Three Year Professional Development Plan EDLD 5399

Year One

Goal	TExES Competency and Domain	Objective (What do you want to improve?)	Course Work/Book/ Workshop (How do you want to improve?)	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?)	Date of Completion	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?)
Improve knowledge and understanding of the  interactions of the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent	Domain I, Competency 4	I want to improve my knowledge of the workings of the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent.	Attend the district board workshops that are conducted prior to the School Board Meeting. Continue membership in TASA and attend TASA conference. Read District Administrator and TXISD.	Associate Superintendent, Spring ISD, Dr. Dalane Bouillion	May 2012 Board workshops Ongoing	The Board of Trustees will know me by name and solicit my comments during the Board workshops.
Develop transformational thinking in relationship to teaching, learning and engagement.	Domain II, Competency 6	I want to continue to improve my understanding of the quality of instruction and student learning and engagement	Attend Schlechty training – Working on the Work.	Associate Superintendent, Spring ISD, Dr. Dalane Bouillion Executive Directors, Teresa Dossman Bob Thompson	November 2011	Working on the Work will be implemented into the curriculum work.

Year Two

Goal	TExES Competency and Domain	Objective (What do you want to improve?)	Course Work/Book/ Workshop (How do you want to improve?)	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?)	Date of Completion	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?)
Develop relationships with district leaders and improve my understanding of district vision, mission and goal setting.	Domain I, Competency 2	I want to learn skills for developing a district leadership team.	Participate in the Spring ISD Key Leaders group.	Dr. Draper	Spring 2013	I will implement strategies learned into my areas of responsibility.
Develop deep understanding of curriculum audit processes	Domain II, Competency 5	I want to become expert in the area of curriculum audit processes	Attend Curriculum Management Audit training and implement those processes in the curriculum work.	Executive Director, Teresa Dossman	Spring 2012	Areas of curriculum will be updated based on the curriculum management audit process

Year Three

Goal	TExES Competency and Domain	Objective (What do you want to improve?)	Course Work/Book/ Workshop (How do you want to improve?)	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?)	Date of Completion	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?)
Develop relationships with district superintendents, leaders and superintendent search professionals.	Domain I, Competency 1	I want to become familiar with state level Superintendent search professionals and other district superintendents so that I can begin my search for a  superintendent’s job.	Attend TASA	Spring ISD Superintendent, Dr. Draper; Asso. Superintendent, Dr. Bouillion Dr. Juneria Berges	Fall 2013	I will be applying for Superintendent jobs.
Develop relationships with district stakeholders.	Domain I, Competency 3	I want to interact  with the business community leaders.	Become a member of the Spring Rotary. Participate in the Spring Educational Foundation.	Spring ISD Superintendent, Dr. Draper	Spring 2013	I will be a member of the Spring Rotary and the Spring Educational Foundation.

Week Four – Part D of the Final Report: Reflections on Reflective Leadership

·         Describe why reflection is an important skill in leadership.

Reflection is identified as an emergent skill, important to gaining and acquiring knowledge in EDLD 5399 Week 4 lecture.  Dr. Arterbury states that reflection is valuable because it has the potential to lead to an in depth understanding of information, causes you to retrace conversations and actions, and helps one avoid the natural tendency to make the same mistakes over and over. During my superintendent internship, reflection has become a valuable tool for me.  Not only have I been able to reflect on the actions and activities from the superintendent internship process, I have been able to reflect on the actions of a former superintendent and a new superintendent in the same district.  Because I changed jobs and school districts, I have been able to reflect on and compare the roles and responsibilities of two different districts central offices.  Lastly, I have been able to reflect on my actions when joining a central office team in the past with my actions around joining a central office team this year.  I have learned so much in this process – both from things I would like to replicate and things I never want to do or repeat.  Without reflection a leader’s actions are less purposeful and effective.  “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”  Peter Drucker

·         Course assignment activities – Course assignment activities were the key to building collaboration in the superintendent internship.  During the Finance course there were several problems that developed around communication and the assignments.  Those problems created the environment that brought the cohort together.  I realized that without that problem our cohort would have continued to work, for the most part, in isolation.  Through observation and reflection I have come to realize that this is how most networking between superintendents takes place – over commonly shared problems.  Without the course assignment activities, I am not sure that this would have been so obvious.

·         Blogs – Blogs are an interesting tool in the reflection process.  Posting my thoughts and reflections for others to view and read has done two important things for me.  First, it has made me accountable for reflecting.  The recording of the reflection provides meaning and the written reflection becomes a mental model of the process.  It helps me repeat the things that I would like to do again and avoid those that I do not want to do again.  Secondly, it allows my peers to comment on my reflections.   This has been a validating experience.  The positive comments have been encouraging and the coaching comments have been appreciated.  I also found it beneficial to be able to read and post to my peers’ blogs.  I learned so much reading their insights and other’s postings.  I think that all leaders can learn from the “blog” experience. I am hoping that I can find a way to incorporate it as a superintendent. 

·         Course and campus supervised logs – The reflection piece embedded in the course logs contributed to my ability to analyze my superintendent internship experiences. Because it was reflection I could elaborate on my feelings and observations. 

·         Assessments - One of the tools used during the superintendent internship program that incorporated reflection was the use of pre and post-assessments.  Several times during the internship, pre- and post-assessments were used to help me focus on strengths and areas to strengthen throughout the course.  I could pay more attention to the areas that had been identified as areas of need.  It has helped me also as I have been preparing for the superintendent’s TExES.  I am spending time studying the areas that I know are weaknesses.

·         Other intern reflection experiences – Another experience from the internship that has encouraged reflection is the interview calls with Dr. Creel.  Those calls have been helpful in identifying goals and processes in the planning for professional growth and interactions.

Describe how you plan to use reflective practice to improve your leadership skills – provide some specific suggestions for applying the skills of reflection.

I have always used reflection.  As a teacher, I would reflect daily about the lessons, students and peer interactions in order to help students learn.  Sometimes the reflection took place from class to class in order to refine the lesson.  As a central office director, I currently use reflective practice to improve my interactions as a member and leader of teams.  I find that reflection helps me analyze the strengths and weaknesses of tasks so that I can improve.  One of processes I use to help with reflection is solicit feedback from other team members.  When leading a team, I always have the members provide a written response about the team work so that I can read their comments.  As the team member, I ask my team leader or my team members to provide feedback.  I tell them what I am working on and ask them how I am doing.  For example, I might say to a team member, “I am working on letting others contribute in the team meeting and not always having to contribute.  Would you let me know at the end of the meeting how I did with that today?”  When people you work with and work for see that you are honestly open to their suggestions and help, transparency within the organizational group improves.  Their input provides even greater opportunity to reflect.  This is a process I want to take into further leadership roles that I may have – including the superintendency.  Lastly, I feel that journaling is an excellent way to continue the written reflection process.

Recommendations & Lessons EDLD 5399 Week 3

Developing a system-wide plan, whether at the campus or district level, that responds to a need in the system involves many factors.  Through the internship process I have learned that even though an individual may identify a problem and develop a plan of action for the resolution of that problem, there is no guarantee that the problem will improve.  Time, money, and communication each play an important role in solution process.

As a superintendent intern operating at the central office level, many problems the district was facing were obvious to me.  Working each day with the central office team and with the campus teams gave me insight into the needs at both levels.  Participating in the monthly board of trustee meetings gave me insight into the workings of that team.  Working with teachers through academic coaching and vertical curriculum councils helped me understand the problems faced in the classroom.  Evaluating student data gave me insight into the needs of students in the district. However, identifying a problem and getting others to also recognize the problem was more difficult than I first anticipated.  Just as change creates conflict, I found that identifying a problem with a group created conflict every time.

After the problem was identified, seeking consensus on the problem and solution through communication with all stakeholders was essential.  This meant meeting with the leaders, teachers, parents, students and board of trustees to inform, develop a common understanding of the problem, and identify the solutions.  In the instance of the response to the concerns of TEA regarding the high school’s over representation of African American students in DAEP,  certain solutions were mandatory so consensus was not needed.  Communication and consensus building is a time consuming process.  Smaller districts where a few people have many jobs, the time needed to adequately develop communication and garner input from all stakeholders is sometimes bypassed due to lack of resources of time and personnel.

The 2010-2011 school year presented another unique set of obstacles in the process of working on problems.  Plans that were made in 2010 with regard to funding and budgeting were suddenly changed in the spring of 2011.  The reality of working with changing budgets and finances was a lesson learned that will last through the rest of my career.

Job Plan

In the last 9 months I have had the opportunity to watch an experienced superintendent join a school district as the new superintendent.  I have also had the opportunity to change jobs myself, moving from central office in a 4A district to central office in a large 5A district.  Here are some of my thoughts about becoming a new superintendent.

Day 1
Goal(s)	Establish the communication expectations with the key leadership partners.
Objective(s)	My objective for the first day would be to meet with the President of the Board of Trustees and with the central office team that would comprise the Superintendent’s Cabinet in order to begin to establish the communication expectations essential to the operation of the district.
Activities addressing goals and objectives	·         Meet first with the President of the Board of Trustees.  Discuss communication expectations – superintendent to board and board to superintendent.  Share phone numbers and email information.  Craft and send an email message to the other school board members. ·         Meet with the central office team that will comprise the Superintendent’s Cabinet.  My cabinet would be comprised of:  Executive Director of Finance, Executive Director of Human Resources, Executive Director of Public Information, Deputy/Associate Superintendent(s) – Operations & Curriculum, and Superintendent’s Secretary.  Goals of the meeting would include: -        Establish the weekly schedule for Cabinet meetings. -        Share phone numbers and email addresses. -        Establish the expectations of communication of information (positive or negative) with the superintendent. -        Let leaders share the current focus of their department. -        Begin to establish the vision – Central office exists to support the schools.  The bus does NOT stop at central office.
Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives	Smile, strong handshake, good listening skills, charismatic posture, and a conference room.
Week 1
Goal(s)	Establish the communication expectations with the board, school and departmental leadership partners.
Objective(s)	My objective for the first week would be to meet with the campus principals individually, meet with the school board members individually, and meet with the central office departmental directors as a team.
Activities addressing goals and objectives	-        Meet individually with each campus principal by going to their campus.  Establish communication expectations. Share phone numbers and emails (call anytime).  I want to be the first one to hear anything good happening on your campus and anything negative.  I do not want to be surprised. Establish the procedure for meeting with the superintendent (semi-open door - go through the secretary).  Allow principals to share their needs.  Begin to communicate the belief that they are THE principal – if they need support, central office is there to support them, because they are accountable. -        Meet with Board of Trustees individually to establish communication expectations (phone numbers, emails, etc.) and give and receive information regarding current issues. -        Meet with the central office departmental directors to establish communication expectations (phone numbers and emails),call anytime,  establish the procedure for meeting with the superintendent (semi-open door - go through the secretary) and begin to establish the vision - Central office exists to support the schools.  The bus does NOT stop at central office. -        Lead the first weekly Superintendent’s Cabinet meeting.
Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives	A good secretary to schedule meetings, a strong handshake, good listening skills, a smile and note taking skills to remember names.
Month 1
Goal(s)	Establish the communication with the district stakeholders.
Objective(s)	My objective for the first month would be to continue to establish myself in the community as THE Superintendent by meeting with groups of stakeholders throughout the district.
Activities addressing goals and objectives	-        Meet with each campus faculty to begin to establish the vision of the district. -        Meet with the business/community leaders to begin to establish a district vision.  (President of the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, ministerial council, radio/tv interview managers , etc) -        Create a district Superintendent’s Advisory Council comprised of teachers, parents, students, and non-instructional staff to meet monthly. Schedule the first meeting of this team to begin to identify the district vision. -        Lead the first board of trustees meeting as the new superintendent. -        Schedule and lead the first monthly principal’s meeting. -        Schedule and lead the first monthly director’s meeting.
Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives	A good secretary to schedule meetings, a strong, consistent message to communicate, a strong handshake, good listening skills, a smile and note taking skills to remember names.
Year 1
Goal(s)	My goal for the first year is to establish clear lines of communication with all district stakeholders.
Objective(s)	Develop a district vision based on the input of all stakeholders. Be widely visible in the community. Lead in budget, curriculum and accountability success.
Activities addressing goals and objectives	Weekly and monthly meetings with leadership teams. Attend all varsity district functions and community events.
Resources needed to achieve goals and objectives	A good secretary to schedule meetings, a strong handshake, good listening skills, a smile, patience  and note taking skills to remember names.