STANDARD THREE: Cultural Leadership
3a. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The principal understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative work environment can play in the school's culture.
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As part of ELP 595: Culture and Collaboration, I created an "Establishing School Culture" plan that addressed the nine school culture elements. My plan includes an overview of how as a school leader I will build a positive school culture during my first year. My plan includes ways to celebrate accomplishments of the school and staff as well as support the traditions of the school community. I built in structures that will allow staff time to collaborate as a team to share decision-making opportunities and use student data to support the continuous improvement of the school. It is essential for a new school leader to support and value the traditions, symbols, and positive values of a school community that result in a sense of the school's identity. A school leader must also be willing to "reculture" the school as needed to move the school forward. |
As part of my ELP 595: School and Community Engagement course, I drafted three different letters to introduce myself to the Ligon Staff, Ligon Students, and Ligon Parents. This artifact shows the importance of building strong relationships and the impact it can have on a school's culture. Strong relationships can help create a collaborative work environment by promoting cohesion and cooperation among the staff. My letters helped convey my values and beliefs which is important for a school leader when trying to create a shared vision among all stakeholders. |
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As part of my ELP 595: School and Community Engagement course, I created an artifact that introduced me to the staff, students, and community at Sanderson High School. This introduction included a brief biography, work history, my vision statement, and my favorite quotes. It is important to me that my school community sees me as open and willing to collaborate. |
3b. School Culture and Identity: The principal develops and uses shared vision, values and goals to define the identity and culture of the school.
As part of ELP 595: Culture and Collaboration, I identified Anthony Muhammad as a thought leader that caused me to reflect on school culture within the context of school leadership. This artifact is a description of the impact that Anthony Muhammad had on me with respect to leading school culture. In Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division, Muhammad describes how educational leaders can lead schools through authentic reform to create a school culture that is based on shared values and beliefs. Through reading Muhammad's work, I learned if educators are going to make a difference in the lives of all children, they must believe that it is possible for all children to learn and that children's learning is a direct result of what the teachers do or do not do. School leaders must be adept at creating a cultural change that is not done through coercion, but rather through collaboration and trust. |
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At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, I collaborated with the administration at Sanderson High School to create a presentation for our students. All students participated in one of the four assemblies we hosted during the first two days of school. We introduced key staff members, shared our mission and vision for the year, and explained a few important expectations. We explained to students how they were an integral component to the culture of our school and that their success helped define Sanderson's identity and culture. |
I believe equitable practices are essential for a successful school and something that I value personally and professionally. As a school leader, I will make sure equity work is part of the identity of my school. This artifact is a year-long professional development series built around the WCPSS district's vision of equitable practices and includes ways to see, understand, and interrupt inequities in a school. My group created this professional development series as part of ELP 515: Education and Social Diversity. |
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3c. Acknowledges Failures; Celebrates Accomplishments and Rewards: The principal acknowledges failures and celebrates accomplishments of the school in order to define the identity, culture and performance of the school.
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As part of the Sanderson High School Sunshine Committee, I created a google form that allows teachers to submit a "shout out" for a staff member that has done something helpful for them or the school. All of the names are put in a basket and two "shout outs" are drawn at each monthly faculty meeting. The person who received the shout-out as well as the person who wrote the shout-out get an Amazon gift card (courtesy of our PTO). This practice promoted a sense of well-being among staff. |
Each week, I compile information for our "admin memo" that is sent out to all of the staff. Each week I include "shout outs" and "thank yous" to various staff members that have represented Sanderson well during the past week. I solicit input from the principal and assistant principals so that there is a wide variety of celebrations. This is an easy way to celebrate our staff in order to define the identity and culture of Sanderson High School! |
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As part of a "rebranding" year with new administration and over 30 new staff members at Sanderson High School, I created a weekly staff checkout google form. This form asked for feedback from all staff members about what was going well and what suggestions/questions they had to improve our school. Making sure staff had a voice was a value of our administrative team. This google form helped the administrative team to systematically and fairly acknowledge failures and celebrate accomplishments of the school and staff. I learned that it is essential for a school leader to understand the people in the school building, how they came to their current state, and how to connect with traditions to move everyone forward to support the school's goals. *I send the link to this form out each week in our admin memo and then compile the information to share each week at our admin team meeting. |
Each year Sanderson staff select and honor one teacher as the "Teacher of the Year." The nominee is submitted as our representative to WCPSS. In addition to the recognition that the district does, we honor our recipient with a special announcement as well as a catered lunch and presentation/assembly in May. I organized the TOY nomination selection for Sanderson. Through this process I learned that not all staff members want to be recognized for their contributions and do not want to appear on the final ballot. |
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Through my time in graduate school I have learned the importance of communicating appreciation and gratitude. Sincerely thanking staff members systematically celebrates the accomplishments of staff members and helps to empower them. The person I wrote my letter to was very appreciative. I've learned that staff members that truly feel appreciated will work harder when faced with challenges. |
3d. Efficacy and Empowerment: The principal develops a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff which influences the school's identity, culture and performance.
Under the new leadership at Sanderson High School, Ms. Gretta Dula, was intentional about empowering staff to influence our school's positive identity. I was able to leverage my experience as a magnet coordinator by working with Ms. Dula to organize school tours. Ms. Dula and I worked with staff representatives from Student Council, CTE, Academy of Finance, and other organizations to put together school tours for our community and prospective students. We solicited help from students to lead our school tours. Through this collaborative effort, staff members felt that they truly influenced the school's identity, culture, and performance. |
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The senior graduation at Sanderson High School has been organized in recent years by one of the assistant principals without much help from other staff members. This year, the administration team asked for volunteers to help coordinate the giant task of organizing graduation. One assistant principal and I coordinated this effort. We had over 20 people volunteer their expertise to help with the event. Nineteen people attended our first brainstorming session. We were able to distribute duties based on staff member's strengths and talents. Since the assistant principal and I are both new to Sanderson this year, we relied on the staff members who have been at Sanderson to help share the traditions associated with graduation. Several committee members commented how nice it was to be included in this task. After our first meeting, we had a couple other staff members ask to join the committee. |
During my first year of graduate school, I helped empower staff members at Lincoln Heights Magnet Elementary School to write positive office referrals for students. This was a valued part of our school's identity and culture. I shared data at a staff meeting comparing negative behavior referrals to positive office referrals disaggregated by subgroup and grade level. This data led more teachers to be intentional about writing positive office referrals for students. I learned the importance of using data to build a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff that resulted in a "can do" attitude rather than telling staff members what I think they should do. |
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