STANDARD THREE - Cultural Leadership
A. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The school executive understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative environment can play in the school’s culture.
The master schedule was developed to provide maximum collaboration for all teams at Cooper. Each department has a common planning including our enhancement team and EC team. In addition, coverage for our self-contained teachers is provided three times a week to allow additional planning/collaboration. As the year progressed, I was able to ensure our Pre-K teachers were also given collaborative time for planning three times a week at a time that worked best for them. I learned providing the time for staff to work together was a huge benefit and allowed them to meet more frequently during the school day to answer each others questions or seek guidance with a concern.
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I developed and facilitated professional development for the EC team which included team building activities that received positive feedback. The common phrase I used with them was "you grow most when you are uncomfortable". I saw this carry over into classrooms as I learned of staff saying the same things to their students a few times throughout the year. I was able to gain trust and confidence within the department and saw an increase of collaboration among staff.
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B. School Culture and Identity: The school executive develops and uses shared vision, values and goals to define the identity and culture of the school.
The mentor/mentee meetings are provided monthly. I engaged with our beginning teachers and their mentors to help them see the value in participating fully in these meetings. Each meeting is designed to meet the needs of the teachers and aligns to our school's vision, values and goals. By being involved in these meetings myself, I learned that modeling the expectations and being vulnerable is crucial in school leadership.
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These pictures represent the time we took at the beginning of the school year to establish a shared vision and goals with our staff as we engaged in school wide team building to break the ice as we started the year. In addition, we promoted parent engagement through our fall festival night. See the picture at the top of this page.
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C. 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
The Rocket News is distributed by our principal each week, however, the material contained within the newsletter is a collaborative effort of our school. Key items include staff celebrations and awards, upcoming field trips, and meetings. Communication is crucial and providing regular up-to-date information to staff in a familiar format is key.
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One of our staff members who was recognized at the district level for excellent performance in the classroom, see the picture at the top of the page. In addition, here is an example of what our "Shout Out" slips looks like that allows anyone to acknowledge the great things the staff have done for our school and are posted on our "Shout Out" bulletin board near the main office. I learned as the year went on that even students noticed this was a good way to be thankful to staff and that a little note goes a long way with morale.
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In the NCSU coursework, I created a plan to establish school culture that works to improve the working conditions of our school. In the creation of this plan and the presentation during class, I was able to see the value of utilizing something similar to this to help the staff see what I value and the things that are important to me as a leader.
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D. Efficacy and Empowerment: The school executive develops a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff which influences the school’s identity, culture and performance.
This presentation was created to empower teachers to take ownership in the development of committees and to give teacher voice to the roles and purpose of our committees this school year. After teachers signed up for committees, as an admin team we ensured that committees were created using the choice that teachers made and designated leaders. As committees met throughout the year, I learned that they often questioned their purpose and struggled to own their own ideas as being a direction for the committee and needed reassurance from administration that they were on the right track.
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In the lobby of our school, there is a wall that has a picture and personal quote of every staff member that impacts our school daily. This is a way to demonstrate the value we have for all who contribute to our students' success everyday.
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Committee meeting agendas were drafted as skeletons to give teams minimal direction to allow them to work collaboratively to drive their committee this school year. Each committee leader was given questions that were derived from the staff input during our first committee presentation. Again, consistent reassurance was needed to help the leaders of committees feel confident in their process and plan for each committee. I learned that communicating a productive struggle was important to share with staff as they worked through their ideas and suggestions for improvement within their committee.
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