Can Evaluations and Observations help teachers learn and improve their teaching strategies for Academic Learning?

 

    The purpose of the evaluations for teachers is for staff members to learn and grow so school sites can achieve more academic success. One aspect about the observation process is the growth of many teachers within the classroom.  As a future Administrator, I have learned that there are key elements to managing an effective teacher. Some of these elements are being able to coach teachers to more production and allowing teachers to learn through their experience. Some aspects that I will look for are student engagement, pacing of the class, the interaction between the teachers and students, and for checking of understanding. These are a few components that are important, but teachers need to include classroom management skills, align the standards, use instructional strategies, timing, feedback, and develop a positive student relationship. I feel that the more Administrators do pop ins into the classroom the more of a feel that they get of their teaching staff even if it is not a formal assessment. Putting emphasis on the California Performance of Teacher Expectations (CTSP's) plays a large role within the standards and aligning up the curriculum.

     As a future Administrator, I have already experienced observing teachers and knowing what to look for in the classroom setting. The experience of going in and seeing what an exceptional job some of our teachers are encountaring is very positive.  I have also learned that student engagement is such a big key for success within the educational realm. I feel that I can pinpoint specific points of emphasis within the teaching cycle which allows me to make an average teacher a very good teacher.  Together as a staff we can make learning a valuable experience inside the classroom and within the academic achievement.

The Pre Observation Meetings can help with standards, questions, and setting goals for the overall school year. 

    The Pre Observation is an experience that I like to make connections with my staff.  I allow plenty of time to meet and go over all the processes and procedures of an evaluation process. I take this time to connect with the teachers and allow them to understand that I am here to coach to improve the overall learning and achievement for students. When I meet with teachers I like to open the table to the teachers. I want them to talk about specific goals or criteria they would like to achieve.  I also like to open my ears and see what the teacher is looking at to strive for in each category. My job is to give insight and guide them in directions that they want to achieve. The CTSP's will be discussed and elaborated on how to best fit the daily lesson into the standards and goals that the teacher wants to accomplish. These meetings are very important for the teacher as it allows the teacher to realize that these observations go into their professional file. 

    The context of the lesson is generally a large topic in the pre observation meetings.  Going over what they want to cover and demonstrating that criteria in a classroom setting is what allows future administrators like myself to get an idea of what is being covered within the course content. It also allows for teachers to set goals and their standards for what they want to achieve. This process is very important because it allows teachers to make a decision on what teaching strategies they want to use within the context of the curriculum. This is also important for an observer to go over because the administrator will then know what has been covered in the class and what the students should already know for the content.  It also establishes what direction the class is going in moving forward. All of these standards help future administrators like myself become better observers for content area as well.

The Post Observation can help teachers reflect, feel accomplished, and gain future knowledge in the direction in which they want to go as a teacher.

    The Post Observation Conference is designed to give feedback and allow the teacher to self reflect on what went well and what needs to be improved.  It really gives teachers an opportunity to see if they met their goals to standards and to  see how their own performance within those standards match up to the administrator's views. As a future Administrator, I plan on coaching teachers through different strategies and techniques that help enhance the learning and engagement of students. My goal is bring smiles to teachers faces for them to realize I am supporting and not criticizing when I fill out the suggestion box for improvement.  This is a conversation that the teacher and myself will have at every meeting.  I always like to start out my meetings with self reflections before I go into the matters of CTSP's and if teachers achieved their goals.  My philopsphy is pretty simple with teachers in that the more comfortable they feel the easier the process of the evaluation process will be to evaluate teachers. The fact that I build relationships will also help as well.

    I have also learned to pre script questions for the teachers to make sure they are fully meeting their goals within the classroom. I always want to open the table and allow for teachers to review and comment on what was observed within their classroom.  It allows them to see what direction I am coming from so they can include any comments or anything else that the teacher want to expand on within the lesson. I want to focus on the positives and then strategies to help deliver the message of the curriculum content better. My goal as a future administrator is to make sure teachers feel comfortable with suggestions while maintaining their standards.  Many teachers do not like this process and want to go in another area when they receive their tenure status. I feel that having teachers know that their is a relationship built and the suggestions go as coaching tecniques really go along way with making suggestions.  Teachers can get the opporunity for Administrators to collect data on their observation both formative and summative.  This information means that there is more information that can help them now and down the road. All the information that can be communicated can only help enhance the performance in the classroom. 

What to expect of Myself as a Future Leader and the Motivation!

    As a future leader there are several aspects that I will bring to the table as a leader.  One of the top ones is building relationships with students and staff.  I want to set the bar and attack obstacles that I can lead my school site in the right direction.  I want to be a leader who inspires other teachers to give their best day in and day out. Professionalism is important to get the maximum amount of energy out of my leadership. All goals and standards helps motivate me to be a team leader.  To highlight the motivational piece as a future administrator is the student success. The student's succeeding in any form drives me to be the best possible leader that I can be for them and my school site. 

    As a future administrator one important aspect that I know that will motivate the staff is incentives.  Setting those goals and achieving these goals is one of the most satisfacting accomplishments for our students in education.  Another area that motivates staff is challenges to set the bar higher for curriculum and standards.  This can be academic challenges or professional challenges within the school site.  A final aspect that motivates staff is resources.  When a staff has the necessary resources to be able to accomplish what needs to be acoomplished, then higher achievement in learning standards can be maintained. Resources add the tools that are necessary to achieve the goals and set the standards that need to be accomplished. When teachers add the guidance with the resources then that adds to it as well. 

    Building goals can really motivate staff and the administrators to work together as one component. Showing concern and opportunities for your staff really helps with motivation as well.  Again, going back to building that rapport and individual relationship really plays a huge key.  Some aspects that I have learned as a future leader is to maintain the rapport and make sure when I take over to not make to many big changes to quickly.  As a future leader, I want to make sure that don't forget about my veteran teachers who do a great job within the classroom.  Another aspect of my leadership that I want to include is keeping everyone on my staff informed of all major changes within the school system. This way no staff member feels left out of our team. The motivation can stay consistent within the team.

 Safety is the #1 Priority in Education; Make the Right Choice!

https://youtu.be/lnNmX-4YDlA

    If you click on the link twice all educators in the State of California can see what some the major procedures are done in a major disaster.  As a future educator, I am planning on doing more.  I want to first start with the schools safety plan.  We will be forming a safety committee to overlook and analyze the proper procedures to help secure safety on our campus. We will put a plan in action which will be school board approved and then practiced based on the districts practice schedule.  These plans will include earthquake drills, evacuations for fire drills, and intruder drills. Each one of the these three plans will be practiced by the entire student body, staff, and community members who are located on our campus at the time of procedures. 

    Some of the new procedures that I plan on implementing would be a major disaster drill.  Some situations that would be implemented would be bomb treats. As a future principal, I would plan on presenting my ideas to my safety committee in order to enhance the proposal. Since this is a community proposal of a bomb threat there will be an additional steps of including all community members to the board meeting to make sure that all community members that want to be involved can be.  Once the committee has looked at the ideas, given feedback, and then the next step is to go to the school board for approval.  Once the approval has been established then the plan of attack can be enforced within the school site. I plan on having a community rally with students on how to implement such a large scale of community awareness for a major disaster. After the school rally has occurred there will be a date and bell schedule switch for all students, staff, and community members to practice the drill. 

    Including Pleasanton Police Department is another high priority for my role as a future educator. We have Resource Officers on Campus and I plan to implement them to the best of my ability. Keeping them in the loop and having them reinforce the plan of attack will help the students, staff, and community as well. If there is any questions related to the procedures, then we will have them contact Pleasanton Police Department to make sure all questions and procedures and answered to community, parents, students, and staff members. Please call them at (925)-931-5100. 

Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Plan (PBIS)-Can Reinforce Student Achievement In So Many Areas!

https://sites.google.com/d/13e_upWxo2WrRVJuJa6ARqn7SC7WdUE1E/p/1w1G0sxmYVqOOFCyGT91gHUD4AaTs6T3_/edit

    A website is a great resource for understanding, delivering, and gaining knowledge.  If you click on the link above then as an educator can see all the positives about putting a website together. The resources are helpful for the staff, students, parents, and the community. As a future leader, I am planning on implementing these resources in several ways.  First, by providing Staff Development Training for all staff members in this area.  I want staff to be able to utilize all resources available for the curriculum material, for promoting conflict resolution, regaining classroom management, and preventing areas of bullying. I plan on implementing lessons during regular staff development training and gaining feedback from staff on how to encourage, support, and supply any and all necessary material. 

    Secondly, providing special in service training in this area is another top priority.  Allowing for staff to take days within their departments to learn, feed off of each others ideas, and implementing the Tier one, two, and three programs can highly benefit my school.  I want staff to come back with more than a hand full of knowledge and just trying it in the classroom.  I want reinforcements to go within the entire curriculum and students to achieve at the highest possible level. This can be done by promoting, sharing data on the improvements, and demonstrating on how other educational systems are utilizing PBIS within their own schools. 

    Finally, I want my staff to be able to do presentations to the community and parents at events such as "Back to School Night".  This will help introduce and promote the PBIS program and help the Pleasanton Unified School District(PUSD) go in an upward state for discipline, alternatives to suspensions, and promote the "Amador Way".  The "Amador Way" is acts of kindness in which we reinforce as educators for students to demonstrate beyond high school. 

Zero Tolerance Polices-Are they mandatory in your district?

https://youtu.be/Xm656-c2mXQ

    There are many pluses and minuses to having a zero tolerance policy in your school district.  By clicking twice on the you tube video then educators can view all of these policies. Since there are many minuses within the zero tolerance policy there are many obstacles to overcome as a future leader.  As a future leader, I plan on restoring positive behavior and classroom management.  One of the ways I want to do this is to implement the safety procedures that need to ensure safety for all students, staff, and community.  I plan on implementing zero tolerance policies for weapons, alcohol usage, and drug policies.  These will be mandated to keep order at the school site and hold circumstances over students heads for not doing the behavior or action.

    As a future leader, I plan on implementing my alternatives to suspensions within the school site setting and the community programs as well.  Be establishing the in house suspensions and working with teachers to implementing work then learning can continue. Students will no longer be off from school as a reward.  It will be an adjustment to all, but learning can continue in a very positive way.  With an alternative suspension plan in place students can achieve and the reinforcement of behavior can continue within the educational system. Our community system programs will be the pre established programs that have our students commit and do public service out to our community. These programs are designed to help students restore conflict, help them with community connections, and establish a better rapport within the community. 

    Another priority of mine as a future leader is to help the students with disabilities with behavior issues. I want to develop the Tier one, two, and three in order to help these students and not remove them from their learning environment. Behavior programs are a high priority for safety, classroom management, and improving the academic performance for all these students. Incorporating these types of programs are a win for a win.  A win for students, academic learning, parents, and the community. 

Educational Codes, Laws, and Discipline

    Knowing the Educational Laws, School Board Policies, and Disciplinary Actions can help when being in Educational Leadership.  As a future leader, I  plan on knowing the educational codes by heart.  The ones that I have experience in is Religion in Schools, Student Records, Tenure Teacher Dismissal, Students with Disabilities, Cyberbullying, and Administrating Medication and Monitoring Health Conditions. These are just a few cases that I have encountered within the future leadership position. 

    As a future leader the attention will be put on being strict with the educational laws to enforce the necessary behaviors that I want incorporated into my school site. I want classroom management, a positive culture on campus, and a climate that supports positive behavior. This can be demonstrated by knowing the educational laws, attending school board meetings, and promoting classroom management to the educational staff.  Taking the time to teach and implement the standards that I want to incorporate as a future leader can be done with educational training during in services and the staff training days. 

    Building a positive school climate comes with sharing the vision of my school site and having my staff members buying into the vision. Staff needs to share the vision in order to help prevent future happenings occurring at the site. I feel that implementing strict laws to the educational codes will help with overall discipline and support for a positive based learning environment within the classrooms.  This will promote the environment that I want as an                                                    educational leader.

    The leadership skills that I want to demonstrate will be fair, non basis, and promote a positive model of attitude toward dealing with all groups involved. By demonstrating these models then acts of fairness are modeled, less lawsuits are put on school districts, and maintaining a precise decision on the overall outcome usually comes out in the right direction. This can be done by demonstrating good leadership skills throughout the school site for all students and staff through all models of education. 

My Core Leadership Values

Core Values for Leadership

My Leadership Core Values Plays A Large Role In My Leadership Skills

    As a future leader my core values can make a big difference in my leadership style.  Once a leader selects their core values and continues to follow them then standards are set for the students and staff to have an understanding of were I'm coming from with my important decisions. As a leader I intend on building  relations, making sure my campus is safe, maintaining collaboration, representing culture, and promoting more communication. These five values I believe can be the beginning of a solid leadership style. These values when I get hired will be implemented on a daily basis for consistency and values at my school site. I plan on using these key core values to contribute to bringing my school site to a new level. I want to use these values to demonstrate my leadership values and contribute to the academic success. These values will help support my students with continued academic support and success in a positive manner for the next level. These values will add to making my school one of the best academically and bring our academics to a new level for achievement.

Force Field Analysis for Difficult Decisions

     My force field analysis was designed to help me prove that my difficult decisions that I want to accomplish is very achievable, attainable, and sustainable. These charts can help make my decisions go into the right direction.  I have learned to use these charts to establish my visuals when I need to make more difficult decisions. When it comes to reaching my goals these force field analysis's help me visualize whether the goal is achievable by looking at the pros and cons.  As a future leader I plan on using these analysis to make important decisions, help to see if my school sites goals are attainable, and to see if the difficult decision that I need to make is the correct decision. These difficult decisions as a future administrator are part of the job.  Any part of the decision making process that can be easier for decisions will be established for a better routine in making the difficult decisions.  These will lead to decisive decisions that can lead to future success for my school site. I want to stay calm, take my time, and make sure the students best interest are involved within my decision making process.

        

                     School Wide Goals for My School Site

                     These are five goals that my School Growth Team established when we 

                     met as a group to lead our school to academic success. As a leader I guided 

                     my group to give them the pros and cons of what the data of my school site is 

                     telling us. We elaborated and came to some final decisions to update on our

                     school wide goals to further help students with academic achievement, 

                     safety, and technology.  These goals were set at a very high bar to set high 

                     standards and accomplish more on the academic end.  Several of these goals 

                     were established to help my site engage in future learning academically, 

                     technology, and for security. As a leader I am very proud that we were able 

                     to set these goals and establish these high standards for student learning and 

                     engaging. I feel that my site can achieve these goals because we have an 

                     outstanding staff, hard working students, and great leadership.  The leadership 

                     experience has been highly influenced to all the members of our staff to achieve 

                     and work towards these goals. We are in this together.  Success is created from 

                     within and the ones that are standing will be the ones that will celebrate.

                            Short Term Wins For My School

                            

                            As an educator a short term win can be a huge success. The same is said 

                        for when a school site achieves that short term win.  As a future leader I 

                        am planning on setting out short term wins and allowing for big success, 

                        celebrations, and communications when we achieve the short term wins. 

                        This  can only help the staff, students, and the community to realize the 

                        short term win is worth wild, engaging for students, and helps the staff 

                        and students to build momentum towards these goals.  A short term win can 

                        really go far to build moral and self esteem on our campus. I plan on using 

                        short term wins as an advantage to help motivate my staff and students to 

                        engage in more rigor.  I want to set the bar high as a future leader, utilize my

                        core values, and implement the force field analysis to help me with with 

                        difficult decisions. Leadership is very important for the future success of 

                        my school.

                        

                            

Communication is the Key to Success in Education

 Communication is a key factor in success that can be a common factor when students achieve or struggle. The different forms of communication allow parents to be more involved and stay up to date with how everything is going. At AVHS, we use several forms of communication that help communicate effectively to parents and allow me to represent and do my job very well.  Some of the key components of communication is through email, eNewsletters, reminds, blogs, Google Sites, and the "Q" which is our grading system.
As a future administrator, I feel communication is the key to building relationships and developing a positive culture on campus. By developing relationships and understandings that students goals can be very achievable and attainable. As an administrator I want to guide students through the communication process of allowing them to achieve their goals. Contributions can be something as simple as recommendations on classes or giving advice about life.  Either way communication
through technology is one of the key factors for students in today's 21 st century learning. How we utilize it can be the successful steps towards the future goals of what we want to achieve.



GIVING TO THE STAFF FOR THE VISION AND RETURNS

As a future leader, I know to get great return you must reward and give out for solid efforts. The transformational process is what I want to process as a future leader.  I want my staff, students, and community to know that hard work pays dividends towards goals and academic success. By setting the bar high and putting into the academic piece the rewards can be endless. Communication plays another big piece in the rewards and returns. My plan is utilize the communication to the community through the marquee and billboards on campus.  I also intend on using eNewsletter to let them be aware of all the activities, events, and rallies going on our campus. Amador Valley Television(AVTV) will be used twice a week to get all the messages out to the students. The reward system for the students will have their name on the marquee for all students, staff, and community to be aware. Also, teacher of the month will be given the same opportunity. I would like to promote some "Shout Outs" weekly for all the kindness within the staff and promote that as well. Positive reinforcement always will go along way in education.












Community Partnerships are developments in education that can really help students succeed and develop. I plan on being the one of the future administrators to help within this area. Developing partnerships for students can benefit them in mental health, physical health, and academics in areas of Math, Science, History, and English.  These partnerships will take place under my watch to establish better relationships within the community and help benefit students academically. My job will be to create a relationship by meeting with a wide variety of places for partnerships to help establish a rapport between our students and the community outreach programs for all the students to be successful.  In my first year of becoming an administrator, I plan on making at least six new partnerships that could help benefit the students at AVHS.  My focus will be academics and overall health.  I want students to engage in learning but be physically healthy to have the mindset to want to succeed.  By establishing these partnerships, I honestly feel that these partnerships can really be beneficial for students who want to take the opportunity of the business and contribute to their life long learning endeavors.

Plans for School Improvement can Lead to More Academic Success!

 

Academic Learning can take a mountain of effort by administrators, staff, students, and on the parents end. Developing Growth Plans will be a part of the job for contributing to academic success. As a future administrator, I am planning on implementing more plans, researching data, and summarizing the data so the plans can go into action.  Following through with these plans will take some time but the time will be highly beneficial to all the students that are involved. By developing the School Growth Plans then these one year action plans help with the academic achievement that can contribute to support learning and improving in areas of learning which need focus for academic skills. Guiding these plans once they are board approved will help implement areas that most school sites need for improvement.  I look forward to implementing these plans for the students.

     

Leadership Qualities for Improvement: As a future leader, I try to always gather my data so I can make decisive decisions that will help improve my team.  These decisions are always researched and feedback is always collected before any decision is finalized.  Making relationships with my staff and students are high on the priority list to establish better connections. Also, making academics a high priority and sharing my vision to my staff are viewed for higher achieving levels.  Teamwork is important when the vision needs to shared, community outreach needs to be done, and academic achievement needs to be accomplished. Always working together and establishing a great team makes for a great school year and academic learning.

    Setting goals in a great venue to establish academic achievement can be achieved when the staff gets a long and sets to achieve the same goals.  Working collaboratively with the staff will bring up great ideas, establishing relationships among staff, and setting high standards for core curriculum. Teamwork can be defined as hard work, efficient work, and timely work to achieve the full success for academics.  As a team, we need to establish our community base learning in order to use all of our resources to provide the highest achievement, outcomes, and goals. Let us work together, collaboratively, and communicatively. Remember, it is our mission, vision, and our goals that we can achieve together.


Amador Valley's Growth Team

This growth plan is designed to share a plan that was developed to help my school site achieve more on the academic standards for core curriculum. All you have to do is click on the above link to visually see the plan in action. This is a collaborative plan that was developed to help my students with academic success.  The areas of needs were; additional tutoring, literacy programs, and adding additional CTE courses for some of our hands on learning students.  All this information was provided by my School Growth Team to establish a better standard for those students who are struggling academically. My leadership guided to a collaborative decision which implemented student literacy, mandating Access period tutoring, and getting additional help after school. All of these areas are a start for improved student achievement and better outcomes. I look forward to making future improvements.

 Aspiring Leadership Skills

Aspiring Leadership can really benefit schools, curriculum, and staff members who enjoy quality leadership.  The picture to your right are my best qualities as a leader.  If you click on the link you can see additional questions to what aspiring leaders are asked.  I have enclosed my best features to the right to demonstrate how productive I can be as a potential leader. There are six steps categories for leadership. Some of these categories include; Visionary, Instructional, Organizational, Community, School Improvement, and Professional Leadership Skills.  What are your best qualities as a future leader?

Data Analysis Paper
    Data, Data, Data, this is what helps a school achieve academic progress and future achievements. I wrote a pretty good paper on the data analysis of Amador Valley High School and the areas of improvement for this school. By clicking on the Data Analysis Paper headline then you can view my entire paper. As a leader, I want to improve academic achievement, help those subgroups that are struggling, and gain more experience to be a future leader.  This data that I represented is to help staff, students, parents, and the community.  As a team we achieve when everyone is successful!