STANDARD TWO-INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
School executives will set high standards for the professional practice of 21st century instruction and assessment that result in a no-nonsense, accountable environment. The school executive must be knowledgeable of best instructional and school practices and must use this knowledge to cause the creation of collaborative structures within the school for the design of highly engaging schoolwork for students, the on-going peer review of this work and the sharing of this work throughout the professional community.
2A. Focus on Learning and Teaching, Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
The school executive leads the discussion about standards for curriculum, instruction and assessment based on research and best practices in order to establish and achieve high expectations for students.
The school executive leads the discussion about standards for curriculum, instruction and assessment based on research and best practices in order to establish and achieve high expectations for students.
The 2020-2021 school year started off with students being engaged in virtual learning at Oberlin Middle School. I created a virtual walkthrough form for the virtual learning environment that observed the following areas: the learning environment, facilitating learning and the instructional process. The form was created in Google sheets and sent to observed teacher in a timely manner for review.
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(Restricted) For the duration of the 2020-21 school year, I conducted standard and abbreviated observations using the NC Teacher Evaluation Rubric. Together with my mentor principal we attended the same observation and compared our notes. As the year progressed, I conducted observations and led pre- and post conferences on my own using specific coaching questions for teachers to reflect on student learning and instructional practices.
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2B. Focus on Instructional Time
The school executive creates processes and schedules which protect teachers from disruptions of instructional or preparation time.
The school executive creates processes and schedules which protect teachers from disruptions of instructional or preparation time.
At the beginning of my residency at Oberlin Middle School, I wanted to become familiar with the school's master schedule. Through this process I was able to learn the names of teachers, courses they teach, and team planning times. Furthermore, I was able to identify scheduling discrepancies and determine whether or not some courses were over or under enrolled. A challenge that we had to combat early on was making sure that our SPED students were getting all of the academic classes they needed. Tough decisions had to be made, at times we had to reassign electives that might not have been that students top choice. In cases like this we reached out to the students and their families to try to include them in choosing an elective from the choices we had. From this experience, I learned that an effective master schedule is one of the most important resources an instructional leader possesses, because it drives the functionality of a school.
As the newest member at Oakview Elementary, I quickly reviewed the master schedule for a better understanding of how specials and instructional times were assigned according to each grade. When we moved from all virtual learning to face to face, schedules remained the same to allow teachers to be able to teach their virtual and face to face students simultaneously. After discussions with the leadership team, we decided to offer teachers a 90 minute PLT block and a 90 minute planning block once a week. In order to provide these uninterrupted blocks we enlisted the help of our instructional assistants and provided them with a detailed schedule of classrooms they would be supporting during lunch and recess. The administration team also worked together to create an extensive duty coverage schedule for staff viewing. Changes in the duty schedule were placed in the school's daily bulletin that is sent to teachers every morning.
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