The Ardent Administrator

It is hard to believe that my first year in this position has come an gone.  I would like to take this time to publically reflect on the year.  Please feel free to add your own comments to this post as well.

First, I have to say that I love my job!  I have wanted to do this job for quite a few years now I can’t believe I am actually here.  I also love this district.  We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I believe we are on the right path.

Looking back on this year, I have accomplished a lot.  I have also made a lot of mistakes (thank you all for your patience with me).  Ed required all administrators to do a self evaluation and to survey our staff about our performance.  I was surprised by the results.  I know I have a lot to work on, but I also found that I have strengths that I hadn’t realized.  You will find, that I am my own worst critic.  When I make a mistake, I am often the first to know and will punish myself even more than the situation warrants.  I know that I don’t take criticism well (as evidenced by the survey).  Part of that reason is that I set high standards for myself and my work.  When I receive criticism, it reflects on my work ethic and standards.  I am working on looking at these situations as learning experiences (boy did I have a lot of learning experiences this year).  I will continue to try to improve in this area.

This year I have had a lot of accomplishments as well.  I have received approval from PDE for the Strategic Plan and Differentiated Supervision Plan.  I have had a successful Federal Programs Audit only three months after receiving that as part of my job description.  I have met Bena Kallick on several occasions and hung on her every word about how we can transform our curriculum.  I played a role in getting all of our staff trained in Learning-Focused Strategies and will continue to oversee its implementation including the implementation of student learning maps next year.  I have transformed the Professional Development Committee back into a true committee where they haveinput into the planning of professional development for their colleagues.   I have created a curriculum cycle that begins next year and will transform the way we look at curriculum.  I have also generated enthusiasm for TechPaths which will allow us to look at curriculum in a dynamic way.

Overall, it has been a great year for me.  I like how far we have come as a district this year.  I am excited about where we are going.  I am sure that I will have many, many learning opportunities ahead of me and I will make every effort to view them as such.  Have a wonderful summer and come back in August refreshed and ready for another great year!

I am very interested to hear feedback on the TechPaths demonstration that occured on March 25, 2009.  Please add a comment to this post with feedback on the presentation. 

It has been awhile since I have had the time to make a new post and so much has happened.  The Curriculum Council has started and I feel it is going to be a positive way to get the word out about all of the good things going on in the district.  I know I say this all the time, but we are so far ahead of other districts in what we already have in place.  Now it is up to us to sustain and refine what we are doing so we can make the most impact on our students.  RtI, PLCs, data teams, CFF, and Learning-Focused are just a few of the initiatives that are making an impact within our schools.  The one remaining item that stands out to me as a lingering problem is curriculum.  I wish I had the power to close school for one month and still be permitted to pay our teachers to come in for curriculum work.  Within one month we could have the vertical and horizontal discussions that are so desperately needed.  We could determine the content and skills that should be required at each grade level and subject.  We could also determine the types of assessments that would be used to measure student progress on those skills.  After that one month, we would all re-group and come back to school with a renewed purpose and a knowledge of what everyone else is doing within the district and how everyone’s job fits into the bigger picture.  We would be able to more accurately insure that all students are exposed to the same set of content and skills before graduation. 

Alas, i do not have that power.  So, we must take this journey one step at a time and I must learn to be patient.  We do what we can, but we do it well.  We learn from our mistakes (boy did I learn a lot over the last year) and we make it better next time. 

The positive atmosphere in the district has improved our chances that these goals will be accomplished.  The new superintendent  has provided avenues for everyone to have a voice.  More importantly, the voices are being heard and listened to.  We are fortunate to be in the place that we are and I hope we appreciate it and use it to our advantage. 

If you are a fan of any of Michael Wesch’s YouTube videos (The Machine Is Using Us), you will be interested in what he has to say regarding the future of education during his presentation at the University of Manitoba.  The digital natives sitting in our classrooms are expecting more from school today, than ever before.  They are coming into our classrooms already knowing how to find information and they no longer need to rely on the perceived expert in the room to dish it out.  We are dealing with a generation of students who love to learn.  If they have a question, they know how to seek out the answer (Google) and they do not need schools to give them all of the answers anymore.  The trick is to tap into their technological expertise and use it to give them an enriching experience in school.  They are using the technology already, so let’s use their knowledge to teach them using their own language.

I have attended conferences where I sat listening to the speaker and typing in a backchat using Twitter or Skype.  You would not believe the level of multi-tasking that you can do.  The presenter would take questions that came up in real-time on Twitter and would respond to them in the presentation.  Sometimes, other participants in the group would answer the question so the presenter did not need to. 

Yesterday I attended CAIU’s Curriculum Leadership Academy.  It was a workshop for curriculum leaders (mostly assistant superintendents and curriculum directors).  Mary Ravita from South Fayette School District led most of the discussion.  She has had the opportunity to visit schools in India, Singapore, and Australia.  She shared some commonalities between their education and how these differe from ours.

• 40+ students in a class
• Project-based assignments (Not a worksheet to be found)
• Teachers are reassigned to schools based on their performance
• Singapore rebuilds schools every 15 years
• India identifies only 3 career paths (science, humanities, and commerce)
• Australia’s students communicate electronically with students in other countries.  They don’t communicate with the US because they feel we are behind them academically.

They also addressed what needs to happen to have a guaranteed and viable curriculum.  These include:

• Curriculum Maps
• Scope and Sequence
• Acadmic Standard Alignment and Assurances
• Instructional Framework

Two of our teachers will be presenting at a conference this weekend.  Because our one elementary building won an award for Title I, our teachers were invited to present at the conference.  Cindy and Fred described all of the strategies our school and district have been using to improve student achievement.  Their presentation was excellent!  It was nice to see all of the things that we are doing right as a district.  They especially gave credit to all of the teachers and paraprofessionals who work hard with all students and who have had a direct impact on improving student achievement.  Without their hard work and ability to collaborate on a regular basis, these gains would not be possible.

This presentation was a trial run for the one they will be presenting at the Title I conference.  It was great to see their colleagues coming out to support them and offer their feedback about the presentation.  Cindy and Fred put a lot of time and effort into the presentation and it was great to see their colleagues coming out to show their support.

The brownies were good too!

I am reading an excellent book (Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders,2008, by Hall and Simeral).   The book talks about school improvement and how to bring about change.  It seems like many schools look for that one panacea, that web-based tool, that direct instruction program, or that other research-based gizmo that will give us results (Sound familiar?)  In reality, the one thing that will bring about school improvement is empowering teachers and improving teaching.

I believe that we are finally on track with investing in teaching and learning.  Learning Focused has done more than give us common vocabulary and strategies for use in instruction.  It has given us an initiative that can continue to drive us to become better teachers (myself included).  For the first time in my short history in this district, I feel we have a common goal (administration, teachers, and community) to improve learning for all students.  There is so much potential in this district and we can do great things if we continue to pull together.

It is a busy time of year for everyone.  It is very easy to get caught up in the stress of the holiday season.  As educators, we try to wrap up that one last unit before the holiday break just to find that our students come back in January forgetting what we did just two weeks ago.  In many regards, the break is too short, but some may feel it is too long.  Take time this holiday to remember that some students will not have a hot meal during the vacation.  Others will be looking forward to the routine and normalcy that school provides for them and can’t wait to return.  Others, miss the interaction with peers and will be happy to return to school next year.

Spend time with your families.  Take time to recharge and renew.  But, most of all, have a very happy holiday!

Today I attended a workshop at our IU on common assessments.  One of my elementary principals and a few elementary teachers also attended.    Karen Bailey was the presenter.  She encourages the use of common assessments and defines it as “any assessment given by 2 or more instructors with the intention of collaboratively examining the results.”  Often common assessments are used as a summative assessment without reflection on the results (our JSHS is no exception).  She encourages use of common assessments in a more formative way.

Bailey cited research on the use of formative assessments that was done by Black and Wiliam (”Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment“).  The research shows that there are three major improvements needed in formative assessment:

1. Assessment Accuracy
2. Descriptive Feedback
3. Student Involvement

Bailey suggests that teams of teachers start small with one small formative common assessment.  Discussions about the assessment results should happen within the teams of teachers with a plan to improve student learning. 

I encourage any who attended the workshop today to add a comment to this post.

The Professional Education Committee has been working hard to determine how to implement our professional development goals from the strategic plan.  Sub-committees will be presenting their recommendations to the entire group in January and recommendations will go to the administration.