Internship Reflection Aleah Al-Sad University of St.

Thomas Competency 1 Shaping campus culture and developing a strong, unified campus vision seems to be the most difficult competency that any principal can undertake particularly a first-year principal. However, Ms. Ruiz has done an incredible job working to get all of our key stakeholders and team players on board to ensure that we are all on the same page, working towards the same goal. She has worked tirelessly to communicate with parents, meet with families and staff members as they need her, include all parties in major decision-making, and invite all stakeholders to express their opinions at all times. The amount of parent participation in monthly Coffee With The Principal meetings, the amount of support received for a first-annual Fall Festival, and the amount of willingness by staff members to contribute to campus events is unprecedented. Ms. Ruiz has developed relationships with all on campus, and this has helped her slowly build and create a united campus culture that will eventually be unstoppable. By keeping these individuals involved in all planning processes, it is easier to collaborate on the greater development of our campus. Competency 2 Communicating and collaborating with all members of the school community is a competency that Ms. Ruiz was already familiar with upon taking over Stevenson MS, but it came as a shock to her when she realized that not many staff members were comfortable with collaboration. This is a competency that she has worked hard to implement on campus regularly. By keeping an open-door policy, Ms. Ruiz has established that she is willing to listen, gather input, manage conflict, and communicate clearly with anyone who seeks to speak with her. She actively communicates with neighboring elementary and high schools, and she has developed relationships with community members surrounding Stevenson MS in order to establish partnerships that can contribute to our schools success. She sends out weekly Dragon Highlight emails to all staff members to keep

everyone abreast of upcoming events and important news, and she encourages teachers to send her information to include in these bulletins as well. Ms. Ruiz is not afraid to communicate at any time, and she has shown me how important this can be to gain trust from staff members. Competency 3 In my reflection of competency 3 a competency that expands on the need for a principal to act with integrity and fairness in all decisions I thought immediately of several incidents that have occurred on campus that Ms. Ruiz has had to mediate and manage recently. In our school community, gossip travels fast even among parents and relatives. When a group of parents approached Ms. Ruiz regarding a student unrelated to them, Ms. Ruiz had to act immediately and make it known that she was not going to breach her own ethics and morals by discussing another parents child with a group of strangers. She made it clear that she was an advocate for every child, and she would conduct her own investigations in order to determine any wrongdoing. She only operates based off of facts, not emotion or hearsay. This is an incredibly important competency to develop for all principals, as this can even lead some to legal trouble if not addressed properly. Competency 4 One of the newest initiatives on campus this year is to ensure that every lesson, unit, assessment, and activity is accurately aligned in order to guarantee student success. Ms. Ruiz has a laser-sharp focus on curriculum alignment, and appraisers check lesson plans regularly in order to provide feedback and ensure that all are on track with pacing calendars developed by each department. Ms. Ruiz participates in department meetings often to encourage creative thinking and problem solving when teams are at an impasse with instructional delivery, and she is often a resource that department heads depend on when they cannot seem to resolve an issue with curriculum. It is clear with this competency that campus curriculum planning is much easier to accomplish when the campus leader has already developed and nurtured a collaborative culture amongst the entire staff.

Competency 5 The following sub-competency under Competency 5 is the most evident on our campus: the principal uses formative and summative student assessment data to develop, support, and improve campus instructional strategies and goals. The term data has been thrown around often recently in the field of education, and many teachers claim to use data regularly in their classrooms but I have never seen our campus use data to truly drive instruction the way that we do now. Ms. Ruiz has taught our staff how to collect and analyze data, and then how to use this data in order to adjust course, edit pacing calendars, and create targeted interventions. Common assessments, often used as quick check points, are distributed every two weeks in each subject. These assessments are scanned quickly, and data is available immediately for teachers to view and analyze for their instructional purposes. In this way, students are also receiving continuous feedback on their learning. I have so much respect for the way Ms. Ruiz has brought this element of using data to drive instruction onto our campus. Competency 6 Ms. Ruiz has a strong pulse on her staff members; she can tell when there is misunderstanding regarding the appraisal system or assessment requirements or Special Education modifications. She meets with teacher teams regularly, which allows her to gather information on their professional development needs. Once she has determined what her staff members are missing, she arranges to have this addressed at the next faculty meeting. She also meets regularly with campus leadership including department heads in order to find out how she can better align professional development opportunities to campus and staff goals. We have recently begun meeting with entire grade-level academies every Friday to provide a short inservice in order to assist teachers in their growth. Ms. Ruiz does an excellent job of diagnosing campus health and morale in order to provide a remedy. Competency 7

There have been many opportunities for me to observe Competency 7 in Ms. Ruizs daily agenda, but one large activity stands out to me as a true representation of this Competency. We decided, as a campus, to host our first annual Fall Festival for our students, parents, and surrounding community members in order to build partnerships and develop better relationships with all stakeholders. This event was a huge undertaking as it had never been done before, and many staff members were unsure where to start in the planning process. Ms. Ruiz was determined to make this successful, and she quickly formed a committee of parents and staff members that were excited and willing to develop ideas for the festival. After meeting with this committee, Ms. Ruiz delegated the tasks of budgeting, organizing, and logistics to various staff members on campus in order to plan this event. She knew immediately who the right individuals would be for the task, and all details were planned in advance. The Fall Festival was a huge success, with raving reviews not only from students but also from the teachers who were monitoring the event all afternoon. This event contributed to the positive culture on our campus, and Ms. Ruizs organizational skills helped it to happen. Competency 8 Budgeting is an integral part of any functioning campus, and Ms. Ruiz immediately closed gaps and trimmed the fat from our budget as she stepped into her role as Principal over the summer. Positions were closed if the courses did not hold more than 10 students; overtime and extra duty pay procedures were written out in detail so that no staff member was receiving extra funds without proper documentation; a complete overhaul of campus textbooks was facilitated in order to determine if we needed to order more books or reuse the ones that we had. Though these are small actions, they had a big impact on the budget. By hiring a budget manager, Ms. Ruiz was able to truly comb through the finances with the help of one who is experienced in the field of financial management. With the extra funds saved from the actions above, our campus was able to make many large purchases of curriculum and resources that have positively impacted instruction. Competency 9

Above all else, student safety and wellbeing comes first before any other priority on campus. Ms. Ruiz ensures that all administrators and plant operators have a radio on hand to communicate quickly about any issue in the building that may arise. Regular drills are held to ensure that all staff members are aware of drill procedures that must take place. Crisis planning is often discussed during admin meetings, and Ms. Ruiz works hard to ensure all federal laws and policies are followed in any action taken towards school programs and operations.