STANDARD FOUR
Principals will ensure that the school is a professional learning community. Principals will ensure that process and systems are in place which results in recruitment, induction, support, evaluation, development and retention of high performing staff. The principal must engage and empower accomplished teachers in a distributive manner, including support of teachers in day-to-day decisions such as discipline, communication with parents/guardians, and protecting teachers from duties that interfere with teaching, and must practice fair and consistent evaluations of teachers. The principal must engage teachers and other professional staff in conversations to plan their career paths and support district succession planning.
4A: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Professional Development/Learning Communities: The principal ensures that the school is a professional learning community.
Since the beginning of the year, I have attended the first grade PLT. Coming from a middle school, it was a complete mindset switch. Beyond learning their curriculum, I experienced how they provide interventions, take data, and manage student behavior. The PLT agenda I have included indicates the discussion after their learning rounds. Teachers were encouraged to have a discussion right after the learning rounds. However, first grade PLT opted to have their discussion later. At this meeting, I facilitated the discussion where it was decided that after the next learning rounds, the teachers would talk right after the observations instead of waiting. As a leader, I experienced allowing the teachers to make the decision they felt was best, reflect on it, and change to try something new. Being a part of this allowed me to see what education is all about - trial and error.
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4B: RECRUITING, HIRING, PLACING, AND MENTORING STAFF
Recruiting, Hiring, Placing and Mentoring of staff: The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure a high-quality, high-performing staff.
This year, we hired a first year teacher to teach our 4 C's class. This class was created by our school so there is no county curriculum to follow. Some teachers may find this fact liberating because there is a lot of autonomy. However, a first year teacher who requires a lot of guidance requires even more guidance without a curriculum or a team. Her mentor and other specialists are doing an amazing job of supporting her. I am also supporting her as an administrator, especially on the evaluation side. Her first evaluation revealed many areas of need. In discussions with my principal, we identified which are the most pressing and should be addressed first. The email is a conversation we had regarding her receiving help from other grade levels. She was wanting to extend beyond what they do in the classroom, but did not get a lot of answers back from them. In this moment I realized this was an opportunity for me to step in as a leader to garner more information from the teachers.
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There is not a lot of turnover at WSES which has its positives. Unfortunately, that means I did not have as much experience with hiring. Thankfully during one of my classes we discussed hiring practices in depth. This discussion included our own personal ideas and practices we have seen or been a part of. I had a lot of experiences prior to my internship to reflect on, including the hiring of a new principal. As a leader, it is important to know what you value in a staff member, clearly identify the position requirements, and have a process in place for interviewing.
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4C: TEACHER AND STAFF EVALUATIONS
Teacher and Staff Evaluation: The principal evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and, thus, student achievement.
Mrs. Landmark was gracious enough to allow me to observe her and record the post conference. I have worked very hard on my observations this year, making sure I am documenting what I see, providing sound recommendations, praising where applicable, and learning from teachers. It is not easy to create a great observation - one that is specific and conversational. As a leader, I realize the weight observations carry. Beyond being mandated, they are often what teachers look to for guidance in their own teaching.
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