EDLD 5333 - Week 5 Discussion Post

My final discussion post for EDLD 5333 - Leadership for Accountability. 

·        What is the value of consensus building in the school improvement process, and how does your school go about the process of consensus building? Share strategies that have been successful at your school or another organization.

I’m going to start this post by beginning with the end in mind. That last little bit of instruction just strikes a bit of a funny chord in me, “…or another organization.” I understand that one of the five weekly readings discussed visiting successful non-education business leaders to assess what they do in the area of consensus building and see where these concepts might fit your needs as a school administrator. But, it said merely another organization. How about Imperial Storm Troopers, for example? These cats were the main ground force, and they also had some Marine capacity, for the Galactic Empire. They served under the Sith Lord and Emperor Palpatine, and of course Darth Vader. These guys dressed alike, moved alike, talked alike, and when they upset Lord Vader, they died alike.

 The organization doesn’t even have to be made up of entities with brains, emotions, and feelings. We could talk about an ant colony; one of nature’s most strong and highly-functioning organizations. Ants are a highly organized superorganism consisting of castes and classes of members. Ants operate as a unified entity with the collective goal of colonial support. Ant society has labor division (queens, drones, workers, and soldiers), communication between individuals (pheromones, sounds, and touch), and complex problem solving skills. These critters parallel human society in many ways, which is amazing.

Alas, I digress. Consensus is paramount to true success in any organization, but in education we must have true consensus to improve our schools. Look at what Jesus was able to accomplish with the help of only 10 other men and a consensus of thought. Only when the consensus of all members waned did things change. School improvement is what we, as administrators, should be all about; supporting teachers and inspiring students.

The process of finding areas to improve is what separates the “haves” from the “have-nots”. Everyone can find reason to celebrate 100% attendance, 95% EOC passing rate, 100% graduation rates, but identification of a fundamental weakness in the vertical strength and rigor of a certain class or curriculum takes collaboration, leadership, and corporate vision. Rather than running away or getting frustrated when things are hard we need to take a lesson from legendary tennis great Billie Jean King. King states that the true transformation in her career came when she learned to regard errors as “feedback.” From there she learned to reflect rather than become frustrated, and in turn she increased in focus and correction. (Elmore, R. and City, E. (2007). The Road to School Improvement. It’s hard, it’s bumpy, and it takes as long as it takes. Harvard Education Letter. May/June 2007, Volume 23, Number 3. Pg. 3.) Synergy is what we are after; 1+1 is greater than 2.

My school goes about consensus building by assigning all staff to at least one committee, as well as assignment to a PLC. Some of the PLCs are content area heavy in composition while others are cross-curricular. We have a strong extracurricular program that is buoyed by incredible parental support. Our campus leadership committee meets three times a year (parents, staff designees, administration, class presidents, and student council representatives) and does a fine job of campus visioneering and planning. The PLCs meet three times a week and data is mined at an alarming rate! We have not had one staff meeting during the semester as everything happens in the small groups where candor, discussion, and consensus is easily attainable. Communication flows down to us and back up to administration and then horizontally across all groups and committees. In the end the goal is student improvement.

I would love to see a PLCC (Professional Learning Community Co-Op) where a member from each PLC could meet with campus administration, parents, students, and concerned community stakeholders once a month to discuss what is going on, to Plus/Delta PLC work, take the pulse of the campus, and generally find out where to go next. Each month a different member of the PLC would represent the group to the PLCC, so that everyone could get involved in the higher functioning processes of the campus.

EDLD 5333 - Week 4 Part 2 Assignment

Part 2: Professional Development Agenda (ELCC 2.4 a,b,c)

Professional growth is an integral part of a Campus Improvement Plan. In professional learning communities, staff members understand that continuously honing their skills is necessary for ongoing school improvement.

In Part 2 of this week’s Application, you will develop an agenda for a professional development day that addresses the targeted campus need and include a timeline for follow-up professional development.

 

Professional Development Agenda

Action Plan Goal (same as in action plan): By 2018 the Hispanic students at FHS will achieve 75% at Phase-in 1 Level II or above on EOC Writing tests.
Action Plan Objective (same as in action plan): The Hispanic students at FHS will achieve 55% at Phase-in 1 Level II or above on the 2014-2015 EOC Writing tests.
Topic of professional development: Building 21st Century Writers
Subtopics (if applicable): The Three Key Literacies for 21st Century Learning
Grade Level: 9th-12th	Facilitator: Heidi Hayes Jacobs, President of Curriculum Designers, executive director of National Curriculum Mapping Institute and Academy, and author of “Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World”	Location: Region XVI Service Center, Amarillo, TX Having a region-wide training would allow the pooling of resources that would allow schools to synergize and use multiple resource banks to bring in a national level education leader.	Start Time: 8:00 a.m.	End-Time: 3:30 p.m.
Strategy/ Activity	Purpose	Description	Steps	Estimated Time
8:00 AM – Keynote Address: “Why writing is the higher-order area of the curriculum!”	Teacher instruction and inspiration	Talk on why students that perform highly on writing do better on subjects across the board.	Writing is a testing area and can be fundamentally tracked each year.	45 min./15 min. break
9:00 AM – Instructional Presentation: “Writing: Critical Thinking Throughout The Curriculum”	Teacher instruction	Talk focusing on incorporating writing into any subject area.	How to teach science writing, math writing, social studies writing, etc.	45 min./15 min. break
10:00 AM – Presentation with Q&A: “Challenges for ELL Teachers”	Teacher instruction, peer sharing, extension/elaboration, critique and reflection opportunities	Talk focusing on ELL technological skills implementation.	Every teacher in the Texas Panhandle is teaching ELL students. It is imperative that every teacher understand best practice concepts in implementation of skills.	45 min./15 min. break
11:00 AM – Teachers broken into groups	Small groups will work through next steps of training.	Teachers will be pre-assigned to groups based off of registrations.	Same subject teachers will be paired with teachers from other schools in attendance at training.	10 min.
11:10 AM – Small Group Ice Breaker game	Build camaraderie and teamwork amongst team members.	“3 facts, 1 lie” Teachers will each write 3 facts and 1 lie about themselves on an index card.	After writing on the cards, teachers will share their responses and team members will try to guess what the lie is.	15 min.
11:25 AM – Small Group ELL writing lesson plan utilizing technology	Sharing of ideas by colleagues to create a week-long reading unit plan for ELL students that implements technology usage.	Teachers will utilize best practices from experience to find synergy in lesson plan creation.	Philosophy agreement (PDSA, Concept Based, Large/Small Group work, Graphic Organizers, Simulations, Peer Assessment, etc.)	35 min.
Noon – Lunch	Lunch would be on “your own” unless a sponsor could be found that would serve the area teachers, which is likely something that wouldn’t be too hard to find as it would be a great P.R. move, and of course the TV and Radio folks would be tipped off about it so they would cover the event as it highlights education and the kids of their viewers/listeners.			1 hour
1:00 PM – Video Clip	Inspire teachers	Clip from Columbia Pictures 1998 motion picture “Les Miserables” showing Jean Valjean meeting, eating with, and staying the night with Bishop Myriel. Valjean steals silver and is arrested by police. When he is arrested the Bishop tells the police that the silver was a gift. Then he turns to Valjean and tells him that he is to become a new man.	Set-up Video Explanation leading to small group work	10 min.
1:10 PM – Small Group discussion and idea sharing centered on student writing initiatives that focus on use of technology.	Program and best-practice sharing.	Allows teachers to discuss concepts that they use in classes and strengthen their personal knowledge database through peer sharing and teaching.	Guide questions: ·  What’s the best technique you currently use? ·  How can I …? ·  What is one strategy you’ve always wanted to implement but didn’t have the knowledge or resources to do so?	45 min./15 min. break
2:10 PM – Small Group Collaboration.	Small groups would be combined into “Super Groups” to share cross-curricular ideas about what they learned and created during their individual sessions.	At the end of this time period the groups would document their best ideas on a common source (whiteboard, large post-it board, on the wall using an Elmo, etc.) so that all members could write them down (service center employees would be group monitors and one of their jobs for the day would be documentation of all ideas and the subsequent sending of all collated data to teachers that attended).	·  Sharing of ideas ·  Explanation of necessary information when questions arise ·  Pair/Share (turn to your neighbor and discuss how each strategy could be used for 1 min, etc.)	35 min./5 min. stretch break
2:50 PM – Closing Talk: “The Three Key Literacies for 21st Century Curriculum”	Teacher instruction and inspiration	Jacobs’ “Three Key Literacies” are ·   Digital Literacy ·   Media Literacy ·   Global Literacy	Digital Literacy      *Students must be able to access digital tools, and the knowledge necessary to select the best digital tool for the task at hand. Media Literacy      * Students must develop critical and creative capabilities to both receive and assess the quality of messages from all forms of media, and to generate and create quality media of their own. Global Literacy      * Students should use digital tools to access a global network of peers and to develop a sense of place and people. Curriculum should provide context and background to further students' understanding of global economies and current events.	40 min.

(Jacobs, H.H. (2010) Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world. Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.)