Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

The Principals Role as Leader of Service

Critical Element Paper #2
Presented to the Department of Educational Leadership and Postsecondary
Education
-University of Northern Iowa
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirement for the
All-Iowa Principalship Program
-Sara Davisson
Camanche Community School District
Calamus, Iowa
June, 2014
-Instructor: Dr. Nick Pace

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

Hindsight is 20/20 Final reflection:

Nothing like Fourth of July fireworks to bring out the, the legions of
deprived and unsophisticated people or in simpler words the true general public
that educational leaders serve and facilitate during the school year. Like most
people I took this time to reflect on the learning experiences that I had during the
seminars. While sitting in the classes I knew that I was learning pieces of
information, but going back and looking at journal entries I see that it was a very
valuable experience. Multiple facets to the job were addressed and I dont think
they have a textbook for how to do everything perfect otherwise we would have a
common core for principals Working on the an area of gray on how to have a
positive impact on community and families, as well as improved how we as leaders
can improve community and culture in a building was the most important to me.
Learning about things that involve climate and culture come with no hard, set, and
fast rules that work 100% of the time and are formed by the actions of the building
leaders. Having a variety of options, and points of view encourages me to step out
and ask others what has worked for them, and to try things that might work in my
school community. In all, thank you so much for the chances we got during the
seminar and thank you for looking outside of the ISSLs as well to give us a well
rounded education.
Sara Davisson
Nine Days of Learning
Reflection 1 6/17/14 Day 1
Better late than never getting to class an hour late due to a horrible
thunderstorm at home, I am here. Take aways from the first day included
evaluating court cases by being objective in decisions, remind yourself of what
grounds does the school have to follow through with an action. Understand the

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

substance of the law. Many decisions that are made in school would not hold up
in a court of law. Are students exercising 1st Amendment rights, or are they
violating rights of other groups of students. I need to ask myself what will hold up
in a court of law.
From the cover letters, I need to use action words, organize an entry plan to
the job I plan on interviewing for. Make sure it is free of typos and grammar
errors. I enjoyed getting the details, and having a brief overview of what a
principals resume should look like, and what should be in the cover letter. The
conclusion should be action. Be proactive in the actions you are planning on doing
once you are in the position of a leader in a school building.
In hindsight, I feel that I should reflect over the decision of coming to the
first day of classes. When I have a hole in my house due to a misplaced tree
branch, husband out of town to hold down the fort, and rain predicted for the rest
of the three days The show must go on. I know that I cannot get this day back; I
need to take this time to get to see my cohort members. I feel that coming was the
right decision for my family. Note to myself for later, we have a great team of guys
that work in connection with my husband business, and everyone jumped in to
make sure everything at the house was great for me. There is huge community
support, and I need to remember in the time of need others were there for me, I
now have the unwritten rule to be there for them when they are in need.

Reflection 2
Dealing with Angry People: Get to know the local law enforcement. Have codes
within the office. During a confrontational person conversation be in charge of
your emotion. Use the acknowledging gestures of nodding head while listening.
Use proactive wording avoid you statements that place blame. Make sure that you
are listening to what they have to say. If you do not get a change in the angry
manners in the first 10 minutes it is about safe to say is that you need to
reschedule the meeting when emotions are not as high. The first priority of the
situation is your safety, if you have a gut feeling you need to follow that gut feeling
if something feels wrong, it may
Present difficult information with a sense of humor to keep an audience engaged
with the topic I wish I had gotten to see the videos! Bummer.
The Element, by Ken Robinson read it. Entertaining at times and I will never get
the image of Greg and a wearing only a large tie out of my mind for a long time.
For the speaker: Do not try to act outside of who you are. Work to interact with
other peoples body language in a positive manner, and to make them feel like you
are communicating with them. Stand up straight, dont tilt your head sideways,
and also work on you fitness. People that are healthy can work and function at

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

their best. If you are not at your best physically then you will not be at you best
mentally.
Reflection 3.. Crickets. no class that day. DITO for the other class Partner
work with Beth on that darn legal stuff
Reflection 4
Implementing Inclusive Practices: Great Video, I hate videos. Send me the link
and I can watch it on my own.. (but I am not judging, . Yup I am judging.)
Panel Discussion about Inclusion: Questions are good. I would have like to have
had general topics that the speakers could elaborate on. Keynote speaker had very
good points that it is more important for students to be part of the larger student
body, and be part of the group of his peers regardless of their academic
achievement in the classroom and on state testing. I would like to know more
about the KU methods used in the school outside of Chicago. Panel discussed how
to get rid of Betty that is resistant to change within the building who still believes
in pull out instruction. Not sure if I agree with this depending on the needs of the
student at the time. Is he able to apply the newly learned skills in the pull out
environment, if so I would agree that pull out services is benefiting the student in
the inclusion classroom, and teaching the new skills in a small one-on-one or small
group is beneficial if they are able to apply the skills, and curriculum is modified to
apply the skills in the general educational setting.
While with older student group of friends is getting small in a pull out setting it is
the job of the special education teacher to not allow the pull out instruction affect
the student social interaction with their peer at the higher grade levels in high
school. With a small school setting this may become hard and it is suggested that
the student participate in extra-curricular activities that the student can socialize
with positive role models, and have a connection to the school outside of the
classroom and educational setting.
Afternoon Speaker Jamie Burke: Autism student with non-verbal use of language
and movement in a classroom that was full inclusions. Autistic student may need to
have help with physical movements since there nervous system may not allow them
to do what they want to do. Student use of Light writer had a consistent tone,
speed, and method of repeating words when he would type of words then speak
the work. He use a keyboard to type out what he wanted to say then would repeat
it. The physical movement of typing out of the word allowed his mind to physically
verbalize the words he wanted to respond. His mother has put in a large amount of
work with him to develop a communication style of recognizing his repetition of
text. Echoing words give Jamie time to process the words that his mind is thinking.
He is able to spell with a high level of accuracy, and it adds to his confusion when
there is a use of word prediction.

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

Reflection 5 DITO (Day In The Office)

Wow, learned a lot about myself, about how others would react and how
strategic Dr. Pace can be in setting up the Day in the office. I have learned from my
other cohort member what I could have done differently, and like in real life there
is never a do over for how we deal with parents or in specific situations. I like to
have the reality check of having to have a cold case to practice what I would do
Did I like the results, no but hindsight is 20/20
On that note, I want to elaborate. While I could have dominated the
conversation with it is against school policy, I bit my tongue. No, not for the fact
that all of the t-shirts were against most if not all school policies, but I wanted to
say to my actor, You may wear that shirt to promote a cause, but you need to
realize that you are one of the lucky ones. You should not joke about checking
yourself or having a doctor checking you some parents lose their children to
aggressive forms of cancer it can be anyones child, at any time
However, it was neither the time nor the place to start this type of
conversation. Even reflecting now, I doubt myself as to even put this in the
reflection, but living the horror of finding the cancer in a healthy teenager and
having them lose their fight with cancer in less than 6 months is not something
that needed to be brought up. For me in hindsight I would re-write that situation
and change some of the details. The damage, emotional toll, and financial struggle
parents, family members, and the siblings go through with a terminal child with
cancer is something we should never take lightly nor light heartedly support
because we had a close brush with the situation. This is just my opinion from my
personal experiences in the past couple of years. Reflecting for me on this brought
up tears not only for the teenage student who died, but from me her teacher and
track coach (she had her leg amputated and died three months later), her mother
who I work with everyday during the school year, and her younger brothers who
sat in my room every morning when it was hard to go and face his friends after a
bad evening at the time of her cancer. Just saying from an inside track of when
things, go bad with Iowa City. It is not a joking matter that should be
addressed with a Nike t-shirt. What one of us thinks is supporting a cause like the
I love boobies bracelets is a reminder to someone else of their loss of their loved
one.
Reflection 6: African girls to women minority groups.
Critical Race Theory: Need to study more on that topic. As a member of the
majority race I need to become more sensitive to others that do not have the same
social experiences that I have. When she started her principalship dealing with a
group of those girls she created a girls day, Activity used with gifted kids, was
deem not do-able for these girls of race. After the ice breaking activity, they were
to write what a African-American black girl. These were all black girls say this

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

about themselves. They need to start looking at these statements as describing

themselves, and learn self-efficacy about themselves.
Research says: Dubios 2005 The color line it has no changed that much over
the last 10 years. Era of wealth and income, white households have 10xs the
assets. Judicial: black men 15xs more likely to be in jail than white. Education:
NCES 12% of are placed in special education. Segregation; continues today. Inner
city school white is minority. Press gives an over sexed image of black females, or
a black female snapping out and yelling
How do they experience school: Most teachers are white females and are
determined by the minority students that have as not relatable to them. These
feeling are the foundation of mistrust to all white people in authority? Most lack of
preparedness to deal with minority groups in the classrooms. Classroom that once
were no longer exist. Unspoken norms were a measure of how successful these
girls are in the classroom. Black girls are expelled at a higher rate than their
counter part. Subjective behavior is reason for office referrals.
Critical Race Theory: Race is typical, and oppression does exist.
Counter stories: Telling the stories that are not often told. Single parent homes,
not knowing her dad, hate comments from teachers for being part of support
group, bi-racial and not wanting to be part of black community and joined group to
learn about being black, father was shot and killed when she was young, stepdad is a long term boyfriend, result of an affair with a married man, not having
relationship with her father, sisters, or brothers. Losing her grandmother who had
a huge role in her life was a hug difficulty she had trouble with. One did not
graduate, felt that she was the dumb black kids, and in special education and have
physical restraint in school.
Girls have a difficulty with belonging, feeling connected to the teachers. The
teachers needed to be black were the initial thought. Teachers that went the extra
mile to get to know them, and took notice of them and holding those to high
expectations. Girls wanted to have a change to belong and fit in. Administration:
they always had something to say! I feel like the relationship is fake with me.
Race-contested Space: Is the feeling of having to defend their stance based on
race issue, talking black. Only one girl was raised by her father and knew her
father. Other-mothers were a female role that was important in place of their
mothers and is not a threat to other mothers. Implications: advice given, dont
judge a book by its cover, try to get to know us, if you wouldnt give up your kid
dont give up on someone elses kid, and just chill. Invite their students to
embrace their cultures and embrace their culture. Girls felt they were never given
a chance by the administration. Girls were not given a chance once they walked
into the classroom.

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

Make sure they know the expectations: You are expected to be successful.
Continue to teach and communicate what your expectations are for behavior you
expect from the teacher.
its a problem if you dont see color because you dont see differences between
each one of your students
Dr. Pace: Ive lost the game when it becomes about me.
3 forms of Isolation (Pete the gay student who went to prom with his boyfriend)
Social
Emotional
Cognitive
Suicide is the leading cause of death among GLTB
Take Aways:
In reflecting over these lessons is take what you have and work with it to the best
of your ability to improve the lives of others. Very emotional topic to learn about
when you can see the similar cases walking the halls of ones own building; as the
months of summer swing by are those students also feeling the isolation away from
school?
Seminar: Day 8
Administrator and wife panel with questions and how you deal with the life that
being a principal brings with it. Wife is teacher in your building. You need to vent
to spouse or close relationship that will keep the information private. The intimate
details are kept out. Your circle becomes smaller. They will be the one that is asked
more questions than you will. You also need to have the conversation about what
you should and should not put out there.
I plan to have a conversation with the husband about what should not be shared
with others. We already work with this with his mother as County Supervisor
position. Just another topic area we need to make sure we know what, who, and
how to handle things.
QTIP quit taking it Personally.
Stress and Family: Being an administrator is an Extreme Job
Cross over job stress effects family, kids, and spouse
The anguish of Leadership, and the Dark side of Education Leadership should read
this.

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

The dissertation was done with male education administrators and their wives.
Learn to focus on your internal and external locus of control. I am the only person
that controls my own growth. I can coach, educate, but it is up to you to grow.
Day 9
Wellness day way to make and my great first impression I gave others was to
start off the class with a Monster energy drink bad Sara, bad Sara.
Stress management: Type A personality yup time urgency ummmm I might
be late with assignments, but I am doing a million and ten things and assignments
I do have to say that I have a huge support system. Nothing is too big that I cant
handle with the team of people that are in my life. Managing the weight of the
stress is something that is a choice. You can choose actions that will help me
strength the great support system.
Relax our mind and body. It will help your body heal itself. Apply cognitive skills by
time management, get a system to prioritize task urgent with a high payoff is at
the top, urgent low pay off next, and so on.
Change the environment (job sharing with another co-worker).
Breathing Diaphragmatic: Loosen tight clothing, find a relaxed supported position,
dont have food in your mouth, find a calm environment that is uninterrupted, dont
fax relation happen allow it to happen. Must practice for the next couple of
weeks, but I am finishing this reflection after the fourth with an epic fail for
practicing. I do use meditation when I feel the stress of everything catching up
with me. It does help and YouTube has a wonderful library of 25 min videos so I
can eat school lunch and decompress during lunch time.
Conclusion
I was very slow to write the conclusion about my reflections. While many of these
reflections are not in a formal writing style I feel they give a true picture of how I
saw many pieces of the larger picture during seminar. While not all of them are in
depth or detail, the words to me I have jotted down on the previous pages allow me
to think back to the day, and the interactions that remain with me towards the end
of my principal program. Have I changed my point of view on things, I am not
sure? If I was to participate in the seminar again I am not sure if I would have
written more down, or if I would have focused more in the moment in time. With
this being said I am able to take the poverty training with me, the focus on dealing
with angry people, the action plans you need to have when starting a new position,
and the spilt decisions you make during Day in the Office. Learning is learning and
I plan to make the most of what I have learned, and what I need to keep working

Seminar Reflection Summer 2014

on. Allowing myself to make mistakes is allowing myself to learn, by doing this I
will be able to provide the best service to those I encounter.