COURSE Reflection

     Unfortunately online course and my study habits do not mix well. I am definitely the type of student that needs to meet once a week with my instructor or professor so I don’t procrastinate on assignments. I realize that because of the economy, budgets, and the desire to not drive every week to Fresno I’ve put myself into the position where I needed to take this online course but it’s not something I’d every recommend. In fact when other teachers inform me they have only taken online courses for their masters I find myself shaking my head because it’s not something I would volunteer for.

            The mock interview was very insightful. I appreciate the time to build my resume and to write my philosophy statement. Both will come in handy as I move forward into my administrative career. The fact that my philosophy of education is very different now than it was when I started teaching seven years ago is because of this program. All the classes I’ve taken for this degree and credential have helped me finalize the type of educator I truly am. I also really like the mock interview because of the immediate feedback that I received from the two administrators that interviewed me. In the future I will need to practice answer questions in clear, coherent sentences because when I get nervous my comments can bounce all over the place.

CAPSTONE Paper:

      This capstone paper was tough to put together mostly because I was unsure what the purpose was. The assignment prompt on the syllabus mentions that we would be talking about the paper throughout the course but until I actually looked at the sample online I had no concept what it was. I am very grateful that a sample was posted online otherwise I don’t feel that I would have been able to finish the paper very successfully. The capstone was basically the cumulative of everything we’ve learned period throughout all of our courses in this program. It was interesting to put together a desired future as that will now allow me to set goals for achieving that outcome.

BUDGET Activity:

When working on the Budget assignment I found I needed to ask many people for help to clarify what some terms meant and where I could locate the information. Most of the information was available online at ED Quest but it wasn’t put into the same categories that were used on the worksheet. I learned that some funds can only be spent on certain things and many times salaries are not included. The district main expenditures each year happens to be on salaries the unrestricted fund is first used to pay employee salaries. I finally learned what the EIA fund was, Emergency Impact Aid. I actually use EIA funds each year for copy charges until about mid-February which when that fund typically runs out. The last comment I want to make is about the lack of communication between administration and teachers on the types of funding available. Teachers are constantly told we need to cut our budgets but there are ways to find money from other funding sources that are not broadcasted to teachers.

RECAP from Nov. 4&5

     On Friday we met three separate administrators from Visalia, Sanger, and Clovis USDs. One of the consistent comments made by all three superintendents was to make sure you write all your evidence down even if the discipline is verbal. The evidence collected is necessary to successfully terminate the employment of an employee without being sued. Another common thread of thought was on getting rid of bad teachers. Again make sure there is evidence when you do but get rid of the bad teachers. The number of students a bad teacher will work with is not okay just because an administrator doesn’t have the courage to do the difficult things and have those hard conversations. Not only does that type of administrator lose respect from colleagues and teachers but they are also ineffective and not doing their jobs.

            
     On Saturday we learned all about Budget from Dr. Terry Bradley. I like accounting, but when it comes to the number of funds, the types of funds, the limitations on spending, and the number of accounts a school can have I have to say it scares me. One of the most important things I came away with from the finance meeting was to make sure that my books were balanced because that’s how administrators lose their jobs. Educational money seems to come with many strings and a lot of hoops must be jumped through to get things put into the right accounts and paid. Make sure money is being spent correctly and that record keeping procedures are followed at all times. As site administrator in charge of financing my job is on the line if there are issues with the numbers.

CHAPTER 7: putting it all together

This chapter puts together an example of a successful administrator career. Jeff touched so many lives with his passion about education and learning. I hope one day that when I retire from my education career that I will have people telling me about how I’ve affected their lives in a successful way. The six leadership connectors that we learned about in this wonderful book on Communication, Support, Safety, Competence, Continuous Renewal, and Trust will be my foundation for becoming a successful administrator. As a teacher I hope to step up into a lead teacher position soon and I plan to use these connectors to build positive and effect relationships with the people that I work with.

October 21-22 Session RECAP

Fridays session on all the laws involved in education and Saturdays school discipline section make me cringe to become a leader. I can handle the instruction, management, and personnel, but when it comes to disciplining students and dealing with negative parents I want to run and hide under the covers. Dealing with teacher or staff personnel issues don’t scare me as much as dealing with students and parents that lie all the time. Oh wait I need to assume best intentions.

I really enjoyed Dr. Hauser’s lesson on effective meetings and appreciate her bringing back the agendas we had to create in her EAD 172 class. Most of the faculty meetings at my school are unproductive and do not accomplish the goals they are set to. My department meetings are much better but I like how an effective meeting should have involvement from everyone versus the meetings I go to where only one person does all the talking, most of which I’ve already read in the executive advisory minutes. I believe I’m going to use a consensus-gram like chart for my project in some form.

FRISK seems like an easy way to remember how to fill out a letter of reprimand, we’ll see how I feel when I have to turn it in.

Chapter 6 - TRUST

Sorry this post is late ladies...

Trust really is the most important and valuable leadership connector but as the book says it’s the hardest to achieve and can take time. My leader has potential to earn everyone’s trust but currently I don’t believe she is capable of make some hard decisions. Like letting certain personnel go or switching someone’s job if they are an ineffective leader. I gave my principal two years of caution before deciding what kind of leader she was and right now she’s in the positive relationship building category that lacks the rigor and discipline necessary to produce better academic results.

                                                             

I would say I’m personally a trustworthy person but in reality I know there are times when I like to gossip or complain to others. If I decide to go into a leadership position I’m going to have to watch what I’m saying and keep it positive instead of whining about this or that. I will also need to avoid spreading gossip and stick to the facts or hard evidence. Being a leader always comes down to the evidence collected.

Chapter 5 - CONTINUOUS RENEWAL

When I first saw the title of this chapter I thought it was going to be about staying up to date on current education practices and teaching instruction but it turned out to be more about reflecting. One of the best pieces of advice is to be reflective and not reactive during a stressful situation. I definitely envy those people that can be diplomatic in every situation. There are leaders on campus that just seem to have the politically correct answer for situations where I want to tell someone to bugger off! For me this will be a challenging lesson, but I’m learning how to hold my tongue before I speak and think about an answer that doesn’t commit one direction over another but keeps me neutral. To be honest this is another reason why I’m still not sure if administration is for me, because I like being able to speak my mind. Sometimes the political diplomatic answer just seems fake.

Twitter Anyone?

I'm not seeing a lot of action on twitter, but it's a pretty cool tool... I've just set up an account for my softball team to send out updates for the team so I don't have to give my number out to everyone, I'm testing it out right now. Just wanted to share with my groupie here since this is where I first started twitter

Chapter 4 - COMPETENCE

Sometimes I become my biggest enemy with my self-doubt. I struggle with self-esteem issues and sometimes when people criticize me I just fall apart. I’m working on becoming more self-assured which has not been an easy road and I constantly fall back into old patterns of not feeling worthy. I really envy people who have an unbreakable self-confidence because for me it’s something I struggle with every day of my life. I like how this chapter outlines the different categories because it helps me think about my current skills level. I need to work on being more socially competent because while I can talk with people and hold a conversation sometimes I hold myself back from talking with people in fear of what will come out of my mouth. I also like how this chapter talks about reflecting and analyzing your practice. As much as I disliked BTSA when I was in the program the reflections you are forced to do were the most powerful lessons. I still try to reflect on my practices to continually grow and improve my teaching. The other thing I like about this chapter is the statement about you will make mistakes but how you react and handle the mistakes will show your competence in a situation. So when I make a mistake I need to acknowledge it and learn from it so it doesn’t happen again.

Chapter 3 - SAFETY

Safety is a word that consistently pops up when you read about good school leadership and now I see why. People need to feel safe physically, emotionally and psychologically in order to create or produce amazing things. Being a bully is something I must constantly monitor personally mostly because as an older sister to three siblings I did my fair share of bossing around. Now that I’m older I try to respect my younger siblings and their opinions but it can be a challenge to hold my tongue and not shoot down some of the things they come up with. I’ve learned that as we get older I can’t tell my brothers and sisters the decisions they need to make but instead I need to support their opinions and provide my support.

There is a list of bullying behaviors in this chapter that reminds me of my department head. In fact tomorrow I plan to show this list of behaviors to another department colleague and see what her opinion is. She is a big micromanager in our department especially when it comes to her subject, Biology. In fact I’d prefer to teach Biology to Earth Science but not until she retires because she makes teaching the subject really stressful. She also likes to take personal credit for ideas the department as a whole create and she has personally criticized teachers at department meetings on average once a year. I know she has a big heart but, I’m glad my science classroom is detached and downstairs away from the main set of science rooms. Is it bad when your department has a list of procedures on how to handle policies set by your department heat? (1) Do not argue. (2) Nod your head and then do your own thing (3) Remember she retires in 2 years.

Have a great night everybody and be thankful payday is Friday‼‼

~Pat~

Chapter 2 - SUPPORT

I’m really peeved off right now because I had just finished my blog when it back spaced on me and deleted all the info I had just typed‼! Talk about frustration. So I will not be typing all my post using word to avoid another catastrophe like tonight.

First let me state that so far I’m enjoying these chapters of this book so far and will be trying a couple of these leadership connecting strategies with my fellow coaches this softball season/year. I’m hoping to build a strong foundation coaching squad so we can build a great overall softball program.

There are different types of support. Basic and essential ones like financial and supplies which are necessary for the everyday running of a school. I would feel VERY unwanted if my principal didn’t have a desk for me when I arrived to a new school. If the students don’t have the necessary books getting through lessons will be a lot more challenging and sometimes students wouldn’t be able to finish their homework at home. Last year my classroom was not swept in a timely basis. There was a month when my room was swept once a week for month and I literally had half a centimeter of dust on my floor. My students would constantly complain about it and I just felt like I was letting them down so I started sweeping the room myself.

More important for building teacher connections would be the emotional and human support provided by the leaders. Teachers need to feel like what they are doing matters. Leaders need to be visible and checking in with their teachers about any needs or wants. The story at the end of the chapter about the principal Mary just touched my heart. I wish I had a principal like that and I only hope that I can become a principal like her. Mary was visible from the very beginning of her principal career and she talked and really listened to her teachers. She made 72 welcome back supply boxes because she wanted her teachers to know they didn’t need to worry about supplies which is something I personally worry about in my own classroom. More importantly she wrote a personally letter to her teachers about herself and what she expected from them that school year. Mary then wrote personal notes to her teachers talking about things they would be working on throughout the school year. I know I’m repeating a lot of what Mary did but I want to be like her when I fill that leadership role. I’m going to make it a goal to be visible on my campus and know what is happening in my teacher’s classrooms by visiting them often and hopefully that means weekly.

That’s it for this chapter blog, until next time…

~Pat~

Chapter 1 & 2 in Leadership Connectors

Communication and Support....

     The first chapter on communication is in my opinion one of the most important to build leadership connections between staff and administration. Teachers need to hear praise about positive things they are doing in the classroom to help encourage them to keep working hard. It cannot always be generic praise like “the schools scores are going up because of your teaching” (addressed to the whole faculty) or “this department is working hard building this [insert strategy]” (addressed to a whole department). Individual teachers need specific praise as well as general praise to feel like their person instruction is being noticed and not always lumped together with all the other teachers. This emotional support is necessary for teachers to have assurance that they are valued members of the school and that the hard effort each teacher puts into their lessons is not undervalued.

     It is equally important for leaders to listen and understand what someone is telling or asking them. My current department head is very bad on actually listening to what her teachers have to say. Many times I ask questions to clarify a situation of what is asked of me because I am confused about what is expected and she interprets that as threatening her authority or not respecting her opinion as a veteran teacher. She also has very poor body language when she is unhappy with a conversation taking place during a department meeting she will cut off all conversations and usually ignore the teacher she feels is responsible for the disarray of said conversation.

First Face-to-Face

This is what I wrote at our first meeting about the pink video:

      How do leaders get unmotivated teachers or staff to produce? That’s the underlying concept I took away from the Daniel Pink Drive video. Money and rewards cannot be used to promote cognitive thinking development because the threat to a person’s safety and security interferes with their creativity. Instead teachers and staff need to be given autonomy and freedom to freely develop their thoughts to produce the never before thought of concepts. Always having an administrator looking over your shoulder and checking off a task list hinders the creativity wheel. Having the freedom to go into whatever direction you prefer is enjoyable and non-threatening allowing for off the wall (outside the box thinking) subjects or topics to develop. By having more pride in what you are producing there is a stronger sense of purpose and buy-in for the user or participant

After a couple of 263 meetings I want to add that walk-throughs are neccessary but the ideal walk-through is a true coaching style one where the teacher comes away with an action plan to improve some form of their teaching instruction.

I also want to say on a personal level I enjoyed meeting Irene and Marci. I am looking forward to our blog posts and online interaction.

Hello!

Wow! Who knew that I'd be asked to blog... never thought I'd be a blogger, but so far it's interesting.

This is my 7th year teaching and all those years have been at Tulare Union High School. I'm a science teacher and this year I'm teaching Chemistry and Earth Science. I also coach softball and this year I'm hoping to get the Varsity head coaching position which I'm very excited about. I've been avoiding the responsibility that comes with the Varsity position for a couple years but after taking these administration classes I'm ready to step up into that leadership position. Somehow I was also elected (might be because I ran unopposed) as our school site CTA rep and will now be going to school advisory (leadership) meetings every other week. Our school has a couple of new things happening this year. We are trying to improve teacher instruction using EDI and Kagan (sp?) strategies. We have a new superintendent and our district motto for the year is to "Get on the Energy Bus" and now advisory is reading the book that was the inspiration for this motto. Tulare Union is very close to hitting that 800 mark and last year the Science department had the biggest gains on test scores for the fourth year running.

Personally... Well I come from a big family and they are the center piece of my life. My brother and sister-in-law had the first baby for my generation and I've spent most of the summer spoiling him and watching him learn to crawl. Here are a couple of pictures of him.

His name is Johnathan Edward, named after both of his grandparents. Both my brother and myself were named after our paternal/maternal grandparents so my brother is keeping that tradition alive.

This school year besides completing my masters degree I have two other goals:

1. Limit the amount of TV I watch a day to one hour. (This has been very hard for me so far... but I'm getting so much other stuff done it is well worth it,)
2. I'm diabetic, type II, so I'm trying to lower my numbers so I can stop going to the (bad word of choice) doctor!

I'm looking forward to this class and hopefully the blogging and tweets will make this class more interactive than the previous online classes. ~Pat~