A: Professional Development/ Learning Communities - Principals ensure that the school is a professional learning community that provides opportunities for collaboration, fosters teacher learning and develops teacher leaders in a manner that is consistent with local structures, contracts, policies and strategic plans.
Professional development and skillfully devised professional learning communities enhance a culture of continuous improvement within the school. Careful planning, on the part of the principal can ensure that the school is organized as a professional learning community. The science department, at AAHS, like all other departments, shares a common planning time to …show more content…
A primary consideration in the recruiting and hiring of staff is Equal Opportunity employment. In addition the state and district provide a procedure for the mentoring, placement, and dismissal of staff. To avoid legal penalty, the principal and those on the hiring team need to be briefed on and adhere to these policies and laws. In addition to keeping policy and law at the forefront of the interview and recruitment process, the principal must consider the school and districts strategic goals, as well as student outcomes in the all process related to recruitment, hiring, placing, mentoring, and dismissal of staff. After placement and hiring of staff, systems that ensure the growth of knowledgeable and high-quality and performing staff should be executed. At AAHS, I have had the opportunity to work with several of out new teachers, providing support and ensuring success. One of the ways in which I executed this task was to have weekly standing meetings with the new Earth science teacher. I was able to provide him with resources and knowledge about school procedures and policies. Supporting new teachers will not only aid in their development as professionals, but also aid the school in the retention of high-quality …show more content…
When developing our co-teaching framework at AAHS, we considered the background of each special educator before placing them with the general education teacher. For example, it would be unrealistic to place a teacher with a strong English background in a math classroom and vise versa. This example applies to placement of the entire staff and ensuring that teachers are highly qualified in the areas they teach. Process and systems must also be in place for low performing teachers to support them in improvement of performance. While teaching in Clovis, New Mexico, I was able to mentor a teacher who was new and had a hard time connecting with students and managing the classroom. Creating teacher- teacher partnerships removes some of the punitive measures that may go along with coaching and can lead to low performing teachers improvement. If teachers do not improve, the principal will have to make the tough call to dismiss or non-renew a teacher. When going through this procedure, careful adherence to state and district policies ensures proper systems and procedures.
C: Teacher and Staff Evaluation - Principals evaluate staff performance using the district’s educator evaluation system in order to ensure that teachers and staff are evaluated