PBL Project Principles of Ed. Leadership

1. PBL ProjectPrinciples of Ed. Leadership By: Barbara Baldwin Jaclyn Brown Monica Nelson Anne Oakes Erin Scott

2. Hickory Ridge High School This is the challenge, should you choose to accept it Mr. O’Connor: Gain the respect of the new faculty. Develop open and honest communication, and support among the faculty. Create a direction for the development of school improvement and reform. Encourage greater experimentation and risk taking. Provide support and empowerment for all staff members. Encourage the staff to look into innovative programs. Protect what is important and good about Hickory High while reforming it to make it better meet the needs of the 21st century.

3. Selecting the Reform • Requires a commitment from everyone involved with the school, including parents and community members. • Select a reform that is appropriate for their specific school needs which includes improving collaboration among staff, increasing student achievement, enhancing the use of educational technology, and encouraging and promoting parental/community involvement. • Ensure that the reform model facilitates complex learning, creativity, experimentation, and continuous improvement.

4. Selecting the Reform • In order for the reform to take place and become successful, administration and staff need to want change and begin working together. • Mr. O’Connor must move past the conflict and focus on creating a warm environment which fosters collegial relationships, mutual respect, and encourages faculty and staff to reach their highest potential. • Mr. O’Connor needs to make some changes himself by modeling teamwork and respect for all. • It is essential that administration and staff fully participate and support the school-improvement process.

5. Selecting the Reform • All staff members must have common goals and be on the same page as far as what needs to be done in order for the reform to be successful. • Create and environment that promotes collegial relationships and mutual respect while at the same time focusing on the implementation of the school reform. • Mr. O’Connor must follow three steps: • Identify the power of order in the school as well as designating power to staff. • Create an ongoing supportive learning environment that provides opportunities for development. • Provide continual evaluation that will nurture potential.

6. Selecting the Reform • The sources of order, power and purpose within the school need to be distributed so that groups can share their talents, knowledge and resources to support each other in relationships that merge their abilities for the purpose of improving the school. • A great idea is much more likely to be put into action if the people, and organizations affected by it, understand and endorse the idea. • A great idea is much more likely to be put into action if the people, and organizations affected by it, understand and endorse the idea. • Jim O’Connor must support the teachers and nurture a positive learning environment. He needs to focus on vision and develop and motivate staff to achieve optimum learning outcomes. • Vision provides the bridge between innovative ideas and purposeful, coordinated action”. (Cunningham and Cordeiro, 2006).

7. Key to Success #1: DISTRIBUTED POWER

8. Distributed Power • Understand others view points • Hear out the staff – new and veteran • Learn that ideas that aren’t his can still work • Open up with his staff • Be a leader above a manager • Open communication • Be positive • Be involved in communities on a regular basis How can Mr. O’Connor spread the power?

9. Distributed Power • New staff are discouraged by the atmosphere • Allow them access to leadership opportunities – technology committee, new strategies, etc. • Give them opportunities to voice their opinions and ideas in a positive environment • Have willing staff become mentors to the new members • Model their best practices for teachers that need more ideas • Share activities • Allow them to lead in expertise areas outside of the classroom New staff – Change Their Attitude Veteran Staff – Stuck in Their Ways

10. Distributed Power • Team building activities – what do they like about each other, what have discouraged communication, problem solving (parking lot) • Team planning, membership of all areas on committees, open communication among the staff • O’Connor needs to see his “attitude” from another view point • Team building activities need to happen at all meetings and special moments • Committees need to be established • Mentoring established • Committees need to decide on plans regularly • Ongoing assessment of environment on campus and what needs to be improved. • Outside reinforcement consistently Getting All Members on the Same Page: Timeline of Events:

11. Key to Success #2: LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

12. Learning Environment • Create an ongoing learning environment that will provide opportunities for development for staff as well as students. • Hickory High needs a supportive administration, promoting collaboration among staff, and enhancing instruction. • Mr. O’Connor must instill a sense of purpose, direction, responsibility, power, repost, optimism, and a mission for success for their staff. • Developing respect for each person’s unique talents is an important resource. • The ability to cooperate, create, and implement a plan of improvement for the school is essential for success.

13. Key to Success #3: IMPROVED INSTRUCTION

14. Improved Instruction • In order to improve instruction teachers will need to be provided staff development opportunities. • Trainings should focus on strategies that teachers can use and implement in the classroom. • Hickory Ridge wants to be sure that they are providing quality instruction, which contains characteristics such as complex learning, creativity, and experimentation. • Teachers play a major role in providing quality instruction through working and planning collaboratively with other teachers. • Some of the various strategies teachers might include cooperative learning, hands-on/real life experiences, and integrated technology.

15. Improved Instruction • One particular strategy is to provide students with the opportunity to participate in cooperative learning groups. According to Johnson and Johnson (2003) cooperative learning involves students working together to accomplish shared learning goals (as cited in Gillies, 2008). • Cooperative groups enhance and expand what the students are learning. • It is also beneficial for teachers to incorporate real life hands-on experiences into their instruction. • Getting students “actively” involved in true to life experiences can enhance the purpose of the lesson. • Teachers need to understand that not all students learn in the same way. That is why it is important to differentiate instruction using various strategies.

16. Key to Success #4: TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION

17. Technology • Integrating technology into instruction will benefit both teachers and students. • In order to move Hickory Ridge into the twenty-first century staff and students need to begin utilizing the various forms of technology that are available. • There is a variety of ways to integrate technology so that teachers are using it to teach and students are using it to learn. (SMART Boards, Document Cameras, Computers)

18. Key to Success #4: COLLABORATION

19. Collaboration • Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. • It is important that the school find a reform model that encourages and promotes collaboration among all staff, including administration. • Planning and integrating ideas and lessons provide teachers with the trust that needs to be established in order to collaborate successfully. • The school could also provide opportunities for the teachers to get to know each other on a professional basis through staff developments.

20. Collaboration • For Hickory Ridge, it would be ideal to begin by having multiple staff development sessions that relate to team work and collaboration so that teachers are presented with a variety of strategies that will promote these concepts. • The school needs to support ongoing collaboration by providing continual trainings related to teamwork. • Mutual trust and respect within a school setting is directly related to the success of the school. • According to DuFour (1991) effective professional development should reference the mission, values, and goals of the organization, as well as identify gaps between current reality and the desired future. (as cited by Gonzales and Vodicka, 2008).

21. Collaboration • Create various committees that teachers can be a part of within the school. • By having professional learning communities in the school buildings, staff are able to discuss and collaborate on strategies and techniques which can enable success for all students, which in turn supports the school's school-improvement process. • Staff members also need to be involved in collaborative planning meetings with team leaders and administration. • In order to involve the greatest number of people during a process of change, improvement teams may be set up at all levels of the organization, from top management through frontline employees.

22. Key to Success #5: CONTINUAL EVALUATION

23. Continual Evaluation • Mr. O’Connor will need to identify where, and if, change is required, and where he needs to maintain or enhance current effective programs. • Data can provide an honest portrayal of the school’s climate and can indicate the direction that the administration needs to go. (Data/Goal Folders) • Through tactical change, the school will abandon what is decided to be ineffective. • This process will be one of collaborative inquiry, involving much of the faculty. • “The practice of collaborative data use organized around a clear set of questions is a potent strategy for building staff skills and keeping the focus on student learning and achievement.” (Lachat and Smith, 2005).

24. Continual Evaluation • Mr. O’Connor will be to choose a professional development model that will continue to promote relationship building at Hickory Ridge High School. • Mr. O’Connor will need to allow administration, students, parents, and teachers, to develop personal goals. • Goals should be developed for the school that are clear, agreed upon, and reviewed often. • Communications should be first-rate and allow everyone to have high expectations of themselves and others. • Professional learning communities can be established.

25. Continual Evaluation • Administration will need to meet weekly and discuss the experiences that each teacher is having with the reform. • On a monthly basis, the administration should present a summary of their findings to the staff and discuss ways to improve. • Administration will need to meet with each teacher on an individual basis to establish a Professional Development Plan. • One of their goals for the year should include something related to the school reform. • Cooperative groups allow administration and staff to communicate and learn from each other. • Administration should engage in classroom walk-thrus, discuss concerns, and provide opportunities for others to assist struggling members of the faculty.

26. Conclusion • Mr. O’Connor’s Recipe for Success: • Show leadership support • Model respect • Allow his faculty to share in decision-making and on-going evaluation • Improve collaboration among staff • Increase student achievement, • Enhance the use of educational technology • Encourage and promote parental/community involvement.

27. Conclusion • Administration and staff fully participate and support the school-improvement process • Power and purpose within the school need to be evenly distributed. • Mr. O’Connor must move past the conflict and focus on creating a warm environment. • An ongoing learning environment needs to be created that will provide opportunities for development for staff as well as students. • Nurturing the potential and capacity of the school is an integral part of implementing the school reform. • Effective professional development should reference the mission, values, and goals of the organization. • The journey of change will be bound by data collection, professional learning, and effective communication

28. Which road will Mr. O’Connor choose?