true leader is one who can listen and learn as well as speak and implement. The reflection process is a skill that each leader should possess. Leadership has many demands and knowing how to carry out those demands is imperative. The process of reflection on decisions allows a person to broaden their knowledge and application of the skills necessary to lead. The expression “to learn from your mistakes” provides a valid relationship to the reflection process.  Even though we try to make the best decisions daily in our role of leadership, by reflecting on those decisions we learn that there are mistakes made.  To glean from the reflection process we can become better decision makers and stronger leaders. Each time we can reflect on a situation we will be able to determine the validity of that decision. Consequences will result from each decision made.  The skill of reflecting on those decisions individually, as well as with others, will build us as leaders and allow us to grow in wisdom. To me, this is the most important leadership skill.  Without stopping to analyze or reflect on what we have accomplished, we will not be able to move ahead with confidence to what can still be accomplished. 

                                                                                                                

Provide examples of reflective practices throughout this program citing examples from:

·       Course assignment activities

In reflecting back over all the course assignment activities I am amazed at all we have been lead to accomplish. Each course was designed to provide a different opportunity to learn and grow. The syllabus for each course and week prepared us for what was expected. At first I felt like a novice in every area, as I continued to grow, learn and reflect much of the information I was able to transition. As a first year building principal, I wanted to develop my leadership skills. These assignments have continuously challenged me to do just that.  The finance course has been my biggest challenge because it was an area of which I had no experience. The technology was also new to me and both used in the same course was very difficult for me. Yet the opportunity to work with my group gave me the encouragement and confidence I needed in both areas. Looking back to those assignments, I learned many important things that I now can utilize as I work with my on budget. I can better understand how it all ties together for our district and how as a superintendent there are so many areas that I must have knowledge and skills. I truly enjoyed the lectures that helped us understand the purpose of the course each week. I gleaned much from the expertise that each of our professors brought to our classes. My interviews with Dr. Creel also allowed me to hear about true challenges that will come our way and the importance of knowing the behind the scenes information as well.  

·       Blogs

I have truly learned from my cohorts’ discussion blog postings. They have taught me many things as we shared with each other. I enjoyed the way communication was direct and immediate. The postings on our blog spots have helped me see how this tool could be used with my own faculty. We are currently doing a book study and this skill is one I plan to implement as an ice breaker. My campus has many levels of technology but when I read my cohorts technology tools on their campuses and districts it confirmed the need for me to lead my campus in this area. The wiki process was very challenging to me, and as I reflect on it I now believe I have the confidence to use it with my staff as well. We are implementing CScope and are putting individual grade level lessons on our Sdrive. I believe this is where the wiki process could provide teachers to brainstorm together and develop great ideas for implementations. The webinars were fun because it was good to put names with faces of my cohort friends. They did present technological challenges at times because of the delay in voice. I hope this area of technology continues to improve because it is a great way to reflect together on the topics or areas of which we all usually have questions or concerns. In reflecting on this tool, I can see how it could be very beneficial to use across the district from campus to campus.

·       Course and campus supervised logs

The logs were a great way to document the intern plan activities and reflect of what those activities allowed me to learn.  In connecting the activities with the domains I could see the correlation as I worked through each one.  In reflecting on the course embedded logs, many hours were contributed to learning there as well.  The activities all revolved around the domains and allowed us to reflect on how the activities, especially in the finance class, tied in with the leadership competencies. Many of the activities aided in developing my understanding of what leadership skills are necessary in a leadership position. As I worked through my selected activities I gained much knowledge and developed a better understanding of the many facets of which a superintendent must acquire. My confidence in my leadership skills continues to grow as I work to learn the various areas of skills and how they tie in with the competencies and domains.

·       Assessments

The pretest and posttests were valuable tools for me to be able to reflect on what I knew at the first of the class and then what I knew at the end of the class. This assessment process aided me in developing a better understanding of the skills I had and the skills I still needed to develop. The class finals and midterms on line were a new way of test taking for me. I was very nervous about this process, but grew to appreciate the techniques. The LCE was a great tool for the preparation of the certification exam. In reflecting on these test taking procedures I have learned to budget my time and put those items to the front that I knew without a doubt. This process also helped me in the development of time management. In reflecting on time management many of our activities focused on this skill. As a leader that is one area that I will continue assess. I enjoyed reassessing my competencies in the competency areas because it allowed me to reflect of all that I have learned throughout these courses. My confidence as a leader continues to grow and I look forward to the opportunities ahead in whatever leadership position I hold.

·       Other intern reflection experiences

One of the most important intern experiences was the one on one interviews with all the personnel that help run the district. I truly learned from each person about their specific job and expertize. I was able to reflect on how they aid the superintendent in his understanding of what is required of the position of superintendent.  Each person correlated their job descriptions together with the big picture of a running a successful district. In working with my superintendent, he acknowledged the importance of having the right people in the right positions.  I also enjoyed working with my staff to help our campus focus on our vision and mission. To begin this process together at the first of the year and to reflect on where we are and where we have come has continued to cause my decision making skills to develop and grow. I look forward to using the information learned from my intern plan and reflect on those activities to continue to develop my leadership abilities.

   

Describe how you plan to use reflective practice to improve your leadership skills – provide some specific suggestions for applying the skills of reflection.

                                                                                                                

Reflection is now one of the most important skills that I implement. This skill has shown me the necessity of taking the time to reflect on each situation. In my current leadership role there are many decisions, situations, circumstances, outcomes, successes and failures that occur every day. Some of these are new experiences for me. When looking at them through the eyes of a novice and analyzing the outcomes, I now understand the importance of taking the time to reflect of what was accomplished and learned. I am also using this skill with my assistant principal and counselor as we meet each day to view and plan what has, is and will happen on our watch. I have also been able to reflect on the stages of decision making: declarative, associative and autonomous and learn more.  Decision making is constant and continual for a person in a leadership position. In my current leadership position, and throughout these superintendence classes, I have been given many opportunities to develop my decision making skills and reflect on those decisions as they are made.   At my campus my teachers use reflection every week at their team meetings.  I plan to expand the reflection process to my entire campus to aide us in analyzing my first year as campus leader.  This will provide me with ways to reflect on and improve my leadership skills. I look forward to learning and growing as a leader and using the reflection process along the way to help me become the best that I can be. 

Recommendations and Lessons Learned - 5399 Week 3

In looking at the areas of concern, from our district/campus improvement plans, which include improving curriculum alignment district wide using CScope, creating common assessments district wide for each six weeks to help measure progress, and providing interventions for students who struggle in the core areas many steps have been implemented by our district. I have had the opportunity to be a part of trainings to improve our staff with the concepts of CScope and its implementation.   I have lead in district grade level trainings that aid in correlating each grade levels needs and understandings of the district vision and mission. I have also helped to design and implement intervention strategies for struggling students.  By being an active participant in these areas of concern and seeing some of the actions my district has taken to make these improvement initiatives successful, I have also been able to assess ways to continue to improve efforts to better engage in the action research needed make recommendations for improvement.  One of the areas we can improve in is better trainings and implementations earlier in the year. CScope is a tool that we have adopted in our district to help achieve district wide curriculum alignment. The first year we began this new curriculum, there were still many areas that were being revised but we jumped into it all at once.  This proved to be a challenging and difficult task.  Our scores did not show improvement in math and this was our most needed area of improvement. This area continues to challenge our district, but we are now better trained and more equipped for the task. This year many of our campuses did not meet AYP. One of the tools that our district feels will continue to help us improve is by continuing to implement CScope as the common curriculum. This curriculum continues to allow all grade levels to see what and where we need to be and how we need to get there. Our district continues to bring in CScope specialists to keep us informed on the newest correlations to the TEKS and STAAR testing. Our administrative leadership team is also being better trained in how to lead our campuses in the implementation of the new curriculum. Things are continuing to change from TEA and we all continue to seek the best ways to implement and develop the curriculum that meets those changes.  Our teachers this year have been asked to write common assessments to the core areas each six weeks.  The difficulty in that is that they are writing them in the six weeks that they need to test. One area that we can better improve in to address this is to provide summer workdays for teachers to meet, evaluate and develop the curriculum and assessments. This year’s assessment tools will be valuable to use as guides, but there are many tests that have not proven successful.  The summer meetings would allow the teachers to critique the assessment tools and revamp them as needed. In our grade level sessions many teachers were frustrated with the timeline for construction and assessment. They expressed the desire to have more time to plan and develop tools that could truly be valuable measurements instruments, not just common assessments.  Anytime you put district common assessments in place there is a time for learning and growing. Time management for providing better assessment tools and curriculum alignment will be helpful.  Another recommendation to help implement improvements would be to restructure our intervention schedule and tutoring times. My campus intervention schedule this year rallied around our schedule for computer time and conference time. Some of my special programs that to be scheduled during this time as well. Because of our reduction in staff all campuses have been challenged to be creative in our scheduling and interventions. Our leadership team meets once a month. During this time many things are told to us, but there is little time for true planning or discussion of interventions or ideas. I would like to recommend that time be added to discuss campus ideas and incentives that are working so we can all reap from each other’s knowledge, successes and failures. Our campus has a mentor program. One or two others had one. Now a district program has been designed. I believe this is a valuable tool to use for interventions with struggling students. I would like to continue to improve on our own program and extend it to more community involvement. One of the areas that I believe improves students’ interests for learning is to find an interest they love. My recommendation is to start several after school tutorial programs that focus on higher level thinking and problem-solving.  We have just began an after school drum program for elementary students. I would like to target my teacher interests and use them to reach my students. I would like to consider areas such as chess, outdoor learning center science, cooking, any topic that can tie in to the 4 core areas in a way that can also develop lifelong learning and student success. Technology is an area in which most of our students already excel, but there are so many ways that we can make learning come to life through technology. The world is just a “click” away and we need to provide those “clicks”. Each six weeks I want my staff to present a different technology presentation and focus on how to train our students to use and enjoy learning in this manner. My responsibility, as a campus leader and as a voice to my district leadership, is to continue to look for ways to improve my staff and in return provide for my students. This is my greatest challenge, and I look forward to finding ways to make this happen through presenters, trainings, webinars, conferences, mentors and experts. Another recommendation I want to implement is better parent involvement and trainings. We bring in opportunities for parents to come to our campus, but I want to continue to help them learn how to help their children with school. Time is one of the resources many parents do not have, but if they know the trainings will be worth their time many will find the time. We continue to look for ways to develop the partnership of home and school. Next year I want to implement a parent night every six weeks and train them on the curriculum, assessments, technology, TEKS, STAAR so they will continue to lead and guide their children in what is important and essential for lifelong learning. Many of these recommendations for improvement will be easy to monitor and evaluate. We will use student and teacher input, self-assessments, student progress reports, STAAR testing data, AYP and PEMIS reports to help correlate mastery of curriculum success.  We will use AWARE assessment data, curriculum materials, and TEKS updates to analyze and develop better assessment tools to track measurement and growth for each student. We will monitor student involvement with mentor program, after school tutorial and in school interventions by using surveys, participation rate, achievement data, computer data and surveys. We will meet before the end of this year and develop a school wide schedule that organizes interventions to the best time management available. Teacher, staff, and parent input on all of these areas are also important in assessing the improvement and efforts utilized to develop successful campus and district improvement plans. We are all in this together.