EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
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Introduction To nurture nurture is to nouris nourish. h. Nurtur Nurturing ing a child child encomp encompass asses es all aspec aspects ts of
developme development: nt: social, emotional, emotional, cognitive, cognitive, and physical. physical. In every interaction, interaction, a teache teacherr should should nurtu nurture re approp appropriat riate e growth growth and develo developme pment. nt. Accor Accordin ding g to Gay (2!, teacher are cultural organi"ers, cultural mediators, and orchestrates of social conte#ts for learning. $ased on this notion, %eing an early childhood teacher also means that we have to %e willing to wear many hats. hats. As e#perienced e#perienced teachers, we are already prepared to %e fle#i%le according to our tas& re'uirements. This may involve professional tas&s from inside and outside the classroom. Today, teachers are not only teaching in the classroom during the interactional hours. Teachers Teachers today are are well ell roun rounde ded d and and must must %e capa capa%l %le e of mult multit itas as&i &ing ng.. This This also also inc include ludes s administrative and management tas&s that must %e perform from time to time. According to Gulamhussein (2)!, the t he reasons why teachers are involved in in organi"ational tas&s are: a) *ost *ost teach teachers ers only only e#perie e#perience nce tradit tradition ional, al, wor&sh wor&shop+ op+%as %ased ed profes professio sional nal development, even though research shows it is ineffective: ver - percent of teachers participate in wor&shop+style training sessions during a school year (arling+/ammond et al., 2-!. This stands in star& contrast to teachers0 minimal e#posure to other forms of professional development (arling+ /ammond et al., 2-!. espite its prevalence, the the wor&shop model0s trac& record for changing teachers0 practice and student achievement is a%ysmal.
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EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
%! In order to truly change practices, professional development should occur over time and prefera%ly %e ongoing: uring the implementation stage, initial attempts to use a new teaching strategy are almost certain to %e met with failure, and mastery comes only as a result of continuous practice despite aw&ward performance and frustration in the early stages. 1ithout support during this phase, it is highly unli&ely that teachers will persevere with the newly learned strategy.
esearch %ears this out.
1hen
professional development merely descri%es a s&ill to teachers, only percent can transfer it to their practice3 however, when teachers are coached through the aw&ward phase of implementation, -4 percent can transfer the s&ill ($ush, -563 Truesdale, 2)!. Therefore, if districts want real changes in teaching practice, they have to provide ample and ongoing support during implementation. 7tudies show that effective professional development programs re'uire anywhere from 4 to 5 hours of instruction, practice, and coaching %efore teachers arrive at mastery (8rench, --93 $anilower, 223 oon et al., 29.
c! ;rofessional development is %est delivered in the conte#t of the teacher0s su%
/owever, professional
development that focuses on teachers analy"ing the specific s&ill and concept they0ll teach in their discipline is not only well+received %y teachers, %ut has also %een shown to improve %oth teacher practice and student learning ($land de la Alas and 7mith, 293 >arpenter et al., -5-3 >ohen and /ill, 23 ?ie%erman and 1ood, 23 *ere& and *ethven, --3 7a#e, Gearhart, and Nasir, 23 1englin&s&y, 23 *cGill+8ran"en et al., ---3 arling+/ammond et al., 2-.
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EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
d! esearch on effective critical thin&ing strategies is lac&ing, %ut teachers don0t have to wait and can lead the way %y esta%lishing professional learning communities: 1hile there are several research+%ac&ed instructional strategies, the research %ase is still in its infancy. Therefore, schools need teachers to not
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Definition
$y definition, administrative is defined as @relating to the management of a company, school, or other organi"ation (*erriam 1e%ster, 26!. $ased on this definition, there are several administrative tas&s that re'uire participation from most teachers so that the school can function to serve its purpose. These administrative tas&s, among a few, include: a!
>ollecting money from pupils and parents. A designated mem%er of the office staff should %e responsi%le for receiving and recording money.
%!
Investigating a pupilBs a%sence. Teachers will need to inform the relevant mem%er of staff when a pupil is a%sent from a class, %ut they should not have to telephone pupilsB homes, for e#ample!.
c!
$ul& photocopying for whole class use.
d!
Typing or ma&ing word+processed versions of manuscript materials and producing revisions of such versions especially during school and panel meetings.
e!
1ord processing, copying and distri%uting %ul& communications, including standard letters, to parents and pupils. *anagement on the other hand is defined as @the act or s&ill of controlling and
ma&ing decisions a%out a %usiness, department, sports team, etc. (*erriam 1e%ster, 26!. Cffective tas& management re'uires managing all aspects of a tas&, including its status, priority, time, human and financial resources assignments,
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EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
recurrency, notifications and so on. These can %e lumped together %roadly into the %asic activities of tas& management (1i&ipedia, 26!. According to =elly (26!, in schools, the management tas&s that re'uire teachers0 participation and contri%utions include: a! *eeting ;rofessional %ligations: Cvery teacher must meet certain professional o%ligations depending on their school, their district, their state, and their area of certification. These o%ligations might range from something as mundane as hall duty during their planning period to something more time consuming li&e participating in professional development opportunities re'uired to get recertified. 8urther, teachers might %e as&ed to sponsor a clu% or chair a school committee. All of these re'uire a teacherBs time and are a re'uired part of a teaching career.
%! Assessing 7tudent ?earning: All instruction should %e %uilt around assessments. 1hen a teacher sits down to develop a lesson, they should %egin %y determining how they will measure whether the students learned what they were trying to teach. 1hile the instruction is the meat of the course, the assessments are the measure of success. Therefore, it is important that teachers spend some time creating and refining valid assessments for their students.
c! /ouse&eeping and ecord&eeping Tas&s: 8or many teachers this is the most annoying part of teaching. Time has to %e spent ta&ing attendance, recording grades, and following through on all necessary house&eeping and record&eeping tas&s. The way that a teacher handles these tas&s says a lot a%out their classroom organi"ation s&ills. 1ith effective and easy+to+use systems in place, teachers will %e a%le to spend more time focusing on actually instructing and interacting with their students.
d! *anaging 7tudent >onduct:
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EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
*any new teachers find that this are of teaching is what scares them the most. /owever, a couple of tools if properly used can really help you create an effective classroom management policy. These tools include posted rules com%ined with a posted discipline policy all of which are consistently and fairly enforced. If you are not fair or do not follow through with your posted policies, you will have a very hard time &eeping a well+managed classroom.
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!dministrative and "ana#ement Tas$% &ecretar' of Parents and Teachers !ssociation As a teacher, the involvement in administrative and management tas&s is
important as they nurture professional development s&ills along the process. Therefore, it can %e said that it is a compulsory e#perience that differentiate an employee from one to another. It adds the value to our yearly evaluation %y the administrations as an e#tra element %eside our &ey performance inde#. In school, we teachers are also given an a%undance of these tas&s to %e performed alongside our professional core %usiness, which is teaching. The administrative and management tas& that I will discuss in this section is the 7ecretary of ;arents and Teachers Association (7;TA!. There are a few smaller tas&s that needed to %e performed %y 7;TA. There are: 1. (r#aniin# files $asically, there are two %ig files that are needed to %e organi"ed %y 7;TA. These files are la%elled as @*inutes of *eeting and @thers which includes all letters from ;; and D;N as well as other %oo& programs related to ;TA as a whole. The process of organi"ing files can %e very difficult. This is due to the fact that documents after documents &eep coming in from everywhere. /aving a more managea%le file system is %eneficial to %oth the society and also the school administrations. It is helpful when we need access to the information at hand. There are a few steps that involved in organi"ing files: a! etermine where the documents should %e &ept. 8or e#ample, the letters from the ;; and D;N or any other places should %e &ept in the @thers file so
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EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
that everything that comes from these sources is easily accessi%le whenever needed. %! Gather all documents of the same purpose of nature in the same file. This is almost similar to the e#planation a%ove. /owever, this may also include other documents such as from any wor&shops, seminars or %oo& programs. c! 7ort the information or files. This also includes files in my laptop. As a 7;TA, I need to issue a lot of letters to parents, schools, ;;, D;N or even the surrounding societies. Therefore, if the documents are not sorted accordingly, I may have to re+do almost every letters every time they are needed.
. (r#aniin# "ana#ement "eetin#s *anagement meetings must %e organi"ed regularly so that the mem%ers of the ;TA are informative and &now e#actly what is going on within the school ground. The meetings are the %est platform to &eep them informative and at the same time to e#change information and views on how to help the school develop form time to time. $asically, the management meetings should %e organi"ed at least 6 times a year depending on the necessity and programs. *ost organi"ations use meetings in the course of their wor&, and these meetings can %e successful or unsuccessful, depending on whether they are managed properly. *anagers must learn to properly organi"e and conduct meetings to contri%ute to organi"ational effectiveness. There some preparations that need to %e done %efore a meeting can ta&e place. They are: a! Issuing calling letters: In order to organi"e successful meetings, 7;TA must first issue a calling letter to all mem%ers, including the teachers who are selected during the Annual *eeting. This letter must %e issued at a wee& from the meeting date. 8or this calling letter, the 7;TA can simply sign it as it does not involve any financial information. %! ;revious *inute eport: It is always easier to provide a copy of the previous minute report attached with the calling letter to all mem%ers prior to a meeting. This will give everyone
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EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
concerned a little %it of time to complete their chores so that when the meeting is in progress, they can report their progress. $esides that, providing the minute report especially the one that contains financial statement will give the mem%ers a room to study the flow and thus suggest any methods to increase income or to as& for clarification as to where and how the money have %een spent.
3. (r#aniin# !nnual "eetin#s There are a lot of processes involved in organi"ing annual meetings. These processes are: a! rgani"ing management meeting: $efore organi"ing an annual meeting, it is very important to have a management meeting to discuss all issues that are still pending and needed to %e completed. epending on the schools respective ;TA rules and regulations, the committee mem%ers may have to %e reselected yearly or for every two years. eviews of programs and financial statement must %e clarified so that when the report is presented to all parents, they would understand how the ;TA have spent the money and how their children were %enefitted from them. The management meeting must %e conducted at least twice %efore the event too& place. A wee& or a few days %efore the red letter day, all committee mem%ers must report on their wor& progress and to see if any special attention or %udget is still needed for their part. %! eciding the figure to officiate the meeting: It is very important for ;TA to have someone influential in terms of politics, supports towards the school or a%ility to aid the school financially to officiate the annual meeting. In fact, their presence alone is an attraction for parents to come. 1hen we have such person coming to the school ground, the attendance will %e close to what is e#pected or even more, thus ena%ling the school to spread words or information more accurately as these are the target audience that need to hear to such information first hand. 7 | Page
EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
c! ;reparing a wor& schedule and committee mem%ers: To run a successful annual meeting, 7;TA must organi"e a wor&ing schedule and their committee mem%ers. The committee mem%ers must %e formed earlier so that they can function at the time needed. d! Allocating %udget: $udget allocation is very important as the annual meeting is %iggest event in all ;TA programs. It includes giving pri"es to the officials, ;TA committee mem%ers and all pupils who display outstanding progress in %oth academic and sports activities. $esides that, the allocation for refreshments, performance and set up should %e considered during the management meetings so that it can %e included in the overall %udget that needs to %e issued %y the treasurer and at the same time to %e approved %y the ;TA mem%ers. e! ;reparing venue: Esually, the annual meetings are conducted within the school ground. $ut, there are also few e#ceptional where meetings are conducted outside. The venue must %e prepared in accordance to the ceremony so that speeches and the meetings can %oth ta&e place at the same place. Therefore, the 7;TA must ensure that the committee who are preparing the venue a%le to provide every small detail that are crucial to run the event. f! efreshment:: Normally, the committee meetings will decide the %udget allocated for each person present at that time. If the committee agrees to have * ) per head, then the treasurer will issue the amount needed so that the committee can ma&e their arrangements. g! ;ri"es and Gifts: The discussion on the pri"es and gifts are made during the management meetings to decide the %udget and the items. nce approved, the committee in charge will start to %uy and prepare the presents, in terms of wrapping and giving them away for the ceremony. 8 | Page
EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
6. rgani"ing Annual ;rograms As ;TA is the %ac&%one to the school, it has its own annual programs that must run in the course of that year. These programs although may %e carried during different time as to compared to the year %efore, %ut still have to %e conducted. These programs are %oth e#clusive for ;I$G or even conducted as
7olat /a
4. ealing with $udget Allocation for 7chool evelopment ;rograms The school, from time to time, will as& a certain amount of money from the ;TA to support its programs. In order for the treasurer to issue the money, these head of programs must present their official letters signed %y the headmaster to the 7;TA. nce these letters are in the possession of the 7;TA, he will need to %ring these letters to the attention of ;TA mem%ers during the management meetings. The management meetings will then decide the amount of money that can %e issued %y the treasurer. 8or e#ample, if the program as&ed for * 24, the ;TA mem%ers will discuss it %ased on the current financial state. They may or may not have the amount they as&ed. That amount must %e recorded so that they will %e shown in the financial statement. F. rgani"ing @7AANA I$E $A;A and 7AANA 7C=?A/ As 7AANA is a new program developed %y =;*, it involves a lot of meetings, wor&shops and seminars. It also as&ed for online data that must %e &eyed in the D;N online portal according to a specific time. This will %e under the management of 7;TA. 9. rgani"ing online records and data for ;; and D;N 9 | Page
EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
Almost similar to the e#planation a%ove, the 7;TA must, from time to time present an online data to the ;; and D;N. This has nothing to do with 7AANA, %ut more to attendance records of every program as stated in the portal.
*.0
+eflection In strength wise, I have %een holding the post as 7;TA since *arch 2F.
8rom then, I have developed a well understanding on how to run the ;TA efficiently
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and effectively. Although there are times that I needed second opinions on how to run the association, I still managed to complete them as I have a wonderful team of teachers and ;TA mem%ers who are willing to help me organi"ing any event in a nic& of time. In fact, during the first year, I was given a lot of coaching and guidance %y almost everyone so that I can get the
+eference
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$anilower (22! ! in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers $land de la Alas and 7mith, 293 >arpenter et al., -5-3 >ohen and /ill, 23 ?ie%erman and 1ood, 23 *ere& and *ethven, --3 7a#e, Gearhart, and Nasir, 23 1englin&s&y, 23 *cGill+8ran"en et al., ---3 arling+ /ammond et al., 2- in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers
$ush (-56! ! in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers
arling+/ammond et al. (2-! in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers
8rench (--9! ! in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers Gay, G. (2!. >ulturally esponsive Teaching: Theory, esearch, H ;ractice. New or&: Teachers >ollege ;ress.
=elly (26!. Top F Teacher Tas&s, 1hat Teachers o. etrieved on August 4 th, 26 from http:92educators.a%out.comodteachingstrategiestpteachingtas&s.htm *erriam 1e%ster (26!. http:www.merriam+we%ster.comdictionarymanagement 1i&ipedia (26!. http:en.wi&ipedia.orgwi&iTas&management
;eery, 223 edding and =amm, ---3 unn and unn, --5 in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August ) rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers
Truesdale (2)! ! in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers 12 | P a g e
EDU 3083 Leadership and Professional Development of Teachers
oon et al. (29! ! in Gulamhussein (2)!.Teaching the Teachers: At a Glance. >entre 8or ;u%lic Cducation. etrieved on August )rd, 26 from http:www.centerforpu%liceducation.orgteachingtheteachers
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