This semester we took the Organization and Administration course. This course was arranged differently from the previous courses. Differently from the perspective that our team was an instructional team that had to analyze one of our team members' home school and develop an action plan for that school based on the information that was provided to us. There were some challenges and triumphs that I see contributed to this set up for our team. But most of all I think it helped me to be able to examine my standpoint and how I would deal with the scenario in real life.
Our team was arranged with a facilitator and a reporter. The facilitator served as the principal and the reporter did just that reported information that needed to be posted, similarly to a school secretary. I think that I was working with an extraordinary group of people; however, I just was not comfortable with the off-balance of the tasks and the individual team roles. For eight weeks I have only been scheduled to be the facilitator once, hence that is not until the forthcoming eighth week. So looking at the delegation of roles there was no equity among them. Consequently, when I voiced my concerns on two occasions, it was more or less ignored. But ironically, I don’t think that it was done purposely, I think that my other group members did not want to deal with it as it seemed as if I was “complaining”. So after voicing it twice I decided to let it go.
What I learned from that situation is that as an administrator it is necessary to address and rectify situations. You don’t want a member of your team feeling “left out” or that their input doesn’t matter. The feeling of being ignored when you are among a group that is suppose to come to a consensus on issues and matters can create dissension among the group or have a team member not willing to give their all. Maybe one thing that can be explored is a way for the instructor to intervene when things seem imbalanced among a group. In a school setting, when there is discord among grade levels, the school leader is responsible for balancing out the roles or settling in accuracies. But again I am not going to let it hold me back, I am just learning from experience.
One of the triumphs that I would say is that everyone has given input that I feel would really progress a schools’ academic performance. Our school of discovery is a school that did not make AYP last year. So when you are trying to determine what is the best action plan to ensure success the next time, it is not an easy task. I don’t even think it is an easy task for those that serve in the capacity of school administrators at this time. I feel that my team came up with numerous profound ideas that if put into practice it could assist the school with excelling on their next MSA testing.
One area that I would like to see more support within this course is a direction of analyzing data. This is a component that I noticed we all were below proficient in, and I think that maybe a section on how to analyze data would be useful when analyzing a plan for students.
I believe that the overall objective was to put us in a situation that was like on the job training. It was a real life situation that we were required to develop members of an instructional team and their usefulness, we were to develop activities to support our plan of action, and we were to have constructive discussions that challenged us to think and explore new thoughts from one another with the ultimate goal of how will it impact the improvement of our students’ reading scores. I earnestly feel that all of these assignments and team tasks would be needed to effectively fulfill an administrative role in a real life situation. And I appreciate the experience and feel comfortable that when I become an administrator I will have gathered tools and strategies to use to organize and administer an instructional team.
