COMPETENCIES REFLECTIONS

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Printing EdPlan Scantrons
Competency 001: The principal knows how to shape campus culture by facilitating
the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of
learning that is shared and supported by the school community.
One of the forefront visions of both the Houston Independent School District (HISD)
and Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center (SHMSTC) is to have
data-driven instruction. Teachers need to be able to evaluate how their students are
performing on assignments and tests, and make decisions about what objectives
they need to reteach, and which instructional strategies were effective, based off of
objective mastery data. In order to fulfill this vision, teachers need to have the tools
and training to gather and interpret the data. HISD and SHMSTC have the
software program, EdPlan, available as a tool to fulfilling this vision, and part of my
work as an intern was to make sure that teachers knew how to access and use this
tool to fulfill the vision. I had to internalize the importance of creating guidelines for
using EdPlan not only as a convenience for teachers, but as an important step in
helping all teachers fulfill the campus vision to better our students.
Competency 004: The principal knows how to facilitate the design and
implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and
learning; ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessment;
and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance.
EdPlan provides the data necessary for teachers to create strategic instructional
plans based on student performance. However, before teachers can even begin to
interpret the data, they have to know how to gather it. At SHMSTC, the teachers
needed to know how to print the specific EdPlan Scantrons that could be then
scanned to provide data. As an intern, I provided step by step instructions with
screenshots that teachers could use to print their own Scantrons. I thought this was
better than holding a workshop on the process, because they could save the
instructions on their computers and always have them to reference. Before the
instructions, only eight of science teachers were able to print their Scantrons
without assistance. After the use of the instructions, all twenty science teachers
were able to print their Scantrons without assistance. This project equipped
teachers with the necessary tools to make data driven, strategic instructional plans.

Competency 008: The principal knows how to apply principles of effective

leadership and management in relation to campus budgeting, personnel, resource
utilization, financial management, and technology use.
SHMSTC is a PowerUp campus, which means every students and teacher has been
given a personal laptop device for instructional uses. In addition, HISD purchased
EdPlan software. To best use these technological resources, it was crucial that
teachers knew how to use them to drive instruction. Printing the Scantrons was the
first step in this process, and this project was catalyst to helping teachers fully
utilize the resources available to them. As a campus leader, it is important to not
just provide resources, but equip teachers with the knowledge, training, and
support on how to effectively use them.
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Biology STAAR Tutorials

Competency 002: The principal knows how to communicate and collaborate with all
members of the school community, respond to diverse interests and needs, and
mobilize resources to promote student success.
Implementing an entirely new system for tutorials brought about a lot of questions,
uncertainty, and need for information dissemination. As the intern representing the
science department, after I had developed the plan, I had to communicate the new
system, recruit teacher volunteers, and continue with follow-up communication. I
found one of the most helpful things I did was to anticipate potential questions and
address them in the initial introductory email. This prevented a lot of individual
questions from teachers. I found it important to be quick and efficient in my
communication, and always keep a professional and positive tone.
Competency 003: The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an
ethical and legal manner.
A concern of teachers with the new tutorial system was that they would be
volunteering their Saturday mornings, and they wanted to make sure that they
were being compensated for their time. I had to coordinate with the principal to
make sure that they school had the funds to compensate them, and then
disseminate that information. However, I had to set the expectations about the
quality of lessons that the principal expected to be taught. It was important that
both sides acted fairly that the teachers were compensated for working overtime,
but that they were actually working and not just sitting there and passing out
worksheets. I had to ensure that the teachers acted with integrity during their

Saturday tutorials by teaching full lesson cycles, and therefore I checked in with
them the week before their Saturday to make sure the expectations were clear.
Competency 005: The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and sustain an
instructional program and a campus culture that are conducive to student learning
and staff professional growth.
Since the campus had 200 biology retesters, most of whom were not currently in a
biology class, it was important that the school provided an opportunity for those
students to not only review important material, but to gain the self-confidence
necessary to overcome their previous failure. The Saturday tutorials provided a
safe, intimate environment for students to come get the extra help they needed, ask
questions, and not feel ashamed in front of their peers who had already passed the
exam. The faculty and staff were also setting the tone of the importance of these
tests by opening the building, preparing lessons, and devoting their Saturday
mornings to helping students grow and meet state standards.
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TFA Summer Institute Liaison

Competency 006: The principal knows how to implement a staff evaluation and
development system to improve the performance of all staff members, select and
implement appropriate models for supervision and staff development, and apply the
legal requirements for personnel management.
By serving as a liaison between the Teach for America (TFA) staff and SHMSTC, I
was able to foster the improvement of all staff members because they were provided
a pathway to be more communicative and also had a better understanding of their
role within the TFA Summer Institute on campus. I was able to describe their
duties within the institute, clarify any of their questions, and address their
concerns. If someone has a clear understanding of how their role is critical to an
overall vision, than they are more likely to be invested in their work, and therefore
produce better work. A key part of an administrators job is to equip teachers with
the resources to best do their job.
Competency 007: The principal knows how to apply organizational, decisionmaking, and problem-solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment.
One of my biggest jobs as the liaison was to make sure information was
communicated in clear, organized way. I created a wall-chart for TFA that allowed
them to post the weekly schedule, highlight individuals, post answers to frequently
asked questions, and other things. This was a central reference point for all, and

ensured that all important information stayed organized, and therefore allowed the
teachers and staff to be more organized.
Competency 009: The principal knows how to apply principles of leadership and
management to the campus physical plant and support systems to ensure a safe
and effective learning environment.
As the liaison, I helped the TFA staff a lot of with building operations. One of the
biggest concerns was making sure there were clean, open restrooms near the
students classes, so they did not waste a lot of time walking to the other side of the
campus just to use the facilities. This would not be an efficient use of class time.
However, we did not have keys to the restrooms near the classrooms, therefore I
worked with the custodial to devise a system where the custodians would open the
bathrooms, and the TFA staff would lock them at the end of the day. This ensured
that the building was secure, but still being the most efficiently run.