Reflections for the Week

Please reflect on the activities you logged in your Practicum this week and complete this form. Send this
form and your log by e-mail to your Site Supervisor at the end of each week. Also, submit the completed
form and log of hours to your instructor via the Moodle portal at the end of each month.
Student Name: Bryan Ladd
Date: November 30, 2016
Standard One: As a participant in the Concordia Educational Administration preparation program I
logged hours under standard one when I worked with teachers to implement curriculum and assessments
that aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, collaborated with teachers on effective
instructional practices that closed achievement gaps and improved student performance, and assured that
the campus instructional approaches maximized growth of students and student groups to promote equity
and the closing of achievement gaps.
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My role on campus is Math Instructional Coach. Everything that I do on campus

supports instructional leadership. This week I worked with teams during PLCs planning
out instruction and assessments. I also led an after school instructional technology
session for new iPads that were supplied to our classrooms in December.
This week for standard one I spent time in classrooms working with teachers on best
instructional practices that were a part of PLC conversations during the prior week. We
are implementing two new math programs on campus and I am a part of the team that
researched and brought these initiatives to campus. Part of my responsibility is to train
teachers and staff on implementation of both programs. Last week we spent time going
through some training modules for one of the programs. I also spent time with our
campus vertical math team and discussed the nuances of both of these programs and how
they vertically support learning at every level.
This week for standard one I worked with teachers and graders to implement a new math
initiative on campus. We are working on upping our campuses numeracy skills by doing
a daily 5 minute quiz that is done and then graded and returned/intervened by a team of
graders that include TAs, Admin, Instructional specialists, etc. This is being done each
morning and the exact same time and we are tracking progress from now until the last
day of school. I also spent time working with the 3rd/4th grade teams to outline plans
going forward to prepare students for our next round of benchmark testing. We looked at
data to develop intervention and camp plans for the upcoming assessments.
This week I spent time facilitating PLCs with grade level math teams. We looked at
upcoming units of instruction and studied SEs within those units. I also spent two days
at a conference with a couple of our bilingual teachers. The conferences focus was on
Sheltered Instruction. We discussed and developed a plan to bring the training back to
our faculty during a run of faculty meetings.
This week for standard 1 I spent time working with three of our teams to outline their
instructional math blocks for upcoming units of instruction. We did a TEKS study and

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determined what SEs have been taught already and the activities we did with these
TEKS. We used our district pacing guides to make some adjustments to the scope and
sequence to assure everything had been taught before our district benchmarks in a couple
weeks.
This week my mentor principal had me distributing some test prep resources to our 3 rd
and 4th grade teachers. I spent time quickly training each teacher on the resources and
showing them how to utilize the progress monitoring piece of the resource. I fielded
questions from the teachers and spent time on the phone with the company finding out
answers to questions I didnt know how to answer for the teachers. I then sent a FAQ list
to the teachers on the program after the conversation I had with customer support.
This week we had 2 PLCs in which we looked at our upcoming STAAR and did some
predictive data analysis to identify and discuss areas we continue to struggle with in 3 rd
and 4th grade math. We looked at data documents we will use for next weeks Mock
STAAR Data Day.
Thursday I spent the day working on data views for our Friday data meetings. The views
I worked on were item analysis and error analysis for our 3 rd/4th grade Mock STAAR
Assessments our students took last week. I identified our lowest 6 SEs in each grade
level and then took the assessments and pulled those questions and provided the teachers
with item analysis and error analysis on these items.
This week I logged 3 hours in standard one. All of the time was spent facilitating PLCs
for 1st, 3rd, and Pre-K. We discussed our scope and sequence and made some end of the
year adjustments to our Math scope as we are moving a few things around to
accommodate for the change that BISD made to their end of year schedule. These
changes were made after the release of the new house bill that changed the number of
days students had to be in school to the number of minutes.
Six hours of my week this week was spent focusing time and energy into ensuring our
instructional practices were staying consistent and determining whether rigor was where
it needed to be as we wind down the school year. We reviewed campus instructional
expectations in math and made sure that our guided math blocks were consistent and up
to par going forward.
This week I spent time working with new teachers in our PLC meetings. We set up BOY
testing for early literacy, and we worked on breaking down district curriculum
documents. Time was also spent utilizing EOY data from last year to plan interventions
for the beginning of the school year with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade teachers. I realized as an
administrator how important it is to have a clear and concise plan for BOY plans for
instructional staff. It is vital to have the time to develop and train teachers on campus
classroom expectations and instructional expectations.
This week I spent time working with new teachers in our PLC meetings. We set up BOY
testing for early literacy, and we worked on breaking down district curriculum
documents. Time was also spent utilizing EOY data from last year to plan interventions
for the beginning of the school year with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade teachers. I realized as an
administrator how important it is to have a clear and concise plan for BOY plans for
instructional staff. It is vital to have the time to develop and train teachers on campus
classroom expectations and instructional expectations.

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I continued to work with teachers to plan and organize instructional practices. We

discussed instructional shifts that needed to take place because of formative assessments
that were planned during last weeks data discussions. A few tough conversations
happened this week during our PLC meetings because we are trying to shift the
facilitating roles of PLC to the teams as opposed to the instructional coach (me). This is
being done because of the role our district expects us to have with the teachers and TTESS.
This week I worked with our teachers on a new writing model that we are piloting this
year. Our Heart of Texas (HOT) writing coach made a campus visit and we visited with
teachers to collaborate on ways in which the new writing model is being incorporated
into the writing block. We discussed best practices and looked at some resources that
could be used to enhance the writing going on across the campus. We also discussed how
to align our State Standards (TEKS) with the scope and sequence of the HOT Model.
I worked with tutors to train them on instructional resources we would use for our
targeted tutoring groups that are set to start next Tuesday.
I developed and administered a 2 hour PD on running records in which we outlined
campus expectations, determined resources, and trained on the actual use of RRs. Time
was also spent with our grade level teams this week analyzing upcoming units of study in
ELA/Math and determining instructional approaches for these units. We did TEKs
studies within the units and brainstormed activities and formative assessments to
administer during these lessons.
I spent the day on Friday working with a teacher who was hired after the school year
began to fill a position that was added. I coached her through Domain 1-2 of T-TESS, as
well as, district and campus initiatives.
I continued to work with teachers to plan and organize instructional practices. We
discussed instructional shifts that needed to take place because of formative assessments
that were planned during last weeks data discussions. We looked at TPRI/Tejas Lee data
and made intervention plans that were targeted based on the data. Our 3 rd/4th grade teams
looked at our first rounds of district ATs and found some areas of focus for
intervention/reteach. I also spent time this week working with our campus instructional
rounds team to analyze data and determine a problem of practice. We created a document
that outline the problem, a theory of action, essential questions, and descriptive evidence.
The next step is to do 3 rounds of learning walks to gather data and determine a
systematic professional development plan for our campus.
Attended a professional development on Marzanos 9 high yielding instructional
strategies. Worked with instructional staff to develop a plan on bringing the PD back to
campus as a campus provided professional development.

Standard Two: As a participant in the Concordia Educational Administration preparation program I

logged hours under standard 2 when I assisted in the interviewing, hiring, and placement of instructional

staff. Hours were also logged when I coached and developed teachers through periodic walkthroughs,
debriefing coaching sessions, and follow-up walkthroughs. These experience also allowed me to tailor
professional development and collaborative learning environments for faculty and staff.
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Part of my role as an instructional coach is to mentor and coach teachers on best practices
and assuring that teachers are leading their classrooms in alignment with our campus
goals and vision. This week I worked with two different 2nd grade teachers to mentor
them on some new initiatives we are starting in February. The time spent was with one
1st year teacher and another that was placed on a growth plan last year because of some
things our administrator noticed in the teachers instructional practices.
For standard two I spent time with teams in their team meetings to ensure campus goals
and visions were being articulated clearly by the team leads. We had a team lead meeting
last week and wanted to make sure that all of the information was presented to the
teachers correctly and that a part of the campus leadership team was present to answer
any clarifying questions/concerns. I also spent time this week mentoring a new 2 nd grade
math teacher. We focused on classroom management and guided math strategies to
increase instructional impact in her classroom.
Each week I spend time working with two 2nd grade teachers who are either on a growth
plan or are 1st year teachers on things like classroom management and content specific
goals we have made. This week I worked with both of them to clarify and develop a
procedure for our numeracy program that is starting for 2 nd grade next week.
The two attendees of the conference were strategically sent because of some professional
needs within their classrooms. My administrator sent me with them to ensure that the
conference was meeting their individual needs. I spent time learning at the conference
but also coaching them on some strategic, systematic things that needed to be turned
around quickly in their instruction.
On Monday I spent an hour and a half working with a 2nd grade teacher who is working
on goals of her growth plan. She watched me instruct the entire math block and took
notes on how I handled the instructional cycle as well as the guided math time. We will
conference next week to continue the coaching cycle as we work towards meeting all of
her growth goals.
I spent a good amount of time in standard two this week. We are starting a new initiative
this spring on our campus and installing a Genius Hour on campus for all of our students
to work on Passion Projects. I spent 2 hours during our weekly PLC time to train the
teams on implementing this in their classrooms. I created a Google slideshow for them to
have as they roll this out in their classrooms. I also spent time coaching a 2 nd grade
teacher as a part of an ongoing mentoring I have been doing with this teacher. Last week
I modeled a lesson for her and we spent about 30 minutes discussing this lesson and her
takeaways from the experience. We scheduled a time this week for me to come in and
observe her attempt at implementing some of the instructional strategies she witnessed
me using during my model lesson. I also spent time Wednesday meeting with our
vertical math committee to hash out plans for our upcoming STAAR Night at our
campus.
Per Mrs. Gardners request I developed and delivered a classroom management PD for a
struggling 2nd grade teacher. We looked at the strategy called CHAMPS

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(C=Conversations, H=help, A=activity, M=Movement, P=participation.) I am scheduled

to go in and observe her classroom and the setting up of this expectation after Spring
Break.
On Friday, I spent the morning working with 3rd grade math teachers helping them
analyze their Mock STAAR results. We looked at district, campus, and teacher views as
well as my item/error analysis, and we identified students who have already met the final
recommendation levels on two test for Index 4 of the State of Texas Accountability
System. The afternoon was spent with 4th grade math teachers doing the same activities.
This week I logged two hours for human capital, standard two. I spent two hours doing a
Math data day with our 2nd grade team. We discussed district, campus and teacher views.
We also talked about generating a consistent assessment expectation document that we
will use for our EOY assessment in May. Teacher utilized their data views to generate
documentation for Tier 2 interventions during their math blocks.
I had the honor of organizing a presentation setting for one of our 2 nd grade teachers for
her to present her graduate research project that shed done with students at our campus.
I sent out invites, set up the room, and facilitated the post presentation Q&A.
The Heart of Texas coach and I walked classrooms and observed writing instruction and
then debriefed with teachers on what we saw. We discussed things that were really going
well, asked for clarification on somethings we noticed happening and offered a few
suggestions that aligned with the HOT model of writing. I also spent 4 hours this week
training a new 2nd grade teacher on campus non-negotiables and district curriculum
resources. This position was added because of the ratio of students to teachers hit the
district threshold. Next week I will be shadowing the new teacher to assess any further
professional development needs.
Attended the AIE Conference with instructional staff and teacher leaders. Developed
plans to bring the learning back to campus to better the knowledge and skill set of all
stakeholders. Sessions were specifically chosen to correlate to our campus shared
visions and goals.
I had the opportunity to coach 3 teachers this week on some of their T-TESS goals. Time
was spent analyzing data and determining measureable goals that could be put in place
for the remainder of this school year. Time was also spent coaching teachers on
refinement areas identified during post conference interviews with their evaluator.
I spent the day on Friday working with a teacher who was hired after the school year
began to fill a position that was added. I coached her through Domain 1-2 of T-TESS, as
well as, district and campus initiatives.
I am a part of a Cohort through Region 13 in which we are working with their
instructional coaches to design PD for teachers that allows them to get a deeper
understanding of T-TESS. This week we focused on Dimension 3.3. During this training
we developed a collaborative Google Form in which teachers will be able to request
specific trainings through the language of the look for statements provided during TTESS appraisal trainings. This will also allow us as an instructional team to identify any
hotspots we may have on campus, assuming there are multiple teachers who are looking
for guidance in the same areas.
This week I worked with our campus instructional rounds team to identify a problem of
practice that was decided on based on T-TESS data, walkthroughs, teacher feedback, and

student performance data. The plan outlined a problem of practice, theory of action,
essential questions, and descriptive evidence. Going forward, our team will do 3 rounds
of learning walks to gather data. At that point, we will develop a professional
development plan to train our teachers on what they need to develop their practice and
make our campus problem of practice a strength from classroom to classroom.

Standard Three: As a participant in the Concordia Educational Administration preparation program I

logged hours under standard 3 when I worked on analyzing data and needs assessments to implement
change on campus, collaborating with faculty and staff to develop a shared vision and goals, and
modeling what it is to be a constant learner.
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2/5/16

Our administrator has me analyzing recent benchmark data to determine candidates for
tutoring. Our campus has about 56% LEP and almost 90% low SES. Based on these
numbers we are having a hard time scaffolding instruction on campus to make up the
gaps that they come to us with. Our administrator wants to know the students within
these sub-pops we can target for tutoring to make sure the gap continues to close and we
receive credits within the States new accountability system through index 3. Yesterday I
was lucky enough to participate in small sessions with the bilingual teachers on each
team to discuss some things we are doing on our campus that differ from the districts
bilingual model. These changes are being made as a result of the district leadership team
looking for a way to meet the needs of our districts LEP population. Our campus is the
only bilingual campus in the district that isnt IR, and our district is stage 4 for bilingual
ed. With TEA. Our bilingual teachers took the news well and are excited to lead and
pilot these new district initiatives. The conversations we had with the teachers was a
great example of what an Executive does on a campus. I realized the importance of
communicating and valuing the input of every stakeholder affected
Its that time of year in which we analyze data until we cant look at it any different
direction. This past week we spent time as an instructional leadership team looking at
our most recent benchmark data and making plans for remediation, enrichment, and
tutoring. We discussed programs and how they aligned with our campus goals and
ensured that the SEs that we are focusing on are also aligned with campus visions/goals.
Time was spent working on new RTI systems and tutoring schedules.
Our administrator has me analyzing recent benchmark data to determine candidates for
tutoring. Our campus has about 56% LEP and almost 90% low SES. Based on these
numbers we are having a hard time scaffolding instruction on campus to make up the
gaps that they come to us with. Our administrator wants to know the students within
these sub-pops we can target for tutoring to make sure the gap continues to close and we

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receive credits within the States new accountability system through index 3. We met as
an instructional leadership team to continue hashing out tutoring schedules and Tier 3
RTI intervention designs for the rest of the year.
I also logged some hours for executive leadership from the conference because it was
also an opportunity for me as a professional and model for the campus to extend my
knowledge of sheltered instruction. I took this chance to model professionalism and a
hunger to learn to the two candidates that attended the conference with me.
This week for standard 3 I worked with teachers to give them ideas of how they could get
their content specific TELPAS writings. I used the district provided timeline to assure
that the proper samples were being pulled on the correct dates.
Our campus principal had myself and our literacy coach meet with her to discuss our
campus needs for summer professional development and curriculum mapping plans for
our campus. We spent time talking about how we would assure that our teachers were
getting the trainings they needed based on our data from this school year. We also talked
about which of these trainings we would implement into next years in-service week.
I had a metacoaching session with our district consultant with Cognitive Coaching. We
watched a video of a coaching session I had with a teacher last week. I continued this
week to vet resources for next years math block. Went ahead and submitted PO for
resources. Assisted AP with campus STAAR training at last weeks faculty meeting.
Assisted AP prepping testing buckets for this upcoming weeks 3rd/4th grade reading and
math Mock STAAR Test.
I spent 4 hours Wednesday meeting with our Admin team to determine the data views and
documents we wanted to create for our district assessments we took this week. We talked
about how to celebrate successes and build reasonable expectations for ways we can
make gains from now until the actual STAAR assessments in May.
I logged 5 hours for executive leadership, standard three. 2 hours were spent running
data to be used for our data meeting discussed within standard 2. My mentor had me run
many different data views that aligned with our campus goals and vision for math. We
talked about how we would analyze our goals for 2nd grade and determine if we were
achieving good progress towards our EOY goal for math. One hour of my time was
spent assisting our AP with STAAR training for 4th grade, SPED, and small group
administrators for this weeks upcoming 4th grade STAAR Writing test. I assisted with
creating small groups and double checking STAAR Accommodations within the Test
Hound System. My AP also had me verify our STAAR EOC Roster and compare it to
our PIEMS report. This task took me roughly 1 hours
I spent half the day monitoring testing rooms and assuring that teachers were actively
monitoring their students while they were taking the test. I checked on the status of
testers and made sure that our classrooms were free of any testing irregularities.
Time was spent with the instructional leadership team Friday discussing goals and
purchases from different budgets. We identified goals within our CIP to justify needed
purchases for our campus. We spent money on planning tools, assessment prep,
professional development, and consulting. These were apart of executive leadership
because as an administrator you have to be in tune with the needs and goals of the
campus and align purchases to both.
During the Heart of Texas coaching opportunities happening on campus, I had the

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opportunity to sit down and discuss specific needs of our campus with the HOT
trainer/coach. This conversation allowed for me to share some needs assessment data
with her in order for her follow-up visits to be more targeted and data driven as opposed
to generic model lessons/ideas. I also continued my opportunity to work with Region 13
on Coaching Teachers Through T-TESS and Leading High Poverty Schools. During this
training we discussed implementing Cognitive Coaching during Pre/Post Conferences to
build capacity in our teachers. We also looked at Chapter 1 of Parrett and Budges
Turning High-Poverty Schools Into High-Performing Schools. Both of these
opportunities allowed me to model what it is to be a constant learner to faculty and staff.
I attended the AIE conference with our instructional leadership team and worked with
specific teachers on attending sessions that aligned to their T-TESS goals and also the
shared goals and visions of our campus. We developed plans on how to bring this back to
campus personal so their professional development would be tailored to the needs of the
campus.
During our weekly PLCs this week we worked to analyze Fall data and make
adjustments to both our intervention plans and tutoring plans. We used BOY data (TPRI,
Tejas Lee, District 9 week test, common assessments, and formative assessments) to
make the necessary adjustments. There was time spent determining needed materials and
district resources to make all of our adjustments possible. We worked with Kinder-4 th
grade. There was also time spent developing a plan for our upcoming rounds of district
benchmarks exams.
Today I was placed in charge of the campus for the afternoon while my admin team went
to meetings at the district office. A few valuable things I learned were that balancing the
demands of the entire campus can be really tricky. Tuesday is one of our PLC days so I
am in charge of facilitating these PLCs as the campus instructional coach. While I was
working with teams I constantly got calls for assistance throughout the building. I realize
that not all campuses have instructional coaches to lead team meetings/PLCs so as and
instructional leader it will be really tough to balance instructional leadership with the
other principal standards. I placed my reflection here because I feel like the ability to
remain calm and handle the situations yesterday spoke a little to my ability to show
executive leadership on the campus.
Ran data for 4th Grade writing Fall AT. Looked at an item analysis and student
expectation views. I also spent time correlating data to this test last year to cross
reference against identified target/goal areas. Time was also spent running both
campus/teacher/student views to drive our upcoming data meetings. Teachers will
disaggregate the test and analyze common misconceptions and needed reteach areas.

Standard Four: As a participant in the Concordia Educational Administration preparation program I

logged hours under standard 4 when I worked with faculty and staff on understanding and following our
campus expectations, monitoring these expectations for faculty and staff, creating a safe environment for
faculty and staff through monthly drills, and working with our families to ensure they are a part of the
learning environment of my campus.
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Due to my position and the close working relationship with our administrative team I was
able to deal with a number of behavior issues throughout the week. Our campus attempts
to redirect behaviors using PBIS, but in some cases students make decisions that PBIS
didnt work in the classroom setting. That was my experience this week. Some of the
students were frustrated because they felt like they were always singled out by their
teachers or peers etc. While I knew that this wasnt the case because of the past history
of the students I think its important to allow the students due process to explain their
take and then discuss with them their actions and how they interrupted the learning
happening in the classroom.
This week I spent time working with duty areas (lunch, bus) looking for ways to improve
safety and behavior/efficiency. Our behavior and safety committees are trying to figure
out ways that our cafeteria can run in a way that safety and efficiency are the utmost
importance. I spent almost 3 hours in the cafeteria observing ways in which we can run
our caf in a way that promotes safety. Understanding our population and realizing that
school may be the only hot meal they get each day it is important to ensure that the caf
is a conducive atmosphere to eat in an orderly fashion.
Friday morning 5 of our 4th graders were involved in a situation that landed all of them in
ISS for the day. My AP allowed me to investigate and discuss with all parties exactly
what happened for all of their points of view. At the end of the day we decided to send
all of them to ISS because they all in one way or another showed disrespect to one
another or the teacher.
I have started working with 3 2nd grade behavior students to mentor them during the
week. I spent Monday having lunch with them and talking about making the right
decisions to increase our own abilities to succeed at school, as well as, the abilities of
their classmates. I checked in with teachers at the end of the day (Monday-Thursday) to
check on their progress. Alls good at this pointI also spent some time monitoring
morning breakfast in the caf as we had some discussion at faculty meeting this week
about some safety concerns because of the number of students that arrive from the bus at
the same time. Still working on finding a good solution to this.
I had my weekly time with my 2nd grade group of behavior students. We discussed trends
and reports from the lunch room and talked about the importance of being a leader in the
caf instead on and instigator of trouble. We also talked about the need to remove
ourselves from certain situations because normally we are the one that cant control our
behaviors when provoked by other students. We came up with a plan for how we would
remove ourselves from those situations so they dont escalate out of control.
I served on 30 minute session in the caf this week targeting specific behaviors that were
reported during last weeks behavior committee meeting. Spent time mentoring my 2 nd
grade behavior students and checking in with them on the goals we have made for the
time leading up to Spring Break.

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On Tuesday I spent an hour and a half monitoring the caf as we were on a closed
campus and wanted to make sure that no parents were in the caf as well as students were
on voice level 1 during lunch so not to disturb our testers taking the STAAR A test in the
computer labs connected to our caf.
I logged 3 hours in standard four. Two hours of my time were spent shadowing our
Campus Behavior Support teacher. We are in the process of creating a behavioral unit on
campus that will support the East side of our districts elementary campuses. I spent two
hours discussing logistics including classroom design, path to class steps, and safety with
our behavior teacher. I also spent 1 hour mentoring some 2nd grade behavior students.
We had a lunch bunch meeting and I spent time in their classrooms with them. Finally, I
spent and hour working with our morning lunch crew to assure our recently revised
breakfast expectations were being met by staff and students.
For standard four this week I worked on a pep rally to boost morale and student advocacy
for their upcoming 4th grade writing STAAR Test. By doing this our students were able
to understand the vision and goals the entire campus had for them on their upcoming
assessment. This is a part of our campus vision in which we describe an atmosphere in
which is conducive to success and motivation to succeed. During the 4 th grade STAAR
Writing test I handled students with BIPs and assuring their behavior accommodations
were being met and followed by the test administrators. By doing this I got experience
working with creating small group testing groups and pairing students up based on listed
accommodations. I spent time on Friday working with a 4th grade student that has had a
really rough week. He is one of our behavior students and is dealing with the anniversary
of being taken from his parents through a CPS case. We discussed his feelings and how
he can deal with his frustrations and emotions while still continuing to get his work done
each day.
I was given the opportunity to work with our discipline AP this week handling referrals.
I learned two valuable things in this, first there are a ton of office referrals towards the
end of a school yearbetter have something in place for this, and second, there are a ton
of laws that have to be followed when dealing with referrals and communication with
parents. I also had the opportunity to plan out our Earth Day program that was done on
Friday April 22, 2016, at this our campus focused on some things students have been
working on in the classrooms to celebrate going green. There was a reading from the
Lorax, some student poetry, performances from our choir and art club, and finally a tree
planting.
Friday I had the opportunity to lead the campus fire drill. This included working with
district maintenance to disable the true emergency alarm so we could run the practice
drill. I lead the reporting on the individual grade levels and their times to safely exit the
building. After the drill I worked with our crisis team to analyze the data and determine
revisions and plans to expedite the evacuation plan if we ever had to do an actual fire
evacuation. We spent a few minutes discussing bad weather and intruder drills that are
scheduled over the next couple of weeks. I didnt log these minutes as they were in the
first week of school, but I learned some valuable lessons about the first couple of days of
school and what it takes as an administrator to have a school run smoothly and safely the
first couple of days.

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This week I had the opportunity to work with our local Rotary Chapter who sponsors our
district character education program Early Act First Knight (EAFK). While doing this I
understood the importance of an effective character ed program and how it supports a
campus that functions in a safe and productive manner. With the Rotary liaison I was
able to communicate directly with the company to set up our opening ceremony for the
2016-2017 school year. We discussed the opening ceremony and scheduled the
remaining 8 visits by our campus Knight. We looked over the curriculum for the school
year and created goals for how EAFK would work hand in hand with strengthening the
culture and safety of our campus. I learned some valuable lessons with this work and
was excited to see the sheer joy the students experienced when they saw the Knight for
the first time!
Friday I had the opportunity to lead the campus fire drill. This included working with
district maintenance to disable the true emergency alarm so we could run the practice
drill. I lead the reporting on the individual grade levels and their times to safely exit the
building. After the drill I worked with our crisis team to analyze the data and determine
revisions and plans to expedite the evacuation plan if we ever had to do an actual fire
evacuation. We spent a few minutes discussing bad weather and intruder drills that are
scheduled over the next couple of weeks. I didnt log these minutes as they were in the
first week of school, but I learned some valuable lessons about the first couple of days of
school and what it takes as an administrator to have a school run smoothly and safely the
first couple of days.
This week my administration team asked me to be in charge Friday morning as they were
going to be off Campus. While Im sure I could have logged hours in each standard
during these 4 hours, most of my time was spent dealing with situations I felt fell within
the dimensions of standard 4. My morning started out fairly normal for a Friday, trying
to find coverage for a teacher who called in last minute. I had a TA cover the classroom
while my office staff were working on nailing down a sub. We were unable to find a sub
so I decided to keep the TA in the classroom all day because we already had another sub
on that team and I thought it would have not been in the best interest of the students to be
split into the other 1st grade classrooms. During this I was called to the office. When I
got to the office one of our 4th grade teachers was in the office holding a knife. As I
approached her she said that she found the knife on one of her students because he was
showing the knife to all the classmates during the first few minutes of her guided reading
groups. I had the opportunity to work with our counselor on this situation because the
student was someone she was already working with. We sat down with the student and
discussed what happened and provided the student the opportunity to tell his side of the
story. After, discussing with the student I did some follow-up investigations with
students he mentioned to make sure all the stories played out. I documented what all was
said by the other students and then sat down with the counselor to compare notes. The
student was placed in ISS until the admin came to handle the final punishment. In my
head I decided how I would have handled the situation if I was the principal and then I
would debrief with the principal to see if my decisions differed from hers. At the end of
the day she decided to handle the situation just like I would have, 3 days of suspension.
While all of this was going on I was called to a Kindergarten classroom because one of

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11/9/2016

our non-verbal AU students was destroying the classroom. I was able to go down and
use SAMA techniques to deescalate the situation and turn the student around. All in all it
was a very stressful morning, but I felt like it really prepared me to understand the truths
of being a principal. Although, there is tons of work that has to get done, the campuss
safety and operation are the most important parts of the job. This morning was all about
keeping the campus stakeholders safe and operating normally.
I spent the day on Tuesday working with a teacher who was hired after the school year
began to fill a position that was added. I coached her through Domain 3 of T-TESS, as
well as, district and campus behavior/PBIS initiatives.
Friday I was asked to do an investigation into a 1st grade behavior situation. The student
is a student we have been working with for the past 3-4 weeks. The year started with him
transferring over to us on day two from a neighboring district. From arriving on campus
the student was very pleasurable and respectful. After 4 weeks of school we needed to
add a section in 1st grade and he was one of the students chosen to go into the new class.
This is when all of the trouble started. He has escalated to the point that we had to
suspend him on Friday after the investigation. We are working on resolving the issues
through the use of all of our local resources. We transitioned the student back to the
original teacher on our campus last week and this didnt seem to make a difference. I am
learning some valuable lessons through this situation, first, dont ever take lightly the
impact of moving students around on a campus, and second, do everything you can to
partner with families to get to the best resolution of situations when it concerns students.
Today I was placed in charge of the campus during the afternoon while my admin team
attended meetings at district offices. During this time I was called to a number of
classrooms for assistance from our behavior team. This was all while trying to run
campus PLCs. I realized really quickly that campus leadership can be a juggling act.
You have to put the safety and systems of a campus at the forefront of everything that
you do. I was able to deescalate both individuals I was called to assist on as they were
just in need of a little brain break. I also thought it was a great opportunity to model how
to address the needs of elementary students when it comes to frequent opportunities to
take breaks or rest their brains.

Standard Five: As a participant in the Concordia Educational Administration preparation program I

logged hours under standard 5 when I spent time working on campus schedules/calendars, developing

clear visions and goals, assuring that purchases aligned to the goals within our CIP, and collaborated with
district personal to assure that our campus needs were being met and addressed at a district level.
1/22/16

1/29/16

2/5/16

2/12/16

2/19/16

We are looking to cut down on the amount of time students are spending in the caf each
morning. Most of our population is bussed in each morning and we are starting to
monitor bus arrivals and frequently late busses to our transportation department to
hopefully mend these issues. We have too many busses that show up 5 minutes before
instruction is to begin and cause students to be late to class because of wait time in the
caf for breakfast. Also, part of the conversation outlined in standard 3 are because our
instructional blocks are having to change as of February 1 st so therefore my principal has
tasked me with making the necessary adjustments to our master schedule based on the
feedback we received from these discussion. My AP also spoke to me yesterday about
organizing and communicating with parents our credit recovery program starting as soon
as the need arises. Our PIEMS update this week showed that we had a good amount of
student that are within 2 days of needing credit recovery. She also wants me researching
how the new minute legislation affects credit recovery to see if PIEMS is accounting for
the new minutes law rather than days law
For standard five we talked during our campus leadership meeting on Monday about new
schedules and systems we needed to organize and implement for the remainder of this
school year and then developed a plan to implement them campus wide for the following
school year. On Friday I worked with our campus administrative assistant to organize and
create a deposit for a fundraiser we had done on campus. I also approved print-shop
orders that were pulled from our Title 1 funds as a part of the campus safeguards as
outlined in the CIP.
For standard five we talked during our campus leadership meeting on Wednesday about
new schedules and systems we needed to organize and implement for the remainder of
this school year and then developed a plan to implement them campus wide for the
following school year. The two schedules we worked on were tutoring and Tier 3 RTI. I
also spent a considerable amount of time on Tuesday assisting our campus testing
coordinator with distributing testing materials for our 4th grade writing Mock STAAR.
My day consisted of organizing and checking in/out materials as well as monitoring the
teachers for their active monitoring within the classrooms.
I once again this week spent some time checking on our morning bus arrivals to see if we
had similar arrival times this week from some of our frequently late busses. The goal of
this is to assure that a higher percentage of students are in their classrooms and ready to
learn at or before the tardy bell at 7:30. I also spent some time this week vetting a few
resources we plan to use for next fall. These resources will be a part of our 1 st semester
spiraling minutes on our master schedule.
We continue to work on scheduling for our new RTI program at our school. I spent time
this week working with our RTI lead to determine the best possible schedule for math
students. The goal was to assure that nothing was being done for math RTI that would
affect reading schedules. I also went to a presentation for a new math program that
would take the place of our current math progress monitoring program for RTI for the
2016/2017 school year.

2/29/16

3/6/16

3/13/16

3/27/16

4/1/16

4/22/16

9/16/16

I led a team lead meeting. The agenda was set on discussing end of the year calendar
changes as our district decided to shorten the school year to coincide with the rulings of
the new house bill in the past Legislature that changed student days to minutes. Our
district was over the allotted minutes and decided to move our last day from the 6 th to the
1st. This affected a multitude of end of year events so we came up with a plan to amend
the calendar for the staff to review at the upcoming faculty meeting this week.
I spent time on Monday looking into data with Mrs. Gardner and creating monitoring
groups in Eduphoria. We then discussed how we would address these groups to ensure
we were focusing on achieving index 3 and 4 during the upcoming Mock administrations
and data sessions. Friday afternoon I spent time working at district to develop the scope
and sequence for the 2016/2017 school year for PreK-4 math curriculum.
Using data from our Mock test the literacy coach and I created new instructional
schedules that would allocate time needed to make the necessary interventions going
forward. We revised our tutoring expectations and determined which students we should
now target with tutoring. All of this was done as we prepare for our instructional blocks
coming back from spring break.
I logged 4 hours in standard five. All four hours of my time was spent working with our
administrative team to create targeted groups in 3rd and 4th grade for index 3 and 4. Index
three students on our campus are Hispanic students and students who qualify for Eco Dis.
In order to achieve this those students need to score at the final recommended rate on at
least 2 STAAR Test. In order to meet standard our campus has to achieve both index 3
and 4. Index 4 is College Readiness and this is a calculation of all students and the
percent that meet final recommended and advanced on all test. In order to achieve this
we had to create targeted groups based on our last rounds of district assessments. We
analyzed the students who had already met these guidelines and then the students who
had met one test but needed another. Based on this information they were either put into
a math or reading targeted group. After the groups were made a schedule for our team of
tutors was created by myself and our literacy coach.
I had the opportunity to work with our AP to enter TELPAS scores into the TEST NAV
program. This was invaluable experience as I have not had the opportunity to deal much
with actual testing materials. I had the opportunity to work with her and ask clarifying
questions as we entered our campus results. This was one area I can mark off my
worried list as I had not received any time working with confidential testing materials.
I was given a budget for supplies for the above mentioned Earth Day program and I had
to work with this budget to go and purchase things for our program. This was done with
the supervision of my mentor as there were encumbrances on this account and she
wanted to make sure that I understood how to take those into account when budgeting for
programs and such. It also was a part of our CIP for parent outreach as parents were in
attendance to celebrate the work of our students.
Six hours were spent this week analyzing data with grade levels as we plan on making
instructional shifts that align with our campus improvement plan. During this time I had
opportunities to work with teachers on some pretty tough subjects, including some pretty
rough spots in data. I am realizing that as an administrator some conversations are
necessary even if they are tough. I am also noticing that some teachers are not as open to
communicating with me as I take on more administrative roles.

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10/2/16

10/9/2016

10/20/201
6

11/15/16

During our leadership meeting discussed in standard three a lot of budget allotments were
discussed. I worked with our campus admin and secretary to identify proper budgets to
use in order to align with district and state/federal requirements concerning Title 1 and
instructional budgets. an hour was spent working with a kindergarten student who is
having a really tough time adjusting to starting school. I assisted the student into the
classroom and then sat with the student for another 15 minutes to assure everything was
good before going about my day.
After working with our Heart of Texas trainer, I had a meeting with our district ELAR
specialist to discuss some things I felt like needed to be dealt with at the district level to
assure campuses were functioning within our curriculum scope and sequence while
maintaining the expectations of the HOT Model scope and sequence. We decided that
the district would stand pat this year on our writing scope and sequence and then tailor
next years scope and sequence to mimic the HOT Model scope and sequence. This
made more sense because not all of our teachers have been trained in the HOT Model.
Only the first wave of teachers have received the training and the rest of our teachers will
attend this coming summer.
I worked on our campus tutoring schedule that will include both 3rd and 4th grade pullouts and push-in tutoring. Three tutors were chosen based on data gathered from last
year, and assigned specific focuses due to the substantial need for reading support across
our campus.
Worked with all 6 grade levels Pre-k-4th to develop a systematic plan to take beginning of
the year assessments and develop interventions for the upcoming 9 weeks. Time was
also spent training our grades on the effective use of ongoing (formative) assessments as
a means to make needed instructional adjustments during units of study.
Worked with our SPED/504 teams to develop small groups/online testing for our 4 th
grade Fall Writing AT. Time was spent building groups and securing rooms for this
testing to happen. I also spent time formulating a plan for teachers to rate writing
samples so we could enter the data into Eduphoria. I managed all testing materials
including test, scantrons, accommodation folders, and testing instruction packets. The
next day I organized retake small groups for students that missed the testing session.