North Carolina School Executive Competencies
Throughout my Principal Residency at JF Webb High School and in my previous role as 7th-Grade Team Leader at GC Hawley Middle School, I had many opportunities to practice, improve, and demonstrate growth in the 21 NC School Executive Competencies.
1. Communication - Effectively listens to others; Clearly and effectively presents and understands information orally and in writing; Acquires, organizes, analyzes, interprets, and maintains information needed to achieve school or team 21st century objectives.
- Listened to and discussed ideas and concerns of school stakeholders including students, parents, staff, and community members through surveys and conversations. One of my first principal residency tasks involved asking students and staff about JF Webb High School (JFWHS survey) which helped me develop relationships and better understand Webb's strengths and challenges.
- Regularly shared information with students, families, and staff by maintaining Webb’s website with relevant information about ongoing and upcoming events. I read the daily announcements using Webb's PA system when Principal Rice was away from campus, uploaded daily announcements to both the JFW and JFWSHLS websites, and archived the announcements in a shared Google folder for each access. Students and staff appreciate the ease of finding digital copies of the announcements if they missed an item, needed information from the announcements, or were absent from campus.
- Created Warrior News, a monthly digital newsletter with the help of student writers. Parents and students have shared how they enjoy reading the newsletter and appreciate the inclusion of upcoming events. Two additional students joined the Warrior News team after reading the first two issues.
2. Change Management - Effectively engages staff and community in the change process in a manner that ensures their support of the change and its successful implementation.
- Facilitated professional development and follow up classroom feedback to help teachers develop and implement Performance-Based Objectives to guide curriculum-aligned lessons, activities, and assessments. Teachers gave us feedback that the PD and follow-up classroom feedback helped them to create better performance-based objectives aligned to their curriculum.
- Developed a revised Homeroom period to provide additional student advising support once per week. I facilitated monthly professional development sessions to help homeroom teachers provide support student academics, behavior, and social-emotional well being. After evaluating the progress of the homeroom advising program based on student and staff surveys, I re-focused the program to helping all teachers, administrators, and counselors provide one-on-one student advising sessions and created a Google Form to help guide and track advising sessions.
- Helped develop and present a JF Webb Re-design plan to the Granville County School Board of how to merge JF Webb High School and JF Webb High School of Health & Life Science into one school for the 2020-2021 school year. Throughout the 2019-2020 year, I spoke with and reassure teachers, students, and families about how the merger would benefit the entire Webb campus.
3. Conflict Management: Anticipates or seeks to resolve confrontations, disagreements, or complaints in a constructive manner.
- Used strategies from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), How to Win Friends Influence People (Carnegie), Crucial Conversations, and Restorative Justice to help students resolve conflicts between student-student, student-staff, student-parent, and staff-staff.
- Built relationships with students, staff, and parents to better anticipate conflicts and to become a resource for students and staff needing assistance to resolve problems.
- In the beginning of my Principal Residency, I created my own discipline matrix to help me better understand and follow discipline expectations of Granville County Public Schools and JF Webb High School. As I gained more experience with conflict resolution, I was able to more effectively use relationship-building and restorative practices that I learned during the NCSU Principal Preparation program to help resolve conflicts without resorting to more (ineffective) punitive practices. I created a flow chart showing the outcomes from two similar "student noncompliance" incidents. The punitive practice approach occurred in October 2019 and ended a suspension and destruction of any relationships built between admin/student/teacher. In contrast, the restorative practice approach occurred in February 2020 and resulted in student going back to class and development of positive relationships between admin/student/teacher.
4. Creative Thinking: Engages in and fosters an environment for others to engage in innovative thinking.
- During my Principal Residency, I frequently visited with staff and students helping them to brainstorm ideas for improving on their strengths and overcoming their struggles. Some specific examples: 1) Helping Spanish teacher develop a collaborative video travel guide to cultural learning at Busch Gardens Williamsburg; 2) Helping a ninth grader identify anxiety triggers and coping strategies to prevent panic attacks, and 3) Giving a tenth grader struggling with friend and family relationship problems strategies that helped her feel more confident about herself. The tenth grader nominated me for "March Teacher of the Month", appreciating my help. By being "visible, accessible, and available" (my daily mantra) I have made Webb students and staff feel comfortable coming to me to help resolve problems through innovative thinking in a safe space.
5. Customer Focus: Understands the students as customers of the work of schooling and the servant nature of leadership and acts accordingly.
- As part of my school Problem of Practice project, I developed a multifaceted approach to provide student support through homeroom and one-on-one student advising to provide individualized advising on academics, behavior, social-emotional well-being, and future planning. One the most successful parts was a Senior-Freshmen community group where students shared their concerns, successes, needs, ideas, and helped each other to succeed in school. Promoting student advising throughout Webb has helped Webb staff build better relationships with students, Seniors & Freshmen developed new friendships, and students felt like they were not alone in their academic and social challenges.
- During the COVID-19 crisis, I worked with school and district leaders to determine and provide for the needs of classified staff, certified teachers, students, and their families. For example, I created lesson plans for a teacher on maternity leave for her English I, English II, and American History I classes and led Zoom classes with her students. I also reached out to students and families to check-in on their well-being, work with students to complete missing 3rd quarter work, and encourage failing Seniors to complete assignment so they were passing all classes and on track to graduate in June.
6. Delegation: Effectively assigns work tasks to others in ways that provide learning experiences for them and in ways that ensure the efficient operation of the school.
- I collaborated with other Webb school administrators to create duty schedules to delegate 1) supervision of students during our lunch periods, 2) Teacher-led ACT preparation sessions and WorkKeys student preparation sessions, and 3) coverage of classes during teacher absences. Delegating supervision of students, teaching of test preparation sessions, and coverage of classes helps ensure that Webb high school teachers work collaboratively and equitably to ensure that the school runs smoothly.
- For upcoming professional development sessions and other school events, I sought to include other teachers and staff in developing and leading training sessions. For example, I asked one of our language arts teachers, who has experience with district curriculum planning, to co-lead the professional development on Performance-Based Objectives. For the NCSU cohort visit to JF Webb High School, I asked students to lead the cohort members on classroom visits and asked five school counselors/advisors to share the importance of high school counseling. Delegating of tasks helps staff and students fell involved in the running of the school and provides leadership opportunities for both staff and students, helped all stakeholders feel empowered as school leaders.
7. Dialogue/Inquiry: Is skilled in creating a risk free environment for engaging people in conversations that explore issues, challenges or bad relationships that are hindering school performance .
- While a teacher-leader and as a school administrator, I used proactive circles with students and staff to help create safe communities to foster dialogue about challenging issues create opportunities for collaborative problem-solving to help improve student and staff outcomes.
- Examples of groups included: Beginning-licensed teachers, Senior/freshmen peer mentoring, School Improvement team, Science Professional Learning Community, and School Leadership Team.
- One the most successful risk-free environments at Webb High School has been Club 47, which initially began as a Senior/Freshman homeroom mentoring group. Open and honest sharing through proactive circles led to a weekly group which has grown to 7 freshmen, 7 seniors, a teacher, and administrator where we share successes, explore difficult issues, and support each other through challenges. Club 47 allowed students and staff feel safe to collaboratively engaging in issues affecting school and learning.
8. Emotional Intelligence: Is able to manage oneself through self awareness and self management and is able to manage relationships through empathy, social awareness and relationship management. This competency is critical to building strong, transparent, trusting relationships throughout the school community.
- The NC State University Principal Preparation program provided excellent tools and training to help principal fellows grow in self-awareness and management of social-emotional intelligence. I worked diligently to develop trusting relationships with staff, students, families, and the community with a servant-leader mentality.
- During advising sessions with students and feedback conferences with teachers, I helped both groups be more aware of emotional intelligence and to develop strategies for building and maintaining positive relationships. Five Webb students meet with me regularly to discuss anxiety and work on ways to cope with anxiety and stress. All five of the students have found the conversations and strategies to have helped them learn better emotional self-management skills that have worked at school and at home.
- As part of my Problem of Practice project, I focused on promoting student advising throughout Webb High School, initially through a revised weekly homeroom plan. One of the most successful areas has been "Club 47", which is a senior/freshmen homeroom group that I lead. The group started with seniors interested in helping mentor freshmen interested in mentoring. The group has become a cherished weekly meeting that focuses on Social Emotional Intelligence through proactive circles and has grown from eight initial students to 14 students, a teacher, and an administrator.
- Observing relationships and interconnectedness of student relationships and student outcomes has helped me better understand that the more favorable student academic and behavioral outcome come from prior development of quality, authentic relationships.
9. Environmental Awareness: Becomes aware and remains informed of external and internal trends, interests and issues with potential impacts on school policies, practices, procedures and positions.
- The Principal Residency gave me invaluable opportunities to experience the different trends that occur even within the same Granville County Public Schools district. These differences included demographics, social-economics, grade level, proximity to competitor schools, urban vs. rural attitudes, and community/school history. Such experiences helped me to better understand how the same policies can differentially affect staff, students, and families depending upon external factors (age, geography, history, economics). I have learned that school leaders must consider the impact of policies, procedures, and practices as they affect a diverse array of stakeholders and not lose site of affects on individuals and groups.
- One of the most eye-opening experiences has been through my role as a substitute school bus driver for both Webb High School and Northern Granville Middle School. Driving a bus in both the southern end of Granville County (while at GC Hawley Middle School) and now in the northern end of Granville County (for Webb and Northern Granville MS) allowed me to see incredible disparities in economics, demographics, and student behavior. While there was poverty in the southern end of the county, it was not as widespread as in the northern parts of the county. Additionally, I saw more northern-end students who did not have stable home living situations, meaning that I often picked up the same students on different bus routes throughout the week and month (since they stayed at different houses). Occasionally, we would have a student who would miss a bus and call the school for a ride as they had no parent at home, no car, or not enough gas money to get to school. This happened weekly and we either sent our school's resource officer or a school bus to pick the students up. Such experiences made me realize that school was so important to these students that they called the school for assistance, instead of just staying at home.
10. Global Perspective: Understands the competitive nature of the new global economy and is clear about the knowledge and skills students will need to be successful in this economy.
- While I was a middle school science teacher, I continuously exposed my students to current events through Channel One News and CNN10 and helped them related events to their middle school curricula. For each science unit, students explored careers that related to the topics they were learning (e.g. weather unit → meteorologist, weather photographer, climate scientist, storm chaser, environmental scientist, computer programmer for weather models). Students also learned valuable research and collaboration skills by conducting problem-based learning project which simulated real-life situations (e.g. solving air quality problems in global cities like Los Angeles or Beijing). As a principal resident, I encouraged teachers to use similar news outlets to connect their curriculum to current events.
- As a teacher-leader and school administrator, I helped students and staff learn how to use Google Applications and other digital tools to collaborate and share ideas and products with others. Creating opportunities and follow up support for students and staff to use Google Applications, makes them more likely to successfully use such digital tools, making both students and staff more competitive in today's online global economy. For example, 7th-grade students worked collaboratively to create paperslide videos about science topics for incoming 6th-grades and individually creating their own personal/business website. For teachers, I showed them how I used Google Forms to gauge learning, assess effectiveness of lessons, and allow students to share ideas about how to improve curriculum units.
11. Judgment: Effectively reaching logical conclusions and making high quality decisions based on available information. Giving priority and caution to significant issues. Analyzing and interpreting complex information.
- Serving on school improvement teams at the middle and high school levels helped me to work with other school leaders to analyze a variety of school data, prioritize goals, and make informed decisions that lead to the best outcomes for students. At JF Webb High School, we identified three areas that put our students most at risk for not graduating on time:
- Poor attendance (including tardies)
- Negative behaviors (discipline) that disrupt learning and keep students out of class (e.g. suspensions)
- Not earning course credits due to not completing assignments and failing classes.
- To address these three risk factors, we created student information charts and had homeroom teachers examine student data and use color coded markings to indicate which students had one, two, or three risk factors. This collaborative method collectively helped homeroom teachers and the rest of the staff quickly identify our most at risk students.
- Other examples include:
- Examining teacher-use and student-outcomes from using costly online learning tools (e.g. iXL, Newsela, Study Island) to determine which platform is most cost-effective → Only keep Math iXL and eliminate others.
- Analyzing the master school schedule to find creative ways to provide small-group interventions for struggling students (e.g. Homeroom, Warrior Period, Smart Lunch) → created a Homeroom+Warrior Period schedule.
12. Organizational Ability: Effectively plans and schedules one’s own and the work of others so that resources are used appropriately, such as scheduling the flow of activities and establishing procedures to monitor projects.
- I have experimented with a variety of methods for organizing time and found that three tools work the best for me so that I can coordinate my schedule with that of other school staff and with my family and not miss important deadlines:
- Google Calendar - Using digital calendars to invite staff, students, and parents to meetings and can be easily shared with others to help organize meetings and send reminders of upcoming events. I also include my own family events to help organize our busy lives and ensure that I do not neglect my family.
- Google Document Daily Journal - Using digital format for organizing short and long term goals, daily tasks, notes/reflections on happenings, and hyperlinks of key websites and documents. Each day, I start with a daily mantra (Smile, be visible, accessible, and available) to remind myself that I am at school to serve my staff, students and families). At the end of the day, I copy any unfinished tasks and plan my next day. I also separate weekly and long term tasks and put these at the top of my journal to keep important projects front and center. For time-sensitive events such as teacher observations, I also use Google Calendar (above) and my phone alarm (below) to ensure that I attend to events on time. The Google Document journal format has been extremely helpful not only for keeping me on track, but using a digital format allows me to quickly search for past notes on students/incidents from any time in the year. The following is a selection of entries from my residency journal: Batten Residency Journal. A few principal fellows have found my journal format to be helpful and have adapted my format to met their own needs.
- Phone alarm - Using my cell phone's alarm to ensure that I do not miss important meetings or deadlines (e.g. doing school announcements, observing teachers, speaking with students). One of the things that frustrated me as a teacher and as a student was when an administrator told me they would visit my class/meet with me and they "forgot" to show up. Using my phone alarm ensures that I keep my promises to the best of my ability and ensures that I am a reliable school administrator. Both students and teachers have told me that I am extremely reliable.
13. Personal Ethics and Values: Consistently exhibits high standards in the areas of honesty, integrity, fairness, stewardship, trust, respect, and confidentiality.
- For the past year during my principal residency, I have been put into increasing positions of responsibility (hiring process, teacher observations, IEP meetings, student advising, Child Family Team meetings) where honesty, integrity, and trust are essential to operating schools and building/maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders.
- One of the areas that I have grown the most is in developing and maintaining high quality relationships with students, especially students who are struggling academically, emotionally, and/or behaviorally. My background and appearance is different from many of our high school students so I have to let the students get to know me and for me to know them before they trust and respect me. At the beginning of the year, I was just another administrator, but as I developed relationships with students they began talking to me by name (e.g. Dr. Batten, Dr. B, Doc) and many now seek me to out daily to say good morning. I also have several students who seek me out each week to check-in or when in crisis. If I feel like they share something that I think would benefit them to also share with a counselor, administrator, teacher, or parent I ask the student if they would like to share or have me share. I have respected their confidentiality and trust and worked with the students on how to share difficult information through crucial conversations.
14. Personal Responsibility for Performance: Proactively and continuously improves performance by focusing on needed areas of improvement and enhancement of strengths; actively seeks and effectively applies feedback from others; takes full responsibility for one’s own achievements.
- Daily conversations with other Webb administrators sharing how I handled various situations with students and staff, weekly conversations with my executive coach about progress as a school administrator, weekly reflections that are shared with my principal preparation cohort director and executive coach. These conversations help me to reflect on and make sense of the new experiences in working with staff, students, and families and help me to improve my performance and the school's performance.
- One of the biggest areas of growth has been in handling student discipline. Using feedback from other administrators, I have learned the importance of developing positive relationships with students and families, investigating problems from multiple perspectives, and working with students, families, and staff to lead to positive, growth-mindset outcomes. In the beginning of the school year, I struggled with speaking to students in a way that the students felt comfortable enough to share their perspective. Also, much of the disciplinary consequences appeared to arbitrary (e.g. one students gets an admin conference for disrespect, while another gets 2 days of ISS). However, as I got to know students and administrators, I learned that both have background knowledge and experiences that helped the administrators try to make the best decisions based on the student and situations. In the above example, I learned that the first student was purposely disrespectful in order to get out of class and so keeping the student in class but working with the student and teacher to understand why the student wanted out was the best outcome (admin conference, and follow up with teacher). The second student had a history of disrespect with more than one teacher, but they had not been documented in Educator's Handbook, and previous informal conferences had not been effective so ISS (and further parent contact) was the next step. As I became more familiar with both our school/district's discipline policies, the students, and my comfort of using restorative practices, I have become more comfortable and confident in handling student discipline issues.
15. Responsiveness: Does not leave issues, inquiries or requirements for information go unattended. Creates a clearly delineated structure for responding to requests/ situations in an expedient manner.
- My daily mantra is to smile and be visible, accessible, and available to staff, students, and families. I use Google Calendar and cell phone alarms to remind myself to follow up on issues in an expedient manner. Two of the most common issues that come to me are student questions/concerns about grades and teacher concerns about student behavior. I take time to listen to the concerns and then use my calendar or alarm to remind myself to follow up wit the student/teacher, usually by the end of the day. I also document the concern/resolution in my daily Google Docs journal for reference and to reflect on the outcome. If I observe a pattern (e.g. teacher not entering grades), I am able to address the problem on a more holistic basis and help the teacher resolve any challenges they might be preventing them from entering grades in a timely manner.
- I have also learned when I need to seek assistance or more information from others and have developed a network of key personnel to help me get accurate answers quickly. For example, on JF Webb campus, students are assigned to either JF Webb or JF Webb School of Health and Life Sciences. Knowing a students grade and school is important to know with counselor serves that student. If Tyriek is a 10th grader in JFW, I would contact Counselor Parker, if Tyriek was in 11th grade, I would contact Counselor Small, and if Tyriek was in JFW-SHLS, I would contact Counselor Barker. Similarly, if an issue related to JFW-SHLS, I would inform Administrative Assistant Gregory and AP Small (Point-of-contact for SHLS). Athletic issues should be addressed to our athletic director and to Principal Rice, since athletic issues often go beyond the bounds of the playing field and often into the community or other schools. Depending up on financial issues, most go to Bookkeeper Jones, but some money matters (e.g. driver's ed money) should be addressed to Administrative Assistant Gregory. Knowing who is the key personnel is crucial in order to handle matters with competence and expediency. I have learned that it is acceptable to tell a staff, student, or parent that you do not know the answer, especially when you tell them exactly they/you could ask. I have also learned the importance of following up with request to ensure that issues do not go unattended.
16. Results Orientation: Effectively assumes responsibility. Recognizes when a decision is required. Takes prompt action as issues emerge. Resolves short-term issues while balancing them against long-term goals.
- As a teacher-leader and school administrator, I work with other school leaders to collect and analyze data and determine the best course of action both short-term and long-term. Following such decisions, we reflect on the outcomes and determine if additional changes or decisions should be made and learn from past successes and challenges to make better decisions in the future.
- I experienced two athletic examples of where Webb's administration proactively addressed known conflicts between rival sports teams prior to the games. In the first example, Webb administration heard of tensions that occurred between Webb cheerleaders and those of rival high school at a local restaurant. In anticipation of possible problems during the upcoming football game, we increased the number of sheriff's deputies and administration coverage for the game and circulated through the stadium breaking up groups of students and moving them into the stands. In another examples, a ongoing rivalry between our girls basketball team and rival high school's team (again tensions occurred at a local restaurant), led both school's administrations to decide on having a closed girls varsity basketball game. While this measure may seem draconian, a past fight during the girls basketball teams in 2018 made the news and had long lasting consequences, particularly to JF Webb High School. In this situation, hard decisions were made, but in the end there were not conflicts and both teams played well without incident.
- In my third example, I took the lead in identifying a problem, assuming responsibility, and making a decision when I observed that ACT Preparation sessions taught by our core teachers to our juniors were not engaging and ineffective. After the first two sessions, I developed and shared a plan to make the ACT session more collaborative and engaging by turning the sessions into more of a competition. While not all of the teachers implemented my exact plan, most teachers increased the levels of engagement through collaboration and/or competitions leading to more effective ACT prep sessions.
17. Sensitivity: Effectively perceives the needs and concerns of others; deal tactfully with others in emotionally stressful situations or in conflict. Knows what information to communicate and to whom. Relates to people of varying ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds.
- During my principal residency, I have been involved in several crucial conversations with students and families in sometimes stressful situations including student discipline, IEPs, and Child Family Team meetings. I have learned to remain calm, be an active listener, show concern, but also be willing to share difficult news or decisions. In each case, school leaders must remember and respect that all people come with their own perspectives, biases, beliefs, and experiences.
- One particular phone conversation with an angry parent exemplifies the need for tact and concern. The parent wished to speak to an administrator about a bus incident. I took the call and fortunately I knew the parent and student and had even driven the student's bus several times. I was aware of the incident already and had heard from the driver and another student about what occurred. The parent really just wanted to vent his frustration in part about what occurred and in part about his son's continued problematic behavior. I tried to be an active listener and told him that I would investigate and get back with him. The parent calmed down and appreciated that I listened and appreciated it even more when I called by to explain what I already knew. I chose not to share that information at the time as I wanted to let the parent calm down further and also confirm what really happened on the bus before I shared information with the parent. I have found that in most instances, people (whether staff, student, or family) just want someone to truly listen to their concerns. Sometimes, that is the only action needed. Other times, requires administrators to find out more information and even take actions, again the key is to listen, make considered decisions, and follow up.
18. Systems Thinking: Understands the Interrelationships and impacts of school and district influences, systems and external stakeholders, and applies that understanding to advancing the achievement of the school or team.
- I have been involved in the Granville County Public School (GCPS) system for 15 years as a parent, teacher, coach, curriculum developer, and school administrator and served in leadership and advisory roles at the school and district-levels. As part of my weekly reflection, I have examined how two different high schools in GCPS handled different situations including communication with students and families, field trips, state testing, attendance, and discipline. During the 2019-2020 school year, I used my experiences as a high school administrator and parent of a high school student to help make improvements to both schools, particularly in communication with stakeholders.
- During the fall marching band season, I frequently drove the band to competitions on Saturday. For one of the early competitions, there was considerable miscommunication between the band director, bus coordinator, and athletic directors from two different schools such that we only had 1 of 3 busses needed for the trip. With scrambling and several chaotic, stressful phone calls on Saturday morning, we were able to secure two additional busses. Afterward, I worked with the transportation coordinator to arrange 1) Who was driving, and 2) Where the buses were coming from and made sure to copy each relevant person on the email or text thread. This way there was no last-minute scrambling for transportation so that we could focus on the real goal, which was to getting the marching band prepared and to their competitions on time. Since that experience, I check to make sure that the bus is available, fueled, and that I know the correct route since bus transportation affects so many school stakeholders whether they are students, coaches, teachers, or parents. In my experiences in GCPS, communication is essential to advancing team, school, and district goals effectively and efficiently.
- The COVID-19 crisis created significant disruption in the lives of all of district's stakeholders. I have worked with school and district leadership to make careful decisions about how to best serve our staff, students, and their families during this difficult time. Below are some ways that I helped on the school and district system levels to support all of our school families:
- Shared free resources and webinars offered by NC Virtual (NCVPS) with district leaders to disseminate to Granville County teachers → Outcome: many teachers participating in the free webinars, helping them learn how to transition their traditional classroom into digital classrooms.
- Helped teachers prepare lessons for digital learning and helped prepare paper copies of work for students without reliable Internet access → Outcome: teachers and families felt supported in our efforts to provide for academic needs.
- Contacted students and parents of students who were not passing the third grading period and worked with them to help the students complete missing work → Outcome: nearly all of the students who I contacted passed quarter 3 grading period and I continue work with students to ensure that they pass, even after the deadline.
- Took over teaching duties of a staff member on maternity leave, allowing other teachers and administrators to focus on their own duties and tasks → Outcome: the teacher on leave could focus on her new baby, and students were still able to continue learning and receive feedback on their work.
19. Technology: Effectively utilizes the latest technologies to continuously improve the management of the school and enhance student instruction.
- During the 2019-2020 school year, I have served as JF Webb school's Technology Leader and webmaster, updating JF Webb and JF Webb School of Health Sciences websites daily. I also have used my Google Certifications training to help staff effectively use technology in the classroom and to communicate with students and families. I also have helped teachers create collaborative projects with Google Applications and shown them how to develop self/peer-reflection rubrics using either Google Sheets or Google Forms to improve the quality of student work.
- During the COVID-19 crisis, I have helped teachers and student at JF Webb High School transition to online learning:
- Provided one-on-one assistance and training for using PowerLearning (Haiku) and Google Classroom learning management systems and Google Hangouts and Zoom video conferencing applications.
- Worked with students and families to help students without Internet access complete work on paper then share via cell phone pictures to my Google Voice number (allows texts and calls).
- Called students and parents to walk them through how to use Haiku, Google Classroom, Google Hangouts, and Zoom
- Helped teachers digitize their lessons and uploading them to a publicly available spreadsheet for easy access by students and families.
- Shared free resources and training webinars sponsored by NC Virtual (NCVPS) → teachers learned valuable skills and resources for moving to digital learning
- Developed digital lessons and taught English I, English II, and American History I classes via Zoom to ninth and tenth-graders. I recorded all Zoom classes and uploaded them to YouTube so that students who missed the online lessons could watch them at their convenience. I also created paper packets of work for students without reliable Internet access.
20. Time Management: Effectively uses available time to complete work tasks and activities that lead to the achievement of desired work or school results. Runs effective meetings.
- As part of our Principal Preparation program, we received valuable time management training from Kelly Harris Perin of Little Bites. Her group and individual training helped me to develop a system to manage my time and ensure timely completion of tasks. I have also learned ways to attempt to balance the challenges of work/family time. Additional training on relationships, engaging professional development, and use of digital tools for communication (e.g. Flipped Classroom training by Dr. Lodge McCammon) has helped me improve the way I run meetings and share information with staff.
- While I am generally and organized person, Kelly Perin's time management training helped me evaluate and improve on three task organization methods that have helped me complete tasks that have helped improve my own work and school results.
- Google Calendar - I use Google Calendar to share my schedule with Principal Rice and other administrator and use it to schedule meetings with students and staff.
- Google Document Daily Journal - I use my daily journal for planning daily, weekly, and monthly tasks and to take notes and reflect on tasks to help improve my efficiency and effectiveness as a school administrator. Additionally, I include hyperlinks of commonly used files and websites (e.g. lunch duty schedules) to eliminate the waste of continuously searching for files/websites.
- Phone alarm - I use my cell phone's alarm to ensure that I am at my duty stations when necessary (e.g. cafeteria duty, class transitions, teacher observations, student meetings).
- Throughout this year, I shared professional development and other informational videos to staff and students using shared Google Presentation files with an accompanying descriptive video walking the viewer through the training. Some examples have included using a Weekly Student Reflection Chart, Student Advising training, and Community Resources. Using Google Slides with an explanatory video allows training and/or pre-training to occur leaving in-person meeting times to individual and small group assistance and support, leading to effective and efficient meetings.
21. Visionary: Encourages Imagineering by creating an environment and structure to capture stakeholders dreams of what the school could become for all the students.
- Using my daily mantra of being visible, accessible, and available has helped me have many conversations with staff, students, and families about JF Webb High School, education, and student opportunities. Using such conversation, I have helped teachers develop more engaging activities, helped students find opportunities after high school, and begin exploring ways to improve how learning happens. My "open door" and visibility throughout the school has led to many creative brainstorming and problem solving sessions with students and staff.
- My Club 47 Group has in part become a student/staff think tank for discussing problems and innovative solutions to common issues such as classroom behavior, procrastination, and creating opportunities to help students with life after high school.
- I frequently circulate the school and check-in with teachers to learn about their successes and challenges and help them to problem solve issues. For example, a World Languages teachers was not sure how to make field trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg into an academic assignment that fit the curriculum. Together we designed a project and rubric where students would work in teams to create a travel guide (e.g. video, brochure, website) highlighting the cultural elements of Busch Gardens, including both a self-reflection and peer-feedback components. Unfortunately, COVID-19 prevented the class from doing the project, but both the teacher and the students were excited with the trip and travel guide idea.