Standard 4: Human Resource Leadership
Principals will ensure that the school is a professional learning community. Principals will ensure that process and systems are in place which results in recruitment, induction, support, evaluation, development and retention of high performing staff. The principal must engage and empower accomplished teachers in a distributive manner, including support of teachers in day-to-day decisions such as discipline, communication with parents/guardians, and protecting teachers from duties that interfere with teaching, and must practice fair and consistent evaluations of teachers. The principal must engage teachers and other professional staff in conversations to plan their career paths and support district succession planning.
Element 4a. Professional Development/Learning Communities:
The principal ensures that the school is a professional learning community.
The principal ensures that the school is a professional learning community.
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One of my responsibilities during my Principal Residency was to attend and participate in grade level PLCs. This gave me an opportunity to hear about the various successes and challenges teachers were facing. We used PLC time to discuss student outcomes and instruction. I learned the value of building capacity in each grade level PLC team so that they could take more ownership of the meetings.
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Element 4b. Recruiting, Hiring, Placing and Mentoring of Staff:
The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure a high-quality, high-performing staff.
The school executive establishes processes and systems in order to ensure a high-quality, high-performing staff.
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After working with one of our beginning teachers over the first few weeks of school, I sent the teacher the "Starfish Story" to remind them that they are making a difference. During my residency, I frequently mentored and coached new teachers. I learned how important it was to provide them support, resources and sometimes just a listening ear.
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Element 4c. Teacher and Staff Evaluation:
The principal evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and thus, student achievement.
The principal evaluates teachers and other staff in a fair and equitable manner with the focus on improving performance and thus, student achievement.
From the beginning of the school year, I provided teachers with weekly feedback through a variety of methods. I learned how to use the walk through tool to provide feedback on some of our instructional requirements and student engagement. It is important to let teachers know how they are progressing throughout the year. Equally important, is taking the time to recognize teachers for their work in their classrooms
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Throughout the year, I completed numerous teacher evaluations using the NCEES instrument. This included pre and post conferences as well as documenting teacher progress with each standard. Feedback was always couched within a coaching framework to improve student learning outcomes. I learned how to have crucial conversations with teachers about what I observed.
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