Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Principal Competency Reflection
Principal Competency Reflection
Competency
Reflection
GLORIA RENDON
During my experience during Internship II at Pershing Middle School, I was able to work
with the principal and staff members on the campus improvement plan. The plan and
vision were developed by the principal and included feedback from stakeholders
(parents, teachers, and local business owners) for the campus. I worked to develop
intervention rotations with a focus on at-risk students. The rotation was designed in
correlation with one of the campus improvement plan goals which was to address the
needs of at-risk students. Working with the principal, I was able to gain an understanding
of some of the biggest obstacles that our campus would be facing this school year. One
included the influx of students from a limited English background and special education
students. The principal worked on setting high expectations with staff members on how
issues would be handled during the school year. I hope to gain more experience and
learning how to formulate my own vision for the campus. I want to be able to address all
of the needs that face my stakeholders in a way that not only supports them but
empowers them as well.
Since I am a science teacher, I tend to educate many special education and limited
English proficient students since science does not have a separate class for those special
education or LEP students. For that reason, during my internship, I was able to attend
many meetings that had to do with the best interests of students and legal guidelines
(LPAC meetings, due process meetings, ARDs, MDRs, etc.). I developed a staff
development that based on improving special education on my campus. The principal
supported this idea by hiring a science teacher strictly to assist the science teachers in
class where there were numerous special education or LEP students. This helped me to
be a better advocate for all students on campus. I also designed an after-school tutorial
program that helped these at-risk students succeed. Teachers made themselves available
to assist students who were required to attend based on many factors including low test
scores and/or low formative assessment grades. As a future principal, it is important that
I am always current on laws, district policies, and state guidelines for schools.
I had the opportunity to observe teachers and discuss the observations. I gained a better
understanding of what to look for from teachers during the observations and provide
feedback based on what I saw. Administrators need to provide teachers with constructive
feedback so that the teacher is able to improve their teaching style. Upon becoming an
administrator, I will be completing formal observations. I still need to improve in the area
of providing constructive feedback to teachers who may have many things to work on. I
want to ensure that all teachers improve somewhat during my tenure as their appraiser.
Competency 007: THE PRINCIPAL KNOWS HOWTO APPLY ORGANIZATIONAL, DECISIONMAKING, AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS TO ENSURE AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.
I was able to work with all departments during my internship in the capacity of department
meetings, professional learning communities, and campus staff development. During the
duration of these meetings, I was able to assign roles, decipher data, and resolve issues
that arose. One of the main issues I helped to resolve was the conflict of interest between
general education teachers and special education staff. I worked to help develop a
solution, implement the solution, modify the solution, and reflect on what was
accomplished. With the assistance of the heads of the departments, we were able to
collaboratively come up with a solution. Throughout out this experience, I was able to see
that not everyone would be content with the solution. The larger idea is that, as a future
principal, I will not always make everyone happy from parents to other stakeholders.
However, I hope that through enough of the right decisions, everyone will gradually
respect the decisions I make.
I was fortunate to work with a principal that takes pride in finances and budgeting.
Due to being part of a large district, principals have a lot of authority with many
decisions including but not limited to finance decisions. Campus principals have
allotments that they are to use as they see fit. They receive so many personnel
allotments as well as finances for the different areas it takes to run a school. The
amount of money the school receives is based on many factors including number
of students, Title I eligibility, and test scores. Over 90% of the budget is due to
personnel salaries. The rest of the budget is for the principal to decide. The
clusters each get $300 and departments do not have a set amount. All that is told
to departments is to order what we need as far as supplies or professional
development trainings.
Competency 009: THE PRINCIPAL KNOWS HOWTO APPLY PRINCIPLES OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT TO THE
CAMPUS PHYSICAL PLANT AND SUPPORT SYSTEMS TO ENSURE A SAFE AND EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.