Standard two

Standard 2 - An education leader promotes the success of every student by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.

Artifacts:
Parallel Curriculum Model Unit:
The parallel curriculum model is a model that uses a multi-disciplinary approach using core, connection, practice, and identity. This unit speaks to the instructional piece of standard 2 by looking at multiple disciplines simultaneously in a single unit. The ability of teachers to draw on many disciplines to make learning relevant to all students is key, so too is the ability of students to synthesize multiple sources into one cohesive idea. In this unit I have combined civics, math, poetry, and music to offer a unit rich in academic and social learning opportunities.

Service Learning Unit:
I believe service learning is critical to fostering school culture, making learning relevant, and building community. Students are thinking about advocacy by looking around at their community and thinking about what its needs are. Students are encouraged to act on what those needs are, which helps to create a school culture that is sensitive and aware of the importance of being involved in community solutions.

Peer Coaching Professional Growth Project:
This artifact demonstrates my ability to participate and lead in the professional development of staff. Peer coaching teams are just one way to create a school climate that welcomes constructive feedback and is a safe place to reflect about what works and what could be better. Through observation and focused discussion of agreed upon norms I was able to build a collaborative and trusting relationship with staff members I coached (or who coached me). The climate of the school feels more open and aware of the fact that all teachers have strengths and weaknesses and that we can all learn from each other.

SIP Monitoring Analysis:
Monitoring my site’s SIP was easily the most rewarding aspect of developing and implementing it. I was fortunate enough to be involved in a SIP that bore fruit and we saw a real increase from the previous year. It also created a certain climate in the school because we paid parent volunteers and trained them to conduct reading interventions with struggling students. This was highly conducive to student learning and staff development. Many of the parent volunteers did such a great job they are now looking into teaching and being para-professionals in our building.

Learning Theory Presentation:
This artifact is another example of promoting student learning and staff professional development. I was able to discuss with my staff a learning theory, I chose Behaviorism partly to revive the discussion about its usefulness as a strategy and partly because I believe all learning theories rooted in student success have some merit. As a special educator, theories that tend toward direct instruction and reward based instruction hold value due to the learning needs of the population. It’s a great reminder for classroom teachers to talk about different needs and different ways to approach them, always with an eye on the students’ instructional level.

School Centered Analysis:
Working on my school centered analysis was important to me because I was afforded the opportunity to reflect on my strengths, how I can apply them and how I can use situational awareness as a catalyst for improving a school’s sense of unity and the delivery of quality instruction. For me, the importance of keeping my finger on the pulse of the school by simply walking around and observing the interactions of students and staff is invaluable. Information garnered from these types of informal conversations and observations can either lead to a complete shift in school philosophy or a small tweak to how staff delivers instruction. In either case being able to get information and turn it into action is key to the efficiency of any school and vital to student learning.