Chapter 1

Leadership Styles:
According to Thomas, Scott (1993) in Principals for Our Changing Schools,
knowledge and skill base , "strong leaders shape school culture and values, develop
shared strategy, visions and formulate improvement efforts by performing specific
tasks."
So, I would say that thus far in my leadership role I have been a leader who leads by
example. Successful leaders are those leaders that are working side-by-side with staff
to create a better learning environment for everybody.
As Thomas also points, "Effective principals maintain high internal work standards.
They have high expectations for students and staff and communicate those
expectations to individuals within and outside of their schools." I do feel that with the
experience I've had so far as a lead teacher I do set forth high expectations not only
for students and staff but for myself as well. What I'm expecting of students and staff
I must expect of myself.
The one thing I struggle with the most as a leader is to delegate task to others. I find
myself wanting to help out staff and work with them and then I become behind on
other areas of my job. So, I plan to work on time management and not getting myself
overbooked.
Thomas, Scott, D, Ed (1993), Principals for Our ChangingSchools: The Knowledge and
Skill Base, National Policy Board for Educational Administration, Fairfax, VA.

Chapter 2
A vision for success:

According to The Standard-Based Administrative Internship Putting

ISLLC Standards into Practice, the vision development process at the district
and school level should all start out with the same three questions, Where are
you now, where do you want to be and how do you get there? You can use the
answer to these questions to guide your vision statement.
I think that it is important to look over the vision statement that is
already in place at the school. The goal throughout the stages of creating a
vision is to capture the best thinking of everyone involved. You and your staff
need to work as a collaborative group, decides where you are now as a district
and what works with the existing mission statement. Next, the collaborative
group will then have to decide where you want to go as a district/school. If all
state holders can agree in what direction they would like to see the school head
then you must decided how the team will get the district/school there.

Once you decide on the vision statement, it is important that you

articulate it to the students, staff and community. The vision statement needs
to be visible in daily/weekly staff bulletins, in newsletters and handbooks, on
monthly calendars and bulletin board notices, and prominent on Web and home
pages and in the school newspaper. Many times you see vision statement
visible for everyone to see, even as far as on banners and school marques but it
is more a fixture than anything that is followed or looked at.
As a principal it is important that we make sure the vision statement is
not only visible, but we are following it and trying to reach its full vision. Many
times a team takes the time to put a vision statement together, but then once it is
posted they no longer pay attention to it. It is important that as a principal, in
addition to making our vision statement visible I will also check in with staff on
a monthly basis to discuss ideas on reaching our vision statement and putting
plans into action.

Hackmann, D., Schmitt-Oliver, D., & Tracy, J. (2005). The Standards-Based Administrative Intership: Putting the ISLLC
Standards into Practice. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Chapter 3
School Culture
School culture in my organization: What is working and what could be improved.
As I read the information on school culture and think about the organization I am in and in what areas we could improve and what
areas are we successful.
As a school leader I believe it is important to have a positive school culture. I believe that that positive school culture begins with the
leaders of the school. In our school we have taken steps towards building a positive school culture by making it clear to the
administration, teachers and students that they are an important part of the school and the work that they do is invaluable.
For both the school administration and teachers, in accordance to Hackmann, Schmitt-Oliver, and Tracy (2005) we believe that
time and effort is needed to identify how the adults in schools learn and grow and how they develop the skill and ability to
assert their new knowledge in the practice of teaching. (p77). Because of this we strive to develop and encourage our
staff to be life-long learners. We have just recently asked our board to implement tuition reimbursement for our staff that
wants to go back to school. By doing this we have lessened the financial burden for those who want to further their
knowledge in teaching and sharpen their craft. Many times money is barrier for those teachers who desire to sharpen
their skills and go back to school. I hope that by offering tuition reimbursement it will get rid of the barrier and encourage
more life-long learners.
To create a positive school culture it is also important to include students and parents in decision making. Hackmann, Schmitt-Oliver,
and Tracy (2005), effective school leaders, especially building level leaders, must be thoroughly knowledgeable about how
students learn (p 74). I do believe that our school is missing a very important piece of the puzzle. We do not at this time
have a student and parent committee that is focused on student learning. I would like to create a committee of students
and parents both past, present and future, that can give us input on how our school does at providing an appropriate
education for students. It would be good to find out what they look for in the curriculum of the school and what ideas they
may have to make our school culture more positive.

Hackmann, D. G., Schmitt-Oliver, D. M., & Tracy, J. C. (2002). The Standards-Based Administrative
Internship. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Chapter 4
A new principal

The building I am currently at underwent a huge change when we got a new principal. The
principal chose to change many things the first year she was there and at the end of the
year many of the staff that had been there for years decided to leave. There was very little
training but many changes were made. Instead of training staff and what she wanted the
changes to be she just told them and expected them to know what to do.

Dembowski was quoted in The Standards Based Administrative Internship, D. Hackmann, D.

Schmitt-Oliver, & J. Tracy (2002), "The obvious challenge related to the operating
policy/governance sub-system is to establish and maintain effective communications channels
capable of involving all stakeholders in the school systems policy and governance process."

I do not believe that when changes were made, at the time, all stakeholders were involved. In
regards to what I would have done differently, I would have gave staff more training, I would
have involve staff collaboratively in the some of the changes that were being made and talk to
staff about what changes they thought should be made. The principal who made the
changes is now my mentor for my internship and we have talked about when she came and
her reflection of the situation. She too agreed that she wish she would have involve staff more
in the changes and ask questions before she made some of the demands or requests that she
made of staff.

Hackmann, D. G., Schmitt-Oliver, D. M., & Tracy, J. C. (2002). The Standards-Based

Administrative Internship. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Chapter 5
Making families feel welcome:
It is important to build relationships with outside agencies so that we have resources
for not only our parents and students, but staff as well. The population of students we
are working with today are very different then even students 10 years ago. If we can
find good resources for parents and students we have places that they can turn to for
assistance.
I also believe many teachers today take on the role of the caring adults in any of our
students lives. Many teachers nowadays go out of their way to find resources for
students depending on their situation. I think that building good relationships with
outside resources only benefits everyone involved because it gives us more places to
turn to for help.

As Hackmann, Schmitt-Oliver and Tracy (2002) points out, "in a true school-familycommunity partnership states, educators create family like schools, in which every
family is welcome, and every child feels a sense of belonging."I have seen schools
that offer nights where families can come and get health check ups I check ups
haircuts and even a free meal. When these things are offered to families it builds

better relationships between the families and the school. Because of these programs
that are being offered it give school staff the opportunity to meet parents that they
may have never met otherwise in the doors of communication between the parent in
school community can begin.
As in administrator I would not only invites outside agencies into my school, but I
would also go to outside agencies and start to build relationships and brainstorm
ideas of how we can work together to improve our community.
Hackmann, D. G., Schmitt-Oliver, D. M., & Tracy, J. C. (2002). The Standards-Based
Administrative Internship. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Chapter 6
Giving out student the education they deserve:
In my internship there are many situations I have observed that really brings ethics
front and center.
According to the ethical statements listed in, The Standard-Based Internship by
Hackmann, Schmitt-Oliver and Tracy, the thing that comes to mind right away when I
look at the first code of ethics, "make the well-being of students the fundamental
value and all decision-making in action" is being honest with yourself and teachers
while doing instructional coaching.
While doing coaching and walk-throughs I think that it takes a staff member that has
a very strong ethical backbone to coach teachers. It is all too easy to turn a blind eye
on a teacher who is not looking out for the best interest of our students. So, I think
that it is important to keep in mind, as an administrator, that the well-being of
students is the fundamental value of all decision-making in all of our actions. If we
keep this in mind we will be sure to work with those teachers who may not be giving
our students the education they deserve.
To ensure that the team I work with knows that I have our students best interest in
mind; I plan on being in the classrooms and coaching those teachers who may
struggle with giving our students the education they deserve. This may include
working on differentiated instruction or even a teacher's classroom management. I
believe if I let the staff know that it is our ethical responsibility to teach our children
to the fullest of their ability and I expect everybody to do so it will send a strong
message to the staff, students, and community.
Hackmann, D. G., Schmitt-Oliver, D. M., & Tracy, J. C. (2002). The Standards-Based
Administrative Internship.Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.