Competency |
Narrative and/or Artifact |
1. Communication – Effectively listens to others; clearly and effectively presents and understands information orally and in writing; acquires, organizes, analyzes, interprets, maintains information needed to achieve school or team 21st century objectives. |
In the MTSS process, I created a flowchart of our process. After presenting the document to our team, we had to make multiple changes in order to meet the needs of the grade levels. Our communication process was facilitated through electronic and personal correspondence at meetings. |
2. Change Management – Effectively engages staff and community in the change process in a manner that ensures their support of the change and its successful implementation. |
During our process to adopt an MTSS framework, we have created a team of grade level representatives known as our Student Support Services Team (SSST). As members of this team, we stressed the importance of the knowledge and expertise lying within our grade level representatives and that their input was vital to the success of the team. |
3. Conflict Management – Anticipates or seeks to resolve confrontations, disagreements, or complaints in a constructive manner. |
In our SSST, we knew that there was frustration at the lack of speed at which the processing was developing. Teachers felt that they were not able to provide their students with the services that they need with the expediency that they had with previous regimes. In our first few meetings, we acknowledged the setbacks and difficulty that lay incumbent with the process and worked to find solutions and workarounds that would best benefit our students. Stakeholders felt that their voice was head, adequate solutions were found, and the process continued to be crafted with fidelity. |
4. Creative Thinking – Engages in and fosters an environment for others to engage in innovative thinking. |
Our MakerSpace is an environment that is used by the students and teachers alike to develop lesson plans and complete activities that lend to authentic knowledge demonstration and application. Our students work on using the knowledge that they gained from instruction to apply it to a particular hands on task. I created a digital posting space from our PD about how to best use the MakerSpace. |
5. Customer Focus – Understands the students as customers of the work of schooling and the servant nature of leadership and acts accordingly. |
A key job of any administrator is to ensure that students are placed in settings that they can succeed in. In tracking our discipline data, I noticed that a few of our customers were having a difficult succeeding in areas of limited supervision, such as recess and transitions. I developed a plan for alternative recess for our students in need and arranged for them to have supervised recess in the gym. Our referrals from these students decreased dramatically during the period this process was implemented. |
6. Delegation – Effectively assigns work tasks to others in ways that provide learning experiences for them and in ways that ensure the efficient operation of the school. |
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7. Dialogue/Inquiry – Is skilled in creating a risk-free environment for engaging people in conversations that explore issues, challenges or bad relationships that are hindering school performance. |
As a facilitating member of school's WrapAround Team (WAT), we work through problems that are plaguing our most serious situations involving students. At WAT, our counselor, nurse, community outreach liaison (COL), and school psychologist hold a meeting with our administrative team to ensure that our most struggling students are being enveloped in a community of care. We use honest and open inquiry to make sure that all aspects of a child's needs are being met and that we do not operate within silos. |
8. Emotional Intelligence – Is able to manage oneself through self awareness and self management and is able to manage relationships through empathy, social awareness and relationship management. This competency is critical to building strong, transparent, trusting relationships throughout the school community |
This year I created a survey to gauge the current standing of our staff in regards to what they wanted from an assistant principal, particularly one that was new to the school. I was able to ascertain from all grade levels and departments their key desires and objectives they would like to see from the administration. After the survey was submitted, I was able to have a debrief with each member and begin the process of showing servant leadership to them. |
9. Environmental Awareness – Becomes aware and remains informed of external and internal trends, interests and issues with potential impacts on school policies, practices, procedures and positions. |
As a new member of Belmont Elementary School, I felt that it was important to dive deep into the current "pulse" of the school. I conducted multiple interviews with stakeholders to gauge attitudes and perspectives on initiatives, mandates, and current business of Belmont. I will be conducting these interviews upon year end exit to determine if emotions and perspectives have altered or remained the same. |
10. Global Perspective – Understands the competitive nature of the new global economy and is clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in this economy |
As a part of the pipeline to producing global citizens and leaders, we understand our critical role as foundational builders of these future citizens. We understand that although students are asked to demonstrate knowledge on standardized tests, the world is in demand for critical thinkers who can synthesize knowledge and develop products to meet the instant demands of society. As we created our MakerSpace, we made sure to incorporate varying levels of technology to allow students to accomplish these critical thinking tasks, including a Lego wall (low tech) to a 3D printer (high tech). |
11. Judgment – Effectively reaching logical conclusions and making high quality decisions based on available information. Giving priority and caution to significant issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex information. |
As previously mentioned, I collected data from stakeholders in a variety of methods to accurately determine the state of the school. Using this information, I crafted a series of opening day activities that were designed to combat some of the stigmas that had been affecting school morale and performance. The aggregation of all data collected allowed me to develop a medium of delivery that would serve to address as many ills as possible. |
12. Organizational Ability – Effectively plans and schedules one’s own and the work of others so that resources are used appropriately, such as scheduling the flow of activities and establishing procedures to monitor projects. |
As an assistant principal, I held an equal amount of workload responsibility for conducting observations, pre conferences and post conferences. To ensure that I was meeting all deadlines and due dates, I used a series of Google documents to schedule, make, and file paperwork on all of these observations. Thanks to this process, I finished all of my obligations three weeks before any state deadline. |
13. Personal Ethics and Values – Consistently exhibits high standards in the areas of honesty, integrity, fairness, stewardship, trust, respect, and confidentiality |
At the beginning of the year, at our administrative retreat, I spent time creating and sharing a digital story that described by personal beliefs about education. We used elements of my vision to craft our goals for the year as an administrative team. |
14. Personal Responsibility for Performance – Proactively and continuously improves performance by focusing on needed areas of improvement and enhancement of strengths; actively seeks and effectively applies feedback from others; takes full responsibility for one’s own achievements. |
At the beginning of the year, I crafted a Professional Development Plan that focused on three key elements for our school's success. My goals were centered on PLC improvement, MTSS implementation, and accurate data tracking. I revisited these goals at the mid-year point and made adjustments to my actions as necessary to ensure accomplishment by June 2018. |
15. Responsiveness – Does not leave issues, inquiries or requirements for information go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated structure for responding to requests/situations in an expedient manner. |
When I arrived at Belmont, there was not a consistent avenue to respond to situations that occurred on campus. I solicited the input of our chief technology officer for the district and we worked on plan to develop a radio repeater system for our school. We have recently acquired 10 new radios for all critical response personnel, including administrators, secretaries, custodians, refocus coordinator, ESL coordinator, and school counselors. The process has cut our response time in half for incidents and we are able to respond to 100% of incidents within 3 minutes, compared to a 50% response rate within 15 minutes. |
16. Results Orientation – Effectively assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a decision is required. Takes prompt action as issues emerge. Resolves short-term issues while balancing them against long-term goals. |
As part of my Problem of Practice, I recognized that our 5th grade reading scores were in desperate need of repair. The vocabulary journal forced me to take responsibility for evaluating our students who needed the most support. As we took on a new student during the course of action research, our data determined that he was in need of additional support and added him to our group. |
17. Sensitivity – Effectively perceives the needs and concerns of others; deals tactfully with others in emotionally stressful situations or in conflict. Knows what information to communicate and to whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. |
Unfortunately, we had a staff member have their stepfather pass away during the school year. I worked closely with her throughout this turbulent time and attended the wake to express my condolences. |
18. Systems Thinking – Understands the interrelationships and impacts of school and district influences, systems and external stakeholders, and applies that understanding to advancing the achievement of the school or team. |
Throughout our MTSS process, I focused our team on the idea of building a system. This process mirrored the directive issued by the district, which was conducting simultaneously professional development meetings as our school level team. We recognized that while our previous process might have been essential at solving individual issues, we needed to focus our resources on building core instruction and |
19. Technology – Effectively utilizes the latest technologies to continuously improve the management of the school and enhance student instruction |
This year, I collaborated to produce a digital faculty meeting. Our school was inundated with snow days this year, and pushed a lot of our after school meetings back. In order to maintain our professional development schedule, we created a digital faculty meeting where staff was expected to submit responses for feedback. |
20. Time Management – Effectively uses available time to complete work tasks and activities that lead to the achievement of desired work or school results. Runs effective meetings. |
Throughout the year, I used the Belmont Buzz calendar to ensure that all critical events, IEP meetings, and walkthrough times were scheduled and met without issue. |
21. Visionary – Encourages imagineering by creating an environment and structure to capture stakeholder dreams of what the school could become for all the students. |
Our MakerSpace area was instrumental in allowing our teachers to thin outside of the box and create lesson plans and activities that allow our students to demonstrate their unique genius. The faculty posted to grade level boards in our staff meeting during a gallery walk. I took this information, created a table, and colored coordinated them into similar themes. The commonality of the lessons drove the items on purchase order that I created to best optimize our available funds. |