What am I Thankful for? My love/hate relationship with my SPED Department...it's mostly love!

My special education department is truly special to me! We laugh, we fight, we disagree, we talk about each others weaknesses, but at the end of the day we have each others back. We work together as a team to ensure we provide the most appropriate supports and services to our students and families! If a teacher comes in upset about one of our students, our department members make sure to support each other in making the right decisions and letting the school staff know that we are working in the best interest of students! We have the courage to disagree with each other but we also have the ability to laugh at ourselves and how passionate we each can be over such small issues. When I think of collaboration and teamwork, I feel this has been the strongest team I have worked with in during my 15 years of teaching. Could it be that we are all wise and have learned from our mistakes? Or that we all share a common vision and make sure to enjoy ourselves along the way? What ever the exact reasons, I am happy to be part of such a great department that truly enjoys coming to work everyday...and even if we are not feeling so great...we have each other to lean on!

Force Field Analysis Brainstorm

This was my second chance to use Prezi as a platform to conduct the Force Field Analysis. I feel my technology skills continue to develop and refine as I keep using a variety of programs! As a future administrator, this experience of facilitating a force field analysis has positively impacted my confidence and ability to lead a team through a challenging decision making process and reach a positive outcome. By utilizing a variety of decision making strategies such as Drucker’s systematic approach for decision making and Lewin’s force field analysis, I was able to engage our school growth team in meaningful conversations that developed into action steps. Our school growth team reached consensus and made the appropriate revisions to the school growth plan to maximize our efforts in improving student achievement. Utilizing my leadership skills with my school growth team provided me the opportunity to practice and refine my leadership style. As a future administrator, this experience will be the starting point for my knowledge base when facing difficult decisions and eliciting momentum from my staff to be a part of the change process.

In completing Clinical Practice 1, I found an interesting text called The Leadership Challenge that discusses similar decision making and core values addressed by McLaughlin (2015). The authors of The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner (2002) described the importance of values serving as “a guide to action…they inform our decision as to what to do and what not to do…and really understand why we meant it (p.41)”. They take it one step further and believe that effective leaders must clearly articulate their values and demonstrate their deep commitment by modeling the way. As I completed my Principal interview, he was able to articulate his core beliefs and “lead from what is believed (Kouzes & Posner, 2002)”. One of his core values shared in our interview was ensuring equity and fairness amongst our staff and students. We have seen many examples of his decision making process that have earned great respect and trust from our staff. References: Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2002). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. McLaughlin, D. (2015). Insights: how expert principals make difficult decisions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Administrative Decision Making: Is it a Team Sport?

I agree with Edwin Bridges ideas on how to involve staff in decision making. I think he offers a systematic approach for administrators to determine when and how to include staff in the decision making process. It seems like common sense to me that if a decision is going to affect how I am going to teach in the classroom, that I would be more invested in participating in the decision. This group decision process can also establish “teacher buy-in” because they were active participants in the decision. There are many decisions that can be made without involving teachers yet some teachers or staff might have a strong opinion that they still want to have heard. Bridges offers a platform to voice these solutions/opinions to consider in the process yet the final decision is made by the administrator. I think it can be a challenging balancing act for administrators to move fluidly from individual decision making to group decision making. It is also important to know the motives of the group and if they have the students best interest in mind.

My Core Values

Improving Our Instruction

Instructional Coaches sound like such a beneficial support program for teachers. To have “personalized PD for teachers” sounds like it would keep teachers more engaged than sitting through a mandatory PD that might not address individual classroom needs. My current site does not have a designated Instructional Coach. I think with our budget constraints, our site has chosen to use their discretionary funds in other areas such as a full time a college/career counselor and a few after school instructional programs for English and math. If we did have a full time instructional coach, I think our department heads would be best at promoting the program. Highlighting effective ways to improve instruction and having a “personalized” coach with new curriculum could create buy in for teachers when hearing it from respected colleagues. I like the idea that it is not mandatory, making things mandatory seems like an automatic turn off for some teachers.

Motivation and Giving Accolades to the School Growth Team

Here is a letter to my School Growth Team in preparation for our Force Field Analysis. The purpose of this letter was to provide motivation and background information about the upcoming meeting. Dear School Growth Team Member, First and foremost, I would like to thank each and every member of our School Growth Team for your dedication and perseverance in being a positive contributing member of our team. We have received valuable feedback, both positive and negative, from our School Administration, staff, students, families, and our community as we continue the task of creating the most relevant and effective School Growth Plan. Our ultimate goal is to improve our school performance! To ensure our school achieves success, the School Growth Team has been tasked with conducting a Force Field Analysis. By analyzing both factors FOR CHANGE and BARRIERS TO CHANGE, we can better understand the most effective ways to promote school growth within our targeted areas of need. To begin this exciting process, I have attached a variety of web links that address the background and theory of Force Field Analysis. Our School Administrators approved release time for our School Growth Team to conduct a Force Field Analysis. This next School Growth Team meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 9 from 12:30-2:30 PM in the Principal Conference Room. In Section 2, there is a Force Field Analysis Template that will guide us in the steps to identify both factors FOR and AGAINST CHANGE specifically at our school site. In addition, please review the attached meeting agenda that outlines the key points we will be covering for the upcoming meetings. Also, as we continue our collaborative work in this organizational change process, please continue to utilize our School Growth Team Shared Notes Google Doc Template below to list any questions, feedback, or comments to address at the upcoming meeting. Looking forward to the upcoming meeting and continuing our meaningful discussions to elicit school growth! Sincerely, Margaret Ortega ,

Interactive Newletter

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FsZYOpJ2O7fChWCkI1FWAyDZKiykcn9BwNtxBCLmM04/edit# Very proud of creating an interactive newsletter for my school growth team. Check out the google doc link and find out what is happening with our School Growth Team!

Effective Collaboration

I think it is so interesting to see the dynamics of teams working collaboratively. I have seen my share of teams that were dysfunctional and disengaged from the process! I think from this experience that it is essential to step in and acknowledge the issues and offer support and leadership to ensure the team is working effectively. If I hear that the team is not in agreement, I think the best thing to do is to be honest and provide the team with an opportunity to express their thoughts and ideas constructively. This could be through an anonymous survey or through a suggestion box. I think the most important thing is to get the team engaged in the process. Once we can get buy in from each member of the team, then the team can function effectively.