Administrator Observations and Reflections
PRINCIPAL OBSERVATIONS:
Administrator: Ms. C Administration Experience: 21 yrs. Level: Middle School
Time of Day: Morning (4 hours) Date: April 22, 2009
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8:00am |
Met Ms. C at her office and she was checking her email; promptly went to monitor the hallway next to cafeteria |
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8:05am |
Spoke with students and staff in hallway, encouraging them for the CRCT test that day |
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8:15am |
Went to check with assistant principal to make sure that all testing material had been picked up |
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8:20am |
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8:28am |
Make way to office and prepare to do morning announcements |
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8:30am |
Tardy bell rings, Ms. C makes morning announcements, encourages students to do well on CRCT test |
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8:33am |
Check in with front office staff; discuss briefly Title I issue with administrative secretary |
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8:45am |
Get a call from counselor about student issue that needs immediate attention; call Social Worker; go visit with counselor |
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9:00am |
Go visit student who is in counselors office; assess situation and spend time letting student know that we were there to help |
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9:25am |
Go check in with assistant principal making sure CRCT testing is going well; on the way back to office stopped by Social Worker and updated on the situation |
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9:35am |
Go back to office and make sure student’s parents are on the way; check in with student and counselor |
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10:00am |
While waiting for parents to arrive; go back to office and answer emails |
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10:15am |
Student’s parents arrive; Meet with them, Social Worker, IST, and Counselor; call ambulance to school |
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10:56am |
Assist in getting student and family to needed medical facility by getting student on ambulance; complete necessary paperwork |
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11:11am |
Students are finished with CRCT testing; monitor hall during passing period |
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11:15am |
Go to 6th grade Lunch Duty; interact with students; check messages on phone; email Area Superintendent |
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11:45am |
Students are dismissed from the cafeteria to class; return to office and debrief the morning |
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12:00am |
Complete debriefing and return to work |
Time of Day: Afternoon (3.5 hours) Date: May 18, 2009
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12:00pm |
Meet Ms. C in office while she was on the phone |
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12:05pm |
Discussed issues in school renovation and remodeling; took tour of new section of building |
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12:48pm |
During tour of building, met with contractors and building superintendent about progress and completion dates, as well as upcoming moves |
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1:10pm |
Upon returning to office, School Resource Officer tells Ms. C about a student’s accusation against a teacher; Ms. C has SRO bring student to office |
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1:16pm |
Ms. C questions and discusses situation with student; another student is called to Ms. C’s office for questioning |
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1:33pm |
Students are sent back to class; Ms. C goes to speak with teacher and that teacher’s co-teacher |
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2:06pm |
Ms. C returns to office and sends for the two students to return to office |
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2:10pm |
Ms. C discusses the severity of the accusations and works to elicit the truth from the two students; has parent liaison call parents and inform them of the situation; students placed in ISS for the remainder of day |
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3:05pm |
On the way to check on afternoon buses, student runs into door jam right in front of Ms. C; tends to student’s bloody nose, calls custodian. |
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3:30pm |
Heads down to bus lanes for bus duty. |
In reflection on the seven and one-half hours I spent with Ms. C over two days, I was amazed to see her response to each situation. During my time with her, she had to deal with budget issues, a serious student crisis, a false accusation against a teacher, a bloody nose, state-standardized testing, along with Lunch and Bus Duty. Watching Ms. C it is not difficult to understand why her school is successful and why teachers enjoy working for her. Ms. C is always working to make the best decisions for students each and every moment of her day. Throughout my time with her, she exhibited exceptional understanding and implantation of the laws regarding a multitude of topics (ELCC Standard 5 and 6) as well as how to utilize community resources when needed (ELCC Standard 4). Intermixed she was also dealing with budgets and building renovation (ECLL Standard 3). In the midst of all that was occurring around her, she remained calm and personable to those students and teachers she came in contact with. Ms. C is operating at an accomplished level of school building leader for exemplifying what it means to truly lead by example.
FIRST ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL OBSERVATIONS:
Administrator: Ms. Z Administration Experience: 15 yrs. Level: Middle School
Time of Day: Morning (3 hours) Date: April 23, 2009
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7:45am |
Met Ms. Z in her office and went to hallway duty, spoke with students |
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8:00am |
Parents arrive to speak with Ms. Z about incident at bus stop; during meeting students are called in |
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8:33am |
Students are sent to class to take CRCT; School Resource Officer is called in to discuss incident |
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9:00am |
Meeting with Principal to discuss issue and plan course of action; Contact Social Worker and Counselors, discuss situation |
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9:23am |
Spent time in office discussing how to build a master schedule |
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10:00am |
Ms. Z had meeting with Business Partner contact to discuss end-of-year needs from these partners and potential plans for next year. |
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10:50am |
At the end of the meeting, returned to work. |
Time of Day: Morning (4 hours) Date: June 8, 2009
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8:00am |
Met Ms. Z at Summer School site just as she was arriving; went to find Summer School principal for direction |
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8:10am |
Discussed plan and procedures for the first day of Summer School and helped set up gym in preparation |
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8: 23am |
As buses arrived, greeted students and directed them to breakfast; met with parents who had questions about scheduling |
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8:40am |
Helped move students from cafeteria to the gym for orientation to Summer School and schedule distribution |
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9:00am |
Assisted students as they made their way to class; stopped by office to work on students’ schedules that needed to be corrected |
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9:35am |
Walked halls to check on classes; teacher needed assistance with a student; had conversation with student; head back to office |
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9:45am |
Same student is sent to the office and Ms. Z decides after a brief conversation that he would be expelled from Summer School; discusses decision with Summer School Principal; and called student’s mother |
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10:08am |
Student’s mother arrives and wants to discuss issue with Ms. Z; Ms. Z very briefly discussed what occurred. |
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10:15am |
Spent time working on the Master Schedule; discussed specific strategies to developing the schedule |
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11:20am |
Met with Summer School Principal about the lunch and half day dismissal procedures |
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11:45am |
Students begin to be called down to cafeteria for lunch; monitor hallway |
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12:00am |
After most students have made it to the cafeteria, I leave. |
In looking back on my time with Ms. Z, I find that I enjoyed seeing administration from her perspective. She is a very calm, collected assistant principal who does not get overly excited when dealing with crisis situations. Likewise, she is able to be candid with parents without being disrespectful or argumentative. In fact, the parents that had to deal with Ms. Z during my time with her were very appreciative of her honest in regards to their students. While I did not feel that Ms. Z necessarily went above and beyond her duties, she did exhibit strong leadership qualities when dealing with adverse situations. She spent much of my time with her dealing with the community and families of students in regards to empowering them to affect student achievement (ELCC Standard 4) as well as ethically adhering to and understanding both
SECOND ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL OBSERVATIONS:
Administrator: Ms. A Administration Experience: 26 yrs. Level: Middle School
Time of Day: Afternoon (3.5 hours) Date: May 12, 2009
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12:00pm |
Met Ms. A in her office and then headed straight to 8th grade lunch duty; discussed procedures for lunchrooms |
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12:30pm |
Waited for all students to exit cafeteria and headed back to her office |
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12:35pm |
Spent time discussing the differences in administration at middle and high school since she was once in a high school |
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1:00pm |
Began teleconference with person in charge of Summer Programs at district level about Summer School procedures, rules, and changes |
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2:00pm |
Briefly discussed this type of training procedures in the county |
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2:10pm |
Received bus incident referral form from School Resource Officer; discussed incident and how discipline is handled; sent for students |
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2:40pm |
Held conference with both students involved in incident and discussed consequences of their actions |
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3:07pm |
Walked students back to class; discussing their futures with them and the importance of school |
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3:13pm |
Headed out to the car pool lanes for afternoon duty; discussed high school administration a bit more |
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3:30pm |
At the bell, I stayed for a bit to see how car pool duty is done at the school. |
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9:00am |
Arrived at Ms. A’s office and discussed issues in interviewing and positions currently looking for to hire |
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9:30am |
Job Interview for a social studies position; was able to ask a few questions |
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10:30am |
Once the interview was over, we discussed the pros and cons of applicant |
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10:45am |
Spent time looking at CRCT Retest scores and updating students’ information in SASI as well as on Promotion/Retention lists |
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11:06am |
Job Interview for science position; was able to ask a few questions. |
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12:10am |
Discussed pros and cons of applicant and left for the day. |
Working with Ms. A was a true experience and some valuable learning opportunities. In terms of student discipline, though she is bound by the Code of Conduct and our county’s Step system, Ms. A works to help students understand the reasoning behind the consequences and subsequently behind their actions. She feels that if she can help counsel them a bit more then they may not make the same mistake again. In the aresa of promoting positive school culture she would be at the level of accomplished. Similarly, watching her conduct a interview was fascinating. Ms. A was so personable and yet down to business. She was able to put the applicants at ease and still ask tough questions revealing the information she needed to make an informed decision. Lastly, being in charge of the Summer School program for the school is always an overwhelming task. However, both times I was with her, she did not seem to be bothered that it was a part of her duties. Though I feel that Ms. A is a strong leader with a true passion and heart for children, I would say that her overall performance level in regards to the ELCC standards is proficient.