Post-Observation Conference

For my first full clinical cycle, I chose to observe Ms. W, a 6th grade language arts teacher. She is currently in her first full year of teaching in the United States, but has taught a year and a half in Kazakhstan while in the Peace Corps. The lesson I observed was essentially comprised of a P.O.D. (Problem(s) of the Day), a short shared-inquiry discussion about a fable, and student group work on creating an original fable with the same moral as the one which was discussed. The setting I chose for the post-observation conference was a teacher’s lounge, as it was the most convenient place for Ms. W, and I do not have my own office. It is not an ideal situation, as another faculty or staff member could have walked in at any moment, but we were luckily uninterrupted. I expected the conference to last about 30 minutes, but we wound up talking for about 50 minutes! I believe there are two reasons for this. First, I think it has to do with the collaborative spirit of both Ms. W. and myself, as we found plenty to talk about and share a passion for our jobs. Second, I has Ms. W. complete the “Clinical Dialect Preference Survey” in the Pajak book and she came out on the line between Orchestrating and Caregiving. This had several implications for our work together, and meant I only had to move over one wedge on the Clincal Language Circle (I came up on the line between Liberating and Idealizing). In order to use the length of the video and the fact that I have it recorded, I have decided to complete this reflection using time tags. Each strength/improvement reflection statement begins with the time at which I observed it in the video.

00:00 - 04:04: I welcomed Ms. W. into the post-observation conference room I had chosen, and then gave her two items. I allowed her to see the questions I was planning to ask during the observation to guide her pre-discussion reflection AND I actually gave her my observation notes and data analysis work from the completed observation were were about to discuss. This was a total of 8 pages for her to review, which I think was too overwhelming and I would consider a different strategy for the next conference. However, I do think it was wise to give her the questions before asking the first one, as it was very helpful to have her reflect on the lesson before beginning a dialogue about the would have/could have/should have’s of the lesson. This is also a good moment to reflect on the seating arrangement. I am seated at the “end” of the small table, with my back to the windows and facing the door. Ms. W. is seated to my right so that she has the windows roughly to her left and the door to her right. I think this arrangement was effective for collaborative dialogue, as we were able to engage with the observation data together; we were able to apply equal voice to the situation.

04:05: I finally asked my first question! I asked what she felt was most and least successful about the lesson. I think this is a strength as a first question, as it encourages the instructor to begin the constructive dialogue, so that much of the remainder of the meeting can be spent collaboratively and with me as a coach. She talked for two minutes, and now I had to come up with a good follow-up question that wouldn’t derail the conversation from either of our expectations. Uh-oh, I put my hand up on my head! Only for a split second, but that’s an awkward body gesture...

06:02: I restated one of her concerns, and asked, “If it’s something that’s inside your control, do you think you would address it differently in the future?” This was a great constructive moment, as her response was reflective and positive. I really felt that she was throwing out ideas that she plans to try - she was excited about ideas coming out of her mouth (she told me this afterward; she was nervous being on camera so reserved some of her emotions).

07:55: I acknowledge her wonderful ideas and a “shift from some more teacher-centered to student-centered activities.” She reiterates that she is always attempting to keep the learning focus student-centered, and we move on to the next question, but not before I put my hand up on the top of my head again! Eek! This is one facet of body language that I need to address before my next conference.

08:20: “What role did the students play in determining the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the lesson?” This was my attempt to bring up the purposeful observation mentality of student attitudes, behaviors, and learning. This is when we had a great conversation about the “atmosphere” of the room, including student response and attitude. This worked well to lead me to the next question about discussion assessment. Shared inquiry discussions are a vital aspect of learning at my school, and it’s a continual talking point at PLC meetings and professional development weeks. My line of questioning in this 8-minute segment is strong, as she is responding with reflective ideas about how to assess shared inquiry discussions that could potentially be of assistance to other faculty members. This part of the conference became a strong collaborative dialogue. We finished this segment by talking about Paideia strategies, a staple of our school’s vision. She talked about how her actions correlated to the Paideia columns of didactic instruction, coached projects, and shared-inquiry discussions. At 15:08, I talked more than I had throughout the first 15 minutes of the conference, as I saw it as an opportunity to give Ms. W. direct feedback about her facilitation with Paideia instructional techniques.

16:30: We are back on the P.O.D, as Ms. W. was very (delightfully) surprised about the student achievement at the board. Ms. W. was speaking very “matter-of-factly” (her words) due to nerves, so I used this as an opportunity to get her to laugh. She had experienced something very positive related to students, and we had to celebrate it together!

17:20: I asked her about the classroom norms, as there are none posted on the walls and yet her students seem to be abiding by something...This was a legitimate wondering of mine, so I posed it that way. I asked her what strategy(ies) she used to establish these unspoken norms, and as it turns out, the 6th grade team had met about it and come up with the strategies together. The core of it is respect, and they’ve chosen to focus on that word in detail in order to get the students to live and learn within those appropriate boundaries. During this part of the conference, I began the ancient art of pen-twirling! Far too often, the business end of the pen was pointing in directions other than the paper, including inadvertently at Ms. W. As I watch this video, I see good posture, good questions, and great collaborative dialogue; however, I am noticing that my body language and gestures are obscure and potentially distracting.

21:02: I ask Ms. W. to look at my observation data - in particular, at the student responses when I asked them to tell me what they were doing, and how it related to where they have been and where they are going. Ms. W. was grateful for the opportunity to evaluate the clarity of the student objectives through the eyes of the students, and used this time to posture about why they might be unclear about the objectives - particularly concerning the “where we are going” piece. This discussion turned into a dialogue about unit planning, and we shared ideas about her specific course planning and objectives (including how they are delivered to students). \

26:33: This is where I reminded Ms. W. about her Pre-Observation Conference and specific focus areas she had given me for the observation. This included her role as facilitator, the seating arrangement, and the Paideia method. I decided to lead her through the dialogue by pointing her to the data in the packet I had given her. It turns out that everything she pointed out in the pre-observation conference was on my list of concerns, and there were no concerns beyond them. It surprised me that she had been so effectively reflective before the observation, and I pointed it out to her as a strength. We talked about ideas for improving the seating arrangement, and since I teach at the school as well, I was able to give her some very real input about how to move our trap tables around for a more effective arrangement. Ms. W. sees the seating chart concept as “like a virus,” in that, as teachers, we are continually changing seating charts to see how students change attitude and behavior as a result (if at all). Ms. W. also informed me of the fact that her building (she is the only teacher in her building - the rest is taken up by administration and a museum) does not have the same fire code regulations as the rest of the school. This was surprising and I know I have to follow-up to check the accuracy of this statement.

33:42: It was finally time for the most difficult conversation - that about teacher presence and facilitating the learning environment. Ms. W. was rated “Apprentice” in this category, and though it was only for a couple of small things, I knew it could be a difficult conversation. In watching my posture during this difficult time of feedback, I think I did well. I spoke with a tone of positivity and constructivism, and though she hiccuped a bit with negative body language, she came through on the end with a constructivist tone and we regained our collaborative spirit. I used the language of “wondering” as much as possible so that she would see it as nondirect and collaborative - never direct. I did a lot of reflecting, presenting, and problem solving in this span of time, while only reinforcing positive behaviors. I thought this part of the conference would be much more difficult than it was, but my role as a teacher at the school helped me speak on the same level very effectively. I wrapped it up with a summarization comment so that we could be clear about which problems had to be solved and which areas were strengths.

39:01: At this point, I got a little carried away with compliments. I was so pleased with the way the conference was going that I found every compliment I could. I meant it all, and my body posture improved dramatically during this time. It turns out that I’m very comfortable with these conversations, and I liked being able to run the conference to the end with positivity. We finished the conference by sharing stories and strategies and talking about interesting aspects of what we do. I also suggested that she use this as an opportunity to share with our administrator in carrying out her Professional Development Plan. After we realized the time, we wrapped things up and moved on about our day.

Though I will probably not ever videotape myself doing this again, I am very grateful that I did this time. I have a strength as a listener and collaborator, and hope to work down my nonverbal conversation issues to marginalize my body language at future conferences. I am a little apprehensive about extrapolating this process over a full school of teachers, but I know it is an important process and hope to be effective in that larger capacity.

Seating Arrangements

Figure 2: Figure 1:

As Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School is mostly a Paiadeia school (we offer the IB Diploma Programme to 11th and 12th graders), our teachers are expected to instruct primarily through projects and shared inquiry discussions. As you can see from my included diagrams, this provides two distinct types of seating arrangement. One is the roughly 75%-of-the-time Project/Didactic setup (Figure 1). In this setup, the teacher is often very mobile. He/she is expected to coach students through projects and perform limited didactic instruction from the front of the room at the SMARTboard or whiteboard. Our school has almost exclusively trapezoidal (trap) tables. Desks in rows are NOT an option! They can be grouped in a hexagonal fashion, and since our average class size is 15, we only need three hexagons to accommodate a full class of students. This is essentially the same as a “cluster” setup. The other room type used is that of the shared inquiry discussion (Figure 2). Teachers arrange the trap tables in a roughly elliptical shape if the class sizes are small enough – if they must, they have been observed creating a messing circular shape out of the trap tables so that everyone can participate in the discussion.

When I walked around to verify that every room is set up in one of these two ways, I was only surprised by the rough percentage of rooms set up each way. Instead of approximately 75% Project/Didactic setups and 25% Shared Inquiry setups, I found about 60% Project/Didactic and 40% Shared Inquiry. It seems as though many of the Humanities instructors keep their room in the Shared Inquiry setup most of the time. After speaking with a few of the Humanities instructors, I found that one of the primary goals of their department this year is to incorporate more Shared Inquiry seminars into the instructional plan. Rearranging the seating in each room is one method they have decided to employ in order to accomplish this goal.

I noticed that the teacher desks (for rooms that have one) were typically across from the main entry door, furthest from the exit; however, I only saw two teachers sitting at these desks out of the 12 rooms I observed. Teachers move around a lot at this school, and the desks are arranged in such a way to accommodate this excessive foot traffic. I observed multiple teachers either sitting with students, or leaned over/squatting at one of the hexagonal tables. There was a lot of cooperative learning going on, with only 3 of the 12 teachers utilizing didactic lecture at the time I walked around the building.

Students with special needs were not always near the doors, even if it seems it would be best for the child to be located in such a position due to physical disabilities. This is one core issue I found for highlighting when I speak to faculty members about seating arrangements. I also found that only 5 of the 12 rooms had one or more computers available for student use. Although we have laptop carts (and single computers) available for checkout, many instructors did not have any available for student use. Also, 6 of the 12 classrooms are equipped with a SMARTboard, but many of them are not adequately set up for use. I will be bringing this up with our facilities manager this week.

I think this information is valuable for staff development in that I could bring them all on a walkthrough of the school and have them create a plus/delta chart for room improvement in each room. This would be beneficial for faculty members and students, and I think a change would occur almost immediately where appropriate. In supervision, I think it’s best to observe as if you are a student – sit where the students sit, work a little as the students do, and get a student view of instruction and purpose for the day’s lesson. This will assist the post-observation discussion, as the supervisor will be better able to focus the constructive comments on student achievement.

I'm feeling some CHANGE

Marzano outlines the following seven responsibilities of a school leader as being most necessary for second-order change, in order of importance:

1) Knowledge of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
2) Optimizer
3) Intellectual Stimulation
4) Change Agent
5) Monitoring/Evaluating
6) Flexibility
7) Ideals/Beliefs

It seems to me from the reading and from personal perspective that the effective school leader must be extremely thoughtful and flexible due to the complex nature of innovation. Second-order change requires a swift and direct change in strategies to address Type III problems – those that cannot be solved with the status quo and require deeper thought and innovative ideas.

In the past three weeks, I have been thrust into a leadership case study of sorts at my own school. I can see the tangibility of our studies before my eyes. At the highest level of leadership, we have transitioned from transformational to transactional, placing our faculty leaders in a position of leadership not often found in public schools. I have experienced second order change at this school in its first two years of existence, and am now observing our administration attempting to use the status quo of other institutions at our school to address mostly Type I and II problems. I can see how the lack of authentic leadership is affecting our school culture, and find myself in an unintended position of instructional leadership.

I have been a change agent at my school for the past year and a half, and feel more pressure than ever to continue in this role. I have to serve as an optimizer for my fellow department chairs as we interact with a new administration with little to no knowledge of our instructional practices. Even while teaching five classes (out of six in the schedule) of four different math courses, I feel as though I am experiencing all seven of the responsibilities listed above without any formality. I am fixing the master schedule, student schedules, and technology issues. I am answering questions about curriculum, school culture, technology, assessment, professional development, and much more. I didn’t intend for my internship to be this realistic, and look forward to feeling the reality of the position more and more. I just hope my classes don’t suffer too much, as teaching is my first love in education…

A Culture of Learning to Support Reform

From my perspective, school culture is the most important helper or hindrance to school reform and change initiatives. It is dictated by perspectives of students, parents, community members, and teachers. A sense of purpose can be created through many aspects of a school – the classroom, PLC (Professional Learning Community) meetings, staff meetings, PTA meetings, at after-school activities, in the parking lot, and more. The Peterson reading reminds us that every member of the school is a learner, and modeling that behavior for all stakeholders is important to establishing a positive school culture. Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) models require buy-in and trust in order to succeed, and a positive school culture can assist with the creation of these necessary factors.

When students, teachers, and administrators share common beliefs and values, and have a sense of purpose and vision about the school’s mission, positive relationships abound. Productivity increases, and the school community is more willing to tackle all types of problems through first-order AND second-order change initiatives. The CSR will have the support of the PLC at the school, and administrators will have an easier time monitoring and evaluating its effectiveness as teachers, students, and parents will be more willing to provide their “two cents.”

I have realized that I am very fortunate to work where I do when it comes to school culture. We have established a very positive culture of shared inquiry and dialogue, and our PLC meetings have produced interdisciplinary products which have extended the scope of our students to include the “bigger picture” of their work in school. We embrace diversity and special needs learners, and do our best to inspire students to build their own experiences and perspectives out of our curriculum and after-school activities. I am in some ways at the epicenter of school reform in the greater context of the American educational dilemma through the lens of a small (about 360 students) liberal arts charter school in the heart of New Mexico. We are merging the intellectual freedom components of a liberal arts education with the 21st century demands of technology integration and continually changing expectations of our students, and, when coupled with a more manageable student:teacher ratio and advisory groups, it’s created a tremendously positive school culture and effective learning environment.

Shaping Myself into an Effective Leader

On pages 147 - 148 of the Jossey-Bass Reader, Robert Evans cites a partial quote that rang true to me as a core belief I have about effective leadership: “They [bring] themselves with them to graduate school…and the [take] themselves back to their schools…knowing some new things, perhaps, but still basically themselves” (Blumberg, 1989). While this thought may scare those that feel hard work and experience will trump innate ability and passion any day, it gave me an all-encompassing positive feeling about what I may be capable of producing upon completion of this program. I feel the passion for educational change in my bones, and have successfully led multiple organizations. What I feel I most need is a backbone of knowledge and true understanding of leadership vocabulary and how to mend them in application of second order change.

Leadership, like many other facets of human nature, is hinged upon appropriate balance; there is a continuum for multiple factors of effective leadership. For instance, the continuum of transactional and transformational leadership is one that will dictate a school’s fate. Will it bend to the will of bureaucratic reform agendas, encourage defiance and creativity through only a school-based agenda, or fall happily somewhere in between? Then there’s the continuum of McGregor’s theories X & Y: should the effective leader micromanage his workforce into submitting to a school vision due to their solely extrinsic motivating factors, or place the vision and goal production in staff members’ hands since they will be intrinsically motivated to produce significant tasks? There are many other continua for leadership improvement, and it seems that an effective leader will find his place on each before selecting his leadership position. Then, once he has met his staff and established a shared vision, he will shift along the continua (ever so slightly) until the scale of change shifts in his favor.

In determining the 3-5 characteristics each school leader must possess, I have to say I have an affinity for Mark Goldberg’s list, and until I complete this course and its assessment, I am not sure I have the leeway to produce a better one. To choose these characteristics is not to falsify my own beliefs, but to acknowledge that this list was compiled through soliciting successful school leaders, and to verify that I find myself thus far in full belief that these ARE the five most important characteristics of a school leader.

1) A Bedrock Belief – Walking your talk is easier when you truly believe in what you’re communicating to others – both verbally and nonverbally. I would be more willing to take risks if I were in a position of trust earned through affirmation of my own personal leadership strengths and weaknesses.

2) Courage to Swim Upstream – In today’s world of high-stakes testing and litigious minds, I value school leaders that hold their school to its own standards and vision, regardless of its popularity in the mind of bureaucrats. We have to be willing to discuss Dewey and Socrates’ views on education and experience while questioning the status quo. We have to determine where we stand on the continuum of child and curriculum, and hold our ground when others try to push us more toward one direction or the other.

3) Social Conscience – As Leithwood highlights in “Transformation School Leadership in a Transactional Policy World, the recession of the 1980s prompted a loss of public confidence in schools as the instruments for social improvement. While I believe parents should be the number one contributor to a child’s social development and improvement of understanding social norms, the school must follow up these efforts as a close second. Schools should embrace their standing as a litmus paper for the surrounding community, and reach out to the greater world in an exchange of ideas and principles, for our common philosophical question on this earth is, “What does it mean to be human?” (IB Philosophy HL Course Focus)

4) Seriousness of Purpose – School leaders serve as the voice of their school. They should continually speak with a sense of purpose, a zeal for the goings-on of the students and faculty around them. We should maintain integrity and ethical behavior, as the development of the child is a serious, significant task. We should maintain academic rigor. If a student has mastered everything in his/her courses, why is he/she in school? This is a difficult, but important, question for every school leader.

5) Situational Mastery – Thus far my nemesis on the list… An effective school leader should be able to improvise, diffuse parental “bombs” unruffle “goose feathers”, provide impromptu resources for instructors, know the cliques of faculty members inside and out, and predict, predict, predict problems and possible solutions. I once heard a saying I rather like to fit this principle – “When you come to a wall, you have two options: Go around it as if it isn’t there, or shape the wall to fit your needs and climb over it, growing as an individual and leaving the wall behind you.” I think it’s far better to shape the wall, but I often find myself finding a creative way to go around it. I satisfy peoples’ needs by listening, but I don’t tend to actively engage in the problem to truly leave it behind.

I truly look forward to the next five weeks of this course, as I hope to make myself more of an authentic leader, and practice behaviors and concepts of motivation in my internship. Thankfully, I have a wonderful working relationship with my peers, so they should tolerate my experimentation rather well!

Transformational Leadership

In mathematics, a transformation is an operative factor or set of factors that completely change(s) the function, matrix, or shape in focus. Every variable, every coefficient takes on a new role as part of some overarching systemic alteration of the situation. While the definition of transformation has a different look in every context, it remains true and equitable to my mathematical understanding of the term. Keith Leithwood calls Transformational Leadership broad and systemic, and he provides some possible factors of transformation. If you see it from Bernard Bass’ perspective, the factors of transformational leadership are charisma, inspirational leadership, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Leithwood has worked with colleagues to identify Setting Directions, Developing People, and Redesigning the Organization as three broad categorical factors of transformational leadership. It seems to me that transformational leadership is personal, emotional, and collaborative; intangible in definition to those outside the organization and vital to successful change for the members of the organization.

Regardless of when and how we spend our time on earth, we live in the here and now, the modern world. As effective human beings, we mold ourselves to fit the modern era through understanding of the views of others and the current best practices of our profession and community. It is no different for a school leader. We currently live in a world of high-stakes testing and continually outmoded technological infrastructure. An transformational school leader must ensure that he/she is utilizing educational best practices for successful implementation of systemic change. A transformational school leader must understand and appreciate the needs and strengths of the staff members of the organization, as it is their potential and abilities that will provide the catalyst for transformation, one of the most important mathematical factors (Covey, 1992). In stark contrast to a transactional leader, a transformational leader utilizes situational awareness skills to transcend daily affairs and focus on the big picture – that of the school’s shared vision and professional development while the transactional leader focuses on the mundane day-to-day transgressions. The transformational leader must be self-aware and confident in his motives for change, while the transactional leader’s common motive is to do his/her job to earn a paycheck. While the transactional leader may focus on the high-stakes testing above all else, the transformational leader must merely work his/her way through it en route to accomplishment of the community’s vision for the students at the school.

As I mentioned before, technology is continually updating and outmoding itself. A transformational school leader not only has to be innovative in his/her instructional integration of technology, but also aware of and able to predict the expenses of maintaining the infrastructure for continual quality and effectiveness. In our modern world, every school leader should coax some mention of technology integration into the school’s shared vision, and how it will be beneficial to the students of the organization. How will technology incite their emotions and engage their human potential? Will it be handled ethically and promote self-efficacy, or will it be seen as another standard of curricular development that must be somehow wired into the student’s brain? A transformational leader doesn’t have to have the answer to these questions on his own, but must convey to his/her staff members that these are important questions that should be reflected upon as technology becomes part of the life-blood of the institution.

Transformational leaders are innovative, charismatic, change-inspiring individuals with a sense of purpose and the ability to incite others’ human potential and intrinsic motivation for implementing reform agendas. The primary stakeholders of any school should unquestionably see their leader as transformative and inspirational, and while government bureaucrats and leaders of other schools may not understand his/her methods and potentially despise the risks taken, they have some level of respect and admiration for the emotion and excitement of the school’s community. Leithwood suggests that transformational leadership is vital to success in the world of high-stakes testing and declining community confidence in the school’s non-academic spheres’ ability to influence positive change. Follow the best evidence available in the modern world as you transform your school into a high-achieving, socially aware community of learners.

The 21 responsibilities of the school leader

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The 21 responsibilities of the school leader

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Comparing School Leader Responsibility Survey Results

The 21 responsibilities of the school leader

The SlideShare Presentation above gives compiled data results of my completion of the leadership self-assessment (blue bars) and Balanced Leadership survey (red bars). I have included the overall composite mean (green bars) for comparative analysis of each responsibility to my overall general skill. The mean rating I scored was a 3.86 out of 5. Having never served as a principal before, I am hesitant to make much sense of the lasting results of the completed rubrics; however, there are certainly some responsibilities I will be more inclined to focus on during present and future leadership endeavors.

For instance, after reading Marzano, Waters, and McNulty’s description of “order,” I felt it was an area of weakness. A definition of order given in the context of schools is, “clear boundaries and rules for both students and faculty (Nunnelly, Whaley, Mull, and Hott, 2003). I have a difficult time establishing routine for my own life, and extending that into a large system with potentially thousands of stakeholders is a matter of preoccupation. I rated myself a 1 in this responsibility, and the follow-up survey rated me a 1.67 – providing further evidence for affirmation that I have to work on this area and recruit people for my leadership team that will compensate this weakness with their strength in the area.

After reading about Situational Awareness and finding out that research has determined it to carry the highest correlation for student achievement (Marzano, Waters, McNulty, 2005), I am a little anxious about both of my survey scores rating it lower than the composite mean score. I feel that I can accurately predict what may go wrong from day to day, but do not have an acute awareness of the interactions of those around me, which can make it more difficult to predict how staff members will react to new initiatives and the issues that arise each day. Two areas that I also would like to place emphasis on as I grow as a leader are focus and monitoring/evaluating. I feel more confident that I can address these responsibilities with learned behaviors and guidance from others than I do with the other two responsibilities needing compensation of skill.

In highlighting strengths within the responsibilities, I found that the majority of responsibilities on which I scored well are those that address vision and/or instruction. Change Agent, Input, Optimizer, and Resources are the four that I feel are most helpful in pushing forward with vision and change, issues that are vital to institutional success. I have a passion for teaching and learning which transcends subject area, learning disabilities, and mountains of paperwork. My personal vision revolves around instructional and social reform, most likely leading me to encroach upon others and engage often in second order change. Having strengths in these areas will assist me as I work through the challenging stages of school reform initiatives. I value the Optimizer label above the rest because I feel it is more representative of my true self – inside or outside of education. I have a knack for making the best out of difficult situations, and am able to maintain a calm environment through tough waters.

I found this to be an exceptionally fruitful exercise, and I look forward to further analyzing my strengths and weaknesses as a training school leader.

Online Learning Orientation: A Reflection

In participating in the 2010-11 JHU Administration & Supervision ISTE program as a member of its cohort, I hope to become a more polished, informed leader with a general understanding of online and hybrid learning opportunities. Guided by experiences - those of others and of my own - and open discussion, I would like to learn how to apply myself in a more efficient way as a leader in my school, as well as the field of education. Shortly after completing this program and my Master's degree, I hope to be a certified school administrator with teaching subject endorsements in math, science, ESL (English as a Second Language), and technology (this program will help with acquiring the technology endorsement). I would like to use my skills and certification to become part of a leadership team at an urban school with a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) education.

In order to be successful in this program, the first phrase that comes to mind is "time management." If I don't start each academic week by estabishing a schedule and communicating with my team, I can't imagine I'll be successful as I need and want to be. I will log in every day - even if only to read the announcements and check the discussion board. When I create the weekly schedule, I will be sure to plan extra time for writing assignments, as I feel it is a focus area for me. I would like to take my time drafting essays and responses to various media.

Writing is certainly one area where I feel I may need extra support. While I have never received less than a B on any writing assignment in my academic career, I have also never been happy with the structure of my writing, nor have I fully understood all the guidelines for various types of writing and citing resources (such as APA). It seems to me that many of my instructors liked my ideas and had no qualms (in general) with my spelling or mechanics, but that's not good enough for me. I want to be sure that any ideas I have are communicated clearly and professionally, so that the vast majority of people will be able to respect and understand what I am saying. This will be of great assistance when my opinion may differ from others, and when a school full of teachers, students, and community members will require access to my writing.

I very much look forward to meeting everyone in Denver! I actually spent my first year of teaching in inner-city Denver, and lived very close to the Colorado Convention Center. It should be a pleasant and exhilirating experience!