COMPETENCY

REFLECTIONS
Natalie Friday
Dr. Virginia Leiker
EDUC 6331
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During Internships I & II, I addressed competency
001 through my work in setting a new culture and
vision around our new reading program. Knowing
that there would be a mindset shift and learning
Competency 001: curve in our new reading program, I worked
diligently to build up standards and expectations
that would support the vision of our campus
The beginning principal reading program. This vision supported student
knows how to establish growth and teacher learning. I have learned that
building a culture through high expectations and
and implement a a shared vision is hard work but with
shared vision and administrative support and strength in your own
culture of high personal views around the vision, it can be
successfully implemented. For the future, I would
expectations for all like to work towards including parents and
stakeholders (students, community in the campus vision. With working on
a singular department, I was only able to focus
staff, parents, and on one area of our campus. I look forward to
community). doing this type of work with an entire campus
and including all stakeholders.
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During Internships I & II, I addressed competency
002 through my experiences in collaborative
planning. I worked to build a community of
Competency 002: teachers who developed relationships through
collaboration and preparation. All teachers,
including myself, worked together to build and
The beginning principal maintain a shared vision for the language arts
knows how to work with department which could be seen through
teaching, learning, and collaborative work. In this
stakeholders as key experience, I have learned that collaboration
partners to support and collegial relationships are vital to building
and maintaining a positive culture and vision for
student learning. student learning. In the future I hope to continue
working towards parent and community
involvement. Most work for my internship focused
on teacher relationships in relation to student
learning. I hope that one day be able to include
parents and the community into the learning
process.
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Through my internships, I gained hands-on experience
with providing, developing, and coordinating the
implementation of a brand new research-based
reading program to the department. As a district
Competency 003: literacy coach, I worked very closely with the
development of the curriculum and how it aligns with
state standards and adaptation to the needs of our
The beginning principal individual population. Through competency 003, I
knows how to have learned that high-quality instruction and the
implementation of a new program show many
collaboratively develop strengths and weaknesses in a campus. I have learned
that with any implementation of a curriculum, changes
and implement high- and adaptations will have to be met to meet special
quality instruction. populations. Teachers will need to be developed and
trained around the curriculum, but that quality
instruction leads to student improvement and quality
work. In the future, I would like to work towards
collaboration with the Instructional Technology
Specialist to incorporate technology into the
curriculum which will benefit our new generation of
learners.

Competency 004:
The beginning principal
knows how to monitor and
assess classroom instruction
to promote teacher
effectiveness and student
achievement.
REFLECTION
As part of my current role as a literacy
coach, I am able to experience
competency 004 on a daily basis. My role
each day is to coach, observe, plan, and
provide feedback to teachers around their
classroom instruction. I also work with
teachers to analyze data and use this data
to inform their instruction. Through my role as
a coach and working with an entire
department, I have learned that coaching is
a valuable piece to the educational puzzle.
Coaching works to develop teachers in a
different capacity than evaluations.
Coaching is vital to developing life long
learning in a teaching staff. In the future I
hope to work with teachers in other
department areas beause part of leadership
is interacting with all subject areas.
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During my internships I was asked to join a district-
level committee in which we developed
professional development based on feedback and
Competency 005: our experience coaching into our new literacy
program. This committee allowed me to work within
The beginning principal competency 005, not only at the campus-level, but
also at the district level with growing teachers
knows how to provide professionally based on feedback and reflection of
feedback, coaching, previous experiences. In this experience, I learned
that professional development is a key component
and professional to teacher learning and student success. However,
development to staff when it comes to planning development there are
through evaluation and many factors to consider like timing, dates, and staff
expectations when it comes to attendance at
supervision, knows how these trainings. As I advance in my career in
to reflect on his/her own leadership, I look forward to continuing my work in
staff development planning, creation, and
practice, and strives to implementation as this is an area of work I truly
grow professionally. enjoy.
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My role as a literacy coach has allowed me
the opportunity to develop craft within
competency 006 by creating a department
culture that utilizes professional learning
Competency 006: communities. These PLCs encourage
teachers to focus on their level of teaching
The beginning principal and practices that are implemented in the
knows how to promote classroom. Ive learned through my
experience that promoting quality teaching
high-quality teaching and setting high expectations requires
by using selection, planning time and collaboration. If teachers
placement, and are not given the time to plan and work
retention practices to together, the quality will lack in instruction. In
the future I hope to continue my learning
promote teacher around the hiring process of teachers. I was
excellence and growth. able to work with interviewing teachers, but I
would like to know more about the policies
of the hiring process in the district.
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During Internship I & II, I was able to work
Competency 007: on communicating with various
stakeholders. I was able to communicate
with multiple grade-level teams as well as
The beginning principal communicate with parents through letters
knows how to develop during the creation of one of my research
relationships with projects. Ive learned that various types of
internal and external communication are important to reaching
all stakeholders. Whether it be phone calls,
stakeholders, including letters, or emails, people communicate
selecting appropriate and respond in a diverse way. In the
communication future, I hope to work more closely with
strategies for particular communicating with parents and the
audiences. community.

Competency 008:
The beginning principal
knows how to focus on
improving student outcomes
through organizational
collaboration, resiliency, and
change management. This
includes knowledge and skill
in conflict resolution,
trust/consensus building,
relationship building, and
dealing with challenging
situations
REFLECTION
During my experience within my interships,
I was able to work with the leadership
team to problem-solve various campus
concerns around data, culture, and
budget. Through my work in competency
008, I learned how to work with a team to
focus on the important factors that help
make a school function on a daily basis. In
this competency, I look forward to working
with an entire staff on conflict resolution
and building trust in a community. Much of
my work has been focused on a
department level during my internship. I
find the importance of cohesive vision and
missions on a campus to develop teachers
to handle challenging situations.
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Over the past two years I have worked with my
leadership team to complete various needs
Competency 009: assessments around student data and campus
expectations. As part of competency 009, I have
also worked to align student learning with our
The beginning principal reading program and department expectations.
knows how to In this process I have learned that the vision of
the school must be found in all corners of the
collaboratively building and from top to bottom. All stakeholders
determine goals and must be on board in order to develop a cohesive
vision and maintain cohesion on campus. In the
implement strategies future, I hope to work more with scheduling and
aligned with the school budgeting as it pertains to implementing a high-
vision that supports quality establishment and maintaining campus
goals. While I shadowed some of the work with
teacher effectiveness budgeting and scheduling, becoming more
and positive student hands-on with these processes will benefit me as
a leader in the long run.
outcomes.
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As a member of the leadership team, I was
able to work towards competency 010 by
Competency 010: working with budgeting and school safety
during my internships. I was a part of the
team that created the schools action plan
The beginning principal and budget. In this process I learned that it
knows how to provide is important to have a team in place for
administrative leadership managing budgets, safety, and decision-
through resource making. An area of growth for my future as
management, policy a leader would focus around the logistics
implementation, and of school safety and opportuning various
coordination of school programs. While I worked along various
operations and programs district-level programs this year, I would like
to ensure a safe learning to gain more knowledge around campus
environment. level programs such as extended day,
summer school, etc.
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In my time as a member of the leadership team
and campus coach, I worked along side
teachers to develop relationships and value in
Competency 011: child advocacy. Especially after Hurricane
Harvey, competency 011 was clear. We found
ourselves working towards ethical practices and
The beginning principal moral standards to support and advocate for our
knows how to provide students. Ive learned that the various programs
in place on the campus are here to support our
ethical leadership by students. And while as a teacher the paperwork,
advocating for children meetings, and tasks may seem like a lot, we must
realize that everything we do is for the students.
and ensuring student In the future I hope to continue my learning
access to effective around the policies and laws surrounding our
educators, programs, school programs. As a teacher and literacy
coach Ive had experience in most school
and services. programs but not as in-depth as a principal
would. I want to continue building knowledge
around these areas.