EDUC 533 Internship Log Page

Date:2/28; Location: Zoom; Time: 12:30pm – 1:00pm

Mentor: Miriam Silverman

Double-Entry Log
Observations
Today, there was a SAC, or the School Advisory Council, held virtually through zoom. The Student
Advisory Council is a collaborative team composed of parents, teachers, other school-based staff, as
well as the school principals. The purpose of today’s SAC meeting was to discuss the schools budget to
our stakeholders (teachers, students and parents) and to ask for inputs to improve our current
school’s academic and climate culture
In this SAC meeting, stakeholders that were in attendance included: the school’s principal; two
assistant principal; the school-based teacher leader, Ms. Silverman; two teachers, a math and world
history teacher; two parents, each a guardian to students of grade 9 and 10; two students, one in 9 th
and another in 10th grade; as well as a district member who serves to record notes down for this
meeting.

The meeting began with the Ms. Silverman, the school-based teacher leader, sharing her screen
detailing the meeting’s agenda. After which everyone in audience would introduce themselves
including qualities like: Name, Stakeholder group, and one hope or wish we have for the remainder of
the year. She then transitions into describing the purpose of SAC, where she followed her description
with a video the audience of how SAC works and what is does to the benefit of the students and the
school. After finishing her introduction to SAC, Ms. Silverman asked for any thoughts about SAC or
input from stakeholders present. One of the guardians of a 9 th grader, introduced herself and
explained how she was very new the concept of SAC and was not exactly sure what kind of inputs she
could verbalize within reason. The school-based teacher leader, unmuted and discuss how it is alright
to not know what to speak about, and proceeded to ask about her experience and what she would like
to know more about at the school. She emphasized the importance of this meeting as a space to share
and listen to our shareholders in hopes of using those feedbacks to improve our school environment.
Following which the principal, proceed to discuss the current allocated budgets at Randolph as well as
asking parent/guardians or students for any input regarding what kinds of allocation would benefit the
students or the school’s community.
Instructional Technology Specialist Standards that are related:
I. Knowing the Content
D. Management and administration of technology programs at the building, district and regional levels
including:
1. planning and utilization of facilities including, budgeting, accounting, and program reporting,
grantsmanship, personnel administration, and staff development
III. Professionalism
C. Collaborating with school colleagues to enhance student, teacher and administrative capabilities
and improve student learning
D. Communicating effectively with parents/guardians, other agencies and the community at large to
support learning by all students

NETs Standards and Performance Indicators for Administrators:

1.Visionary Leadership
a. Inspire and facilitate among all stakeholders a shared vision of purposeful change that
maximizes use of digital age resources to meet and exceed learning goals, support effective
instructional practice, and maximize performance of district and school leaders.

4. Systemic Improvement
d. Establish and leverage strategic partnerships to support systemic improvement.
5. Digital Citizenship
c. Promote and model responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and
information.

Reflections
This was one of the few meetings I was able to attend that contained most of the administration team
in one place; discussing a topic as important as school culture and obtaining input from the
community outside of the school. Although I was unable to stay for the remainder of this meeting, as I
had a class to teach, I still recognized a lot of standards being used for administration as well as in
terms of instructional technology. For example, the introducing of SAC along with the video, created a
good pairing that allowed the stakeholders to grasp the meaning of SAC verbally and then confirm it
visually. Thereby enable the stakeholders to form their opinion and thought of what SAC entails and
re-affirm this thought. It also opens up for our stakeholders to think about what is considered SAC-
motivated ideas and encourage them to ask questions.

In addition, I really thought the way Ms. Silverman handled the situation of the guardian’s question,
was apt; in that she was open and honest to the idea of not having a response or not knowing what
kind of response to give. Instead, she started out asking for more general relatable questions to the
guardian in a way that still enabled the administration to understand the perspective and
circumstances of our guardian.
After the meeting, I also realized for the guardians to not having an answer or not knowing what to
say, is in itself very revealing about what kinds of changes our school can improve upon; bringing into
light, the need for more parent/guardian communication as well as other ideas that would ensures the
parent/guardian active participation and role within our school community.

As I listened to the principal’s description of the budget, I found myself a bit overwhelmed when
presented the screen detailing the breakdown of how the school’s budget was used. The only details
that I really understood was that we lacked a few teaching positions, as there were funds available to
hire for other teachers. I felt that this kind of information compiled by the budgeting software could
have been presented in a more friendly way especially not non-experts, such as a presentation slide
detailing the important aspects in which the stakeholders can provide input in to enable change. But
what I found interesting was the principal’s encouragement to ask for parents/guardians for
recommendations of qualified individuals to apply for a teaching position at Randolph. This idea was
novel in that and very fitting to the ideal of SAC, since it enables community members to pursue roles
that could create change within the school community.