RickScheibner.net

Note:  I’m unable to make our practicum meeting this Wednesday, so these are my summaries and personal reactions that would normally be presented in class discussion.

Ethical Leadership:  ERIC digest, published June 1996.  School leaders make moral decisions in the educational setting on a daily basis.  Indeed, they have a responsibility to “create an ethical institution.”  The authority of the school administrator itself is rooted in morality.  Staff members are loathe to fully support a principal who doesn’t demonstrate integrity in their personal and professional lives.  The ethical dilemmas that principals often face generally have to do with a decision between two competing interests within an educational system.  Administrators, then, should possess a set of ethical standards that they routinely live out, and be willing to rely on them in times where an ethical decision must be made.  Good educational leaders should also be willing to look at a variety of perspectives before moving with a given decision, including giving a fair hearing to ideas that may be in direct conflict with their own ideals.  Rather than get caught in an either/or situations, principals should be willing to look for the third alternative that creates a win-win situation for both parties.  Virtues that good leaders must possess include:

• Honesty
• Courage
• Restraint
• Stewardship

Ethical leadership, then, is not just a skill set, but involves “basic human integrity”.  It is practiced on a day-to-day and year-by-year basis.

Ethics Morals Values:  Pinning down principles can make living by them easier.  The Oregonian, March 2006.  This article wasn’t specifically intended for educational leaders, but instead hits on the ideas that connect leaders of all institutions.  It’s interesting that the Oregonian–perhaps not unexpectedly–begins the article with an fallacious either-or argument.  Which rule do you live your life by:  Do not lie, or strive to be honest?  They reason that if you select “do not lie”, your ethics are somehow rooted in religion or other shame-based upbringing.  If you choose “be honest”, you have a more advanced set of personal ethics.  Thankfully, though, they allow the reader some wiggle room by acknowledging that it’s a sticky question, and one not easily or assuredly answered. 

The article seems to spend a great deal of time discussing the crossroads of religions and values.  Violence rooted in religious conviction, for example.  Or the implications that religion necessarily breeds intolerance (although there is ample sociological evidence to support that idea.)  My biggest criticism of this article is that it fails to adequately discuss the importance of ethics in our lives.  Instead, it only attempts to explain why we Educators need to maintain a personal and professional distance between themselves and their students

• Maintain integrity in their relationships with other educators
• Maintain integrity within the educational system itself

I’m not completely sure why Lewis & Clark has selected this article for required reading about ethics in school administration.  It seemed to be more bogged down in the effects of religion on our moral and ethical dilemmas than it does the actual process of resolving them.

OAR 584-020-0035:  The Ethical Educator.  The summary of this state law is:

• Maintain a professional and personal distance between the educator and students
• Maintain integrity with working with other professionals
• Maintain ethical practices within the educational realm itself.

 The Corporate Mystic:  How to Recognize a Corporate Mystic.  Some ideas I gathered from this chapter:

• Corporate mystics have a passion for the truth.  An obsession, even.
• Fairness and integrity go hand in hand.  Reduce one, and the other goes down with it.
• Self learning:  I believe that this is the heart of leadership in education. 
• Contribution:  I try to live by the values of moderation, conservation, and contribution.  I’m not surprised this is on the list.
• Spirituality:  This book references Steven Covey quite a bit, and I’m not surprised.  I valued the spiritual importance he placed in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
• Distant vision and close focus:  One of the things I appreciate about our own district leadership is that they are keeping an eye on the future without neglecting our needs of today. 
• Balance:  You can either work harder or work smarter. 

I don’t know how you do it in your state, but Oregon has six standards that are addressed within the licensure process for school administrators:

• Visionary Leadership
• Instructional Improvement
• Effective Management
• Inclusive Practice
• Ethical Leadership
• Socio-political contexts

 So, activities that I record in my practicum log must somehow fit into one of those standards.  As I mentioned before, my own professional improvement needs are in the areas of curriculum instruction.  So, I anticipate my ending portfolio to be heavy in “Instructional Improvement.” 

On another note, I haven’t posted in quite a while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had anything blogworthy come across my life.  On the contrary, I’m growing more now professionally than I have in quite a while, it’s just been tough to get my blog publisher opened up for long enough to put together a meaningful post.  My blogging life has been primarily reading and occasionally commenting to some excellent posts.  Most of my posts from here on out, at least for a while, will have to do with my practicum.  Thanks for keeping me in your reader!

Here are some random notes from our newest class, on our Saturday morning discussion.

Attendance is important!  Several students have conflicts, which we all have from time to time.  I’m thankful to be able to do this program relatively close to where I live.

Integrity:  We have several readings to work through, one of which is the Corporate Mystic.  We previously read this leadership book in another EDAD class, and it spoke a lot to the intangible issues of integrity.  How does this show up in the education setting?  Brad brought up the issue of trying to write grant proposals for programs that don’t necessarily fit the correct parameters.  Integrity is driven from within, not from without. 

“If you get an internal sense that something is wrong, check your integrity.  You can use that to gauge where you’re at.”

Integrity promotes a sense of predictability.  That is very important in an unpredictable field such as education.

Side note:  Eastern Oregon University, the campus where this class is being held, has apparently closed off their wireless internet connection to people who aren’t students or faculty.  That means no searching, tagging, etc… while we’re here.  I found a wall line to plug into in order to get on the internet, but that’s just during lunch time. 

Small group summary statement:  The predictability of a leader with integrity allows for schools and educational organizations to have something to anchor to in times of uncertainty.

How does integrity figure into your role as an educational leader?

My next class is quickly approaching this weekend: EDAD 612, Instructional Leadership. At the heart of school administration is teacher growth and development. A good, honest look at my own developmental needs as an administrator tells me that this topic, along with curriculum, are my two highest areas of needed growth. Certainly, my own learning in these two areas will take place both in this course and through my own educational pursuits.

I’ve already picked up and have begun reading through the two required books:

• Charlotte Danielson, Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework For Teaching, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Instruction, 1996.
• Sally J. Zepeda, The Principal As Instructional Leader, New York: Eye on Education, 2003.

I am quickly finding that the Danielson book especially is considered THE basis for effective teacher evaluation and retention in our schools today. And for good reason. She is able to break down the art/science of teaching into definable, empirically-derived components, and transform them into a practical, collaborative method of professional development. Good stuff.

A look through the syllabus tells me we’re going to be doing plenty of hands-on activities in order to achieve our course objectives. And that’s just fine by me. As I get older, I tend to learn less in the sit-and-get model, and more in the sit-and-discuss, stand-and-practice model. This is a 3-credit class, so I’m going to assume that the workload will be quite a bit more than our previous 1-credit classes.

My goal is to have both books read and digested, and have a good grasp of syllabus concepts before we hit our first session on Friday. I’ll post more as we go along.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, Instructional Leadership, school administration, teacher evaluation, professional growth, developement

Note:  This blog entry satisfies the requirement for “Final Reflection” for the EDAD 615 English Language Learners class.  It is in question/answer format.

Were there any misconceptions you had about ELL/immigrant students?

Not really, although I tend to get into some myopic thinking and I forget that there are other ELL students than of Mexican descent.  At my school, this is the sole minority language.  At my first administration position, though, that may be completely different.  I would then need to put together an ELL program that reflects what the school needs, and not just what I know from experience.  Confession:  I had always bought into the idea that younger children pick up language skills rather quickly.  Although they can acquire some skills surprisingly fast, it’s easy to get fooled into thinking that the language skills they do have are greater than what they actually are. 

What information was most interesting to you?

Personally, I thought that the inside to students’ thoughts and feelings the most interesting.  Coming from a counseling/psychology background, I feel that this is one of the most important considerations to running an ELL program.  If you can’t accommodate the emotional needs of the students, everything else you will become futile. 

What information do you feel most frustrated about?

We received a great deal of relevant information during the course of the class.  That said, I still feel like there is much information that I need to obtain.  Before the class, I didn’t realize there was so much to know.  Before, I was at the blissfully ignorant stage.  Now, I’m aware of the many details that need to be addressed in a comprehensive ELL program.

What do you still want to know about working with ELL/immigrant students and/or ESL programs?

I’m always in the market for school programs that cross teaching platforms, adhere to good practices, and travel well.  As I’ve seen SIOP implemented in our school, I’m eager to view that program with new eyes.  Many, if not most, of our teachers, value the program not only for our ELL students, but for the students in the general population as well. 

Note:  This entry fulfills the “Reflection” requirement for the reading of The Inner World of the Immigrant Child.  It will also be made avaiable as an APA-formatted paper for submission in class.  I may make a few changes before submitting it.

 When I was 15, my family moved from suburban Salem, Oregon to a rural corner of the state some 250 miles away.  At the time, it seemed like a culture shock, and I was certainly affected by my change of scenery at the time.  Really, though I was just an English-speaking kid moving from one (mostly) white school to another (mostly) white school in another part of the state.  I didn’t even cross state lines. 

Some 25 years later, I work in a school where roughly one third to one half of the students have family roots somewhere besides the United States.  Most of those students are either first or second generation Mexican immigrants who have had to adapt to or overcome language and cultural barriers in the school setting.  My little trek across the state when I was 15 hardly seems much more than a blip on the radar screen any more.

It is with those eyes that I read The Inner World of the Immigrant Child, by Cristina Igoa.  This is a book written by a well-educated and professionally accomplished teacher who was once herself an immigrant child from the Phillipines.  In the first half of the book, Dr. Igoa profiles some of her students, and follows them from entry in their class, their progress as struggling immigrant students, and their accomplishments through high school and into adulthood.  The counselor in me was most interested in her use of “filmstrips”, or story boards that her children used to tell a story.  Very often, these stories conveyed deeper meanings about the children’s perception of their new surroundings.  A girl from Hong Kong tells the story of the “Upside Down Morning”, in which nothing around her makes sense and she winds up exhausted after a day of these experiences.  A girl from the Phillipines draws a story of a lonely bear, and in the process conveys her own confusion and depression. 

Dr. Igoa has the rare opportunity to follow up with these students and talk about their stories through older, more mature eyes.   It was through her own PhD program that she was able to reconnect with these students and track the progress that became the material for much of this book. 

One theme that weaves through this book almost constantly is the importance of an adult-child connection to the potential success of that student.  Ioga indicates that for most of these children, that important adult is the teacher, and not a counselor or administrator in the school.  Indeed, it is the rare therapist that is able to track their students into adulthood. 

In the second half of this book, Dr. Igoa presents the importance of the Cultural/Academic/Psychological (CAP) dimensions to be addressed in an immigrant child’s development.  This three-pronged approach to working with immigrant children is vital to their success, and all three components interact with each other.  One way of validating cultural customs and norms can be accomplished by allowing children a setting in which they have previously experienced education.  “I learned that my immigrant students learn quickly if they feel ‘at home,’ not only with me but in our room,”  she explains.  That academic success improves the students’ psychological well-being, which in turn helps them grow stronger cultural roots in their new locale.

One important task that Dr. Igoa presents is that of the classroom teacher understanding the teaching environment in which the immigrant child was raised.  Do students from that country normally wait to be called on before they speak?  Are they normally punished for what we would consider to be trivial infractions?  As an educator in a school with a large immigrant population, this is a factor I hadn’t considered before now.  She also includes a chart that teachers can use to track the school environments that a child has experienced since kindergarten. 

Dr. Igoa also stresses the importance of the home-school connection in the success of the immigrant student.  I believe that this is an important factor for ALL students, but perhaps most so for children who are struggling to make those connections.  As an educator, I learned fairly early in my career that many families were more receptive to staff visits at home than if they parents needed to make that trip to school.  For a variety of reasons, there are some families that don’t come to school. 

Finally, Igoa recognizes that many students come to this country with some strengths already developed.  I was most struck by this statement:

These students have three things in their favor:  the [sic] fact that many of the schools in their native countries taught them the art of memorization; the fact that many believe that if they put in enough time and effort they will succeed; and the fact that they arrive with curious minds.

It would be fitting to close this journal reflection by commenting on the remarkable career of Dr. Igoa.   An immigrant child from the Phillipines herself, she began her career as a teacher of immigrant children.  After completing her PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of San Fransisco, she returned to the classroom to teach in a sheltered SLL program.  Her unique perspective as a former immigrant child and PhD student allowed her to create the close ties with the students who were profiled in this book, and to follow them through high school and into adulthood.  To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, she’s half educator, half professor, and half cultural anthropologist. 

NYC Educator: Mr. Bloomberg Vs. the Aliens

Here’s an interesting blog post on the state of ELL education in New York City.  It appears that a “separate but equal” approach is being taken to educating students with language needs. 

It’s time to stop penalizing our immigrant population and give them a little support. I’m sorry their test scores are low, but they DON’T SPEAK ENGLISH. They can do everything they need to do in schools, but they’ll need a little time.

Is that too much to ask?

Educating English language learners sometimes very often goes beyond providing content and support in the classroom.  It also means advocating for our students on a political level.

Technorati Tags: ELL, English Language Learners, education, student advocacy, politics