EDU6990
Reflection Standard 7
Standard
7
Teacher leaders will utilize instructional frames to improve teaching.
Teacher leaders will utilize instructional frames to improve teaching.
Relevant Courses in Program:
EDAD 6580 Leadership in Education
Reflections
Original Experience
Prior
to this course, I had a very surface level understand of our districts own
evaluative framework, and certainly did not have a deep understanding of the
myriad of necessary components that principals must thoughtfully consider when
leading a school. I did not understand organizational theory, and how this
impacts my principals vision, and his interaction with our staff. I viewed
school leadership solely from the perspective of a PLC leader, and sought to
use our district’s framework, and PLC protocols to empower my team to improve
our instruction. I always recognized the power that administrators, and teacher
leaders held in setting a positive school climate and making teachers, and
staff feel valued, and supported. My initial reason for enrolling in this
program was to learn the necessary skills to be able to actively and
effectively contribute to the positive culture of my school as the third-grade
leader. My leadership courses have undoubtedly equipped me with the necessary
skills to do this, and have even sparked a potential interest in eventually
pursuing administration to be able to shape a school, and empower and support teachers.
New Learning
New Learning
According to Owens and Valesky (2015), Organizational
Theory is an approach to examining complex ideas in a methodical manner. In
schools, both bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic systems are used. Using a
system, or an organized way to analyze an issue we can more effectively
understand why things are happening the way they are, and understand how to
alter these events, or to predict changes or trends. Organizational theory is
knowledge or data organized in a specific way with the objective of explaining
why things work in a specific manner. A deep understanding of Organization
Theory is imperative for building and district leaders because the behavior and
choices of all individuals is molded by the expectations and culture cultivated
by the organization (Owens & Valesky, 2015). In
order to create a building, or district environment conducive to positive
productivity, strong leaders must have a deep understanding of organizational
theory and actively cultivate this environment. When administrators understand
organizational theory, they are able to make thoughtful, meaningful decisions. It
is important for educational leaders to not only create, and explain their
educational vision to all of the teachers and school community, but to also
implement a concrete, attainable plan. This involves motivating teachers,
improving educational outcomes for students, and supervising each step of the
implementation of this plan. School and district-level leaders have an
invaluable job. To cultivate and support growth in all members of our school
system, including the students, and adults. It is crucial that these leaders
have a strong vision for learning, along with a deep understanding of
educational students as it allows them to select effective strategies to
improve educational outcomes for all students, and to cultivate a highly
productive environment centered around collective growth.
Moving forward, I will continue to lead
PLC meetings using a framework that recognizes that the most important
component of PLC work is to use formative data to improve student learning (Defour & Reeves, 2016). I will not only continue
to analyze data with my team to plan interventions for struggling students, but
will also work with my team to determine the most impactful, appropriate
interventions that “employ systematic,
intensive, focused, and immediate small-group instruction” (Defour &
Reeves, 2016). I will also continue to
recognize that the most crucial PLC work is only possible to complete when a
warm, mutually-respectful environment is created and maintained. It is crucial
that this tone is set by the school principal and teacher leaders. Through my
coaching sessions with my colleagues, my research, and deeper analysis of the
Marzano Framework, my lesson design, planning techniques, and lesson delivery
have positively improved. With my growing understanding and comfort with the
Marzano framework, it has now become an extremely useful, formative tool when
designing lessons. For each criterion, there are
examples elucidating specifically what an unsatisfactory, basic, proficient,
and a distinguished rating would look like. This is a very beneficial tool in
improving teaching practices as these examples show precisely what steps I must
take in order to improve. Jiang (2014) claims that by recognizing differences
and “by being open to diverse ideas, teacher[s] establish a safe classroom
environment.” (p.301). It was incredibly powerful to brainstorm ideas
with other professionals to choose the most impactful strategies. As a result
of this experience, my lesson design improved, and,
ultimately, my students were successful.
In the future, I will continue to use
these resources to help inform and improve my planning, and my instruction.
Being that the Marzano Framework is incredibly comprehensive, I will always
have areas to focus upon to improve my practice, and specific examples to
support my improvement. As a teacher in
UPSD, I have always adhered to the UPSD basics of instruction, which align
exceptionally well with the Marzano framework, but I not recognize the power of
collaboratively planning with peers to gains ideas to strengthen my lessons. I will
continue to utilize my teammates’ perspectives to strength my practice, and to
recognize each of them as the invaluable resource that they are.
When
exploring the rubric that principals are evaluated on, I was surprised to see
that they are also evaluated on eight criterion which include creating a school
culture that promotes improvement, demonstrate commitment to closing the
achievement gap, providing for school safety, assisting instructional staff
with the alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state and
local school district learning goals, monitoring, assisting, and evaluating
effective instruction, and assessment with state and local school district
learning goals, monitoring, assisting, and evaluating effective instruction and
assessment practices, managing both staff and fiscal resources to support
student achievement and legal responsibilities, and partnering with the school
community to promote student learning. (OSPI). With a deeper understanding of
these crucial responsibilities, I conducted interviews with my principal which
supported my Visionary Leadership Analysis. I believe that as effective teacher
leaders, we also play a part in each of these responsibilities.
With that in mind, we
interviewed our principals and based on the data collated from OSPI and the
interview, we completed a Visionary Leadership Analysis with a specific focus on
how the vision is crafted in our schools.
Impact
In order to effectively lead a large organization
such as a public school, it is crucial that administrators have a strong
understanding of organizational theory. It is important to consider the
perspectives of all staff, and use data and research to create and support a
school vision. It is important to cultivate a strong sense of trust,
empowerment, and mutual accountability. An administrator needs to have a strong
understanding of the needs of the students, staff, and community in order to
create an impactful vision that benefits all. As school leaders, it is our job
to help shape this vision, and to lead teachers toward achieving this vision.
Using frameworks, I hope to become an
increasingly effective PLC leader, and learn more about cultivating a highly
productive environment with a focus on trust, development, and growth. I hope
to gain a deeper understanding of organizational analysis to be able to
determine what elements of my practice as most effective, and how I can improve
our PLC practice to impact student achievement. I hope to be able to more
clearly articulate my vision for our PLC practice, and continue to support the
growth of the teachers on my team. Being our team leader, and steadily growing
in my competency in this role as truly become one of the most rewarding
components of my practice. I want to continue to create and organize systems to
improve the way in which we analyze our data and instruction, and create
interventions that are effective for students.
References
Defour, R., Reeves, D. (2016) The
futility of PLC lite. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.spu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c4fb9e6c-27e1-454d-b26c-17a9cee2499a%40sessionmgr102&vid=1&hid=124.
E.B. Hilty. (2011). Teacher leadership: The “new”
foundations of teacher education. New York,
NY: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Hirsch & S.M. Hord. (2010). Building
hope, giving affirmation. Journal
of Staff Development,
31(4), 10-17.
Jian, Y. (2014). Exploring Teacher
Questioning as a Formative Assessment Strategy. RELC Journal: A Journal of
Language Teaching And Research, 45(3), 286-304.
William, K. (Personal Interview January 8th,
2017)
Marzano Framework. Retrieved from http://www.k12.wa.us/TPEP/Frameworks/Marzano.aspx.
Owens, R.G., & Valesky, T.C. (2015. Organizational behavior in
education: Leadership and school reform. Boston, MA: Pearson.
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