Cultural Leadership
"School executives must support and value the traditions, artifacts, symbols and positive values and norms of the school and community that result in a sense of identity and pride upon which to build a positive future. "
Standard 3A describes how the school leader can enhance a school culture by taking action to create positive learning environments.
- The District leaders wanted to begin the year by creating a positive environment for the staff of the Northside by hosting a summer celebration to commemorate the beginning of our year as the “Innovation Zone”. Encouraging a collaborative environment on the district level I planned and facilitated team building competitions for the Innovation Zone Summer Staff Kick Off. The event was planned in collaboration with the Innovation Zone principals and central services personnel. I communicated with fellow NCLA member Jamilah Collins to plan the activities.
- To promote the value of positive learning environments, I attend grade level PLC meetings led by our Multi Classroom Leaders and Extended Impact Teachers. The grade level PLCs focus on assessment data, student misconceptions, and corrective instruction. I contribute to the conversations by analyzing data and misconceptions with teachers, creating instructional solutions, and encouraging teachers to continue to strive toward 80% student mastery of core instruction.
Our district has charged each LEA with creating and implementing an instructional coaching structure to build teacher capacity. I attended training on the Get Better Faster Coaching Protocol “See it, Name it, Do it”. The training allows for me to intentionally observe teacher and give specific praise with a bite sized action step focused on building the teacher capacity to maintain rigor and management within the classroom.
- I analyzed the past two years of the Teacher Working Conditions Survey to identify uptrends and down trends in teacher satisfaction. I then used the analysis to select high leverage points of impact we could address as an administrative team. I highlighted areas of growth in satisfaction that we could continue to improve on along with areas that decreased in satisfaction that we as an administrative team could reassess and address.
- From the data I framed questions in a likert scale format for teachers to anonymously complete. In the survey I also collected qualitative data asking for suggestions and specific concerns. The anonymity of the survey was intentional in hopes to generate authentic opinions of the culture from staff.
Standard 3B describes how the school leader uses the school’s mission and values to define the culture of the school.
- At our school this year we closely monitored our staff moral due to implementing a schoolwide redesign with Opportunity Culture. I understand and can articulate how a shared vision, mission, values, beliefs, and goals have defined the identity and culture of the school after coursework and training on culture by Dr. Kent Peterson. I used what I have learned about culture enhancement to have more informed conversations with the administration team and instructional leadership team to intentionally create opportunities to celebrate our success and our why. This led to a creation of a Coker Wimberly Culture google calendar where we as administration plan events to inspire our staff continue fulfilling our mission as a school.
- This year the Northside of our district implemented Opportunity Culture. The administrative teams from all three schools facilitated a values assessment at their schools. From that assessment, five core values were established to symbolize the Northside. I commissioned the art teacher and our scholars to collaborate to create this mural in order increase the visibility of our schools values for all stakeholders.
Standard 3C describes how the leader can acknowledge accomplishments, failures and reward staff members to cultivate a culture of performance.
- As the administrative representative on the PBIS team I attend monthly meetings where I report on the discipline data for the month. I also present this information to the staff in staff meetings as well. The data is analyzed from a report sent to me by the school counselor.
- As a member of the PBIS team I collaborated with members to redesign our rewards system initiative from dolphin dollars to the use of class dojo. I influenced the criteria for the initiative including naming the school wide skills we want to encourage, and describing the frequent negative behaviors exhibited from the student body. The established criteria set a norm for behavior expectations across all classrooms within the school. Also, the class dojo initiative allows for administrative and Multi Classroom Leader access to all students they serve. I delivered this information of change to the staff with a presentation in a staff meeting and the creation of a one page infographic to explain the key points of the new initiative. The new initiative allows for a whole school approach to a students behavior as all teachers have a system, criteria, and support to track and monitor student behavior.
Standard 3D describes how empowering teachers can influence the school’s identity, culture, and performance.
- My why in life is to speak so that others begin to believe in themselves. I consistently empowered staff with meaning conversations, emails, and quotes. When completing the staff newsletter I would always send to staff with an inspirational quote about the importance of their job in changing the world. I received much gratitude from the staff for the empowering messages and my overall open demeanor.
- I also was given the opportunity to lead a staff celebration segment of the staff meeting after christmas break. My mentor principal said “Parker bring the “magic” to the Staff Meeting”. I created a celebration presentation for the staff meeting and ran to walmart to get supplies. I spoke to the teachers saying that as an administrator I was fortunate to see the smiles on all the faces of the students as they returned to our building after christmas break, and I attributed this joy to the warm classroom environments they have all created for our students. I related this acknowledgement of success as our one of our school goals through the No Nonsense Nurturing Framework is to build “Life-Changing” relationships with students. I played a video from Maya Angelou speaking on the quote “Be a rainbow in someone’s cloud”. I thanked the staff for their intentionality in building relationships and served them rainbow cake, rainbow ice cream, and rainbow colored chips for the staff meeting. Providing this opportunity for staff allowed me to learn the process of using the school credit card and completing the proper paperwork for our bookkeeper.
As an assignment in the Distinguished Leadership in Practice training program I was able to lead a staff activity where we collaborated to determine what aspects of the culture to keep, transform, change, or celebrate. After completeing the Educational Garage Sale Activity with staff I was able to have an informed perspective on the staff perception of the historic effectiveness of school programs and initiatives.
|
|