- What do you envision to be the pitfalls you might face as a first year principal, and how will you implement the strategies learned to overcome the pitfalls?
- One of the major pitfalls I would face as a first year principal is trying to do more with less without severely impacting the main purpose of my institution, which is educating students. In a time of shrinking budgets, overworked and under-appreciated teachers, and the political red tape, a principal has to be able to think outside of the box in order to get or maintain the basics needed to teach students. This job is definitely not a one-person show and any principal that thinks that he or she can run the building by themselves may need to rethink their career choice. Having a team of smart, hard-working individuals who can work together towards a common goal is essential in all aspects of running the building from creating and articulating the vision, to student learning, to managing the school, all while maintaining integrity and fairness. A principal needs to be as transparent as possible so that his or her team fully understands the scope of what needs to be dealt with, can look at the issues from all stakeholders' point of view, and then move forward in a planned and logical fashion.
- How has this course prepared you to use twenty-first century leadership skills as you model a new culture for collaborating, analyzing student performance, and continually reflecting on instructional practices, school climate, and quality decision-making?
- When I became a teacher, little did I know it would literally be a 24/7 job. When not in the classroom, you are thinking about the classroom. In the classroom, I only worried about what went on in my classroom and at times failed to see the bigger picture. Now that I am out of the classroom, I see teachers with the same mindset and I have come to realize that if we all do not work together and look out for each other, then we will never achieve any goals the schools have put forth. Running a school is definitely a collaborative effort and you need as many people as possible to make sure that learning is the top priority and that other things do not impact it. Teachers must also have conversations with each other. It is essential that they come together and discuss student achievement so that they are able to get a more well-rounded picture and can try the best approaches in order to make breakthroughs with students. Teaching is all about trial and error and it does not stop even when you think you got it. There is no end point...only ways to make it better. This is HARD WORK! Even those who do not require praise for every thing that they do need to hear a kind word or receive a token of appreciation. It does not take much to tell those who are burning the midnight oil for students thank you and that they are appreciated. Students need to be able to feel that the school will provide them with the same kind of encouragement and are here to support them. They need to know that every adult in the building wants what is best for them. Everyone needs to be able to voice their concerns and their possible solutions to issues they witness in order for all stakeholders to know that they have a voice. We all want our student to success in the 21st century and should be doing what is necessary to make sure that it happens. We are still responsible for what happens to any student who graduates and leaves this school building no matter how many years ago.
Co-Teaching- Share your thoughts about the co-teaching model. What impact does the upgrade of curriculum for the 21st century have on co-teaching? As a curriculum supervisor or leader, what challenges would you have supervising and evaluating a co-teaching team, and how might supervisors address these challenges?
In our school, we currently have five sets of co-teaching pairs that consist of two sets of general educator/special educator and three sets of teacher mentor/teacher intern. Some pairs are working and some are not. Co-teaching, if done the way it should be, could be one of the most ideal situations for each teacher and the students. Not only would the teachers have extra help in the room, but there is a gain of an automatic collaboration and feedback partner. You have two people with different backgrounds and experiences that can plan lessons, deliver lessons, analyze data, and provide interventions. Co-teaching just yells to me "DIFFERENTIATION" because the setup would allow students to gain knowledge and skills from different perspectives and work with either teacher on different activities based on their skill level and readiness. Of course, the effectiveness of co-teaching depends solely on the teachers and their relationship. As Gately & Gately (2001) mention, teachers may be at different developmental stages that may not allow the co-teaching relationship to be viable. However, co-teaching has the potential to increase students achievement and allow teachers to perfect and provide and receive immediate feedback on their craft.
With the upgrade of curriculum for the 21st century, co-teaching should be able to fall directly in-line with the expectations. It would be rare that co-teachers will have the same teaching style, same personality, and same opinions. Within a co-taught classroom, students have to learn, demonstrate, and emulate (from the relationship of the co-teachers) a variety of 21st century skills such as effective communication, collaboration, flexibility, and adaptability in order to learn from two different people and demonstrate mastery to both teachers.
As a curriculum supervisor, a number of challenges could arise, but there are ways to address those challenges:
- Co-teachers feeling responsible only for a certain group of students, especially if there is a general and a special educator - Responsibilities must established prior co-teaching so that both teachers understand who they are responsible for and when does this responsibility change.
- Who is responsible for grading and how will students be graded - Guidelines need to be established beforehand and if there are special circumstances, a joint decision needs to be made on an individual assignment basis.
- Co-planning time - As an administrator, I would need to ensure that the co-teachers have the same planning period so that the teachers have time to plan together.
- Sharing a space - In order for a co-teacher to feel that they are not just in the room as an assistant, they need to have as much ownership to the room as the other teacher. I can ensure that both teachers have a desk and their own sets of supplies, key to the room, etc.
- Classroom management - Both teachers need to understand that they are both responsible for classroom management and should assist with issues if need be. They should discuss their classroom management styles and their expectations of each other.
Before school begins, I would have the co-teachers write out a plan of action that addresses the above mentioned concerns so that we would all be on one accord and have a great co-teaching experience.
Gately, S. E. & Gately, F. J. (2001). Understanding Coteaching Components. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33(4).
Individualizing the Curriculum- Select one model or individualized program from Chapter 15 of the Glatthorn text that you think would work best. Explain your choice and reasons supporting it. What, if anything, would need to change in your school or district to adapt it, and how as a curricular leader would you make those changes?
The model that I think would work best in the current educational system is the Mastery Learning Model. The Mastery Learning Model falls directly in line with Data-Driven Instruction. Students are pre-assessed so that when formative and summative post-assessments are given, the teacher is able to track growth. The teacher provides instruction based on the data from the pre-assessment and can group students accordingly based on their current knowledge or skill level. After each formative post-assessment, the teacher can adjust groups and plan for reteaching. Students that have mastered certain objectives or standards can focus on their weaker ones and receive the appropriate instruction. Students are assessed again only on those standards and objectives that needed to be retaught. Once students have mastered all intended objectives and standards, enrichment or extension activities can be provided to allow for students to pursue their interests beyond the written curriculum.
This type of model allows for students to get what they need. Why keep a children stagnant because four students in the classroom have not mastered one aspect of the content? This also allows students to focus only on what they need help with. If a student can run off the organelles in a cell, why keep testing them over and over on what they have already mastered? Some students need extra assistance on certain concepts and may need additional support or time to grasp it. This model allows for that and it allows for the teacher to know where each of his or her students are at any given time.
Only a couple of teachers in our school are currently using this model and this model has shown that those students have been able to pass the HSAs the first time or score the very high on district benchmarks. The district is currently on a data-driven instruction push. In order for this model to occur school-wide, teachers must understand the purpose for implementing this model either through the testimony from teachers who are currently doing it and/or research-based literature. The teachers that are currently doing it would have to assist in providing professional development to the other teachers and literally explain and demonstrate their entire thought and action process, because it takes a tremendous amount of planning to make this work. Departments would also need to collaborate and plan how the process would look for their classrooms and plan what those mastery and enrichment lessons would look like. Common assessments would also have to be created for tracking between sections of a course to determine where all students fall. There may be times when students not mastering a certain content in one classroom is able to be moved to another teacher that is having success with getting her students to master the content. Because this process takes time and may prolong a curriculum, departments with administrators need to plan out timelines to still ensure that they can hit all required standards in the time frame allotted. This is why the pre-assessment is particularly important because if students have already mastered content in a prior class or are getting the same content in another class students are taking concurrently, then that is one less standard or objective to focus on. This eludes to the fact that there also needs to be horizontal and vertical collaboration occurring as well.
As a leader, being transparent with the staff on what needs to occur and how it should occur is essential. Support has to be provided every step of the way, especially because this process is new for a lot of teachers and requires strong prediction skills. Actually sitting down with teachers and assisting them during every step of this process would allow them to have the self-confidence and the motivation to strive for success.
- What are some of the societal forces that influence school curricula today?
- How do curriculum definitions, curricular history, and theoretical approaches and policy progress relate to major societal forces such as technology and the world at large?
- How might a school leader be proactive in the advent of these types of influences in terms of curricular offerings?
When I entered education, for some reason I felt that students would act the way I did in school. I knew that I had no other choice but to get an education (thanks to my parents), to respect any adult at school because they knew what was best for me, and to always put my best foot forward because I did not want anyone to think I was a failure. I expected the school to be the place where I would learn so that I can make informed steps towards the rest of my life. I did not depend on the school for my basic needs. Was my mind blown when I stepped into the total opposite! Seven years later, I am still dumbfounded that there are still large percentages of students who will be a first-time high school graduate in their family. It is often said that schools have assumed the role of counselors, caregivers, social workers, disciplinarians, as well as educators. I can attest that we do all of that and much more!
Society is moving at such a fast pace that the average adult citizen has to adapt on their own, but the upcoming generations have to learn what they see as current daily living can be used for educational purposes and hopefully become aware of how things were done in the past to gain a sense of appreciation. Unfortunately, if you have a group that is still stuck in the past as far as knowledge and skills are concerned, there is now a huge learning curve that has to happen and the schools must fill that void to not only bring them through the past, but become productive in current times, and learn how to adapt for the future. Everything seems to affect how and what we need to teach in schools from the federal government, state governments, local governments, school systems, community members, professional organizations, parents, staff, and students. As our society endures certain events, it is then up to the school system to expose our students to the how, what, where, when, who, and why so that they can take that information and either avoid repeating the event or learn from it to improve the situation. For example, I never learned the details of how the President of the United States was elected, specifically what the popular vote versus the electoral vote. Now that the elections have been such a source of controversy, the details are much more focused on in school. Also, society has moved to such technological dependence that learning using technology just seems natural, but when the resources and the know-how is not afforded to the schools, then those group of students are now at a disadvantage.
When looking at the written, taught, tested, and hidden curricula, it all depends on the state of those citizens of that school district. For the districts that serve high-poverty and/or high-minority students, the curricula looks much more different by containing numerous hidden curricula. While one district in a state may still be focusing on basic sentence structure in order to write a cohesive paragraph in the 9th grade, a different district in the same state can focus on writing 15-page research papers. However, both districts must still meet the same standards put forth by the state and federal government. Although this inequity exists, a curriculum and the standards that usually dictate what every student should learn about that content is intended to put every student on the same playing field. Unfortunately, the inequity comes prior to the curriculum even being taught and it is up to the individual schools to determine how to bring their students up multiple grade levels in a twelfth of the time. When these types of situations arise and it seems that new theories of instruction are spreading like wildfire, we see if it can work for our students who are struggling the most. When it seems that it only works for a small percentage of students, then we look back to see what worked for the generations before us. We are constantly in this flux to see what works the best for ALL students in the shortest amount of time because we have lost precious years trying to catch up to other countries and cranking out what looks good without taking into account the work and details it takes to change gears.
As a school leader, the question should emphatically be, "What works best for the student?" At what point are those who create the curricula and decide what a student needs to know will actually take the student as a person into account?" We assess students to death, we constantly switch up how they will learn information, we introduce all of these new-found brain-imaging based techniques, and where has it gotten us? A society that now has to get citizens to put their trust back in our educational system. Now there is a huge competition between public schools, charter schools, private schools, religious-based schools, home schools, online schools, and alternative schools all while having more mandates and less funding. Administrators have to realize that there is no magic potion to getting students to learn and strategically taking into account what is best for each student in their school is what will allow them to see gains. Everyone wants to have a say in what will be best, but always putting the student at the top of the pyramid takes priority. It is then that school leaders need to present that plan to other stakeholders so that all have the same goal to achieve. A school cannot appease all who claim wants to help, but if the student is not a priority, those intentions will definitely show. Student achievement is the focus no matter what events occur in our world, no matter what laws are passed, and no matter who is in charge of the government.
