Donald E.

Crain
University of St. Thomas
Dr. Virginia Leiker
EDUC 6331 Administrative Internship II
Fall 2017
 Being an instructional lead on my campus and for all the
district in the area of science has afforded me the opportunity
to delineate ice-breakers, new vision and mission statements
in the area of science at our districts staff developments. At
the beginning of the school year I was able to address our
science teachers areas of concerns from previous school-
years and lead discussions and interventions in our district
and regional Think Tank sessions. These interventions had a
more cultural focus as to how we can improve the motivation
of our students who are repeatedly testing in accountability
areas inevitably creating much frustration for these
students. Collaboration of ideas via an instructional playbook Competency 001:
using Jim Knights strategies for instructional coaching were
used to outline tier two and tier three strategies to intervene
to help shape our learning communities on different
campuses within the district. This assignment required
meticulous attention on the style of cultural awareness ideas
as to each campus is different. For example, some schools
served more English as a second language students, and some
schools served more special education students. Despite the
schools population, the shared ideas of incentive based
tutorials, revolving curricular, and community projects helped
to shape each campuss vision and mission to motivate all
student re-testers. I want to enhance my learning in
developing vision and mission statements
 As instructional lead for biology intervention in our
accountability area, I was able to solicit proceeds for funding
for lunches for specialized tutoring programs. Also, with
taking students off campus for comprehensive reviews, I was
also able to study more closely the neighboring venues within
our schools community in order to be able to expose our
students to more academic intense learning environments.
Lone Star College officials, and the multicultural center has
allowed Nimitz students to use their facilities for novelty
experiences heighten their interest in learning while using
state of the art laboratory rooms with live monitors at each
station and fine equipment for revisiting different topics for
review. Purchase orders of various forms were needed.
Budget meetings were necessary with the bookkeepers. In Competency 002:
these meetings I was able to allocate funds from various
accounts based on the activitys functionality and purpose.
Only certain vendors are able to provide supplies for our
students; hence, I had to have a sense of understanding how
to mobilize resources to promote student success in these
instances. I would love to enlarge my communication with
business leaders and learn more about how to involve
business owners in academic affairs.
 This competency I feel is who I am innately. One of my weaknesses is
to value all individuals with integrity, fairness, in an ethical and legal
manner. When dealing with teachers during supervisory experiences
while making action plans and smart goals I must keep all my
teachers thoughts, and frustrations confidential. This is my
professional responsibility as their instructional leader. The areas of
concern for teachers are to me alleviated with my assistance, not
reported to administrators before they can work things out. As an
instructional coach, partnership and trust is critical; therefore, I
maintain a discrete relationship regarding each teachers needs.
Moreover, with regards to legal matters, each teacher is deserving of
adequate walkthroughs in the defined allocated window for the
correct amount of time. Timely feedback is of the essence; therefore, I
help administrators keep to their recommended timelines. These
timelines are mandated by the state of Texas. I am acquainted with
these laws. I feel I have to better regulate my concern and care for
teachers and set it aside when it is time to help teachers improve
without my own bias of not hurting ones feelings. I am learning to be
able to provide constructive feedback by asking probing questions that
allows the teacher to make self-evaluations of themselves allowing me
not to have to directly point out areas that are negative. To keep each
teachers matters private also helped me in the area of being fair to all
teachers. I plan to extend my learning with this competency providing
my staff members with examples I learned from developing myself.
Curriculum, assessment, and instruction are my main priorities at Nimitz
Sr. High School. Each content area has specific core courses of study
outlined in our scope and sequences per subject area. I specialize in
designing re-teach opportunities, formative assessments, and
intervention strategies to help improve facilitation of instruction for
teachers which inevitably improves learning outcomes for students. I
have learned through all the modalities of imputing data into our
curricula software Eduphoria, how to analyze data to make academically
driven decisions. From the data, we assess which teachers have the best
practices. At this point, activities are meticulously selected for
instructional alignment. I design clarifying questions to ensure that each
teachers classroom activity is succinct with the learning strands. Competency 004:
Moreover, many teachers do teach all learning strands; however, not to
the correct depth of knowledge. Sometimes curricular are not presented
all the various ways that particular content area could possibly be tested.
It is not only good enough teach every topic, but it is also critical that all
topics cover the diverse modalities that content can be taught. For
example, tables, graphs, and other embedded materials can be used to
teach density. Water displacement of a liquid of an irregular shaped
object, traditional length time width time height problems can be taught,
and even the density of liquids themselves can all be assessed in the
single topic density. I have learned to teach my teachers how to vary
their assessment styles for optimal student performance. Assessments
are ever-changing and I aim to continue professional development not
only for my teachers, but myself as an administrative leader.
 I have led the district by designing abbreviated intervention
curriculum. Tedious, but meticulous curricular roadmaps were
designed. Tactical scheduling, readjustments, and embedded
tutoring hours during the school-day were essential for the
abbreviated curriculum to be successfully implemented;
therefore, I had to advocate and cultivate the ideas with research-
based supporting evidence in order to effectively nurture this
instructional program. I lead our district staff developments in our
intervention meetings. Moreover, it is important that I provide
enough administrative support for student discipline, concise and
annotated curricular for the abbreviated lessons in efforts to
make difficult and usually wordy assignments more feasible for
students. My largest challenge is man-power the difficulty of
completing all the planning, design, and digital uploading of the
curriculum for use in the intervention sessions. With teachers
already being loaded with their normal classroom challenges, our
intervention plans are in addition to teachers normal teaching
Competency 005:
schedules. Providing the necessary resources for teachers to plan
for intervention helps them tremendously. This is one thing I
learned about competency 005. With the understanding that
school populations and dynamics are always revolving, I plan to
continue to be mentored and never get complacent in leadership.
 I am very fortunate to serve on the Teaching for
Learning Summit each summer with the principals and
assistant principals of Nimitz Sr. High School. This summit
encompasses the necessary strategies to ethically and
fairly meet appropriately with teachers using suitable
supervisory styles of coaching and development. In
addition to hands-on training for supervision, Jim
Knights experts visit us and provide professional
development for instructional coaching of teachers. The
coaching cycle, setting smart goals, peer goals, designing
observation tools, etc. all encompass these professional
development trainings. After this training, further
logistics are reviewed to all the instructional coaches and
administrators concerning legal requirements delegated
through the Texas Education Agency. Time restraints for
review, response time to teachers, and teachers rights
are all reviewed. As a leader, I plan to continue to grow in
this competency by having an open-door policy as a
leader.
Competency 006:
 I sit on the leadership team as well as our learning leaders
team on campus. These two teams act as our site based
decision making teams at Nimitz Sr. High School. Our principal
enlightens team members of current issues. When we were
an improvement required campus, this team help with the
tactical revamping of the master schedule to better serve
and intervene for students with high demands and needs, we
collaborated with the root-cause analyses for our campuses
weakness and strengths. This team I served also assisted with
the campuss improvement plant and turn-around plan.
Moreover, I attended the states Advancing Improvement in
Education conference were I gain a plethora of skills and
strategies for improving schools. As instructional lead for
science, I was able to present and model these strategies in
Competency 007:
our professional learning communities, provide professional
development for strategies teachers selected, and finally
meet with teachers as their supervisory content lead and
collaboratively develop plans for personal growth. I plan to
grow in this competency by providing continuous professional
development in decentralization this is to established a
more democratic approach to leadership.
 I have had several off-campus trips, building-wide activities, and
materials to order which afforded me the opportunities to learn
more about principals budget, which budgets can be used for
which type of activity or event, and various apparatus in science.
Aside from teachers which use our states compensatory budget
for salaries, intervention for at-risk students activities can be used
with Title I funds. Supplies and technology for science laboratory Competency 008:
experiences can use principals budget and some other budgets
contingent upon any overlapping relationships with Title I at-risk
and Title III English language learners, and other facets of
student life. Due to the overlapping nature of some activities, in
few instances, if funding in one account is not sufficient, funds can
be pulled from another account. This helps to optimize resource
utilization. Learning this was very enlightening. It is vital principals
allocate funds appropriately and correctly. I plan to continue to
learn all laws knowing they change every two-years.
I have experience in weekly leadership meetings where
we develop managerial responsibilities based on campus
needs. In addition, Positive Behavioral Intervention
Systems are designed contingent upon the course of
events that has most recently occurred our principal
base decisions on what fosters a safe and effective
learning environment for all. Sometimes routines are
changed because of a recent event and due processes
are progressively adjusted and refined. I have learned to
always remain alert in every situation on campus and
treat each and every incident seriously and with respect
despite how commonplace it may seem. I plan on
growing in this competency by staying abreast on
current events and occurrences at other schools and Competency 009:
campuses. I would use real-world situations as learning
tools.
 With experience in disciplinarian hearings settling and
determining consequences for large infractions on campus,
security team metal detector duty, and collaborating with
managerial campus-wide duties for overall campus safety
have allowed me to witness several times when my principal
governs the school in times of crisis and conventional
decision-making. Teacher handbooks, new-teacher
academy, common planning for each content area building-
wide, and bi-weekly campus staff developments helps to
ensure assessments are given appropriately, students,
teachers, and staff members are treated with respect,
policies and procedures are followed, and most importantly,
students are learning. Figure heads are delegated in various
areas such as our RTI coordinator who helps oversee
student enrollment, PBIS systems, and achieve 3000
program. That just one of many resource management tools
my principal oversees. All these facets of the building
operate in sync with excellent leadership from our principal Competency 010:
through the strides and new culture of traditions
established and returned back to Nimitz Sr. High School. I
plan to continue to grow in this competency by remaining
involved in vertical and horizontal meetings to optimize
learning opportunities which helps governs a properly run
school.
 District-wide, campus-wide, and via each department,
beginning of the year and ongoing professional
development is provided digitally, in role-play form, and
verbally regarding ethical behavior that is expected in
school. I have encountered experiences where our
students were supported in preparatory programs, join-
a-club night, power open house night, and several other
activities as dances and carnivals. These events are not
academically based solely, but are important in educating
the total child. A students emotional and psychological
well-being is enhanced with such social activities. Being
nice, professional, and not verbally, physically, or
mentally abusive or inappropriate with students is
crucial. With our role playing and round robin
professional development activities, these skills are seen
first-hand and substantially assist our principal with
enforcing ethical leadership which support our students.
You never fully grow in education, because education is
Competency 011:
always changing just like technology. Similarly, no two
students are the same; therefore, I plan to grow with my
students by understanding each set of students I inherit
everyday.