EDLD+5333+assignment+reflection

This assignment was more of a challenge for me. As an itinerant teacher with a separate office I am not part of any school's faculty. I had to ask one of my schools to help me gain access to all the information I needed. I thankfully had a great faculty relationship at one of the middle schools and was able to complete the assignment without too much trouble. At Boerne Middle School South (BMSS) t he site-based decision making (SBMD) committee tries to keep meetings limited to an hour due to school getting out so late in the afternoon. This also means that they meet more often than a “typical” committee. Team members seem to get along during meetings and have only had a few instances where disagreements occurred. The principal was able to walk the committee through discussions/disagreements without any topic getting too emotional. The team member and principal that I interviewed both felt that the hardest challenge is maintaining our explemenary status. Reeves points out that "to be effective over time, they require a notable degree of schoolwide dedication and consistency". Some faculty members feel that our school doesn’t have any room for improvement so the SBDM committee is charged with inspiring continual improvement and sharing data to support the improvement plans. I have previously participated in an SBDM committee in another state. The information I gathered meshed well with my experience. I believe the only surprising information for me was how often the team met. BMSS's team is also much more data focused than the one I was a member of. I believe BMSS is on the right track with their data, analysis, collaborative environment, and attitude. My previous school had not quite reached the idea/formation of a site-based decision making committee. As I compare the two examples I have experienced, I see that Richardson's idea is correct. "An intense collaboration does not occur naturally; it requires planning, training, and a leap of faith" (p. 33). I have learned how to look at data, truly look at it and understand it. I believe this skill will have to be improved upon, but will be helpful to me in any position. I now understand where the goals in the campus improvement plan were derived from and how they were chosen. My action plan focused on improving math scores for the economically disadvantaged. If at the end of the year this population met the rating for explemenary, I would continue the professional development strategies as well as the tutorials for students. I would also implement professional development through PLCs. This would allow teachers to choose topics that they deem important to study and help each other improve. While in Texas, I found that PLCs have been used effectively. Since moving to Alabama, I have not seen districts utilize PLCs in any form. My goal for the future is to help implement PLCs following McTighe's model of "critical friend, analyst of student work and continuous learner". I believe that when teachers engage in this model, they stretch themselves and expectations for students. McTighe, J. (2008). Making the most of professional learning communities. //The Learning Principal,// 3(8), 1, 4-8. Richardson, M. (2005). Consensus leadership, //Principal Leadership,// 6(4), 32-35. Reeves, D.B. (2007). How do you sustain excellence? //Educational Leadership,// 65(3), 86-87.