Portfolio

I liked the idea of portfolios for staff development. I have never heard of this method, I just thought that staff develoment was done as a group. If I thought someone at my school would listen to me I would suggest this for my school.

Case Studies

I have found the discussions regarding the case studies to be extremely helpful. It is interesting to hear the different vantage points that everyone has for the scenarios. Overall, there are obviously a few commonalities. But, each person brings his/her professional and personal experiences into the decision making process. This is helpful to me especially to hear from individuals who have experiences with the middle and high school grade levels because I am so familiar predominantly with the early childhood grade levels.

Professional Development

I found the discussion regarding professional development very helpful. There are so many aspects to consider when you are the person establishing the professional development opportunities for teachers and staff. By using a model that incorporates the research-based practices of shorter durations (3 hours) over an extended length of time, I think that the administrator would see a definite change in the actual implementation of strategies shared during the professional development sessions. This is a program model that I am currently working to implement on a more consistent basis with my current position as I offer professional development for teachers.

Doing what's right

I really found myself intrigued during the story of Dr. Closen's wife having to fire a teacher that was one year away from tenure when she, herself, was just in her first year as an administrator. There would be so many things to take in to consideration during a situation like that. I know the first thing that entered my mind would be the fear that firing the teacher would really create an atmosphere of low faculty morale. One wants to build trust as the instructional leader of a school, and some teachers who were sympathetic towards the fired teacher may never fully trust the administrator again. It seems like the obvious answer would be to simply fire the teacher because it is the right thing to do, but it sure wouldnt make it any easy. However, I suppose as long as administrators make every decision based on what is best for students in the end they will come out on top.

Critical Incident Questioning

Posing a critical incident to a prospective teacher is a great way to get more insight into a perspective candidate. I have been involved in several interviews and have never seen this form of questioning. Next time I am part of a team conducting an interview I will use a critical incident question.

Board Policy

I am not quite sure of where I stand on the board policy topic. I understand why they are in place, but if you do not have to follow them, what purpose do they serve besides looking professional. While going through the policies on line last week, I realized that a good portion of them were adopted/revised in 1983. We have had a lot of changes in the district since'83, and I cannot imagine that there has not been a superintendent that has encouraged revision of these policies.

I truly think that all staff should have a copy of the board policies in their classroom that sits next to the staff and family handbooks. Not that I would expect all staff to read it every day, but I do think that having them accessible for reference is a good idea. Talking about these at an occasional staff meeting or professional development would be a good thing to remind the staff of these important documents.

School Law

I am very interested in the law sid of education, and as an administrator, there are many situations that having as much knowledge of the law as it pertains to education will be beneficial. I am simply fascinated listening to the descriptions of the cases that come through the courts regarding the school system. I think this is a very important area as you never know what individual, whether that be a student or parent or staff member, etc. that will want to voice their opinion (resistance) to a policy or situation that occurs in the building. It is important to stay on top of the everchanging world of school law, there is always something new that pops up that makes you shake your head and say to yourself "you mean to tell me they thought this (action) would be appropriate?" I am looking forward to keeping up with school law issues through the website Dr. Closen pointed us to, School Law Blog, just to stay current with what is happening in the way of education law.