Last Week of School Community Relations Class

I have enjoyed this class.  It is kind of ironic that I just became the PI (parent involvement) representative at my school this year.  The information from this course has came in handy.  Now I know why we do the things we do as a Title I campus. 

4th Week of EDLD 5326 Class

This week focused on advocacy for all students, parental involvement among diverse groups, site-based decision making committees, and overcoming barriers (roles and responsibilities of stakeholders).

The dots are starting to connect.  The information in this class is helping me understand why we do some of things we do at school.

3rd Week of School Community Relations Class

This class is already half over; I took a midterm exam.  The assignment this week was to establish a project timeline.  The timeline answered the questions: what is realistic timeline for your project?  What are the required tasks?  Who will make sure the timeline is followed and that the tasks are complete? (the questions are taken directly from the assignment sheet).  In addition to establishing a timeline, I also established an evaluation process which answered the question, how will you know that the partnership has met those goals?  (the question was taken directly from the assignment sheet).

2nd Week of EDLD 5326 School Community Relations

This week's assignments were to gather data and come up with an initial partnership proposal in order to design or improve community partnerships.

It is apparent after reading several articles and watching this week's videos that partnerships with parents and other members of the community are important factors in students' success at school.

“Evidence shows a strong connection between parent and family involvement in schools and children’s academic achievement, attendance, attitude, and continued education” (Henderson & Berla, 1994; Hickman, 1996).

Reference:

Comuntizis-Page, G. (1996), Critical issue: Creating the school climate and structures to support parent and family involvement.  Appalachia Educational Laboratory/North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Washington, DC: Learning Points Associates.  Retrieved January 22, 2009, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issue/envrnment/famncomm/pa300.htm .

First Week for School Community Relations Class

This class addresses how schools can and do influence their supporting community.  Community is defined as parents, and other family members, businesses, agencies, and organizations.  This week's assignment was to analyze two of my school's involvement programs (one geared toward parent involvement and the other geared toward community involvement).  A SWOT analysis was conducted for both programs.  SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Last Week for the EDLD 5345 Class

I have a better understanding of the SBEC Competencies and the supporting standards because of this class.  I enjoyed this Human Resource Management course.  I liked learning about human resource management, campus vision, culture, values, ethics, laws, professional learning, staff evaluations, organizational leadership, decision-making and problem solving, budgeting, resource allocation, and financial management. 

4th Week- Human Resource Management

This week's assignment only had four parts:  human resource organization leadership reflection, article critique, summary of interview with Debra Cannon, and teacher evaluations.

The most interesting part of the assignment were the six steps for teacher evaluations:

1.) Begin the evaluation process early in the school year.

     

2.) Utilize classroom walk-throughs often enough to ensure validity to what you see in

      the designated observation and evaluation visit. 

    

3.) If there are any problem areas, schedule a conference with the teacher to discuss the

     issues and put a synopsis of the conference in writing.

    

4.) Ask the teacher what he/she needs in terms of support in order to meet performance

     expectations.

  

5.) If problems continue, establish a reasonable timeline for the teacher to demonstrate

     improvement and conduct a follow-up evaluation.

     

6.) Complete a third and final evaluation visit prior to making a contract status

      recommendation to the superintendent.

     

I like using guidelines (or steps) to accomplish tasks.  I'm definitely not looking forward to step 6 (as an administrator).