Standard 3 - Cultural Leadership
School executives will understand and act on the understanding of the important role a school’s culture contributes to the exemplary performance of the school. 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. A school executive must be able to “reculture” the school if needed to align with school’s goals of improving student and adult learning and to infuse the work of the adults and students with passion, meaning and purpose. Cultural leadership implies understanding the school as the people in it each day, how they came to their current state, and how to connect with their traditions in order to move them forward to support the school’s efforts to achieve individual and collective goals.
Element IIIa. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The school executive understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative work environment can play in the school's culture.
Element IIIa. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The school executive understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative work environment can play in the school's culture.
To prepare for our last nine week push to the end of the year, our Leadership Team decided to have mock EOGs for our 3rd - 8th grade students. These mock EOGs would serve as a chance to simulate our testing plan for the actual End-of-Grade exams in May as well as give our teachers feedback on student strengths and gaps in standards mastery. Understanding that a three hour test in the morning would disrupt our normal schedule, I called in several grade level chairs and together, we created the schedule below to ensure every teacher had a planning and each grade level had an appropriate lunch time. Teachers were very appreciate of the time and effort taken to create and communicate this plan.
Element IIIb. School Culture and Identity: The school executive develops and uses shared vision, values and goals to define the identity and culture of the school.
One of our core beliefs at Warsaw Elementary is that ALL students are capable of learning and success. Our classrooms are full of teachers who hold high expectations for all of their students and celebrate them individually. The biggest way we work to meet the needs of every student is to have MTSS (Multi-Tier System of Supports) grade level meetings. In these meetings, we discuss the academic and behavioral progress of every student. I created the following MTSS spreadsheets for every grade level to ensure we are providing the necessary interventions and enrichments to each student. These MTSS sheets are monitored weekly to ensure teachers are adhering to district and state MTSS requirements.
After Middle-of-Year (MOY) Benchmark testing, our Superintendent designated the next Principals' meeting to be a data walk, in which each school principal presented their school's MOY data. I consolidated every piece of our school's MOY data from each benchmark and created this slide deck for my principal to present. My principal, Mrs. Pamela Murray, did a phenomenal job presenting our data to our superintendent and district officials and gave me credit for my work during her presentation.We wanted to make sure our presentation highlighted the growth we have experienced, as well as the honest gaps we observed and how we are going to address those. I presented this presentation to our staff as well to celebrate all our students have accomplished up through the middle of the year. It was a moment where we are able to collectively encourage one another and remind ourselves of our school's vision and motto of every child "Imagining their future, and creating their path."
Element IIIc. Acknowledges Failures; Celebrates Accomplishments and Rewards: The school executive acknowledges failures and celebrates accomplishments of the school in order to define the identity, culture and performance of the school.
|
"If you want it, TEACH it. If you get it, REWARD it!" Warsaw Elementary is a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support) school and I have had the opportunity to work closely with our PBIS Team and each individual grade level to create and plan PBIS celebrations to honor our students' hard work and diligence. To the left are pictures of some of our grade level and school wide celebrations! Not only have these celebrations served as motivators for our students, but also as opportunities to bring our community in our school to celebrate with us.
Below is our PBIS matrix that contains our expectations for students across our school. Over the summer, I met with our Guidance counselor to create these expectations. Students earn PBIS stamps when they have demonstrated "Responsibility, Kindness, Safety, or Conflict Resolution." |
Element IIId. Efficacy and Empowerment: The school executive develops a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff which influences the school’s identity, culture, and performance.
A piece of Warsaw Elementary's staff development is instructional rounds. We conduct instructional rounds by selecting a "host" teacher from each grade level to film a select portion of their lesson using a "swivl" (a video camera that tracks the teacher via censor). Teachers are then put in groups of 4-6 and these groups go to one host teacher's classroom to watch their lesson. I planned our entire second set of instructional rounds which included: selecting the host teachers, creating the protocol sheet, selecting an area of focus, and grouping the teachers. The area of focus I selected was "Questioning." I walked around to each classroom and listened to the various discussions teachers were having about the lesson they saw. Teachers gave each other wonderful feedback and reflections. Below are the feedback sheets for our Kindergarten host teacher.