Utilizing Instructional Frameworks- Standard 7

Utilizing Instructional Frameworks

Standard 7:
Teacher leaders utilize instructional frameworks for teaching (TPEP) to improve teaching.

Standard Aligned Courses:
EDAD6580: Leadership in Education
EDAD6589: Engaging Communities

Reflection:

Before taking Leadership in Education and Engaging Communities, I did not fully understand the different responsibilities a principal had.  From my perspective, principals are in charge of disciplining students and making sure they complete their teacher evaluations on time.  I did not understand that it was their job to make sure the community was involved and engaged with what is happening on a day to day basis within the school.  I also did not realize the time and effort that principals put into creating a vision for the school and making sure it aligns with the district vision.  My "knowledge and understanding of the context in which schools operate and of the challenges facing school leaders" (Blair, 2016, p. 73) was minimal.  During the classes, Leadership in Education, and Engaging Communities, I learned about the behind the scenes work a principal does.  What teachers see on a day to day basis is the discipline side of being a principal.  They do not see all of the work they do to make sure the community is connected to the school, to make sure everything within the school is running smoothly, and how they manage situations that could otherwise spiral out of control.  Through these classes I learned what it takes to create a plan for community engagement as well as a visionary leadership analysis.

EDAD6580:
In my Leadership in Education class, we talked about the different types of leadership styles.  We spent a significant amount of time on organizational behavior because according to Owens & Valesky, "effective educational leaders must have a clear grasp of the essentials of organizational behavior in deciding how to engage in the practice of leadership" (Owens & Valesky, 2015, p.1). We took many leadership and personality tests to determine what our leadership styles are.  I found out that I am a behind the scenes director.  I like to be in control but don't want to be in the spotlight.  I am comfortable delegating tasks to people and making sure they get completed correctly but I am always going to delegate speaking in front of a group of people.  I found this interesting since I am a teacher and I speak in front of students every day.  I realized that the type of speaking I delegate involves my peers.  After this class, I pushed myself to sign up to lead activities when we are doing building training, or when an idea needed to be presented to the entire department.  

Each week we learned about a different type of leadership style and a different pair of people taught a mini-lesson on it.  I worked with two other teacher leaders to teach Chapter 9: Leadership from Organizational Behavior in Education, by Owens and Valesky.  In this presentation, we practiced strategies we wish were implemented in the professional development provided by our schools.  This aligns with the Principal's Criterion 1: Creating a Culture (AWSP, 2013).  When professional development is run well, the staff are fully engaged and are "Engage[ing] in essential learning conversations for ongoing improvement" (AWSP, 2013).  When staff are engaging in essential learning conversations, the school and students benefit.  According to Zepeda (2013), "leaders build authentic relationships with teachers, students, staff, and other stakeholders, and effective leaders work to promote an environment that supports:
1.) Interaction and participation. People have many opportunities and reasons to come together in deliberation, association, and action.
2.) Interdependence. These associations and actions both promote and depend on mutual needs and commitments.
3.) Shared interests and beliefs. People share perspectives, values, understandings, and commitment to common purposes.
4.) Concern for individual and minority views. Individual differences are embraced through critical reflection and mechanisms for dissent and lead to growth through the new perspectives they foster. 
5.) Meaningful relationships.  Interactions reflect a commitment to caring, sustaining relationships"(Zepeda, 2016, pp. 278-279).
This class taught me that as a principal your goal should be to build relationships with every one who is impacted by your school.  That includes the community and parents.

Another aspect of this class was the visionary leadership analysis (VLA) also aligned with Criterion 1.  According to AWSP and Criterion 1, when creating a culture a principal "Develops and sustains focus on a shared mission and clear vision for improvement of learning and teaching" (AWSP, 2013). Through the creation of my VLA, I learned a significant amount about the vision of my school and the vision of my district that I was not aware of before.  The vision of the school is currently in flux as we are gaining traction with the International Baccalaureate [IB] program we now have.  We are going to have our third IB graduating class this June (2018) and that has shifted the vision of Renton High School since I first started teaching there six years ago.  In order to create my VLA, I looked at a long list of sources to help solidify the information.  I used the OSPI Report Card and Assessment, graduation requirements, the SIP from my school, the district vision of instruction, leadership meeting notes, our student handbook, and current attendance records.

EDAD6589:

This class focused on how to engage the community your school is located in with the school and students.  Through this class, I realized the lack of community involvement we currently have at my school.  One of the catalysts to understanding the lack of engagement my school experiences with our community was the goals we wrote for the class.  I had to determine goals, what activities would help achieve that goal and what evidence would look like.  As a teacher and not an administrator, I should be on the other end of many of these things but am not.  When I talked to my principal about the different ideas I had for each criterion, I met an unexpected amount of resistance.  I was told the community did not want to be involved in the school.  Through this class I learned there is a difference between being involved and being engaged.  We don't have involvement or engagement at this point.

Goals for EDAD 6589 Engaging Communities                                                                 

Principal Criteria/Indicator (Relate to Teacher Criteria)	Goal	Planned Activities	Evidence
Principal Criterion 7.1 Communicates with community to promote learning Teacher Criterion 7 Communicating with families (CEL 5 Model) 7.1 Professional Collaboration & Communication: Parents and guardians 7.2 Professional Collaboration & Communication: Communication within the school community about student progress	Communicate with teachers, students, families, and the community effectively to promote an inclusive learning environment.	·       Weekly email to staff to start the week. ·       Classroom visits to be visible in the school and to get to know students within their classes. ·       Visibility during passing time and lunch to see students outside of the classroom. ·       Available meeting times for parents, students, teachers, and community members to come in and be a part of the school. ·       Dinner/lunch with the principal for parents, students, teachers, and community members to come and learn what is happening in the school.	·       Emails ·       Phone call logs ·       Planned evening events ·       Meeting notes ·       Feedback from parents, students, teachers, and community members.
Principal Criterion 7.2 Partners with families and school community Teacher Criterion 7 Communicating with families	Create opportunities for parents and community members to be a part of the classroom and school culture.	·       Career days where community members and family members are invited in to talk about their careers specific to class content. ·       Teacher websites updated with easy access for parents to curriculum and teacher contact, i.e. lesson videos, lesson plans, homework, extra resources. ·       Content nights/afternoons to learn about classrooms.	·       List of family members and community members who have volunteered to speak about their careers. ·       Teacher websites. ·       Feedback from families, students and community members.

The other major focus of this class was to create a Community Engagement Product.  To create this product, I had to interview my principal.  Sitting down and talking with her about the currently level of community engagement was interesting.  She kept using the word involved instead of engaged.  Although she was saying involved instead of engaged she was correct.  Our community is "involved" but not engaged.  They receive information but not invited in to share their ideas.  They are told what is happening but not asked if they think that is what should be happening.  The community my school is in, has not been very receptive to the efforts my principal has put forth.  There is a stigma about my school and the students that attend it.  We need to remember that getting parents engaged takes time.  Parents are more likely to show up if they are personally invited by someone they have a relationship with.  "Investment in parent engagement, then, should be about creating the relationships that provide a foundation for long-term and sustainable change in schools, not a quick fix to any school’s problems" (Warren, Hong, Rubin, Uy, 2009, p.2248).  This product showed me how hard it can be to bring parents and community members into a school, but it also made me realize how important it is to never stop trying to get them engaged in what we are doing as educators. 

Sources:

• AWSP. (2013). AWSP leadership framework criteria and resources. Retrieved fromhttp://www.awsp.org/resources/FrameworkCriteria
• Blair, E. (2016). Teacher leadership: The "new" foundations of teacher education: A reader revised edition. New York: Peter Lang.
• Owens, R. G., & Valesky, T. C. (2015). Organizational behavior in education: Leadership and school reform. Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
• Warren, M. R., Hong, S., Rubin, C. L., & Uy, P. S. (2009). Beyond the Bake Sale: A CommunityBased Relational Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools. Teachers College Record,111(9), 2209-2254. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from http://www.lsna.net/uploads/lsna/documents/beyond_the_bake_sale.pdf
• Zepeda, S. J. (2012). Professional development: What works. Eye on Education.