| ADMIN1
| ADMIN2 | ADMIN3 | TEACH1 | TEACH2
| TEACH3 | TEACH4 | REFLECTION
| TEACHER OBSERVATIONS DATES
& TIMES |
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Assistant Principal 1 The
observation the Assistant Principal and Administrator of Vocational Services
was held at my current place of employment at the beginning of the school
year. The day began with a faculty meeting. During the faculty meeting the
Assistant Principal discussed discipline issues, and maintenance and
operations issues. Teachers who needed keys were told to contact the
secretary in the Vocational Office. After the faculty meeting, we had a
department meeting for Career and Technical Education. The Assistant
Principal facilitated this meeting. The meeting covered the basics for
beginning the school year. Teachers had questions about supplies and
equipment. The assistant principal spent time addressing these issues. During
the meeting, someone suggested that the department would do something to
encourage moral. They discussed having celebrations on each others birthdays.
The faculty agreed to have a celebration during lunch or during department
meetings after school. They agreed to the person who had the birthday would
bring the refreshments for the luncheons or department meeting. After the
department meeting everyone went to their individual rooms to work. On
another day during my observation of this assistant principal, he had several
hearings with students. The assistant principal moderated the hearing. The
hearing was recorded by a hearing officer. The parent, student, assistant
principal, teacher, and I were present during the hearing. The hearing office
reviewed all of the details that surrounded the event. There was a long
dialogue with the assistant principal, parent, and student. The hearing was
very intense but calm. The
assistant principal handled this hearing very professionally. This assistant
principal had many discipline issues to handle on this particular day. There
were meetings with parents to discuss situations that had transpired with
other teachers or students. There
were requests for air conditioners not working in a few of the teacher’s
classrooms on the vocational hall. The secretary made a phone call to
maintenance at the county office to report the work request. At the end
of the day, the assistant principal had bus supervision. This assistant
principal is primarily responsible for maintenance and operations and
discipline. |
Administrator Observation 2
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Assistant Principal 2 This
observation was with an Assistant Principal at my current place of
employment. This person literally spent the majority of his time dealing with
discipline issues. Prior to the discipline issues, we attended a Leadership
Team meeting for the school. The meeting was held in a regular classroom.
Department Chairpersons, Assistant Principal, Principal, Instructional Lead
Teacher, and the Instructional Technology Specialist were in attendance. The
meeting was lead by the Instructional Lead Teacher. The principal moderated
the meeting but he did not have too much to say. When it was time for the
Department Chairs to participate, they did not have much to report. After
the Leadership Team meeting, the drama began with student discipline. The
assistant principal contacted parents as he assigned students to ISS
(In-school Suspension), The
assistant principal also handled issues with student withdrawals, attendance
issues, but mostly discipline. The
assistant principal was assigned lunch duty, which consisted of sitting on
the stage in the cafeteria for two hours observing the students. |
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Director of
Professional Learning Throughout
the school year, I have conducted several observations with administrators. One
observation was with the Director of Professional Learning. Honestly, I
needed skates to keep up with this person. The mission of the Professional
Learning Department is to build capacity to initiate and sustain high quality
professional learning communities, provide support for the continuous school
improvement process to Henry County Schools to "Ensure success for each
student", and assist administrators, teachers and support staff in
acquiring the skills and knowledge needed for maximum performance (http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/detail.cfm?id=34&sub_id=5).
The
Director of Professional Learning has a tremendous responsibility to ensure
that all educators are properly informed of the latest best practices to
ensure success for all students. On this
particular day, the director had several meetings. We went from one meeting
to another. The Director attended a meeting for administrators that dealt
with strategic planning for high school principals. Another meeting was with
the professional learning team for the Teacher Induction Program (TIP). In
between meetings, the director was taking telephone calls and addressing
various issues. The Director of Professional Learning was always professional
in her appearance and her attitude. I have had several occasions to observe
the Director of Professional Learning because she is my mentor. She has
devoted quite a bit of her time to my professional learning and development. During
the Teacher Induction Program (TIP) the Director of Professional Learning was
responsible for the total operations of this meeting. All tables, chairs,
audio and video equipment had to be set up on Sunday so that every thing
would be in place for the following week. The Director of Professional
Learning was the point person for this event. She orchestrated this event
with professionalism and excellence. The Director guided new teachers to
their designated areas, worked the registration table, designated TIP
presenters to their locations, and made sure that meetings started and ended
on time. I really admire my mentor’s planning, organizational, and
administrative skills. She works with people in the entire school system.
Everyone was handled with dignity and respect. During
one observation, she was training for developing online courses using the
Blackboard Learning System. Interactions during the meeting were closely
observed. The director asked questions relative to developing online courses
particularly for professional learning. This training session was very
interactive. The Blackboard training was sponsored by Technology Services.
Mostly instructional technology specialists were participating and a few
classroom teachers. Director of
Technology Services On another
day, I observed the Director of Technology Services. I met the Director of
Technology Services in her office. She was on the telephone when I arrived to
her office; she was handling technical service issues with technology
specialist at another school. After the phone call, she shuffled through
tones of papers on her desk. Some documents were signed and placed in a
basket. Then, we left and went to a meeting at a local high school. During
the meeting, there were several people present from Technology Services; the
Instructional Technology Specialist from the high school we were visiting was
present. They discussed technology issues and concerns for that particular
school. |
Reflection
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The passion that these teachers exuded for teaching and learning
is what we need in every classroom. A child’s capacity for learning should not
be limited by his or her socioeconomic status, demographics, beliefs, values,
or ethnicity. When educators allow surface level ideas to interfere with what
we teach then we cease to teach. Delpit (2003) argues that the educational
system is determined to do three things: “question children’s capacity,
produce questionable numbers about capacity, and proliferate limiting
programs to produce questionable numbers (p. 14)”. Instead, Delpit believes
educators must seek to believe in children. Then, educators must create
rigorous, engaging instruction based on knowing who the students are and the
legacies they bring to fight foolishness (Delpit, 2003). First, Hilliard
suggests educators must become convinced of children’s inherent intellectual
capability, humanity, physical ability, and spiritual character (Delpit,
2003: Hilliard, 1997). Secondly, to fight foolishness, Umeh says “we need
teachers who challenge their students thinking with high quality,
interactive, and thoughtful instruction instead of scripted low-level
instruction (Delpit, 2003: Hilliard, 1997)”. Thirdly, to educate children, we
must learn who the children are, and not focus on what we
assume them to be—at risk, learning-disabled, behavior disordered, etcetera. Conducting
teaching observations is no easy task. The entire focus should be to learn
more about teaching and learning for both parties (Roberts and Pruitt, 2003,
p. 135). Teachers often feel threatened when a supervisor visits there
classroom. To improve my skills, I will continue to study techniques for
conducting teacher observations, as well as, seek opportunities to observe
more of my colleagues in practice. During my next teacher observation, I will
purpose to conduct the standards-based walk-through with my colleagues as
described by Roberts and Pruitt (2003). My focus would be to establish clear
purposes and outcomes for the walk. Collaborative pre-planning will be done
to ensure all parties understand the purposes and outcomes for the
observations. I would strive to develop a team atmosphere along with a shared
vision for teaching and learning. Then, I would follow-up with a face-to-face
post observation instead of a telephone call. Finally,
all students should be given the same opportunity to learn. Teachers should
teach all students and not have preconceived ideas based on a child’s
race/ethnicity or demographics. Give the students a chance to learn”.
Teachers must have the ability to be able to recognize the individual
abilities of the students. Students should be encouraged to excel to higher
levels of learning. References Delpit,
L. (2003). Educators as “Seed People”
Growing a New Future. Educational Researcher, Vol. 7. No. 32, pp. 14-21. Roberts,
S. M., Pruitt, E. Z. (2003). Schools as professional learning communities:
collaborative activities and strategies for professional development. Corwin
Press, Inc.: |