Category Archives: Standard 2 – Teaching and Learning

School Improvement Plan update

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Describe: My school improvement project targets intervention of struggling first graders in math. My efforts in the last month have mainly focused on trying to make a workable schedule, pin down the person who agreed to do the intervention, and prioritize students who should be receiving the intervention. I have also not heard anything about having the online tracking component funded from the grant I wrote.

Reflect: There is no block of time allocated to this project per se, so scheduling has been the main problem. I can’t change the overall schedule, but I could find small chunks of time to implement the project. However, finding specialists who will stick with that schedule has been a challenge. Honestly, I think I’ve been too flexible with the specialists involved in the project. What I’ve learned about myself as a leader from this project so far is that I’m going to have to spell everything out in order to make sure it happens. Instead of opening it up for specialists to drop in when they have some time, the schedule will have to be concrete.

Connect: The School Improvement Plan connects to Standard 2.1’s “collaborate with others.” I’m getting a real lesson in how to get others to do what you need them to do. It’s been a mixture of sweet talking and presenting data in order to motivate the interventionists to be involved. This job is not something I ever could do on my own, nor would it be as powerful an experience if I were. It also relates to Standard 1.2: organizational effectiveness and create school based strategic goals. For my future as a leader, I would say that this has been a great experience in how to collaborate with others to get things done. I have always believed that if something is important you will dedicate time to it. If I drop the ball, no one else swoops in to take over. It’s all me driving it forward at this point.

Walkthrough observations

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Describe: I participated in math workshop walkthroughs with my school’s instructional lead teacher (ILT), principal and and exemplary project coordinator. We observed four classrooms as teachers were engaged in math instruction in grades 4 and 5. The ILT had prepared a schedule in advance. The principal had scheduled the visit from the exemplary project coordinator, and probably did not have a lot of leeway about dates. I asked to be included because it involved math instruction, and my participation would have a minimal impact on my regular classroom schedule. The original walk through schedule included observations in preschool classrooms, which were canceled because although the ILT had taken care to ask in advance when math was taught, when we showed up students were preparing to go to lunch. I felt surprised that something like that could happen; it seemed like a blatant level of non-compliance. The principal seemed less surprised; the teacher who had passed along the incorrect information has a reputation for being non-cooperative. The principal and I briefly discussed preschool math instruction, and I indicated I would follow up with the preschool teachers.
Reflect: Because I have a different perspective from the others, and was especially interested to hear their thoughts on the math instruction we saw. I have a lot of context that I was able to offer as part of the debrief. The principal, ILT and I drafted a letter to the staff as we debriefed the walkthroughs. I wish we could have scheduled the walk throughs for a different time frame. The teachers were all gearing up for the midyear assessment, and 4th and 5th grades are both involved in multiplication and division, which, after days of teaching for meaning, had shifted towards more procedural instruction.

Connect: One of the most interesting things was for me to see the experience of the ILT on her first walkthrough. She was really concerned that others would believe she had made a mistake in putting the schedule together. She had some great follow up questions, including one about whether a certain teacher usually didn’t have students raise their hands as part of the discussion but just “chime in.” She mentioned research on this topic that I would like to follow up with. I have worked with several people (my principal, a couple other math coaches, and some others) who I think are really good at developing talent, and have been very supportive of me professionally. I’m looking at this from the other side now, wondering what I can do to be more of a mentor to others, to recognize skills and abilities in colleagues and work to help them develop further. (Standards 3.3 and 3.4)

Attchment #1: The walk through schedule

learning walk jan 20

Attachment #2: An example of the notecatcher we used.

walkthrough observation form

Staff development in technology

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Describe: Last summer the Instructional Technology Coordinator (ITC) at my school and I presented professional development on the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) Model of technology implementation at countywide conferences. She was asked to offer similar staff development to our school faculty, and I offered to support her in that role. This is a required activity.

Reflect: The presentation was not optimal. Although I listened and coached my co-presenter through what was going to be covered beforehand, I felt that the presentation would have been better with more interactive examples of technology and less “sage on the stage” presenting. My co-presenter relied on me for the examples, and in the end did not incorporate them in a way that I think would have been effective. I wish I had seen this coming and been proactive in my role as co-presenter in insisting on what I though would work better.

Connect: Standard 2.4 includes using technology to improve instruction. The SAMR model is a very useful framework for looking at technology as a tool for instruction. Our county is encouraging staff to become familiar with the model to support making good decisions about technology as an instructional tool. This experience also relates to Standard 3.2, which says under Content Knowledge “evidence of candidate knowledge of methods and procedures for managing school resources, including the strategic
management of human capital,” and makes me reflect, as a coach and a future leader, on how to get the best out of people. This is the third time I have presented with the same person, and I’m not sure we’re getting better as a team. If we end up presenting together again, I will ask for an outside person, someone I trust in a coaching capacity, and someone whose opinion my co-presenter respects, to help us prepare.

SAMR
My notes for my co-presenter.

SAMR 101

The powerpoint we used for the staff development.

School Improvement Plan

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Describe: Today (Jan. 6, 2016) I met with the ESOL teacher (Rene) who has been tasked with the math intervention for first grade. We discussed successes and challenges with the schedule and the content we’ve been using, and spent a little time discussing the difficulties a specific student has. We concluded with the understanding that I would reassess the students so we could move forward in terms of instruction, and modify my schedule so I could be present to offer coaching support one out of the four days a week.

Reflect: This exercise is way more involved than it seems on paper. A large part of the problem I’m running into is a lack of materials that are appropriate for the intervention. The Assessing Math Concepts (AMC) assessments are a great starting place, but unfortunately we do not have the appropriate follow up materials. (The materials I proposed using in my SIP are more for small group instruction. They’re not inappropriate, per se, they’re just not as targeted as I would like them to be.)

Connect: I find I’m following Dr. Balzano’s advice about the structure, and how I’m supporting the interventionist. Going forward it will be more of a coaching relationship. There is no scripted program that will serve these students. They need intervention that targets their specific needs and misconceptions. As such Rene and I will need to work together closely to make sure they are receiving targeted support that aligns with the math curriculum. Rene is Reading Recovery trained, and she put it best when she said what we need is Reading Recovery for math!

Today I felt there were connections with 2.1: Collaborate with other to accomplish school goals and 2.3: Work collaboratively with school staff to improve teaching and learning. I really have to remember that this teacher is wonderful, resourceful, and really on board with the intervention, but she does NOT see herself as a math teacher. Keeping the focus on issues of equity for these students should help to maintain her motivation, and I need to keep in mind that not everyone is as motivated by math instruction as a math coach.

revised schedule for intervention

The artifact is a framework for working with students which will be adapted after the most recent assessments and be used to monitor student progress.