Program+Goals

**1. Envision and guide organizational change.**
==== The At-Risk program I work within has needed a good amount of change over the past two years. It was supposed to be a new program, but came from an old one that needed change. Being the new member of the team, I was given the assignment to help lead the program in a new direction. I believe working towards my masters in educational leadership will help me develop the skills I need to continue in this process! I am also excited about the opportunities to help guide organizational change in a new charter school that will be in the Ripon Middle School building. ====

==== When Thomas Friedman gave the picture of a very flattening world, he forced me to look at the changes that are not only coming, but are already here. It made me take a serious look at my then students and consider whether or not they were being well prepared for the future. What was I doing that would be considered different than my predecessors? What was my school doing differently? Was I prepared for the world that I entered into after graduation? No. Then what will happen to my students when they enter a world that is changing exponentially faster than my world had? I decided to make several changes. ==== ==== I chose to make a huge change in the way I was teaching. I surrounded myself with like-minded individuals, such as Sandy Wisneski, a 35-year veteran who had a passion for technology and digital citizenship. ====

I went around the country on federal grant dollars that allowed me to be trained in a different style of teaching and learning
==== I did this in an effort to envision a future where my students would be prepared for whatever the changing world through at them. Understanding that the world is flattening means I needed to ensure that my students not only had the critical thinking skills and creativity to work in an ever changing world, but the knowledge and skills that would allow them do to this in a global community. The three strands of Catalyst Charter Middle School are: Global Citizenship, STEM, and Green Future. We chose these strands because we felt it important for the future of our students. We chose to do this with a new school because of the need for organizational change. ====

**2. Communicate effectively, engage constituents, develop people and build community.**
==== As an at-risk teacher, these are qualities I have found I need to develop the most. My students need constant engagement, or they simply check out. I look forward to developing new skills and understanding as to how to better lead my students as well as work with community members to become actively engaged in the education of the young people in their community. ====

End of Program:
==== I thought, at the start of this program, that I knew how to effectively communicate. I worked well with most everyone in my school, my students had a general idea of what was expected, I made daily phone calls to parents, etc. I have found that there is a difference between communicating and communicating effectively. ==== ==== Over the past two years, I have gone from being the poor sap in that at-risk program to being the lead teacher of that charter school that broke us all up. I small step up in some people's eyes, a large step up in my own. I only mention this element of contempt that many have because it has required me to learn how to effectively communicate and build community in a way I never thought I'd have to. ====

==== Looking at the different case studies throughout this program caused me to take a long, hard look not only at the way I would deal with issues, but at the way I have dealt with them as well. The artifact I would offer concerning this this goal deals directly with the way my team and I handled the promotion of our charter school as well as how I wanted to work to engage students in a way that was different from what I had previously believed about student engagement. ====

==== Promotion of the school: This required a huge amount of both participation as well as communication. In our case studies, there were countless issues concerning teachers becoming upset and what a good leader would do to bring them onto their team. Being one of the leaders that was, by other's standards, tearing apart the fabric of our wonderful middle school, I made sure that I was doing everything I could to effectively communicate with all teachers in our school as well as with parents and community members. Working with other leaders from both the charter school as well as the middle school was a trick to say the least; however, it was the idea that articles like Bob Pearlman's on project-based learning that brought me to a place of being able to explain to others what we were trying to do. This was important because I realized that an effective leader can only communicate appropriately when they believe in the goals they are trying to carry out and can bring others on board with them. I not only had the chance to work with other teachers, but parents, community members and students as well. Effectively communicating our ideas, goals, etc. was truly helped through our readings and discussion. ====

**3. Advocate and promote equity for diverse populations and respect for individuals.**
==== Living and working in a small community has shown me how closed off some can be to people who have different backgrounds, especially when there is not much diversity in our local area. As a teacher, coach, and citizen, I have a unique position that allows me to shape my students’ frame of reference towards accepting and even embracing those who are “different” from them. It is something I have strived for in my two years as a teacher and I look forward to developing more knowledge and skills on how to do this effectively. ====

End of Program:
==== Being involved in our cohort was invaluable for reshaping my ideas of this goal. Yes, I was a coach, teacher, citizen, etc. In reality, I was not working all that hard on anything other than staying alive with my at-risk students and fellow teachers. When we began our charter school, we wanted to avoid the issues the elementary charter school faced concerning a lack of diversity in our population. Working with the other teachers as well as our class on diversity changed the way I approached our student population in Catalyst. We now have a very diverse group of students and that was our ultimate goal. Not only would we not turn down anyone, we believed (and still do) that it is our job to find a way to make learning effective for all of our students, regardless of SES, language barriers, special needs, etc. ==== ==== The great part about all of this is that many students from diverse backgrounds often fall behind in school. This was the case in my classroom several times over; however, our push to bring in students from diverse backgrounds means that many of them are finally in a PBL environment which fits their learning needs and gives them more time to find resources that are either at their level or even in their native language. It has also given me the opportunity to learn more about what my ELL population needs as I work more with the ELL teacher in our school. ====

**4. Integrate theory, data, research and ethical standards into the context of one’s practice through continuous learning.**
==== I attend workshops and courses regularly that allow me to use best practices in my classroom. I believe that pursuing a degree in Ed. Ldrsp. will allow me to integrate all of these components into my classroom. I often struggle to take what I’ve learned in workshops and put it into practice. I believe that is because so many of the conferences I have attended have not required me to dig deeper and do more research on a specific topic. I believe that having the opportunity to work with other teachers is going to be a key component in my growth in this area. ====

End of Program:
==== The classes that had the greatest affect on this goal were those that required us to look at both the history of teaching, it's context in today's world and the classes that had us look at educational theory, leadership styles, and those that required implementation in the classroom. (701, 730, 750, 755, 760). These classes also prompted me to move forward with leadership positions within my own school, ultimately leading to my position with the charter school. This position, combined with my desire to change the way I teach, allowed me to attend high quality workshops surrounding project-based learning. The more I worked through our classes and other professional development, the more I developed an ethical problem with the way I was teaching. It wasn't working for all of my students. In fact, last year I taught 120 students in a traditional science class and struggled with the fact that I was learning to teach in a new way, but did not have the schedule or the materials available to teach in a way that I thought was best for my students. ==== ==== I now both fear and look forward to what I will learn in the future about teaching and leadership. I often hear my principal talk about the practices he regrets. The more I feel I can learn upfront, the fewer mistakes I will hopefully make in my career! ====

**1. Values change as the source of opportunity for improvement.**
==== I believe one of my greatest strengths in teaching pertains to my ability to be open to my values changing. It can also be one of my greatest weaknesses. I have a tendency to focus a great deal of energy in the areas where I feel my students need the most growth, which can often change dramatically when I have been exposed to new ideas. I look forward to honing in on what specific ideas and values that I have researched so my students and coworkers may benefit from the values I exemplify. ====

End of program:
==== I still value change a great deal. I believe my current position is a testament to this. I have no doubt that the way our school will look next year will be very different as we learn from our mistakes and continue to go to more workshops and conferences in the fields of project-based learning and technology integration. The courses and workshops I've participated in (as well as the veteran teachers who are still using the same textbooks that I had) have led me to believe that if my generation of teachers do not value change in an effort to improve themselves, we will do nothing but perpetuate the cycle of poor teaching practices that led me to hate school. It drove me crazy to research the beginnings of public education in our country only to see that the classroom down the hall is set up the exact same way. Change is necessary, it's happening in the world around us and we need to ensure that education changes as well; that, however, begins with us. ====

**2. Displays the ability to understand people and relationships and is receptive to the ideas of others.**
==== I have always been an empathetic person. It is something that led me to teaching in the first place. One area I have focused a great deal on in the program I currently teach in deals with the relationships I have developed with my students, their parents, my coworkers, as well as the community members. ====

End of Program:
==== Through the classes I have taken, (such as Edl 729, dialogues in social justice), I have developed a new appreciation for what my students go through. I also currently teach several of the at-risk students I taught at the beginning of this program. They are frustrating, low achieving, can be absolutely taxing...and I wouldn't want anyone else working with them this year because of the relationships we have developed over the last couple of years and my ability to understand what makes them tick, ability to work with their families, etc. I am also constantly seeking more feedback from other teachers about the strategies they are using. Over the last two years, my school has been using Response to Intervention (RtI) as a way of working with students like mine. The more I learn about RtI from those around me, the more I am capable of leading both my class and my school. ====

**3. Shows a willingness to implement non-discriminatory access, accommodations and assessments.**
==== My students have a variety of learning styles. The ability levels in my classroom are also on opposite ends of the spectrum. I consistently do my best to ensure that I am individualizing my students’ instruction; however, I feel that there are times where my knowledge on how to best work with students or groups of students comes to a halt and the accommodations I have previously made will sometimes fall short. I know that these are skills good teachers develop over time, but I am anxious to start learning how to ensure that I don’t leave any of my students in the dust, or keep students who are ahead from excelling further. ====

End of Program:
==== This, truly, is one area that I struggle with most as a teacher. I'm thankful for the online programs I've had this year that work with students at their own levels. I have always had an ethical problem with moving the class forward when even one student was being "left behind." The problems I have always faced have been mostly worked with through online programs such as ALEKS (for math) as well as doing project-based learning, which allows me to really differentiate for those students who are in need of different methods of instruction, different mediums for delivering content, etc. It's been an interesting experience as I now transition my students over to doing student-led projects. I am guiding them through this process, but it all revolves around their interests and learning styles. It's been great to go from more of a direct teacher to the position of advisor. It is not like this for every hour of the day, but during other hours, such as in Reading, I am able to work with different levels through book studies and other online programs. It has been a great experience! I don't know that I could ever go back to being a "traditional" teacher. ====

**4. Demonstrates empathic understanding of diversity in all domains.**
==== Again, I am an empathetic person. It’s why I chose the job I did; however, there have been times I feel like my students (who are excellent manipulators) will bring me to a point of apathy. I have done my best to do home visits and have weekly contacts with parents to ensure that I am understanding my students, but I know I could be doing more to ensure that I am understanding the diverse needs of my students. I would also like to start working towards a degree in leadership because I feel it will help me understand my coworkers and employers in a deeper way! ====

End of Program:
==== This program has definitely helped me to understand my coworkers and administration more. Ripon is a progressive school district and I see a great deal of disgruntled people who do not want the change. I feel it would have been very easy for me to join ranks with those teachers who disagreed because there was an simpler (easier) way of doing things. Instead, I've taken a path that has been exceptionally taxing on both me and my family, but done so because I believe that I cannot truly teach my students in the way they need to be taught without changing most everything. I cannot prepare them for a world of change or have empathy for what they are going through at both school and home if I don't feel that I'm providing a classroom that benefits them to the fullest extent. In my previous statement, I focused much more on the emotional needs of students without much regard to the academic and future needs of my students. Both are important; however, I now have a deeper understanding of what they will need to be successful. Preparing them for that in a way that I see is necessary is the best way I can show that I have an empathetic understanding of my students. ====

**5. Regularly reflects upon the philosophical assumptions, ethical principles and rationales that guide one’s practice.**
==== a. I do reflect, quite regularly, on these elements; however, as a new teacher, I find that my time can be so limited sometimes, that I look back and realize I have made assumptions and developed odd rationale I never even knew I had picked up along the way. I believe that becoming a better leader means managing my time more efficiently so I can reflect one all of these aspects. I feel that if I can learn about this early in my career, it will serve me later on. ====

End of Program:
==== I believe I cringed several times when reading case studies and articles this last year. I even cringed at the beginning of our online course because I realized that I have made assumptions about what makes a good teacher/leader and many of these assumptions have been incorrect. I was a very new teacher when I started this program. I am still a new teacher, but I fully believe now that the more look at my philosophy of teaching and my philosophy of leadership, the more I will change what I am doing on a daily/hourly basis in my classroom. I am constantly comparing my practice to my beliefs about my job, now so more than ever. ====

**6. Understands oneself as a learner and values learning as a core capacity.**
==== One component of education I consistently tell my students deals with understanding themselves as learners. When I was younger, I always thought something was wrong with me at the academic level. I could easily pick up on others’ learning styles, but there was always something that held me back from true learning. Once I realized my learning style(s), new doors were opened. I didn’t value my education as a young man, now I realize just how much freedom there is when I value learning. It is one of the reasons I switched majors as junior in college. I oftentimes find that when I think I have it all figured out, I make mistakes and realize that I, just like my students, change and there is always more to learn about yourself. That’s something I look forward to here as I continue my own education. ====

End of Program:
==== When I began this program, I did not have intentions to earn my administrator's certification. The more I considered this as a possibility, the more I realized it was what I wanted to do; however, the more I read case studies and did different leadership assignments in class, the more I also realized I had a great deal to learn. There may have been classes in this program that I felt bored in because I already new some of the material; however, this also made me realize that two or three years from now everything, whether technology or theory, will have changed to some degree. If I do not continue learning, I will be the one complaining about someone moving my cheese. I do not want to be that person, ever. I always tell my students that nothing worth having comes easy, but requires work. I've learned that I have a great deal to learn...for the rest of my life. It's both exhausting and refreshing. ====