STANDARD TWO Instructional Leadership
School executives set lofty standards for engaging pedagogy that is measured by meaningful data and supported by whole staff collaboration.
Standard 2A: To facilitate distance learning during the COVID-19 school closure, I created this Google Site to follow WCPSS guidelines, provide a convenient portal for busy parents, and to meet the varied needs of our learners. Posted content was created through collaboration with the school's Critical Response Team, grade level teams, and WCPSS communication officers. With the fluid nature of current school closures, this site has required daily updating and adapting. Inclusion of images from the school are intentional and provide a sense of continued belonging to students who are pining to return to the safe haven of Combs. Gaining this experience with agile technology development, creating novel processes, and modifying to meet changing district standards all grew crisis response skills for my future leadership during challenging situations. The full site can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/wcpss.net/gator-gallery-of-learning/home. |
Standard 2A: At the suggestion of Mrs. Anderson from her experience as an elementary principal, I created a Google form to standardize walkthroughs. Effective Math practices are a current focus at Combs, so they were included as the focus of these short snapshots while visiting classrooms. This cascading of a leadership team focus communicated its importance to staff and allowed us to collect exemplars to highlight at staff meetings. These exemplar staff were also ones we used for BTs to visit during our Math Rounds. Connecting this form to a Form Generator add-on enabled me to produce feedback forms, as below. Standardized walkthrough tools are important to establish as a school leader to calibrate needs with practice as well as to provide continual feedback as a natural element for school improvement. |
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Standard 2A: This sheet generated from the above Google form was given to the staff observed during walkthroughs to open a pathway for formative feedback. Real-time feedback is a powerful tool for improving instruction and reinforcing a culture of continual improvement is exemplified by this practice. The inclusion of Glows also provides pathway for administration to share the many compliments we feel for staff but often do not take the time to share. Staff also enjoy knowing why an administrator is in their classroom and this form also adds legitimacy to the more informal walkthough procedures as it is given to them. Walkthroughs supplement formal observations to complete the instructional focus at the heart of school processes. I printed a copy of each form generated for my files, to be referred to during these formal observations and for artifacts for the summative evaluation in the spring. |
Standard 2A: I created this form to enhance the reflective practice of our Combs instructional staff. After formal observations I gave this to staff to process before the post-conference. It allowed celebrations and fostered the instructional practice of continual and ongoing instructional improvement. I elicited feedback from a cross section of staff while creating this tool, and observing staff apply suggestions validated its effectiveness. This form is customized with an administrator-created specific question pertaining to each classroom in the space below the question mark. The creation of this document provided additional tools for future leadership to meet the preferences of staff. While some would prefer to submit it electronically and others in hard copy, bolstering reflective practice will occur regardless. Ceaseless reflecting is vital for sustaining school and pedagogical growth throughout the seasons of a school year. |
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Standard 2A: As an instructional coaching tool, this presentation based on Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion 2.0 was created as a professional development tool to increase teacher efficacy though classroom culture and addressing specific SEL needs of students. Detailed explanations of specific praise, positive framing, balancing warmth with firmness, emotional constancy, and simple elements of joy all undergird instructional practices. Even the most sound instructional practices falter without these elements, discrediting the impact on student growth. As an instructional coach, all administrators should have a toolbox filled with resources such as this to meet the varied needs of a staff. This affable format also prevents staff bristling at suggestions to address these elements of their craft that border on personality traits. Continuing to increase my own coaching toolkit with products such as this will facilitate my effective instructional coaching. |
Standard 2B: Crafting an instructional schedule for distance learning during the COVID-19 school closure was an important structure to instate to maximize instructional time and address family needs to balance the many demands they faced during that event. Based on guidelines provided by WCPSS and through collaboration with the Critical Response Team, we created this template for all grade levels to enter specific content within. After receiving feedback from parents and to meet the needs of ELL and SWD, these plans included additional supports to make the best use of instructional time for these populations. We were asked to focus all instruction on essential SCOS standards and worked with grade level teams in virtual PLTs to craft the short instructional blocks in this template to address those in the most effective manner possible. |
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Standard 2B: While in the first year of my MSA program and teaching Special Education at Apex High School, I created a data presentation highlighting the need for systemic changes to raise achievement for SWD. This was a springboard for a discussion regarding scheduling, staffing, and instructional practices to maximize academic and behavioral growth for this important subgroup. Intentional scheduling resulted, with the placement of courses most often taken by SWD being concentrated in the first semester to provide an opportunity for retaking them in the spring should students not pass. Courses needed for graduation, such as Academic English, increased completion rate as a result. Using data and building-level needs to intentionally maximize scheduling is a task that lies in the duties of administrators and one must possess balcony-level integration of needs to truly craft a schedule that supports student growth and advancement. |
Standard 2A: Also in year one of my MSA coursework, this one pager was created for ELP 559 with Dr. Drake. It is crafted to give staff or leadership teams a quick and easily digestible tool to identify instructional needs and then actions to address them. Staff are overloaded with a plethora of data points, and products such as this are an effective tool for summarizing them and thus increasing the impactful application of data. These also meet the needs of visual learners on staff while addressing those who are accustomed to receiving information in a summarized format, such as on social media. Additionally, departments in a large school tend to be cellular in focus and this type of document expands staff views beyond their own subjects and fosters an ownership of the entire student body. |
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Standard 2A: As PLTs are the driver for academic growth, establishing productive norms is vital for year-long efficacy. I created this protocol based on the text Leading By Design: an action framework for PLC at work leaders by Erkend and Twadell. This proactively establishes procedures for PLT meetings through a collaborative process to foster ownership by all members. A poster would then ideally be created from these agreements as a ready reference to sustain PLT efficacy throughout the school year. Allowing each PLT to develop these as a group also fosters ownership of processes and protects the voices of all. The process of creating this is actually modeling the practices that bolster PLT efficacy to support optimal instructional practices.
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Standard 2A and B: Any time taken from instructional time to be dedicated for professional development must yield results that warrant the loss of the valuable resource. We were asked to systematically analyze such professional development through the lens of alignment with SIT goals and efficacy in this paper for ELP 551-612 in preparation for serving as the professional development leader in our school. All PD should also be tightly aligned with school needs and data and maintain an unwavering focus on teaching, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. These are the lenses that must be used while creating year-long PD plans and their adapting as needs arise during a school year. |
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