For EDA 6503 The Principalship, the final course of the Educational Leadership program, I worked closely with Patricia Carson, principal at Mandarin Oaks Elementary School in Jacksonville, FL, to complete my practicum experiences. Ms. Carson has been a school principal for 22 years and the principal of Mandarin Oaks for the last 14 years. According to Ms. Carson, the job of a principal has changed immensely in the last 10 years, and it is more important than ever to keep up with current research-based instructional delivery and teaching strategies. Ms. Carson allowed me to participate in a variety of activities that shed light on the various roles and duties of a principal. Based on the data from the EDG 6285 data project, the major focus
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Once the barriers for meeting the SIP goals were determined, a process of selecting high-impact reading strategies was underway. To address the low motivation for reading, a school-wide reading initiative was designed to motivate students and reward students for meeting quarterly reading goals. Students for each grade level were assigned an individual reading goal to meet by the end of the year but divided into 4 quarterly segments. Since our school theme for this year is ‘Riding the Wave of Success,’ our reading initiative was named the Big Kahuna. The first reward for meeting the quarterly reading goal is a reading hat, which is a navy blue monogrammed baseball hat. One of the additional perks to the hats is that students can wear the hats to school on Fridays. Each additional quarter when the reading goal is met, students will receive a pin to put on their hat. Ways to improve small-group instruction and low reading stamina can be found in The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo. This book was purchased for each teacher in kindergarten through fifth grade and will be used during our professional learning communities (PLCs) for professional development and for …show more content…
Carson with various administrative duties. This was an enlightening experience and provided the opportunity to see how a principal must multi-task and is actively involved in several activities. My first duty was to create small groups and testing schedules for our 504 students, English Language Learners (ELLs), and Exceptional Students of Education (ESE). To identify the students in these categories, I utilized Duval County’s FOCUS student information systems, which is directly linked with Florida’s state reporting system. Students from each of the above categories were downloaded from FOCUS. After contacting the ESE teachers and guidance counselor who is in charge of 504 Plan and ELL students, I obtained and evaluated the student education plans to check for needed accommodations for testing. Based upon the accommodations, testing groups were created for each grade level. Since there are 31 ESE students in 5th grade, several groups had to be created; some groups were only one-on-one due to the accommodations in the individual education plan (IEP). When having to test two or more grade levels at a time, this caused a problem because there weren’t enough test administrators to cover all of the groups. Therefore, we had to test some groups in the afternoon instead of the morning while the majority of the school was testing. The small groups created for the baseline assessments will also be the
Once the barriers for meeting the SIP goals were determined, a process of selecting high-impact reading strategies was underway. To address the low motivation for reading, a school-wide reading initiative was designed to motivate students and reward students for meeting quarterly reading goals. Students for each grade level were assigned an individual reading goal to meet by the end of the year but divided into 4 quarterly segments. Since our school theme for this year is ‘Riding the Wave of Success,’ our reading initiative was named the Big Kahuna. The first reward for meeting the quarterly reading goal is a reading hat, which is a navy blue monogrammed baseball hat. One of the additional perks to the hats is that students can wear the hats to school on Fridays. Each additional quarter when the reading goal is met, students will receive a pin to put on their hat. Ways to improve small-group instruction and low reading stamina can be found in The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo. This book was purchased for each teacher in kindergarten through fifth grade and will be used during our professional learning communities (PLCs) for professional development and for …show more content…
Carson with various administrative duties. This was an enlightening experience and provided the opportunity to see how a principal must multi-task and is actively involved in several activities. My first duty was to create small groups and testing schedules for our 504 students, English Language Learners (ELLs), and Exceptional Students of Education (ESE). To identify the students in these categories, I utilized Duval County’s FOCUS student information systems, which is directly linked with Florida’s state reporting system. Students from each of the above categories were downloaded from FOCUS. After contacting the ESE teachers and guidance counselor who is in charge of 504 Plan and ELL students, I obtained and evaluated the student education plans to check for needed accommodations for testing. Based upon the accommodations, testing groups were created for each grade level. Since there are 31 ESE students in 5th grade, several groups had to be created; some groups were only one-on-one due to the accommodations in the individual education plan (IEP). When having to test two or more grade levels at a time, this caused a problem because there weren’t enough test administrators to cover all of the groups. Therefore, we had to test some groups in the afternoon instead of the morning while the majority of the school was testing. The small groups created for the baseline assessments will also be the