My Professional Development Plan

EDLD 5399: School Superintendent Internship

Section E: Three-Year Professional Development Plan – The following plan should be developed by the end of your intern/practicum experiences and based on your progress and evaluations by yourself, colleagues and site supervisor(s).

Name: __Julissa Alcantar_____________________

Goal	TExES Domain and Competency - identify Domain Name (e.g. Administrative Leadership) and Competency Number	Objective (What do you want to improve?) Describe in detail – you may use language from the Quality Indicators of the Superintendent Competencies	Course Work/Book/ Workshops (How do you want to improve?)	Mentor Professional Support (Who will help you improve?)	Date of Completion	Evaluations (How will you know you have improved?)
1	Comp 2- Vision	I want parents and students involved in making the mission statement for our school.	There are many books on making transitions, on going beyond the minimum	O. Bazan	Summer 2011	Parent comments, evaluation, teacher comments, students understanding the mission of the school
2	Comp 3- Effective Communication	I want students to have a voice that is heard in our school- ownership	We are using a program in our district to help us plan out the program, evaluate the new idea and how to structure this program	S. Mathews O. Bazan	Summer 2011	Student anonymous evaluations, Parent evaluations, Student response to events on campus
3	Comp 10- Student Services	Reduce Teen Pregnancy and early sex	Use the “It’s your game” program from UT Austin	F. Urbanosky S. Mathews T. Sapien C. Pirtle A. Arenas	2011-2012 school year	Less pregnancy scares, student evaluations of the program
4	Comp 1 and 4: Interpersonal Relationships	Pay attention to those I am interacting with- not multitasking	Focus,  book: How Full is Your Bucket, The Five Mistakes of a CEO	E. Sanchez L. Ramirez	Fall 2011	Evaluations to see if they feel I pay attention to just them when we meet, if they feel important and that I take their issues seriously.
5	Comp 1 and 4: School Board Policy	Interview Board Member of vision/ duty for GPISD	TASBO, Region 4 Supt Academy	One of the 7 board members	Fall 2011	Reflection of how I see board members, their role and if our vision is similar for GPISD
6	Comp 5: Federal Programs Admin.	Evaluate the position of the grant writer in our district	Job description, TEA discretionary grants	S. Mathews O. Bazan	Fall 2011	Learn about the position. How we determine which grants we are eligible for and how we win these grants.

Meeting with My supervisor!

I met with my site supervisor, Orphalinda Bazan, executive director of middle school and grants on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 after our principal’s meeting. We discussed my desire to get as much experience as possible during this internship and to be able to see all the aspects of Galena Park that our superintendent has to assess as he runs our district. I shared our textbook with her and explained that I looked at the examples in the book to base my activities from for my internship. She received my most updated plan via email Feb 5, 2011, though she had previously read it in draft form. She asked a few questions to ensure I included important people and to make sure I took out certain people as they are retiring and will not be accessible into the upcoming year. She liked that I included Ken Wallace and Arnold Ramirez, as they will be the new assistant superintendents and this will let me see their vision for their new roles. She also liked that I will meet with curriculum directors, especially with the STAAR test coming. She wants me to have as much dialogue as possible to ensure I am preparing for STAAR.

We both agreed that this is a living document and that if changes are necessary we can make them at the time. She doesn’t feel I will need to change the activities, but maybe some personnel who are included in the plan. As our district is changing it organizational chart, there may be new activities she wants me to include at a later date. I know there are many changes she can not discuss yet that we will face in the upcoming school year.

As far as changes to my plan, she did have me focus on areas we both agreed I need to grow in: shared decision making and building trust. Therefore, many of my activities include me either interviewing people we know have made teams grow and collaborate, as well as leaders who have had to build trust amongst their team to make gains.

We are both looking forward to seeing the results of some of these activities and how I plan to implement them into our current campus plan. I feel she is very supportive of me and will have no problem guiding me to be a better leader, think out my decisions and always put kids first.

Senator Shappiro

OMG!!! Over the past two days I have been at a conference for those of us that Raise Your Hand Texas sent to Harvard- our reunion! Two days of learning lead by our old Harvard professors and as this is a legislative year- Sen. Shappiro was our speaker at dinner last night. She spoke to us two years ago and promised that as an ex-teacher she would always look out for us and make sure she was making only the best choices for the children of Texas. WOW, how two years has changed that! How you ask? Let me explain! So she gets before a group of 300 principals/ administrators from all over Texas and tells us though she has a speech written up she is going to close it and we will instead have a question/answer session and dialogue so that we can understand what they are doing this session and we can take this info back to our staff, school districts, etc. SO the first person to go up starts by explaining he is a superintendent and on Monday night he will ask for a pay decrease and has to release 6 teachers- and mid sentence she stops him and says "So what's your question?" A big oooooo came over the room. He then said "Well I want to know what do I tell these people? How will we save teachers jobs?" She explains that she cant save teachers jobs and that she has a bill for so many things to make our lives easier. Then a man stands up and says "Well why don't you raise taxes" and she YELLS back at him "Why dont you?" and he says "How? I'm just a principal." And they yelled back and forth until another principal grabbed the mic and said "Mrs. Shappiro, Mrs. Shappiro I have a question and we are all here to help our staff." She then clicked at how poorly she as behaving and apologized for yelling and couldn't believe she got yelled at, but she does have ways to help us and that is why she is proposing so many bills.  The first is to relieve us of restrictions in regards to pesticides used as that law is telling us how to do our jobs and she wants us to focus on children. Then she states she is all for increasing the student teacher ratio to 24:1, I mean what are two more students and if your whole school averages out to the magic number you are ok. Then she was asked about preK and how we could keep it. She stated something else, but the last pat of this statement was "It's just overpriced daycare anyway!" The room was shocked. She then said our focus is on EOC, this is going to be best thing ever and she is working hard to give us a test to replace the TAKS and save the day and that IT will be rolled out. She then said we could form a committee to discuss with her more about EOC. Someone told her there is a crazy amount of money being set aside for Pearson and why must we use Pearson instead of national tests this will save money. She said that was a good idea, but they only put aside $98 million for STAAR. ONLY? We all gasped again. A principal then said "Think of  how many teaching jobs we could save! She said she can't save job rights now, we are trying to stay out of a major deficit. At this point, so many people walked out- they couldn't take it anymore. Another principal got up with a copy of the Texas Tribune and read a quote she said about "we are finally going to challenge kids" and she said she did say the first part of the quote, but did not say the "Finally" part! The crowd then started mumbling that they didn't believe her. It was so BAD! What made her think that a group of principals were going to be so excited to hear all of this! She told us not to believe everything we read or hear from the news. She told us she is working to get half of the rainy day fund out for our use. She also stated that at the end of all of this we will all be so happy that it isn't all gloom and doom like the media would like us to believe. She stated she doesn't know much about school finance and there are only three people in the house who do- another gasp. For every request we made she said she had a bill for that or that we could create a committee to meet with her. The last thing that was discussed was charter schools and how they can kick kids out and we can't and how unfair that was. You ready for this- she didn't know this was happening. And she is our voice? She chairs the committee that holds our destiny? We better get writing to get our voice heard- this is going to be a rough session! Anyone ready to go to Austin to be on a committee?? Oh one last thing- she said discretionary funds would be the first thing to go! Good luck with that!

Julissa's Updated Intern Plan

Activity # ____ You may  give the number corresponding to the 38 activities from the text to identify one of the activities.	TExES comp.#___ You must have activities that represent each of the 10 Superintendent competencies.	Summary of Activity - Describe the activity you plan on implementing or participating in during your internship – you may use any of the internship activities identified in the School Leader Internship, 2nd edition, pp. 19 – 68.	Resource Person	Projected Date to be Completed
1	Comp. 2 Vision	I plan to invite parents and students to two separate meetings to develop a new vision for the upcoming year. We will look at the district vision, make a list of our desired outcomes and then come up with a vision for the upcoming year.	Parents from my school and students from each grade level	May 2011
2	Comp. 2 Strategic Planning	We are very close to reaching exemplary status. To reach this we must improve our ESL group, science at 8th grade and to do this we need extra time. I will set up a schedule of tutorials for Saturdays to allow  each group to have time for this extra instruction.	Dept chairs, team leaders, instructional specialists and administrators	Begin in January 2011 end April 2011
3	Comp. 2 Data Collection and analysis	Interview the district director of curriculum directly involved with ensuring we are meeting the requirements under NCLB, Dollie Mayeux. I will ask what actions are being taken, what is in place and their roles to meet these guidelines.	Dollie Mayeux, Dir. Of Curriculum, Nancy Webster, Dir. Of Testing, O. Bazan Exec. Dir. Of Secondary Schools	Completion June 2011
4	Comp. 3 Effective Communication	I want to improve how students voice is heard and what is done with their input on my campus. I will survey a group from each grade level, create an advisory board comprised of two students per grade level. We will discuss their wants and needs and discuss how to achieve success for both sides.	Students, administrators on campus, my leadership group of aspiring leaders on campus	June 2011 and again Nov 2011
5	Comp. 2 Negotiating/ Consensus Building	I will review board policy and determine when it is appropriate to make top down decisions and when consensus leadership should be used. I will reflect on both styles and when to use which.	Review of policy, reflect on decisions that are being made by supt to his cabinet and the principals.	June thorugh August 2011- before starting 2011-12 school year
6	Comp 2 Collaborative Decision Making	I will attend a DPAC meeting to see how this meeting takes place, how this committee makes decisions for the rest of the district. I reflect on the leadership of this meeting, issues at hand, etc	Dr. Henry, Supt of GPISD and those in the DPAC meeting	Will attend the first meeting I am given permission to attend.
7	Comp 5: Analyzing the Curriculum	I will meet with the director of ELA to discuss how we are preparing for STAAR, changing of assessments, how she is meeting the needs of all levels, how she brings this info to the board, her bosses, how she has her team help her create the new curriculum and how it is delivered to the teachers.	Stephanie Bush, Prog. Director for ELA, GPISD	May 2011
8	Comp 5: School/ Program Scheduling	As we are having so many cut backs in personnel, I will work with my counselor to create the new master schedule to meet all the new needs of the district and the state.	Work with T. Sapien, my head counselor	May 2011-August 2011
9	Comp 5: Supervision of Instruction/ Instructional Strategies	I will observe a district program director to see how she will implement new curriculum, work with her specialists to see how she will adjust the science curriculum from k-12 to align the activities and ensure they are building on each other.	J. Elston, Program Dir. For Science	Summer 2011
10	Comp 6; Learning/ Motivation Theory	I will survey teachers on how they motivate students, as well as students on how what motivates them. I will reveal the results of both to the teachers and share with teachers so that they can hear the students voice on what we could do to motivate students more.	Teachers and 6th and 7th gr students at WAMS	Spring 2011
11	Comp 6 and 8: Learning Technology	I will interview the district technology specialist to see how she evaluates technology, determines what will fit our needs and the process to get that technology running and used on campuses.	Interview Darlene Lovinggood and Michelle Young	July 2011
12	Comp 6; Evaluation of Student Achievement/ Testing and Measurements	I will interview the director of testing to see how she analyzes data, what trends she looks for, how she reports her data to the board and the superintendent. I will also ask her to show me how she determines which software to use, how TPM affects data and what projections are expected for STAAR.	Interview Nancy Webster, Dir. Of Testing GPISD	August 2011
13	Comp 5: Supervision of Co-Curricular Education	I will interview the director of female athletics to see the progress she has seen since entering her position and where she sees girls athletics in the future. I want to discuss the funding, insurance, opportunities, scholarships and programs available for girls in GPISD.	Interview Vivian Dancy, Dir of Girls athletics, GPISD	Sept 2011
14	Comp 7: Staff Development/ Adult Learning	I will meet with the Senior Director of Staff Development to see how the district creates a year of staff development, how it is correlated to the mission statement, to get a picture of how the planning is carried out, who they contact and how it is delivered.	I will meet with Karen Sutera numerous times from May through October to see this process from start to finish.	May 2011- Oct 2011
15	Comp 10: Change Process	With the STAAR test I will meet with the Chief Of Staff to see how he will guide principals and district administrators to prepare for the change and get this group to prepare teachers. I will look for his vision, how he sets his goals and expectations and how he evaluates his growth and effectiveness.	Interview Crockett DuBose	Summer and Fall 2011
16	Comp 6: Student Discipline	As zero tolerance is a topic of much debate, I will meet with a group of students from grades 6-8 to discuss ho they see it, what changes they feel are necessary and how we can meet each other to maintain a safe school. We will also look at different situations and how the discipline was handled, as well as what other options the administrator should have considered.	Group of students from WAMS and WAES	Fall and winter 2011
17	Comp 10: Student Services	As GPISD has an increasing rate in teen pregnancy, I will work with our district to implement an abstinence program at the middle school level, evaluate the effectiveness and how they perceive the program.	Program used will be from UT: It’s Your Game, grant coordinator and teachers/students	Fall and Winter 2011
18	Comp 8: General Office Administration/ Technology	We are moving from Skyward to Web based Skyward. I will attend training for a PEIMS clerk and see and learn about this new software. I will work with this employee to see how it is used, evaluate effectiveness, ease of use, etc	GPISD Dir. Of PEIMS- Trina Wilson	Spring 2011
19	Comp 8: School Operations/ Policies	We have open enrollment in our district. I will interview the district truancy officer and see how effective it has been, how it has impacted our enrollment and growth, and what problems she sees with this program.	Interview Phyllis Hyden, GPISD truancy officer	Summer 2011
20	Comp 9: Facility and Maintenance Admin./ Safety and Security	Air conditioning is a major project in most Texas districts, I will interview our maintenance director over HVAC and see what challenges he faces, how his job has changed over the years and what changes are expected.	Interview Abi-Ibrahim, GPISD Maintenance	October 2011
21	Comp 9: Student Transportation	I plan to ride the “hardest” bus route to see the route, how we could improve the conditions, get student feedback and bus driver feedback.	Bus 258, driver and students	Sept 2011
22	Comp 9: Food Services	Survey students on food served at MS campus, desires/ preferences and write a reflection to share with the cfeteria manager	Linda Schoffield, Caf. Manager WAMS	June 2011
23	Comp 7: Personnel Procedures	Interview, Asst. Supt. of HRS, Galena Park ISD regarding hiring and dismissal processes.	Arnold Ramirez	Sept 2011
24	Comp 8: Supervision of the Budget	Interview CFO, Galena Park ISD regarding how we will conserve funds to get out of deficit, how he creates his vision and expectations he has of campus principals. Write reflection of this interview.	Mike Ball	Nov 2011
25	Comp. 3 Community/ Public Relations	I send out a monthly newlsetter. I will survey parents on this form of communication and ask for feedback, get suggestions for what they want to be seen and other modes of communication they prefer.	Parents of WAMS	Sept 2011
26	Comp. 3 Parental Involvement	We will hold two new events for parents to be with their children and increase parental involvement: Daddy Daughter dance and Mother son dance. It will be an opportunity for each group to bond with their child, get to know their school a little more and hopefully see how important their presence is in their child’s life.	Parents of WAMS students, survey of parents and students afterward	Mar 2011 and May 2011
27	Comp. 3 Climate for Cultural Diversity	We hold a multicultural festival each year in May, this year we will focus on 100% involvement of all teachers and students and add parental involvement. We will showcase each continent and something specific from each area/culture. The goal will be to embrace diversity.	Teachers, Students and parents	May 2011
28	Comp. 3 Community/ Business Involvement and Partnerships	I will shadow the CYASE worker (social worker) for my side of the district one day, attend one of her monthly meetings. We will evaluate resources available, her services, what she is allowed to do and I will reflect on her role within our schools.	Ana Vasquez, GPISD CYASE WOrker	October 2011
29	Comp 1 and 4: Position Goals and Requirements	As our district is changing, we need to create new job descriptions. I would like to interview two asst. sups who are directly responsible for doing this to see what they base this on, how this process takes place, expectations, etc.	O. Bazan and C. Murray, Asst. Supt. GPISD	May 2011
30	Comp 1 and 4: Philosophy/ History of Education	I have two teachers with 40+ yrs experience; I want to interview them on the changes they have seen in education since they started, what they have seen, etc. What they predict based on past experiences.	E. Jennings and B. Daniels, GPISD Teachers	March 2011
31	Comp 1 and 4: Ethics	I would like to meet with the paraprofessionals of WAMS to see what they feel to be ethical or not, what changes they recommend, any training they may need, etc.	13 paras from WAMS in GPISD	June 2011
32	Comp 1 and 4: Interpersonal Relationships	I want to focus on: Not multitasking when talking to an employee, accept criticism and avoid being defensive when challenged. I will Blog about how I am doing with these and what changes I have had to make to do this better.	Self, use personal Blog	All year 2011
33	Comp 1 and 4: School Board Policy and Procedures/ State and Law	Interview the superintendent on how he works with the board, how he trains them and interacts with them. I will write a reflection on how he manages this relationship and recommendations for a new supt.	Dr. Henry, GPISD Supt.	Jan 2011
34	Comp 5: Federal Programs Administration	As we transition to a new grant writer, I want to interview the new person on this process, what she has learned, where she feels she needs help and what she offers GPISD to increase the number of grants we are granted.	Sandy Mathews, Grants GPISD	April 2011
35	Comp 10: Issue and Conflict Resolution	I have a lead teacher and a very outspoken teacher. The teacher never works with the lead teacher and causes conflict. I will bring them together, work on how they can get along, the purpose for this and establish guidelines for working as a team.	R. Carrizal and K. Walker, WAMS	Feb 2011
36	Comp 6: Current Issues Affecting Teaching and Learning	STAAR is on everyone’s mind- I will compile a list of all the other issues currently affecting teachers that are obtained by a survey, I will assess the degree of importance and see if it matches what teachers feel is  important. I will then reflect on this exercise.	WAMS teachers and administrators, GPISD	May 2011
37	Comp 8: Professional Affiliations and Resources	Our newest asst. supt is a very experienced principal who is involved in so many associations. I will interview him, get his perspective on professional associations and recommendations for me as a current principal.	Ken Wallace, Asst. Supt. GPISD	June 2011
38	Comp 8: Professional Library	I will create a list of resources that will be beneficial for a future superintendent that can be of reference.	Resources online, published, etc.	Throughout the year 2011.