Experience
Writing Strategy
Our long-term goal for this school year was to increase student writing. At the beginning of the 2016 school year, Alice Harte's overall goal for students in ELA was to increase writing proficiency from 20% to at least 60%. In order to achieve this goal, the school's leadership team had to be strategic in creating a strategy for students to make gains in their writing. As part of the leadership team I assisted with the following tasks:
-
Analyzed student data for standardized testing to create school-wide writing strategy
-
Assisted master teacher with developing long-range plans and student graphic organizers for AIMS, writing strategy, as well as field-testing
​
​
Online Assessments
After being mandated by the state to complete online standardized testing for grades 5-8, my school had to make some major adjustments. None of our students had any experience with online assessments, let alone typing essays on a computer. Throughout the school year, I was assigned the duty of being responsible for finding online assessment websites for the English Department. Not only did I have to find the websites, but I also had to test them in my classroom to ensure they were both teacher-friendly and student-friendly. Some of the websites that I field-tested are below:
​
-
Readtheory.org
-
Edulastic.com
-
Edcite.com
-
Louisiana Eagle/DRC Insight
-
DataDirector
​
Not only did I just test the websites in my class, but I also developed and led a weekly cluster meeting to train teachers to create online weekly assessments. However, in reflecting on the process taken, as a future leader, I believe that technology should be a major part of instruction from early elementary through high school. Although students were given some opportunities throughout the school year to practice taking online assessments, there were many students who still lacked the ability to navigate assessments online because online testing practice did not occur until weeks before state testing. Technology should be part of how students learn in order to help them become productive and successful citizens in today's society.
Curriculum
A curriculum is considered the “heart” of any learning institution which means that schools cannot exist without a curriculum. With its importance in formal education, curriculum has become a powerful process due to the changes that occur in our society. In order to increase the level of learning this school year for students, I assisted with the following:
-
Assisted new ELA teachers to utilize Ready Common Core & Louisiana Guidebook Curriculum.
-
Modeled instruction using the new curriculum for new teachers.
-
Introduced the Ready Common Core Curriculum to the school district
​
Reflection: It takes at least three years to see steady improvement in certain areas in the educational world. One area that my district and school struggles with is not waiting long enough to witness improvement when it comes to curriculum. Each year teachers are overwhelmed with the task of learning a new curriculum, as well as building new lessons and teaching new material to students. As a future administrator, I plan to do my best when it comes to allowing time for change, especially where curriculum and instruction is involved.
Curriculum, Assessment, and Evaluation
Effective curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation are essential in achieving high levels of learning for all students. ISLCC Standard 2 states the following:
​
Standard 2: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by
advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to
student learning and staff professional growth.
​
Since student learning is the fundamental purpose of schooling, student growth and development is key. Through curriculum design, implementation, evaluation, and refinement schools can promote s supportive learning environment by preparing students to be contributing members of society.
