Aug 14

Standard 1: School’s Mission and Vision

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After reviewing Elizabeth Vaughan Elementary School’s mission and vision, I realized both statements were non-descriptive and lacked significant detail. Upon learning this, I had a discussion with the Principal and Assistant Principal about their opinions/views. The Principal believed their school shouldn’t be defined by a single mission/vision because they are continuously evolving and their mission/vision should change with current obstacles or challenges. Although administration agreed that my revised mission and vision were adequate for their school, they chose to continue their prior model.

Although I was unable to revise their school’s vision and mission, I did have the opportunity to create a vision/mission for the staff’s “first-day folders.” After given this task, I used a “Mission Possible” (instead of Mission Impossible) theme to create folders, documents, and decorations.

Prior to this experience, I believed it would be difficult to offer my opinion on how a principal should change their school’s vision or mission. In my experiences, the school’s mission and vision are “precious” to the principal and is often difficult to change. I was enthusiastic when I was able to apply my leadership skills to formulate a theme for staff development.

Aug 12

Standard 2: Inservice program for instructional technology

Prior to the start of school, I was able to conduct an inservice program to help teachers integrate technology into their classroom instruction. From a professional development that I attended earlier in the year, I was able to gather multiple technology resources to use in classrooms. The majority of these programs/resources were free services that the staff were unaware of. At my inservice, I conducted several tutorials which included: Smart Express, Kahoot, Student Response Systems, etc..

I believe activities like these enable school leaders to step from being an “administrator” into a “school leader” role. Many school leaders choose to act as a manager rather than an instructional expert and the staff begins to question their expertise in the classroom. I believe more administrators need to step into this role more often.

From this activity, I’ve learned that it is imperative for school leaders to educate their staff on new practices and resources. In many schools, teachers settle into their traditional instructional methods and it is the school leader job to keep their school up to date with current effective practices.

Jul 17

Standard 2: Walkthrough Observations

During our school’s Summer Academy, I was able to use an observation template to observe and evaluate several teachers. Prior to my observation, I sat down with the teachers for a preconference to identify what I was going to be looking for and what is expected. During the observation, I used the Prince William County’s observation template to identify areas of strength and weakness. After the observation, I conducted a post conference where I reviewed my observations with the teachers and gave them several areas of improvement.

I believe this experience was one of the most rewarding experiences due to accountability I was given by our Summer School principal. In my position as administrative intern, I felt I was able to learn from my own experiences rather than an administrator describing the experience. Also, I noticed a significant difference in my delivery from my first post conference to the last.

From completing several observations and conferences, I learned how to give constructive criticism that is enlightening and motivating. This activity made me realize why I want to become an administrator. I thoroughly enjoyed observing other teachers and working with them to provide effective instruction.

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Jun 23

Standard 3: Hiring Procedures

At the conclusion of the school year, I was able to assist in hiring several new teachers in various contents. In preparation for the interview, I was given the standard interview question from Prince William County. Additionally, my principal wanted me to develop several new questions that would help differentiate between candidates. Throughout the interviews, it was interesting to hear the different administrators prospective on the candidates. One administrator valued instructional/content expertise, another valued teaching experience, and the last administrator valued work ethic and personality. After seeing this, I learned that school leaders have the ability to dramatically shape their school based upon their values.

I found this activity to be a rewarding experience due to the accountability I was given. In the end, I had a strong opinion on several candidates on which should or shouldn’t be hired. It will interesting to observe how my prospective on each candidate changes throughout the school year. At the conclusion of this year, I will be able to see if my values change based upon who I thought we should hire and how the hired candidate actually performs.

I have learned that the hiring process will shape your school. What each administrator values will develop the school environment and have a lasting impact for many years. I believe administration could have established what a strong teacher entails and what they are looking for in a prospective teacher.

May 29

Standard 4: Participate in Youth for Tomorrow initiative

At the beginning of this year, our school began to participate in the Youth for Tomorrow program which enables a selected group of students to participate in activities that will impact the school community in various ways. As a school leader, I wanted to take the opportunity to act as a participant with these students to make our community better. As a participant, I was able to lead group discussions and help organize school initiatives that provoke community outreach.

Before in the program, I was excited to interact with our students in an informal setting to make an impact on our school community. These type of informal settings provide a platform to build a positive rapport with your students. I believe this initiative had a positive effect on our students. Although this program developed a beneficial environment for our students to discuss topics such as bullying, social media, etc., I believe many students did not take the program seriously and as the school leader, I should have made it known about the seriousness of the issues of discussion.

As the leader, I would have selected a group of students who could be beneficial leaders and make an impact on others. After selecting these students, I would have selected students who could benefit from the topics discussed in the program. For the upcoming school year, I hope to make these changes to make a more profound impact on our school community.

Additionally, I believe this activity connects directly with what we’ve learned EDLE 610. As school leaders, we must develop opportunities for our students to succeed and become productive citizens. Offering this program doesn’t only impact your school, but it reaches out into the community.

May 29

Standard 5: School Discipline Procedures

Administrative Detention- After-school

Administrative Detention- Night School

Administrative Detention- Saturday School

In previous years, students who had administrative detention were asked to complete a “detention worksheet” which only took them 10 minutes to complete and was repetitive. In order for the students to have a learning experience, I wanted to look at the administrative detention (Night school and Saturday school) procedures to improve the quality of learning and improve its effectiveness. My first step was to create various detention packets that would be self-reflective and require at least two hours of work. On the first page of each packet was a formal document to help administration track student records. Following the first page was a multi-step self-reflective assignment that explored not only the behavior itself, but the impact it may have.

I believe my new discipline practice will make a profound impact on how students and staff look at our detentions. Instead of it being seen as a punishment, students and staff will see this as an opportunity to offer guidance and motivate students to make the right choices.

When looking at my school’s documents, many of them are outdated and do not follow current practices. I believe this activity shows that school documents should be revisited often and updated to meet the needs of our current society.

The next steps in this process is it look into our discipline policy’s effectiveness. If this process continue to be ineffective, further changes will need to take place. Also, we will analyze our discipline data from this school year to see if certain student groups are being affected and if so, we need to revisit our discipline policies in regards to fairness and equity.

May 29

Standard 3: Building Maintenance Walk-through

School Safety Inspection Checklist

During the summer, our school was planning a building renovation that included modifying exterior/interior walls, windows, and floors. Since this was a large project with minimal time to complete, it was necessary to plan which areas of the building should be renovated first and how the custodial staff will regulate the cleanliness of our building during this time. During this walk-through, I was able to help prioritize the renovation projects and give ideas of how to manage this process.

When thinking about what becoming a school administrator entails, an idea that never came to my mind was building maintenance. As a future school administrator, we have various “jobs” that appear to be outside the educational field. This experience was rewarding because I was able to see the school administrator through a different lens and learn from its new experience.

I believe the school administrator role is one of the most difficult jobs in education. The fact that administrator must be experts in many different facets of education can be a difficult task. As school leaders, we must be well-rounded leaders, managers, and educators to develop a successful school.

After reviewing the School Safety Inspection checklist, it is obvious that school leaders have many areas to secure in order to provide a safe environment for their staff and students. After witnessing my school administrator go through this checklist, it was apparent that it was tedious and took quite a bit of time, but the checklist helped provide support to a tedious task. I believe this part of the job is imperative and should be a high priority for any school leader.

May 11

Standard 4: Co-organize Sport & Health Night

My administrative role was to co-organize our school’s annual Sport & Health Night. When co-organizing an activity like this, the majority of your efforts will be focused on the preparation of the night’s activities.  Preparation for this event included making and distributing advertisements, identifying vendors, meeting with the PTO, finding volunteers, and many other logistical requirements.

I believe this event went very well with a wealth of participation from the faculty and community. Throughout this event, I was able to receive assistance from a fellow intern, Adam Yeany, who assisted in making the activities run smoothly and helped fill in any gaps in the process. In the planning and preparation process, I believe the most meaningful administrative task was my ability to divide the organizational tasks amongst faculty, volunteers, and the PTO members. Since different people were put in charge of the various tasks, each task was completed effectively and efficiently.

As a leader, I learned that in-depth planning, careful organization, and effective management of an event will provide a platform for the leader (myself) to become a positive role model through their participation of the event’s activities and interaction with staff, students, and community members.  The most difficult part of this experience was getting the faculty to participate in the event’s activities.  In the future, I will build a positive rapport with staff members and make their experiences during extracurricular events as enjoyable as possible.

This event works in coordination with our school’s mission and vision because we are providing opportunities for our students to strive towards excellence, whether it be in the classroom or in the community.

The following are links to the event’s advertisements:

James Splash Sport Tim King James Blake

May 05

Standard 3: Development of the school’s master schedule

For the Summer School Program at Woodbridge Middle School, I was given the administrative task of creating the master schedule and multiple other documents to form a faculty handbook.  The master schedule would involve four grade levels, three content subjects with lunch periods in a half-day program.

When initially given this task, I was skeptical of how this task would be completed due to my struggles with master schedules in the past. Since I was aware of my struggles, I decided to use a different approach to creating a master schedule. I used my networking and connections to obtain summer school master schedules from past years. Using this template, I had a foundation for my master schedule and was able to tweak specific aspects to meet the needs of our school’s program. From past experiences, I learned that if I struggle with certain aspects of a task then I should use research or networking to help better understand my struggling issue.

As a school leader, I learned that using successful management tools from past experiences can provide a foundation for future successful management practices. From the beginning of the internship, I’ve begun to collect multiple artifacts that I may or may not use throughout my administrative career.  Using these artifacts will relieve stress, create more time, and utilize past successful techniques.

The following is the master schedule and handbook that was created:

Woodbridge Middle Summer School Faculty Handbook