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Soaring Academy opens it's doors to 300 students in Kindergarten through fifth grade. The the students will wear uniforms monday through friday. Parents will be very active in the school required to volunteer for four hours a month. It is a school of choice, so many students will probably not live in the same neighborhood as their classmates.
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First day of my ELC 660 class where I will learn best practices for principals and clarify the vision of my quality school.
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If a principal wants to accomplish a project with great success, they must first provide an atmosphere where others feel their job is valued (Alvy and Robbins, 2009).
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The leaders who have the biggest gains will be the ones who have treated their staff equally and respectfully (Bennis and Goldsmith, 2010).
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Effective principals learn the resources beyond their immediate parent population. They use their community to help make their schools successful (Alvy and Robbins, 2009).
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Principals who are effective commit to lifelong learning and enrich their work (Alvy and Robbins, 2010).
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Principals who do comparable work along side their staff, create congruity and are the most successful (Bennis, 2009).
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Effective principals understand that parent volunteers share commitment, values, and goals with the school (Bennis, 2009).
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Effective leaders who maintain their integrity while changing to meet the current demands will be the most successful (Bennis, 2009).
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The most successful Principals place high value on people and relationships (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, and Ackerman, 2009)
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18 classrooms with about 16 students in each class will start school today at Soaring Academy. The student population is comprised of 52% White, not Hispanic, 35% Black, not Hispanic, 9% Asian/Pacific Islander, 3% Hispanic, and less than 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native.
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Principal Internship is introduced and hallmark projects are discussed. Project descriptions are due by September 20th.
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Upon reflection, I would have spent less time trying to contact the representative who offerred to bring the robot her students made to share with our school. If I had let go of having her present, I would have been able to have the parent's evening much sooner and perhaps we would have built our own robot. The lesson I learned is to set a reasonable timeframe and hold to it. If you are unable to get someone to committ, move on; better to have the program kick off earlier rather than later.
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Another lesson I learned is AIG students need challenged to grow. They are not academic robots who will drive themselves to reach their fullest potential. They are children who if allowed will do the minimum required. They will pass but they will not grow. Just as we commit to helping our Exceptional Children, we must try as hard to help our Academically and Intellectually Gifted students reach their potential.
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I believe the largest impact this plan has had is to reach out to our AIG community and make them feel important. Because these students do well in school with little effort, it can be easy to overlook them. Parents, teachers, and even the students needed reminding that we care about this population and are passionate about it's growth and future well being. Plus, allowing parents to have a voice in the process empowers them to become more involved.
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My principal and I meet to discuss my class and I present my ideas for projects. In reviewing the end of the year testing data, I realized our Academically and Intellectually Gifted population were passing their tests but not showing growth in their scores. In fact, some of them were actually decreasing in their previous year's scores. My Principal agreed that this was a population that needed to be examined and a plan created to increase their growth.
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I met with the school improvement committee and discussed what the Principal and myself thought was a needed improvment for the school which was enriching the Academically Gifted program for grades 3-5, adding an academic program for them, and reinvigorating our Kindergarten through second grade enrichment program. After getting their approval and thoughts on the needed improvements to the program, I was ready to write up my proposal for class.
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Our Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) teacher, Mr. Aim, AG students, and their parents, as well as regular education teachers will all be involved in designing and implementing our new AIG plan. Everyone will work together to find programs and teaching methods that challenge our AIG students to reach their learning potential.
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Mr. Aim and myself sit down to discuss the testing data for the ___ Academically Gifted (AG) students. In order to reverse the trending loss or stagnation of growth, we are going to do two things:
*increase enrichment opportunities in all grades for all studens
*Add a program for our 3-5 AG students to increase critical thinking skills and reignite their interest in learning. -
Mr. Aim sends an email to our local contact to try and schedule a night, in October, when her group of students and the robot they designed can come to the school to introduce the project to our families and students. The email is returned with two dates, where only adults can come. The children and their robot can not come during an evening in October. Mr. Aim and I decide to try for a date in November as we feel our kick off event will be better served with the actual robot demonstration.
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My second email to our local representative goes unanswered so I called and left phone message for possible dates before the winter holiday.
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- Mr. Aim- the AG teacher wants less students to work with at one time and something to excite the children.
- My mentor 4th grade teacher who has a large proportion of the AG children would like help differentiating instruction so to engage without polarizing her classroom.
- The AG students want something interesting to do.
- The AG parents want their children's needs met.
- School Improvement want the AG program reputation and growth scores to increase.
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An AG survey is sent out to evaluate the current feelings about the program, it's strengths, weaknesses, and perceived areas of improvement. (See Appendix A)
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I examine the results from the surveys to see where I should focus my attention. SURVEY RESULTS INCLUDED HERE.
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At our second meeting Mr. Aim and I discuss the survey results and how to formulate a plan of action.
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My plan:
1.Our school will purchase the supplies for First Lego League.
2. Schedule a family night to kick off, explain the program and ask for parent team leaders.
3. Work with classroom teachers to integrate the Lego challenges into thier classroom lessons.
4. Work with Mr. Aim to ensure students use critical thinking skills in the Lego building.
5. Form an AG parent advisory board to meet with school monthly. -
Present the plan to the School Improvement committee to see if they have and suggestions for changes or additions. It passes as is. Team decides, Mr. Aim, Staff ,and Curriculum committees will work with me and the 4th grade teacher to integrate Lego challeges into existing work. Leadership, Mr. Aim, and Administration will work with me to choose parents for advisory board. Culture committe will work with me to design and implement the night event for the families.
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As I still have been unable to pin down our community resource for when they can bring their robot and students, Mr. Aim and I mull over a possible Plan B.
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Met with the school improvement team to discuss several dates that will work for the AG night
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Narrowing down the possible dates to three options with the help of the school improvement committee, I then met with my Principal to see the date she wanted. She chooses Thursday, March 14th, 2013 from 6-7pm.
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I made one last phone call to our representative and left a message with her about our perspective date. I will also mail her an invitation.
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Using the Survey Monkey website, I compiled all the data from the teacher, parent, and student surveys into a powerpoint (Appendix B) that was ready for presentation the evening of our program and also for discussion with the AG teacher and school improvement committee when we returned from holiday break.
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Attended a planning meeting with the school improvement committee to discuss the results of the survey, get their feedback, and talk about a plan of action. In the plan of action for next year, the team discusses how to ensure that as the school grows in size, students are being given equal opportunities to be included in the AIG program. Additionally, the team is starting to think about how possible costs associated with the Lego League can be managed to allow equal access to participation.
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Meeting with the AG teacher to build the powerpoint, incorporate the suggestions of the school improvement team, and prepare our presentation for the Principal.
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Meeting with the Principal to show the presentation, receive any additional feedback, and obtain permission to send out invitiations. All went well invitations will go home in one week.
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Invitation are sent out in the Monday folders to all the AG students and their families.
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Mr. Aim shows the game board the students built to run their robot on and to have it perform the tasks required to earn points.
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Mr. Aim leads the parents through a discussion on what the robot would need to do and how the team gathers points in the competition.
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Mr. Aim shows off the students' robotic work.
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After the presentation, the parents and students enjoyed looking at the robotic displays. Parents then signed up to be volunteer coaches and/or consultants for next year's teams.
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AIG Kick Off Night has arrived!
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I share the powerpoint of survery results with the AIG community.
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AIG kids present what they have learned and what they like about the program.
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Presented the short survey results to the school improvement committee, AIG teacher, and Principal. The survey results show 75% of parents attended the meeting and felt more confident after it. They wished there were more opportunities for the students to show the actual robot they built as well as talk about other things they are doing in the program. 50% of parents volunteered to be mentors or coach the robotic teams next year and 90% said they felt more confident recommending the school.
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Surveys are sent out to see how the AIG kick off night was perceived. (Appendix C)
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Who: Staff, Families, and students involved in teaching and supporting the AIG community.
What: I surveyed everyone involved for areas to imporve and build on, introduced a new enrichment program, and increased excitment for the AIG program.
When: The school improvement committee, AIG teacher, and myself worked on this from the start of school until current day.
Where: This program has been worked on during and after school in both pull out and inclusive settings. -
Soaring Academy needs to keep communicating with the AIG parents and students by forming a parent advisory board. I have met with next year's AIG teacher and the Principal to map out criteria ensuring the parent leaders remain diverse and fair minded. Additionally, the AIG teacher needs to meet with parents to allow them to voice their concerns and find ways to help their child excel. The program will need parent and community support to be competitive in the robotic competitions.
