Tier 1 Master's Degree

When I first began teaching, we administered common assessments periodically and used that data to drive future instruction. When the change of leadership twice in 4 years, things are drastically change. The "benchmark" testing we previously prepared our students for was issued by the district. Yes, there were many issues with the testing but they still worked in finding deficits for us to pay attention to. The district has taken them off the table and now provides us with a fall, winter, and spring assessment (MAP Test). Teachers use the MAP for data but it only gives three measures throughout the year. Principals I have spoken to throughout this program have told me that their school creates their own common assessments and use the data to drive instruction and improvements. I have created my own weekly assessment I use to plan from week to week.  I create questions similar to those on the standard assessments. I often sees students make great gains and some who struggle ...

Being part of the school community is one thing I really enjoy doing. I live in close proximity to my school district so traveling there is no problem. I do not see my students in my immediate community but seeing them in their community is priceless. I take my children to the gym, baseball and soccer fields, and other community venues to see my students in action. My students adore my children and hang around me as if I'm a celebrity. I do not do this to feel better about myself. I do it because the kids enjoy it. I enjoy watching them in action and making connections with them. We interestingly have something else to talk about other than math! My favorite thing to do is host karaoke for them. I love to admit that I am a karaoke fanatic! I eventually bought my own equipment and now you can find me at end-of-the-year parties and pool parties over the summer. I have hosted birthday parties for my students and recently have branched out to host parties for other schools. I have ...

The GELS standards have become my best friends these days. I never knew eight leadership standards can take hold of your life like these have!  Creating questions for each standard has really opened my eyes to vocabulary and how extensive the job of a leader will be. Also, having the chance to hear how different leaders incorporate them into their school.  Three of the interviewees are transfers from Gwinnett County. In Gwinnett County, all three mentioned how their expectations were specifically drawn out and you must adhere to all processes and procedures accordingly. There was not room for leeway. This is a commendable and respected approach. It speaks volumes for all levels of leadership. Gwinnett is not a stagnant organization. They continue to grow in their educational endeavors. They are a well-structured entity. Since moving to DeKalb County, the three interviewees have more autonomy to carry out their own unique vision. They are proactive in pursuing resour...

How is it possible for things to get done in a school if no one is responsible for it? The usual committees at my school have disappeared over the last two years. I was in charge of two committees but everyone just stopped coming to the meetings. The principal was made aware of the situation but, still, nothing was done. How can I make teachers attend a meeting if the principal doesn't require them to? Since all other committees folded, my group members just decided to drop out. We did have a change in leadership and she did not establish a committee schedule but what is already in place should not change, or does it? I just don't like seeing my colleagues lose interest in our organization. I can see how leadership plays a huge role in accomplishing the vision of a school. Establishing a vision and setting expectations is the start to something better but no vision and no expectations really damage the school environment. Teachers all filled out an input survey in February. ...

Today I had the honor of joining our principal in a meeting with two pastors from a local church just down the street from our school. The church partners with us in providing school supplies for students in need, as well as providing food for our children in need over the weekend but today we met to address feeding our children over the summer. One of the pastors showed us around their food pantry and we discussed the needs of our families from our school. I was impressed that the food within the pantry was stocked with food from various cultures so it could meet the diverse needs of our community. We brainstormed ways to deliver food and compile a list of needs for the families so people within the church can begin to bring donations. I am in the process of compiling a list of children, addresses and needs- this is thrilling! On our way out of the building, the pastor stopped at a library the church has had for many years. He shared that the library is never used and that h...

This morning I received an email from our principal containing the data from our District Assessments for Q4 county-wide. The data was displayed through graphs, distributed by grade level and compared the percent of children scoring at the proficient range to our free and reduced lunch percentage. While our school has many things to celebrate, we clearly also have area of growth. As I compare data grade level to grade level, I think of instructional trends I've seen in place by grade level. Our 4th grade students knocked it out of the park and coincidently, or not, this was the grade level which began implementing project based learning and uses the most technology within their classrooms. Conversely, the grade levels that underperformed had teachers who never unpacked their Mimios and do not use technology in their classrooms other than as entertainment for students. Because the use of technology and innovative teaching strategies is a large push for our school in the upcoming...

As I filled my shopping cart with food for my family my mind drifted to the children who our administrative team delivered food to just three weeks ago. I wondered if they had enough to eat. I have witnessed them taking food from our Share Table in the cafeteria, taking home bags of food on Fridays so they have food over the weekend, and even taking food from other people because they are hungry. During the school year I know that we can care for them, provide them at least two meals per day and give them food to take home but during the summer.....what happens then? There are federal programs in place that offer locations where parents can take children to have two meals per day over the summer. But, speaking from experience and talking with school administration, the children rarely come because transportation to these sites is not possible for the families. Those few who do come walk 30-45 minutes to get to school and 30-45 minutes back on busy roads without sidewalks with tin...

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to work with my mentor as she prepared to administer the Georgia Milestones reassessment for level one eight grade students. She thought that it would be a good experience for me to get a glimpse at testing preparations on a "smaller scale". She has been the testing coordinator at our school for a very long time, and she made it look easy. Although, I knew that preparing teachers and over 800 students for the Georgia Milestone's was a daunting task. Testing was particularly cumbersome before the implementation of 1 to 1 devices - unloading loads of test booklets and answer documents, organizing and sorting them by codes, then reloading them to ship back out to the state. Luckily we did not have to do this, however, I was eager to see what testing preparations was all about. Of the four schools in the county, we were one of two that conducted summer school for all 8th graders in the county that score level 1 in ELA and math. This ...

My summer reading has continued, and I recently reread this incredible book.  Beverly Tatum does a fantastic job of discussing identity development in both people of color and white people.  I went to a relatively diverse high school (65% white) and had friends of all races and backgrounds. However, it wasn't until college when I began to feel the sense of panic that other white students have experienced in which racism took on a whole new meaning for me and it was like I was seeing it for the first time. I believe that ALL educators regardless of race need to read this book to try to understand the process of adolescent identity development.  If our goal is to educate, inspire, and empower young people, then we need to understand how to support ALL child in the identity development process. As a white teacher in a predominantly black school, a few ideas stuck out to me. 1. Being an ally is not to help victims of racism but to "speak up against systems of oppress...

I was recently talking to an administrator friend of mine who works at a school where the majority of staff are new teachers who are required to stay 3 years before transferring. We were discussing the school climate and turn over after teacher's 3 year requirement is filled. It has been her experience that teachers who want to leave are not as effective as those who are invested, and in fact, their presence can cause a contagious downward spiral of morale. I'm unsure if the "3 year rule" is state wide or just common practice but I do know that both DeKalb and Gwinnett follow such guidelines for new and transferring teachers. My question is this- why do we require teachers to remain in a school for 3 years and how does this impact school climate? I understand that low performing schools typically do not attract as many educators as those which are higher performing however, do we really want teachers at schools who don't want to be there? Doesn't this, in a w...

The program I teach is facing a large increase in the number of students for the upcoming school year, yet our staff remains the same. Our principal is advocating for an increase in staff but we are not sure if this will come to fruition. I am never afraid to put in the work, so the numbers do not overwhelm me, rather the thought that serving this large number of children is not what is best for students nor the general education teachers who support our program. With that being said, I began to wonder....if the employees at the county office were housed at local schools instead of at a separate location, might they better understand the needs of the local schools? If they were to see 9 children with special needs including behavioral concerns in a class of 25 due to lack of personnel on a weekly basis, might they reassess their decisions? As I was contemplating where I would like to land as an administrator, I knew I did not want to be away from the kids- they are, after all, why...

This summer, I have focused on catching up on some reading.  I recently finished  Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and was absolutely intrigued by it and its' implications for educators.  The author was a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics after completing ground-breaking work on how people make decisions in the in 1970s. Since then, he has focused on how humans think, process information, make decisions, and evaluate risks.   In short, Kahneman describes two systems of thought.  System one "operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort, and no sense of voluntary control" while system two "allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it" (Kahneman, 2011, p. 21).  System two is the system we identify with but Kahneman describes how system one is the one that truly guides our thinking.  Unfortunately, system one can be easily influenced by framing, priming, and other phenomenon.  The most interest...

I ran across an article that does a great job explaining what it feels like to be a committed teacher who's just in the wrong place. http://www.indy.education/blog/2017/3/13/teachers-quit-principals-not-schools It's no secret that Georgia has skyrocketing turnover rates for educators. I had already heard from a few different places that almost half of teachers will quit their jobs within the first five years of the profession. This number is incredible, especially considering the economy in Georgia and over saturated job market. I hear teachers fantasize about quitting or leaving the profession very frequently. I've been in the same position. It makes me wonder why this issue is not being addressed. What surprised me was the fact that   49% of the teachers who quit cited school leadership while another 40% cited school climate (which is very strongly related to leadership). These are very high rates. I've seen schools loose amazing teachers for the same reason. ...

Hey Everyone, I have this great opportunity to be a GRA for Project Juntos with GA State this summer. I have joined Dr. Laura May and her team to teach a Literacy Foundations class. For the month of June, we are over at Druid Hills High every Tuesday for 3 hours for class and for tutoring students from grades K- 6. The first day started off great, and I have been able to give feedback to these college students/ current teachers from the angle of instructional coach. They are all training to be ESOL teachers or potential teachers in a dual emersion setting. The experience I am getting with this class is amazing. I encourage all of you to seek out GRA positions or summer internships to learn new things! Also, I get to grade some of the work that the college students are turning in. I am looking forward to seeing the elementary students progress with their reading skills and learning a few new strategies along the way. Additionally, I am excited to see the professional growth of the...

   Tomorrow my grade level will have its first ever summer planning days since I have been working at the school. It is typical for general education teachers to be given 10 paid hours to come in and plan together over the summer but it has been unheard of for special education. However, our new principal recognizes our special education teachers value as much as our general education teachers, which is refreshing. On our agenda is to tackle the hurdle of scheduling which we will accomplish through group decision making. Our ILT team worked on the master schedule for the school in April so it's time to dive deeper into the scheduling of our special education department. If you have ever worked in special education or are familiar with scheduling you know how difficult it is to ensure all student's service hours are met, teachers are utilized to promote maximum student achievement, and the amount of personnel allotted by the county is sufficient to meet the needs of all learner...

   The picture of the most adorable little girl caught my eye as I was having a conversation with my principal one day. The little girl was featured on the cover of Educational Leadership, and the entire issue was dedicated to special education as it relates to leadership. I felt like I had hit the goldmine as this is EXACTLY what I am interested in so, naturally, I couldn't wait to borrow it and read it from cover to cover. On the last page there are takeaways quoted, a few of which I'd love to share: "For many students, technology has diminished the impact of their disabilities to the point where they are no longer 'disabled' in certain situations," Thomas Heir, p. 36. ""IEP meetings are often a mix of jargon and report reading, and not enough listening, goal setting, and dreaming," Janice Fialka and Emma Fialka-Feldman, p. 46. These hit home as I am a huge advocate for assistive technology for our students. I also LOVE iep meetings as I ...

Just last week I had the pleasure of taking food and toys to some of our children who have demonstrated a need for such things. A few of us loaded up a car and drove around to homes I had selected based upon my observations of both the students and from being in the community.  Two things struck me....first the absence of awareness from some of my car mates regarding the living conditions of some of our students. Secondly, the uneasiness I sensed when we were delivering to some homes. I recognize that everyone has different comfort levels with poverty and having experienced situational poverty growing up, that my comfort level is probably much higher than someone who has never experienced such struggles. Nevertheless, these are our children and families, the ones we are charged to serve and educate and we must embrace and accept them at every level, including their dilapidated housing and rundown neighborhoods. Now, more than ever, I feel the need for every...

Welcome to your Reflection Blog!   One component of the Tier 1 program is a reflection blog.  The specific requirements for the program are in Appendix A.  You have flexibility in what you post about, but some guidelines are posted here. Students should post about something education related that they have on their mind.  Some post prompts are below: I’m really passionate about… I’ve really been struggling with… A recent success I’ve had was when.... A recent challenge I’ve had was when.... Can anyone help me with.... Remember, you are in a leadership program!  You should try to connect your posts to educational leadership.  What does your topic mean for school leaders?  How would you address it as a leader? Posts should be approximately 300-500 words in length and students can use them to reflect on any leadership activity.  Our blog is a great place to reflect on activities from your internship log. Including links, ...