Standard 4 - Human Resource Leadership
School executives will ensure that the school is a professional learning community. School executives will ensure that processes and systems are in place that results in the recruitment, induction, support, evaluation, development and retention of a high performing staff. The school executive must engage and empower accomplished teachers in a distributive leadership manner, including support of teachers in day-to-day decisions such as discipline, communication with parents, and protecting teachers from duties that interfere with teaching, and must practice fair and consistent evaluation of teachers. The school executive must engage teachers and other professional staff in conversations to plan their career paths and support district succession planning.
Element IVa. Professional Development/Learning Communities: The school executive ensures that the school is a professional learning community.
Every Wednesday afternoon, from 3:15 - 4:15, our whole staff comes together for a PLC. We take the opportunity during this time together to meet in content PLCs (vertical alignment), celebrate accomplishments (Booyahs!, shown in the slideshow below), conduct instructional rounds, welcome outside guests, and learn from one another through discussion and collaboration. I have had the opportunity to lead several of our after school PLC sessions - pictures below are from one PLC I led called "Closing the Gap." I had the staff read a very brief article that mentioned the many factors that cause the achievement gap. Teachers then grouped heterogeneously and created posters (shown below) that documented their discussion on ways they can close the achievement gap now in their classrooms. Also attached is the instructions for Booyahs!, which has served as a wonderful way to start each after school PLC with encouragement and purpose.
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Element IVb. Recruiting, Hiring, Placing and Mentoring to Staff: The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure a high-quality, high-performing staff.
Data is an extremely important source of information in helping teachers meet the needs of their students. Data tells stories, informs us about our students' academic past, and informs us of our students' current learning so we can address any and all gaps we observe. We have many digital tools at our disposal that help analyze data. Two such tools are EVAAS and SchoolNet. Like most online tools, if one does not know how to use them, they appear intimidating and overwhelming. The presentation below is one I led for all of our first and second year teachers at my school. Other first and second year teachers from across the county joined online. The presentation addressed what it means to gather student data and what to do with it using EVAAS and SchoolNet. I used real student narratives to drive our conversation and participants were able to discuss ways they might individually address each student in the classroom based on their data.
Element IVc. Teacher and Staff Evaluation: The school executive evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and, thus, student achievement.
Our leadership team is very diligent about our teacher evaluations. Every staff member assigned to an administrator for any given evaluation cycle will receive a pre-observation conference, a formal observation, and a post-observation conference. This year, I have conducted over 30 formal observations and recorded them in True North Logic. Below are pieces of two of those formal observations; one was announced for a 1st grade teacher and the other unannounced for a 5th grade teacher.
Below the two evaluation artifacts is our Leadership Team's comprehensive evaluation schedule. It includes every teacher and support staff member, their evaluation type, and which administrator is assigned to them on their multiple evaluations. I worked with Mrs. Murray to create this schedule for our team.
Below the two evaluation artifacts is our Leadership Team's comprehensive evaluation schedule. It includes every teacher and support staff member, their evaluation type, and which administrator is assigned to them on their multiple evaluations. I worked with Mrs. Murray to create this schedule for our team.
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