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Culture Functions in Practice

Vanessa Singh
EAD 513
9/9/2020
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Culture Functions in Practice

 Mission and Vision

1. Our school mission is, "Shepard Middle School seeks to create a challenging

learning environment that encourages high expectations for success through

development-appropriate instruction that allows for individuals and learning

styles. Our school promotes a safe, orderly, caring, and supportive environment.

Each student's self-esteem is fostered by positive relationships with students and

staff. We strive to have our parents, teachers, and community members actively

involved in our students' learning" (Alan B. Shepard, 2020).

2. The vision of our school says, "All students enjoy successful educational

experiences, empowering them to make decisions while enriching the lives in the

future they create" (Alan B. Shepard, 2020).

 Leadership Behaviors

1. Administrators will include the department heads in the decision-making process.

Standard one, subset d states, "Effective leaders strategically develop, implement,

and evaluate actions to achieve the vision for the school. " (National Policy Board

for Educational Leaders 2015, pg. 9).

2. Administrators have encouraged all staff members to pursue a higher education.

Standard seven, subset g states, "Effective leaders provide opportunities for

collaborative examination of practice, collegial feedback, and collective learning.

" (National Policy Board for Educational Leaders 2015, pg. 15).
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3. Administrators treat every employee the same and include everyone in any school

event we have. Standard one, subset g states, "Effective leaders model and pursue

the school's mission, vision, and core values in all aspects of leadership" (National

Policy Board for Educational Leaders 2015, pg. 9).

 Staff Functions

1. School clubs will help each other out with funds when needed to have more

activities for the students, parents, community, and staff. Standard five subset a

states, "Effective leaders build and maintain a safe, caring, and healthy school

environment that meets that the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs

of each student " (National Policy Board for Educational Leaders 2015, pg. 13).

2. The teachers will come together to set up Angel Tree, in which teachers nominate

and donate a gist for two students they believe need something. The student will

be given an index card and will write down three things he might want for

Christmas. Then teachers will wrap all the presents and set them up for the

students, but students won't know where the gift is coming from. Standard eight,

subset b states, "Effective leaders create and sustain positive, collaborative, and

productive relationships with families and the community for the benefit of

students." (National Policy Board for Educational Leaders 2015, pg. 16).

3. The teachers will set up booths for the Fall Festival. The festival will be for all the

students, parents, community, and staff. This is a fun event that also takes place in

the Spring, but it's called Cougar Fest. Standard eight, subset b, states, "Effective

leaders create and sustain positive, collaborative, and productive relationships

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with families and the community for the benefit of students. " (National Policy

Board for Educational Leaders 2015, pg. 16).

 Student Activities

1. NJHS will have a ceremony for all students that have proven all year long to keep

a great GPA and be a good citizen. The club also provides two field trips a year to

different places that students have never been to. Standard five, subset e states,

"Effective leaders cultivate and reinforce student engagement in school and

positive student conduct" (National Policy Board for Educational Leaders 2015,

pg. 13).

2. The school also has a Drama Club that have a passion to act. The club presents

about 2-3 plays a year which invites everyone to come see. Standard five, subset d

states, "Effective leaders promote adult-student, student-peer, and school-

community relationships that value and support academic learning and positive

social and emotional development " (National Policy Board for Educational

Leaders 2015, pg. 13).

3. The school offers a Chess Club for all students. The club is great for those kids

that love to play chess or even want to learn. Standard five, subset d states,

"Effective leaders promote adult-student, student-peer, and school-community

relationships that value and support academic learning and positive social and

emotional development " (National Policy Board for Educational Leaders 2015,

pg. 13).

 Behaviors, Functions, Activities

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1. The students tend to create too much drama when something happens with one or

two students. By the end of the day, half of the school is mad or crying.

2. Students were getting is 10-second fights regularly two years ago.

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At our school campus two years ago, our school culture was on the floor. Luckily this

past school year, we had all new administrators come, and they are great. Our school culture this

last school year when up the roof because we finally had great administrators that cared about

everyone on their campus.

There are many things that have been working well in our school since last year. To start,

we have many happy teachers, which equals hard-working teachers. The teachers want to come

to work and do more things at school, whereas before, more than half of the teachers would leave

as soon as the bell rang. The clubs also have been helping each other a lot and working as a team

so not just 2-3 teachers do all the work. Administrators have brought the community together

also by making coffee and pastries with the principal every month, which had parents feel

welcomed to our campus. On the other hand, there are a few things that did not work well on our

campus. The first thing that hasn't worked well for our campus is that at the beginning, parents

were not so happy with all the rules the new administrators were enforcing, that were never

enforced. Luckily that was maybe about 1-2 months, and then parents started to see that finally,

the school had structure and was working well. Another thing that was not working at the

beginning was that we had about half of the staff be new to our campus. Having new people has

both pros and cons, but for us, it worked well after about two months when all the new teachers

adjusted and were on board.

I would recommend first going back to having half of the teachers leave to start

interviews right away. The ball was dropped from the district office and closed the office and

could not approve anyone that was being interviewed, which cause the school to lose great

candidates. Making some minor changes would make the school culture even higher than it is

now.
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Reference

Alan B. Shepard. [Website]. (2020). San Antonio, TX: South San Antonio ISD.
National Policy Board for Educational Administration. (2015). Professional Standards for

Educational Leaders, 9, 13, 15, 16. Retrieved from http://www.npbea.org/wp-

content/uploads/2017/06/Professional-Standards-for-Educational-Leaders_2015.pdf