Graduate Student

Overview: – Below you will find a collection of my recent graduate school work. I earned an Education Specialist Degree from Oakland University after completing a 2 year cohort program. While the artifacts listed below (organized according to the ISLLC standards) are evidence of my work, the real value came from the friendships I made and network I built with my peers during this period.

ISLLC Standard 1: – Vision: An education leader promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders.

Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #1
Leaders must have a preferred future that they, along with those in their organization, develop and strive to reach.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production
Artifact Selected That Best Represents My Understanding of ISLLC Standard 1: Reflective Memo 1: Letter introducing yourself to a new community (uploaded version is an updated letter, used in my new role).

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 744: Long Range Planning

Reflection Related to This Artifact
For this assignment, my task was to write a letter introducing myself to a new community, introducing myself as their new leader. In a message such as this, it is vital to articulate not only what you are about, but to also make a  clear statement of where you would like to go. By writing that I expect our school to be a leader within our district and profession, and to rise above obstacles, I believe I set a clear, high expectation for myself and everyone within the organization. Lastly, I incorporated the established purpose statement of the school, an attempt to refocus the organization on our core mission.

ISLLC Standard #2 – Culture: An education leader promotes the success of every student by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #2
Strong culture forms the framework for real collaboration to take place. It is vital not only to build trust, but to also persevere and hold true to the principles of a school.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production
Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 2:Induction/Mentoring Program

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 754 Human Resource Development

Reflection Related to This Artifact
My partner and I designed a comprehensive plan to integrate new staff into the existing culture and climate of our school. We incorporated peer mentoring, monthly activities and discussions, as well as formal meetings with administrators to help new teachers become successful, contributing members of our school staff. This plan requires persistence, not only to keep up with the schedule, but to also uphold the core mission of the school.

ISLLC Standard #3– Organizational Management: An education leader promotes the success of every student by ensuring management of the organization, operation, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #3
The core purpose of a school is ensuring learning for students. To accomplish this task, a variety of departments must work to create an optimal environment for educators to do their work.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production
Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 3: Human Resource Specialist Interview

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 754 Human Resource Development

Reflection Related to This Artifact
I had the chance to spend some time with Margaret Hazlett, the Executive Director of Human Resources for Lake Orion Community Schools, to conduct and interview and learn significantly from her. The need for careful attention to detail and to build strong systems for efficiency were lessons that I took away from our conversations about her department. He work to identify, recruit, and hire high quality people is what keeps our school district strong. In addition, the work of Human Resources in negotiating and maintaining strong labor agreements with all groups provides financial stability for schools to operate. Strong school employees are critical to student achievement, making an HR department to vital to success.

ISLLC Standard #4 – Collaboration:…An education leader promotes the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #4
Bringing stakeholders together to work for student success must be the role of a school leader. Parents, teachers, support staff, as well as other community resources must work collaboratively to create opportunities for individual students to grow.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production
Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 4: Action Research Project

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 750 Action Resarch I and EA 751 Action Research II

Reflection Related to This Artifact
My Action Research project “RTI for all” took a look at how to build a Response to Intervention approach that would benefit students who struggle as well as students who achieve at a rate faster than their peers. RTI is a process that hinges on collaboration, it must bring everyone together to brainstorm the best possible approaches to assist each leaner as an individual.

Related ISLLC Standard Functions
Function A – Collect and analyze data and information pertinent to the educational environment.

Level of Proficiency
High Level of Comprehension/Application

Habits of Mind Profile
1. Persisting
7. Questioning and Posing Problems
11. Creating, Imagining, and Innovating
16. Learning Continuously

ISLLC Standard #5 – Ethics:  …An education leader promotes the success of the students by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #5
This assignment (my personal favorite during the program) allowed me to explore who I am and what I am about. It called for me to spend some time reflecting on issues that I am not willing to compromise on.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production
Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 5: Ethical Beliefs Statement

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 740 School as a Formal Organization

Reflection Related to This Artifact
In the recent past, I’ve had three formal meetings to answer questions about who I am and what I am about. What’s clear to me after these experiences is that people are seeking leaders who have a set of principles and beliefs that are in line with the organization they aspire to work for. As I took a look at my ethical belief statement, I think it continues to summarize well who I am and what my core values are. In the document, I wrote about visibility, service to others, relationships, and recognizing people as individuals. As I spoke to interview committees recently, it was these same principles that I articulated again and again about who I am and what I believe in. I think I was successful in my interview process because these values were a fit for the school I will be working at next fall.

ISLLC Standard #6 – Political:  …An education leader promotes the success of every student by understanding, responding to, and influencing the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #6
Schools do not operate in a vacuum, they must be aware of the context of the times and community perspective on current events. These views shape what stakeholders will support, which is an important data point for leaders to consider when proposing new ideas.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production
Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 6: Budget Meeting Analysis and Summary

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 741 School Business Management

Reflection Related to This Artifact
In the past year, Lake Orion Community Schools put forth a bond proposal to our community. As part of the informational campaign of the district, a number of meetings were held around the community. Educating voters on what a bond was, how the money could be used, as well as the financial state of the district was part of the meetings. As an employee of Lake Orion, I was asked to be a presenter. This assignment gave me the opportunity to reflect on the political and financial perspectives of our school district.

ISLLC Standard #7 – Technology: An education leader understands and comprehensively applies technology to advance student achievement, according to National Technology Standards.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #7
Technology is opening doors to educators that were once unthinkable. The rise of wikis, Moodle, Twitter, and other web tools are connecting professionals and creating new opportunities for students to showcase their work. Professional Learning Networks are developing bonds between people, providing new resources and more information than ever before.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 7: Wiki Page

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 746 Curriculum and Staff Development

Reflection Related to This Artifact
The purpose of developing this wikispaces page was to collect resources that would be useful for me as a professional. Our school has focused a great deal of time and resources on implementation of Response to Intervention, a process to assist all learners in growing and becoming successful. This project was helpful in identifying resources I could share with colleagues that I work with each day.

ISLLC Standard #8 – Synthesize:A school administrator is an educational leader who synthesizes and applies knowledge and best practices and develops skills through substantial, sustained, standards-based work in real settings to advance student achievement.Personal Statement (Reflection) of Standard #8
Research must meet reality in schools. While there are many valuable resources provided to schools by universities and education policy analysts, administrators must make sense of this information and find practical ways to apply it.

Related Course Artifact, Performance, and/or Production:
Artifact Chosen That Best Represents My Understanding of Standard 8:Process Evaluation

Course in Which This Artifact Was Produced: EA 747 Program Assessment

Reflection Related to This Artifact:
Research indicates that students who eat breakfast have higher rates of success in school. When the breakfast program at Waldon Middle School was in danger of closing, it provided a great chance to collect some data and take a critical look at our process to see if we were making the most of our opportunity to provide this important service to our students. The analysis this project led me to do provided me with some improvements we could make, along with helpful ideas from other schools, to expand our program and make it more successful.