Standard III: Cultural Leadership
A. Focus on Collaborative Work Environment: The school executive understands and acts on the understanding of the positive role that a collaborative environment can play in the school’s culture.
B. School Culture and Identity: The school executive develops and uses shared vision, values and goals to define the identity and culture of the school.
View the below video to find out why I think cultural leadership is important to learning and teaching.
As a result of DLP Assignment #3 and Comprehension is Key, I know how and will be able to objectively assess the culture of a school and provide strategies for influencing the evolution of the culture to support the continuous improvement of the school and actions of all staff and students.
C. Acknowledges Failures; Celebrates Accomplishments and Rewards: The school executive acknowledges failures and celebrates accomplishments of the school in order to define the identity, culture and performance of the school.
"Hump Day Holla" was implemented during my residency to fairly acknowledge (failures and ) celebrations of staff and students. I wanted a way to increase the acknowledgements of all the great students we have in our building. On Wednesdays, a different person received a "Hump Day Holla" through morning announcements. I know how to create and implement a process to celebrate the hard work, dedication, and success of our students and staff that include voice from within the school community as a way to build a positive, supportive culture.
As a way to celebrate our staff, the following letter was created to invite parents to help SHHS Administrative Team celebrate our staff during Teacher Appreciation Week! From this I learned that it is important to reach out to community stakeholders and businesses early to make this a joint effort. Create authentic relationships with all community members; working together speaks volumes. I was very fortunate to be a part of an administration team that planned ahead of time to make this week enjoyable for the staff (see the below).
D. Efficacy and Empowerment: The school executive develops a sense of efficacy and empowerment among staff which influences the school’s identity, culture and performance.
I sent this email to let the team know I supported and believed in their talents and efforts as a way to build a sense of efficacy and empowerment with the students and staff.
After the completion of a PD in efforts for staff to be empowered, an email was sent to express thanks and to request feedback to drive our continuous improvement efforts. The results from the survey were used to develop the next PD. As a result of this experience I know how to communicate a district initiative through the facilitation of PD, provide opportunities for staff feedback, and use the survey results to guide the next PD.
Teachers were issued a group challenge to join groups and create a plan as to how they would work as a team to increase student achievement. Each group created a team name and submitted a similar or more creative logic model. The submitted documents were reviewed, feedback was provided, and the teams meet and report back to the administration team on the progress. I will promote choice, student and staff voice as an instructional leader to build a sense of efficacy and empowerment. See the below template and submitted examples.
Early Release Day Survey
I know how to create and implement the findings of a survey to promote staff voice, a positive culture, and build efficacy.