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Name of Artifact: Reviving the Professional Culture

Date of Artifact: December 22, 2022

Course#: EAD 513

Standard Alignment Rationale

The standard alignment is advocating for students learning and future success. The 6th

standard states that leadership roles should understand and can advocate for school students,

families, and caregivers. During this assignment I found myself researching about how I as a

leader, can help the school become a more stable environment for student learning, and

educational growth for teachers. As a leader I had to learn more about the community and district

level polices to be able to manage a school budget, new school procedures and so much more.

Some of the policies applied are to analyze how law and policy is applied consistently, fairly,

and ethically within the school; advocate based on an analysis of the complex causes of poverty

and other disadvantages. It is very important to be an advocate for the education of the students.

A great advocate for students will have a mission and vision aligned to have a successful school

year. Having a great plan for the school year with short term, and long-term goals is crucial for a

successful academic year.

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Scenario Summary

I am honored with the great opportunity of becoming the new principal at Maynard High

School. Right away, I took it upon myself to do a little research on the school. After visiting the

campus and gaining the opportunity to meet with teachers at the school, I have gathered

information to best assist me in supporting our students, parents, faculty, and staff. Currently,

there are 45 full-time teachers, and we have a budget to hire nine new teachers in the fall. I’ve

learned that the school’s administration team consisted of a principal and three assistant

principals. However, we must hire an assistant principal, and seven teachers in core areas and

electives. Our budget also allows us to hire a fourth counselor for the fall, to better support our

school. Some other findings that I learned about are incomplete evaluations and lack of

curriculum and resources usage. There is also not a consistent professional development plan for

educators, but there is a published plan.

There are “teacher development days” where there is district-supported professional

development days for the school, however, they have been presented as short initial information

that is downloaded by teachers, and teachers stay on their own in their classrooms. Lastly,

professional learning communities or collaborative learning communities are nearly non-existent.

This school is still in its infant stage, at only 1 year, so, we will work together to build a

solid foundation for our future. My first step I will strive to improve the school culture and

develop a professional culture improvement plan, that includes the input of all stakeholders such

as teachers, students, parents, and staff. My plan consists of flourishing a mission and vision

statement that all stakeholders will believe in and learn to follow. After, we can create a

collaborating environment and build relationships with all stakeholders and design how our

school will integrate a public advocacy.

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Mission, Vision and Outcomes

Mission: Welcome to Maynard High School, home of the brave knights! At Maynard

High School our goal is to inspire students to grow their knowledge and provide the right tools

for our staff to help build our students a future in the 21st century.

Vision: From start to finish, students will be presented with technology, support, and

great opportunities to grow. We are an exceptional learning community, where all our passionate

educators, committed administrators, dedicated support staff, talented students, and supportive

parents, take a great part in the success of our students.

Short-Long Term Goals

To build a great community, I came up with a couple short-term goals for our school.

Firstly, we would host a job fair for educators because our school needs new teachers. We must

act rapidly to hire qualified individuals to provide academic success for our students. The second

short-term goal is to assign a room in the school building to host professional development

sessions, this will help educators familiarize themselves and practice developing education skills.

A long-term goal for the school is to have quarterly student assemblies, this allows the

community of our school to come together and celebrate student success. This also gives the

opportunity to build a powerful unity among our school, learn social discipline, develop core

values, and gain interest in extracurricular activities (Whitney, 2018). To reach community

partnerships is another long-term goal. The community collaborating environment doesn’t exist

on our campus, slowly but surely, we can start one program at a time. These programs can help

students gain real-life world views. For example, community pre-school for our child

development classes, local restaurant visitations for our culinary arts classes, and local bands

performances for our band program students to learn from.

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Productive Family and Community Relationships/ Partnerships

I would like to start off with a face-to-face to help build relationships with parents. We

can do this by hosting a school night. This is great way to meet the teachers, campus, and

administrators. However, I would like to place a separate date for principal night. During this

night I would like to share my vision and mission statement with our students, teachers, parents,

and guardians. During nights like these we can collect feedback and answer any questions our

community may have. Opportunities like these also help me build my “visible presence”, since it

is important to be available. I must practice by “Blocking off “untouchable” time in my calendar

to visit classrooms, even if it’s just 20 minutes a day. I also plan on greeting students, teachers,

and families at the school entrance to begin the day and at the end of the day. If you can’t do

both, pick one. But be consistent and stick with it (Hopkins, 2021). Building relationships with

the educators of our school and the parents is vital in success.

As a school leader I will ensure the staff and faculty feel supported. For example, adding

little things to the teacher lounge, such as snacks, weekly quotes and visiting their classrooms.

Also by making sure I keep an effective communication with educators and get to know them.

Naturally, as a leader I will have to address disagreements or conflicts. As a leader, it is

imperative to be honest with myself and others, seek resolution, and sometimes just listen for the

best of the school culture so it’s healthy and positive. Research shows that at both the

elementary, and secondary level, when schools, parents, families, and communities work

together, students earn higher grades, attend school more regularly, and are more motivated.”

National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments: Family-School-Community

Partnerships. A nationally representative survey conducted by AFHK in January 2020 found that

while 86% of parents are interested in providing input on kids’ health issues, 51% of parents do
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not feel included in decisions about children’s health and well-being at their schools. Family-

school partnerships aim to bridge that gap through meaningful collaboration (Action for Healthy

Kid’s, 2019). As I mentioned before, some ideas I have are the community pre-school for our

child development classes, local restaurant visitations for our culinary arts classes, and local

bands performances for our band program students to learn from. Also, our local community

colleges can help our seniors apply for their future careers, FAFSA, and give an outlook on the

possible next for years of their education.

Public Advocacy

A few insightful methods to advocate publicly for the needs and priorities of students,

families, and the community is to host a few events per semester. Parents will always be

welcomed at our school and will be encouraged to visit the school to get information of any kind,

student grades, upcoming sport events etc. During these events, I plan to celebrate our students’

achievements, such as hosting a scholarship night to reward senior students who are getting

ready for the next big step. Another great idea is to invite local universities and community

colleges to our schools “college night” and “career fair”. These two nights will be full of

information for students to have in the beginning of the school year. This event also gives

students the opportunity to explore the real world. The community and public can be invited by

having locally owned businesses attend, such as food trucks and other small business owners.

This may also apply during parent/teacher conferences in a smaller aspect.

Rationale

All the ideas I have mentioned in my plan revolve around setting our students up for

success. High school is an important time for the student’s development. Whether they are just

discovering what they like or dislike, or they know what they want and are set to accomplish
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their next goal. I have decided to do this plan that follows six steps. The first is to build a team

with the same vision and mission to believe in. The second is to have a starting point to be able

to track the progress. After building a solid team, we can create a plan that outlines a road map

for our priorities and goals. Next, we must find the right resources to create a safe and positive

learning environment. It is also important to involve the community so we can build more for our

students. Lastly, we continue our momentum by recognizing accomplishments and hard work.

This involves celebrating success and making sure everyone is included. To ensure social justice

is well grounded on our campus, we must talk about social justice with our students, and make

sure the respect level is always set to the highest standard. My plan is a start of a healthy school

culture and a student-centered environment. We will do this by integrating the school’s and

student’s culture. Student’s will be shown love and respect, and they should show the same

action to others who surround them.

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References

Mills. 2019.The Role Educational Leaders Play in Social Justice in Education.

https://online.mills.edu/blog/social-justice-in-education/

Action for Healthy Kids. 2019. Family School Partnerships/ 6 Steps for Healthier Schools.

https://www.actionforhealthykids.org/family-school-partnerships/?

gclid=Cj0KCQiA8ICOBhDmARIsAEGI6o06mk7omctXSbHPRSA5W_mlyhaJrf0J6xyGsO

hwa4lkqi3UZEVS934aAp3aEALw_wcB

Whitney. 2018. What are the Benefits of School Assemblies?

https://www.academicentertainment.com/What-are-benefits-school-assemblies

The Write of Your Life! 2021. How Administrators can Support Teachers to Improve School

Culture. https://thewriteofyourlife.org/

Hopkins, E. 2021. 10 Tips and Tools for School Leaders. https://blog.tcea.org/10-tips-tools-

schoolleaders/?

gclid=Cj0KCQiA8ICOBhDmARIsAEGI6o0DNFrOq9JyQXqbns4npSe9mC8iQXzBWQ

aOpLupDO45NbuZxn4vVUUaAv2tEALw_wcB