Shauna Catalano

ELCC Standard 4.0: A building-level education leader applies knowledge that promotes

the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community members,

responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources

on behalf of the school by collecting and analyzing information pertinent to improvement

of the school’s educational environment; promoting an understanding, appreciation, and

use of the diverse cultural, social, and intellectual resources within the school community;

building and sustaining positive school relationships with families and caregivers; and

cultivating productive school relationships with community partners.

ELCC STANDARD ELEMENTS:

ELCC 4.1: Candidates understand and can collaborate with faculty and community

members by collecting and analyzing information pertinent to the improvement of the

school’s educational environment.

ELCC 4.2: Candidates understand and can mobilize community resources by promoting

an understanding, appreciation, and use of diverse cultural, social, and intellectual

resources within the school community.

ELCC 4.3: Candidates understand and can respond to community interests and needs by

building and sustaining positive school relationships with families and caregivers.

ELCC 4.4: Candidates understand and can respond to community interests and needs by

building and sustaining productive school relationships with community partners.

RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR ELCC STANDARD 4.0:

Evidence presented in Appendix 2 in support of Standard 4 confirms that a building-level

education leader must know strategies for collaborating with faculty and community members;

diverse community interests and needs; and best practices for mobilizing community resources.

This includes knowing how to collect and analyze information pertinent to the school

educational environment, and understanding the needs of students, parents, and caregivers in

order to develop collaboration strategies. The importance of the knowledge presented in the

evidence supporting ISLLC 2008 Standard 4 was recognized in research showing that education

leaders require such knowledge when collaborating with faculty and community members and

when responding to diverse community interests and needs and mobilizing community support

used to support ISLLC 2008 Standard 4. Reports on practices using multiple types of evidence to

inform decision making and highlights the importance of knowledge of strategies for evidencecentered decision making.

Establishing a Continuous Professional Learning Culture

Shauna Catalano

Grand Canyon University: EAD 513

How will professional learning topics be evaluated for relevance and worthiness prior to being shared?

Our school, using our SIP or school improvement plan, that the administration and our school site counsel closely monitors for continuous improvement and student achievement is key to professional development. The SIP plan is imbedded in our budget with a set of goals that are driven by our school’s vision and mission plan. The school site counsel consists of two teachers, one parent, one staff member, a student rep., a district rep., and the administration. Once they review our data to see if goals are being met, or not met, then the administrator has a follow up meeting with the leadership team. The leadership team, ILT, will then make recommendations on what changes need to be made to support the SIP. The leadership team will then meet with their departments during collaboration and have a discussion on implementing any changes in goals, standards, and our curriculum.

How will professional learning be shared?

If administration. ILT, and teachers see an area that needs to be addressed to support our schools’ goals then professional development will follow. We have money in our budget for PD’s if we need a company to come out and train the teachers. We recently have used some of the PD’s with certain departments presenting how to implement strategies. The last few PD’s were staff led, and the teachers were put into three groups that spent 30 minutes rotating to rooms for training. One example was supporting our EL’s, and the ELD teachers taught strategies to support them. The next group then went to our Special Education teachers where they gave a presentation on the law in our IEP’s and how to support our special education population. The last group was training on how to use Google Calendar, as we are going to eliminate paper agendas and have the students use the extensions in their Chromebook, including

the calendar. The teachers are then obligated to implement what they learned into their daily instruction.

How will the shared information be applied or implemented into professional practice?

We have collaboration Monday’s where the students come only for half the day, the rest is collaborating with your department. The leadership team member leads the meeting and determines if what we have learned has been embedded into our teaching. We will also have an administrator in each department meeting, as my school has four administrators. In ELA we reviewed the success or failure of the use of our ELD strategies that were taught. In the honors classes these were not needed, but in our regular education classes we tried them. Many teachers added or changed things that they felt worked better when using that strategy in the classroom. To see if these are successful, we have included small benchmarks or even a ticket out to confirm student comprehension.

How will teachers provide reflective feedback on what they implemented as a result of professional learning?

Aside from assessing the students, the administration team will do walk throughs with brief observations. The administrator will observe if the practice is in use and then they write an informal note that is usually on paper, not in an email, giving feedback. I have seen some of these notes be very positive when administration states how the students were engaged, how the teacher did when giving the instruction, etc. If there is any negative feedback, they do not get a note, but administration will go to the ILT leader of that department and ask that they support the teacher in ways to make the strategy more successful in their instruction. Many times, the ILT

will do another model of the strategy during the next collaboration meeting as a refresher from the initial PD.

What is an appropriate timeline for sharing information, implementing concepts, and monitoring professional learning outcomes?

The projected timeline would be about one month for implementation. The process could take a total of two months from the first school site council meeting, ILT meeting, then collaboration would take a month to even identify what needs improvement. After the initial PD, teachers would plan in their lesson the strategy and use it within that week. Our PD is followed with department collaboration, so each department is given time to implement it into a lesson that week. The administration would then observe the teachers that week and meet with the leadership team the following week at an ILT meeting. This meeting will discuss the strengths and weaknesses observed and what department or teacher needs more support. The ILT would then come up with a strategy for supporting those that need it. The following Monday during department collaboration then the strategy would be reviewed or even another example would be taught for correct implementation. Hopefully after that the following week then the teachers can use the strategy taught again in their classroom with more success.

Rational

The administration is in charge of the SIP plan and they are the ones that ultimately decide what changes need to be made. Our administration has a wealth of support to assist in these ideas and changes. If our school wants to have a culture that supports our mission in supporting students achievement, then the administrator needs to generate that energy to make the changes. “This culturally supported empowerment also ironically encouraged the use of information and gave meaning and purpose to planning, problem solving, and professional development. Culture was a key factor in the enhancement of energy, trust, and more effective practices” (Deal & Peterson, 2016). The administrator supports this as they use data to evaluate if we are meeting our goals, they then problem solve with the school site council and ILT to establish what professional development is needed. This will ultimately support the school’s culture that aligns with our vision, mission and the goals that have been set. With each step that is then implemented for continuous professional learning culture, collaboration is in every aspect of the implementation. The administration team and the principal have demonstrated collaborative leadership with using the support of many stakeholders. “Collaborative leadership is one of leadership styles which promote and develops organizations. Collaborative leadership is defined as employees interfere in different levels in the organization to identify problems and analyze situation and achieve solution” (Mehdinezhad & Arbabi, 2015). With the use of our mission statement, the culture of the school shows the importance of collaboration to meet the goals for the success of each student. Using the school site council, the ILT, department

collaboration, and the professional development days, problems can be achieved in our school for the climate we are promoting.

References

Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. (2016). Shaping school culture. Jossey-Bass.

Mehdinezhad, V., & Arbabi, A. (2015). School principals’ collaborative

Leadership style and relation it to teachers’ self-efficacy.

International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 4 (5).

https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2015.1218

ELCC standard 4.1 states Candidates understand and can collaborate with faculty and community members by collecting and analyzing information pertinent to the improvement of the school's educational environment.  This paper focuses on our SIP plan and how the data is used for professional developments to support the plan. When creating a budget and SIP plan, the school will have goals that need to be met to monitor student achievement. During the school year data is collected and then needs to be evaluated by administration and other  committees to see where are the gaps in the students learning are, and how to fill in those gaps. Once these can be established then professional developments and professional practices should be addressed to see how new strategies can be implemented to meet the schools improvement plan. The school should set the professional development for continued growth in supporting school success. The school site council team works with the community, the PD's works with the teachers while the ILT works with administration to adjust and support. This standard is important a it puts the community and school in a supportive role for ongoing student success.

Benchmark – Clinical Field Experience D: Beginning Teacher Observation and Feedback

Shauna Catalano

Grand Canyon University: EAD 530

Dr. Schlabra

January 23, 2024

Summary of Pre-Conference, Observation, and Post-Conference

“Observations can, and should, provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of a teacher’s practice and help identify training needs to bring out the full potential of both teacher and student” (Ritchie, 2021). This observation was with a new RSP math teacher in our school. I was able to have a pre-conference where he told me he was going to be teaching graphing to a group of 9 students that were pulled out from their general education class. He filled out the lesson plan on our district’s observation report form and it appeared to be a very generic lesson with the teacher at the over head and the kids at their desk graphing with the Y and X axis independently. During the pre-conference I did ask how he was going to make it interactive and he said he would call on them throughout the lesson to check for understanding. During the observation he did begin the lesson with a fun “rap” video on the terms being taught. The lesson was delivered with some issues with the overhead going out and he had to switch to the board, he called on students for answers and gave them some guidance to complete an answer orally. I did not see any variation in strategies, but he taught the standard well and the kids work did show they were doing it correctly. I used an Observation Report that has the 6 TPE standards to rate the lesson 1-3 and a N/O for not observed. He did get 1’s which meets the standards on all but one, planning instruction and designing learning experiences for all students needed some work. I suggested during the post-conference that he has the students come up to the board or check out a period in the library to use their interactive smart board that can be written on and has a variety of colors for the kid’s engagement. I suggested they each may have needed a number line on their desks, and my last suggestion was that they pair up and work on a few of the problems together such as I do, we do, you do technique. Also, a ticket out the door on what they learned or with one example from the lesson on it would be a way to check for understanding. Lastly since it was such a small group they could get chalk and draw a graph out in the quad for physical learning.

Recommendations for Effective use of Technology (B)

We are a Google school so the students should have had some access to their classroom during the lesson. They could fill out the ticket out at the end of the lesson in their google classroom. The teacher could also of had the video in their google classroom in case they needed it for reference for some of the terms. The students Chromebooks are also tablets, and they could have been writing down the answers during the lesson on the tablet instead of paper. Since this was more of a whole class direct instruction activity, I suggested to still have them use the interactive TV in our literacy center so the kids could get up and demonstrate the answer instead of saying it out loud. This is the first year that the teacher has taught here, and was not even aware of other places in our school that can be reserved for more technology support when teaching. I also talked with him about ways math can be used without just paper and a pencil and to keep seeking other ideas for student engagement. “Effective instructors leverage technology to enhance their instruction and engage students” (Sutherland, 2023).

Promotion of Collaboration, Trust, and Personalized Learning Environment

With the observations I did, I felt that I was able to use my knowledge of teaching strategies to really support their lessons. The teacher I observed above is new, and he is in an induction program with a mentor, and after student teaching last year, he was very comfortable with our conferences and my input. Creating an effective teaching and learning environment for our teachers is the responsibility of the principal and I felt that occured. In doing the coaching I did make sure the school’s culture was positive and the teacher felt supported. I encouraged collaboration with other math teachers, and to try a new strategy once a week if possible. In collaboration I suggested since he is a special education teacher that is new, he needs to work with the whole math department on his curriculum. “When general education and special education teachers work together, they better understand how to provide appropriate services to students with various needs” (School of Education, 2023). I felt that I was able to encourage honest communication and helped the teacher grow.

Self-Awareness, Vulnerability, Transparency, and Ethical Behavior

Both the instructor and myself benefited from the experience. I do not teach math and it was a challenge for me to look beyond what is being taught, but to see if the students were learning the content, which they were. I was supportive and honest and allowed most of it to be teacher-led so he could reflect on the lesson and discuss ideas for improvement. With sharing my own experience when being observed as a teacher, it showed vulnerability and that ultimately we are all here to help our students achieve.

References

Ritchie, D. (2021, July 7). The Importance of Classroom Observation.

www.codimg.com.https://www.codimg.com/education/blog/classroom-observation

Sutherland, C. (2023, May 29). 7 Reasons why Students Need Technology

in the Classroom. Explorance. https://explorance.com/blog/7-reasons-students-need-technology-classroom/

School of Education. (2023, May 13). The Importance of Teacher

Collaboration. Soeonline.america.edu

https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/teacher-collaboration-importance/

I chose ELCC standard 4 as it focuses on collaboration. In the ablove paper I observed a new teacher and did a lot of collaboration with him about his lesson. We had a pre-conference about the lesson, then I observed him, and we had a post conference where I coached him on how to enhance the lesson in the future. Collaboration is important in a school environment for our teachers to all be on the same standards and using pacing guides to support students learning. With the coaching of a new teacher it is important to have them not only collaborate with their administration, but with a mentor and others in their department. I believe this teacher will benefit from working with the math department. I also felt that this was the best observation I did in this class as I was able to go though the whole process and use our districts TPE evaluation form.