Internship Log Reflection
This is my second year in a school administrative position and even though it’s my second year I still have learned a great deal. As a resource teacher I oversee many departments or committees. Currently, I am the safety chair, mentor coordinator, staff development planner, exceptional education department chair, and testing coordinator. I also oversee the surplus of furniture and textbooks, handle student discipline, handle transportation discipline, attend 5th grade weekly planning meetings, co-teach with a 5th grade teacher, mentor a new exceptional education teacher and am working exclusively with a 4th grade teacher to enhance his learning environment. Being a resource teacher helps me to have experience and responsibilities over many areas.
My two PBLS are: increasing parent involvement at PTA and SFEC (School and Family Engagement Committee) events and integrating literacy connections into Library, Art, Music and PE. I’ve worked closely with my principal and family advocate with ways that we can increase parent involvement. I created a twitter handle to relay information to parents via social media and have worked with our PTA president and Title 1 teacher to make our flyers for PTA and SFEC events more inviting. I also challenged my principal with making weekly phone calls and night before phone calls to parents about our PTA and SFEC events. What we’ve noticed so far this school year is that when a grade level is performing we have a higher number of attendees at our PTA and SFEC meetings than on nights that we do not have a grade level performance.
I’m also working exclusively with our library, art, music and PE teachers with ways that they can incorporate general education content in their lessons. Each teacher has a word wall in their classrooms and submit plans to me weekly. When I read their plans I’m searching for ways for them to easily weave content into their curriculum. I also created an easy to read pacing guide for each grade level broken down into each content areas: language arts/writing, mathematics, science and social studies. As a school we’ve noticed the need to incorporate grade level content in any way possible. By interlacing grade level content it helps to bridge academic gaps and helps students to make real world connections.
What I’ve noticed this year is that to run a successful building you must have a strong, supportive administrative team. Each of member of my team bring varying strengths, weaknesses and a variety of experiences. Next to having a strong administrative team, you must have a clear vision for your building and to set high expectations for your teachers and students. What I’d like to explore more in the next semester is what different buildings and different school administrative teams do to be successful (academically, behaviorally, and socially).