Session Eight Agenda

1) Birthday Celebrations!

2) School Leadership and School Vision: Jigsaw for Understanding

3) Immigrant Families' Journeys Towards Understanding Ed Policies and Lead the Change

3) Focus on Cultural Competency
* How should we define cultural competency?
* Implications for school-community partnerships?
* Implications for school leadership practice?

4) Assignment Three: Any questions?

Session Seven

1) Sergiovanni Chapter Six: Followership First, Then Leadership
* What's the difference between a subordinate and a follower?
* How can we support "followership" in our schools?
* Purposing: The Case Study of Hank Cotton

2) Parent Involvement Presentations
* 10 minutes to present, 5 minutes for the panel to ask questions and provide feedback
* Make sure to bring enough copies of the rubric for your group

3) Vision Assignment Q&A

Session Six Agenda

1) Sergiovanni: Culture vs. Community
Implications for school leaders?

2) Peer Review of Parent Involvement Drafts

3) Sergiovanni Chapter Five: Creating a State of Flow

4) Group Work: Parent Involvement Presentation Rubrics

5) Q&A: Assignments Two and Three

Session Five Agenda

1) 826 Valencia and Collective Impact: E-Class Recap and Discussion

2) Assessing School Vision Statements and School Communication Examples: How does parent involvement fit in?

3) The Bullying Epidemic: A Call for Community Action

4) Bullying: A Case Study for Using Interviews/Focus Groups and Data Analysis

5) Sergiovanni Chapter Four - Substitutes for Leadership: Class Discussion

6) Parent Involvement Paper: Any Questions?

Session Four Part II: E-Class

E-Class Directions

Our mini E-Class has two parts. Part one is to watch the following Ted.Talk video and post your answers to the three questions below. When possible, please respond to classmates' answers, either in your own post or to the person directly. Part two asks you to read the Kania and Kramer article and then email me your responses. We'll be discussing Collective Impact again in Session Five as we delve a little deeper into parent/community involvement!

Part One

Please watch the following Ted.Talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html

Supplemental information:
http://www.826national.org
http://www.onceuponaschool.org

Please post your answers to the following questions:

1) Dave Eggers mentions "a trust gap" as the reason why the tutoring center wasn't an instant success. What "trust gaps" currently exist between schools and the larger community? How can school leaders address them? Connections to Chapter Two (Build Trust) in Why School Communication Matters?

2) Dave Eggers takes us through his action plan for creating and expanding 826 Valencia. What lessons did you learn about involving the community from his experience? What elements about the design appealed to both students and community members?

3) Think about creating a "transformative partnership" with your school and the larger community. What need(s) would you want to address? What beginning steps might you take, as a school leader?

Part Two

Please read the following article (on Tasktream)
* Collective Impact  - Kania and Kramer

Supplemental Information (on Taskstream)
* Strive Report 2011
* NYT Article on Cincinnati Schools

Please email me your responses to the following questions:

1) Which of the Five Conditions of Collective Success do you think would be most difficult to address as a leader in your school context? Why?

2) How might you imagine/design a "collective approach to improving student achievement" for your school? What are some of the main factors needed to implement such an approach?

Session Four Agenda

1) Epstein's Framework for Parent Involvement: Understanding and Analyzing the Six Types

2) The Parent Involvement Inventory: What is your school doing now?

3) Why should schools focus on building parent-school partnerships?

4) Collective Impact: What are the implications of this theory for school leaders?

5) Dave Eggers and 826 Valencia: Another view of school/community partnerships

6) Assignment Two Review: The Parent Involvement paper

7) Current Events (if time): The Utah Lunch Debacle…what would Sergiovanni say?

Session Two E-Class

Part One: Video
1) Watch the following TedTalk: The Puzzle of Motivation by Dan Pink
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

2) Please post your answers to the following questions:
* What are some connections we can make between Dan Pink's and Sergiovanni's definitions of motivation? Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards?
* How does the concept of "rewards" get played out in education? What kinds of rewards do teachers receive? Do they help improve practice? Teaching and learning?
* When looking at education from this motivation/reward perspective, what are the implications for us as future instructional leaders?


Part Two: Readings
1) Please email me your responses to the following questions:
* What motivates and inspires you as an educator? What does your school leader do to motivate and inspire you? Is there an overlap or a disconnect between these two perspectives?
* Why is it important as a school leader to actively and consistently engage the community? In what ways does your school seek input from different stakeholders?
* As we all know,  Loudoun County is growing exponentially and thus had many new initiatives and changes to both students and staff in their systems district, level, individual schools, and grade wide (Examples: health care, IEP Phoenix system, new student information system, and diploma requirements). How do you think Loudoun has done with communication-what worked and what needs improvement? (from Katy, one of our Question Starters this week :-)


Part Three: Assignment One Prep
1) Read the Annotated Bibliography assignment description and parameters (syllabus)
2) Carefully review the Annotated Bibliography rubric (syllabus), paying close attention to the criteria for earning a "four" in each category.
3) Read BOTH Annotated Bibliography student exemplars on Taskstream. Using the rubric, score Student Exemplar #2 (I've only included one entry to make scoring manageable :-). Points per section can be given in quarter increments (3.25. 3.5, 3.75, etc). If you take points off anywhere, please make a small notation as to why.
4) Read "A Quick Guide to Searching" on Taskstream as a refresher on how to access the GMU library portal. A quick reminder: Quality sources are peer-reviewed and include qualitative/quantitative studies, as well as empirical, theoretical, and syntheses studies. While practitioner articles are great for PD sessions, keep your focus on scholarly pieces with a clear methods section. Google Scholar is also a good site for finding sources. Just remember, you don't need to pay for any articles! The GMU library has most journals and you can use the Library Portal to download any articles you find on the web!
5) Begin research/reading for your Annotated Bibliography.

Homework for Session Three
* Complete all E-Class work before our next class.
* Bring scored rubric for AB Student Exemplar #2 to class
* Bring field observation notes from a recent staff meeting (Focus of the meeting? Were faculty members engaged? Did admin communicate effectively?)
* Read  The Sources of Authority for Leadership (Chapter Three) - Sergiovanni
* Read Harness Your Secret Weapon (Chapter 7) and Face Those Angry Parents (Chapter 13) - WSCM
* Assignment One: Annotated Bibliography due January 31- February 2 (midnight)
* Assignment Three: Begin reaching out to potential focus group participants. Possible dates for meeting?