That's All Folks!

The mock interview was very helpful. Although I was very nervous, it was refreshing to have someone take the time to sit with me and review the questions that may be asked during an interview. It was not scripted, instead we talked through each question. I appreciate all the positive feedback and the time this person took to coach me. I enjoyed this process and the way it was conducted.

CAPSTONE REFLECTION

This paper made it relevant that it is extremely important to fully know and understand the current reality of your school.  In order to make change, it is important to know where you are in order to make effective and efficient steps towards a positive change at your school site. It is also important to know your current reality to know what change is appropriate for your site. There are many great teaching strategies and best practices, but what works for one school may not work for your site.  It is important for administration to see that and tweak things to make them work their school site.

Budget Reflection

Another great assignment to see a different side of administration that we do not see day to day as a teacher.  It was interesting to see where monies where allocated.  The reasoning for where the money would be put always came back to how it can positively affect student achievement.  It was great to see how closely the principal, GIS, and office manager work together with school finance.  All three of them had input when working on the budget assignment.  Everyone had there own responsibilities, yet it was clear that my principal knew what was going on.  This is something that I remembering hearing at our last class meeting.  Although you delegate the work, as a principal you still want to make sure you know what is going.  Stay in the loop.  It was nice to see how it worked at my school.

Fact to Fact Reflection

This was a great class that was very informative for any future administrator.  We started the night with three presenters from Clovis, Sanger, and Visalia.  We learned the importance of the hiring and firing process.  It was made very clear from all districts that "you are who you hire".  It is important to take the time and do the background  checks on candidates for a job in your district.  Also, they all continued to make sure we understood the importance of documentation.
Next we had CADA come in and talk to use about listening and respect.  We did a great activity, which showed us how to truly listen with respect by not interrupting.  That was a bit challenging, especially when you want to agree and tell your story.  It was a great way to show what it is to listen respectfully.
Listening to Dr. Terry Bradley was such a great opportunity.  His explanation of school finance, history of different propositions, court rulings, and components of a budget was extremely informative.  After listening to him made me realize that I have so much to still learn.  I am thankful to know that we have a great support system in our district and that there is always someone who can answer your questions.

Putting it all together

Through out this book there was so much valuable information for leadership.  In the end it felt like all connectors begin with building relationships.  When you build a relationship you build trust, safety, communication, the ability help yourself and others find balance, and trust from others about your competence.  The key is relationships.  A great leader has the ability to build a healthy and positive one with their staff.  I aspire to be able to have a staff that looks up to me with a positive outlook.  It is about valuing what we have and treating it delicately. I hope to be remembered and touch so many lives as Jeff did.

Class Reflection

Roberta Rowe had an abundant amount of great information.  I really appreciated hearing about all the technology that is our there and how students are using it.  It is important to keep updated with all of this, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging, texting, etc.   When we are in administration we need to know the appropriate actions to take when we are faced with "cyber bullying" and/or "sexting".  It can be frustrating because things may seem a little backwards in the sense that kids know more than adults about some of this technology stuff.  It is because of this that it is important that as adults we keep up to date on what is out there.  If it wasn't for this class I probably would have never taken the time to figure out what twitter was or even how to blog, and yet kids do it all the time.

I enjoyed listening to Dr. Hauser on effective meetings.  Some meetings just never felt effective nor efficient, yet we were doing what we were suppose to do by having an agenda to keep the meeting going.  After listening to Dr. Hauser about what a good agenda should look like, it began to make sense why some of our meetings did not flow.  The planning before the meeting is just as important as the meeting itself and should probably take a lot longer than the meeting. I will definitely keep her sample to use in future meetings.

The last part of the day was spent reviewing expulsion and suspensions.  This was eye opening to hear of the "big 5"  which are mandatory expulsions.  The pamphlet was very helpful and will definitely by useful in the future.

Trust #7

As I read this chapter I began to reflect on my relationships that I have with family and coworkers.  I found that when you are building a healthy and positive relationship, trust naturally builds.  I like the simple things that this chapter presented when building positive relationships. I also took note to the suggestions to avoid betrayal and perceived betrayal.  The one I really liked was to listen more than you speak.  I think many times we want to solve problems or do what we feel is right. I think when that happens we forget to listen to our staff and their needs or we listen and do not follow through. This can definitely feel like a betrayal of trust.