Standard 4: Collaborating with faculty and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.
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.
Building School-Community relations
It is really important for schools to build relationships with outside agencies. First of all, school-business collaboration can greatly enhance student learning. This occurs as students are given real world opportunities to apply their learning, and can see possible career options related to their areas of interest. As a community’s confidence in the quality of their school grows, they learn to trust the education their students are receiving and are much more likely to get involved and volunteer their resources and time. This partnership awakens youth to a vision of their future that they might otherwise not see. Students often struggle with setting long-term goals, and these relationships with outside agencies can really foster and enhance a student’s cognitive ability to plan for the future.
There are three stages to the support businesses give a school. The first stage is donating resources such as time, money, guest speakers, or tutoring. The second stage is the cooperation stage, which consists of short-term projects and mentoring programs. The last and best stage is the collaboration stage. This is a stage where businesses are setting specific goals and having a long term relationship in helping students prepare for life after school (Hackman, Schmitt-Oliver & Tracy, 2002). As schools foster collaboration with universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations, the talents and expertise of an entire community can be focused on raising a generation of students who are much more prepared and capable to tackle the challenges of the future.
In my community there are many young people getting into drugs and alcohol in 8th grade. The past few years it has been surprising as I sit down with 7th graders and teach them about goal setting and the importance of goals, how hard it is for them to think about the future. Only about one third of the 7th grade students I have worked with can clearly see the furture and set good 5 and 10 year goals. As students go into high school it is easy for them to flounder if they come from broken homes, are getting into addictive substances, and have no sense of direction in their lives. Some of these students are so capable, talented, and smart. I truly believe that a community that is united in educating and building students can be more effective in reaching these struggling students. To me that is why it is so important as an administrator and teacher to involve outside agencies and build relationships of trust with them.
There are several strategies that can be used to build relationships with outside agencies. First it would be imperative for a school to reach out to these agencies and for administrators to build relationships with top-level leadership (Hackman, Schmitt-Oliver & Tracy, 2002). As they build the relationships they can discuss ways that the school can prepare future employees, and ways that the agency can get involved in helping students prepare and learn. As these discussions begin it would be important to invite business and university leaders from around the community to participate in a Site-Based Management Team (Hackman, Schmitt-Oliver & Tracy, 2002). This team would include school personnel, parents, and community leaders, and could be an important link to building community and outside agency involvement in the school. This committee could discuss needs of the school and plan for ways to get involved in empowering students in their education. At the same time it is hopeful that this could improve the school-university partnership.
Hackmann, D., Oliver, D., & Tracy, J. (2002). The standards-based administrative internship: Putting the ISLLC standards into practice. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.
Reflective Log Standard 4
This has been a great month. I’m finally coming to understand how important it is for a principal to collaborate with families and community members and respond to the diverse interests and needs of a community. There is so much I could write about, but I will briefly describe three experiences. I observed Kyle working and collaborating to bring an outside speaker into our school, started a junior high Mathcounts team, took them to a competition, and gave out awards to celebrate their success, and wrote a letter to motivate parental and community involvement in the school.
Mr. Gunderson saw Mike Smith speak at a conference he had attended a few years ago in Nebraska. He was so impacted by his message that he knew we needed to get him to Guernsey. Mr. Gunderson approached the superintendent and board and made arrangements for him to come to Guernsey. I spoke with him about how excited he was and it was really neat, because Mike Smith addressed many of the needs and concerns our community has. He addressed bullying, making wise decisions, having a purpose in life, and the impact we can have on others as we stand for a cause. I observed Kyle eating lunch with Mike. Mike also did break out sessions with our students and talked to our Elementary students. I learned the power of ones personal story and ones personal influence, and that if we bring the right people into our schools their messages can have lasting impact on our culture and growth as a school.
In our district we have been noticing a big drop in the math skills of our students between elementary and junior high school. At the beginning of the year the teachers were asked to reflect on what we could do. My idea was to motivate them to learn and improve by starting a Mathcounts program. I took the initiative to approach our superintendent with the idea and have followed it through to the end. We had 10 students participate in the school competition and took our top four students to the chapter competition. It is awesome to see how it has helped boost their self-confidence, and how many of them art starting to enjoy math. I was given time at two assemblies to present awards to students and it was fun celebrating their success and participation. During that time I was also able to communicate with families in our community so they could be aware of Mathcounts and what we were doing.
The last thing I was able to participate in is part of my practicum goals. I was able to take time to write an excerpt for our school newsletter The Viking Voice. While it hasn’t been published yet I have submitted it to our principal for approval. I never used to like writing papers, but since I am getting to practice it so much I am gaining confidence in my ability to communicate through writing. My article is titled The Difference is YOU, and strives to help parents and community members understand the impact they can make. Their ideas, voice, and actions can greatly impact our school and community as we strive to make it great. I also outlined principles of good followership that we can all follow to support our leaders in fulfilling our schools mission and vision. I know that this is a round about way to mobilizing community resources, but for now I just want people to start thinking about the difference they can make. I really feel that if we all do a little bit it will go a long way.
I was also able to attend a school board meeting this month. It was neat to listen to our superintendent and principal communicate with the board. Our superintendent briefed the board on state policies and bills that are being discussed currently by out state legislatures. There are about 20 that effect education, and some of them seem radical. Even though we are a small district it will be important to make our voice heard. I also learned that this year the state will be reviewing and renewing their funding model. It will be interesting to see what changes are made.
It is really important for schools to build relationships with outside agencies. First of all, school-business collaboration can greatly enhance student learning. This occurs as students are given real world opportunities to apply their learning, and can see possible career options related to their areas of interest. As a community’s confidence in the quality of their school grows, they learn to trust the education their students are receiving and are much more likely to get involved and volunteer their resources and time. This partnership awakens youth to a vision of their future that they might otherwise not see. Students often struggle with setting long-term goals, and these relationships with outside agencies can really foster and enhance a student’s cognitive ability to plan for the future.
There are three stages to the support businesses give a school. The first stage is donating resources such as time, money, guest speakers, or tutoring. The second stage is the cooperation stage, which consists of short-term projects and mentoring programs. The last and best stage is the collaboration stage. This is a stage where businesses are setting specific goals and having a long term relationship in helping students prepare for life after school (Hackman, Schmitt-Oliver & Tracy, 2002). As schools foster collaboration with universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations, the talents and expertise of an entire community can be focused on raising a generation of students who are much more prepared and capable to tackle the challenges of the future.
In my community there are many young people getting into drugs and alcohol in 8th grade. The past few years it has been surprising as I sit down with 7th graders and teach them about goal setting and the importance of goals, how hard it is for them to think about the future. Only about one third of the 7th grade students I have worked with can clearly see the furture and set good 5 and 10 year goals. As students go into high school it is easy for them to flounder if they come from broken homes, are getting into addictive substances, and have no sense of direction in their lives. Some of these students are so capable, talented, and smart. I truly believe that a community that is united in educating and building students can be more effective in reaching these struggling students. To me that is why it is so important as an administrator and teacher to involve outside agencies and build relationships of trust with them.
There are several strategies that can be used to build relationships with outside agencies. First it would be imperative for a school to reach out to these agencies and for administrators to build relationships with top-level leadership (Hackman, Schmitt-Oliver & Tracy, 2002). As they build the relationships they can discuss ways that the school can prepare future employees, and ways that the agency can get involved in helping students prepare and learn. As these discussions begin it would be important to invite business and university leaders from around the community to participate in a Site-Based Management Team (Hackman, Schmitt-Oliver & Tracy, 2002). This team would include school personnel, parents, and community leaders, and could be an important link to building community and outside agency involvement in the school. This committee could discuss needs of the school and plan for ways to get involved in empowering students in their education. At the same time it is hopeful that this could improve the school-university partnership.
Hackmann, D., Oliver, D., & Tracy, J. (2002). The standards-based administrative internship: Putting the ISLLC standards into practice. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.
Reflective Log Standard 4
This has been a great month. I’m finally coming to understand how important it is for a principal to collaborate with families and community members and respond to the diverse interests and needs of a community. There is so much I could write about, but I will briefly describe three experiences. I observed Kyle working and collaborating to bring an outside speaker into our school, started a junior high Mathcounts team, took them to a competition, and gave out awards to celebrate their success, and wrote a letter to motivate parental and community involvement in the school.
Mr. Gunderson saw Mike Smith speak at a conference he had attended a few years ago in Nebraska. He was so impacted by his message that he knew we needed to get him to Guernsey. Mr. Gunderson approached the superintendent and board and made arrangements for him to come to Guernsey. I spoke with him about how excited he was and it was really neat, because Mike Smith addressed many of the needs and concerns our community has. He addressed bullying, making wise decisions, having a purpose in life, and the impact we can have on others as we stand for a cause. I observed Kyle eating lunch with Mike. Mike also did break out sessions with our students and talked to our Elementary students. I learned the power of ones personal story and ones personal influence, and that if we bring the right people into our schools their messages can have lasting impact on our culture and growth as a school.
In our district we have been noticing a big drop in the math skills of our students between elementary and junior high school. At the beginning of the year the teachers were asked to reflect on what we could do. My idea was to motivate them to learn and improve by starting a Mathcounts program. I took the initiative to approach our superintendent with the idea and have followed it through to the end. We had 10 students participate in the school competition and took our top four students to the chapter competition. It is awesome to see how it has helped boost their self-confidence, and how many of them art starting to enjoy math. I was given time at two assemblies to present awards to students and it was fun celebrating their success and participation. During that time I was also able to communicate with families in our community so they could be aware of Mathcounts and what we were doing.
The last thing I was able to participate in is part of my practicum goals. I was able to take time to write an excerpt for our school newsletter The Viking Voice. While it hasn’t been published yet I have submitted it to our principal for approval. I never used to like writing papers, but since I am getting to practice it so much I am gaining confidence in my ability to communicate through writing. My article is titled The Difference is YOU, and strives to help parents and community members understand the impact they can make. Their ideas, voice, and actions can greatly impact our school and community as we strive to make it great. I also outlined principles of good followership that we can all follow to support our leaders in fulfilling our schools mission and vision. I know that this is a round about way to mobilizing community resources, but for now I just want people to start thinking about the difference they can make. I really feel that if we all do a little bit it will go a long way.
I was also able to attend a school board meeting this month. It was neat to listen to our superintendent and principal communicate with the board. Our superintendent briefed the board on state policies and bills that are being discussed currently by out state legislatures. There are about 20 that effect education, and some of them seem radical. Even though we are a small district it will be important to make our voice heard. I also learned that this year the state will be reviewing and renewing their funding model. It will be interesting to see what changes are made.