This week has been a wonderful week! I have visited 4 elementary school PTO meetings to promote my middle school and hosted a "Get to Know Us" night for the parents and students of upcoming sixth graders in our feeder pattern. It has been busy, but fulfilling.
The thing that I have found I really enjoy about my new position in this urban middle school is the marketing perspective. We are an open-enrollment district, which means that while I have a feeder pattern, students can apply to attend any school they choose; however, they must provide their own transportation (unless they are accepted into a magnet program). I spend about a third of my time during the course of each week visiting with parents, going to meetings, and promoting my school. It really is fun. I had to get to know my new campus quickly in order to do this and my personality lends itself to these types of interactions. Of course, I do spend many hours late at night or early in the morning reading emails, completing the paperwork associated with a campus of 1800 students, etc.
Tiring, but exhilarating!
9 comments:
Robin,
First, I have to ask what a “feeder pattern” is. I have never heard of this term before. I find it very interesting that your students can choose the school they would like to attend. Do you find that any particular school is more popular than other? What draws one particular student to any school?
I wish our school had this issued. I think by doing so, each school can cater to a certain type of learning type in each school which would result in a more customized schooling for students. I know you mentioned you had 1800 students. The thought of that many is simply overwhelming for me. However, I think anyone that can promote their schools on such an active basis as you do, is one that is definitely doing the job for the right reasons. In other words, many administrations simply put out fires. They are hidden in their offices until problems arise. This is when they creep out, fix the problem, and then return to their hole. Instead, as you are doing, they should be out their mingling with the school, employees, students, and parents. It does not always have to be because of conflicts that arise but rather on a more positive basis in order to build a type of “family” within the school. I applaud your efforts. I am sure you are exhausted at the end of any given day, but your school benefits in the long run.
Jenn
Robin, It does appear that you have a great job that does not just lend itself to the duties of being a principal. As you get to know staff and parents, are you able to make adjustments in curriculum or procedures for the campus or are you still tied to the process as it is in place? How are campuses identified as one of Open Enrollment?
Ivyspecial (Janis)
Sounds like you have the perfect set up. I am also inquiring about the feeder pattern. Does this mean that you have feder schools that send their students to you? IF this is so, what grades are at your middle school? Do the parents have an option for regular bus transportation if they live within your district? Is this like a charter school or is it a regular public school? HOw is your job funded. You are truly an asset because you are able to learn more about your school environment without the discipline issues. How is parental participation with you visiting?
Appolo (Stephanie)
Hi Robin,
What a great example of a good leadership style you are making. I am sure that your staff, students, and parents appreciate your hands on approach and your active interest.
I know when I was teaching, I never minded when my principal looked in on my class. If fact, I was proud of what we were doing and glad to see that she got the chance to observe first hand. It made me feel that she really was interested in me and my students and since I taught sp.ed. that was doubly important, because many times sp.ed. feels left out of the mainstream school environment.
Your approach will go far in building the bridge between school and community. Keep up the great work and make yourself take time to stop and smell the roses occasionaly!
Jam,
Our feeder pattern is the group of schools that feeds into our high school for our area. Since our district has over 300 schools, and is divided into 5 regions, each region has feeder patterns. While the feeder pattern exists, parents can still submit applications to attend outside of their zone.
We do have a school within our area that is highly sought by parents. It is by application only and serves about half the number of students that I serve. The school is a magnet for foreign languages and is truly a rival for us. It is difficult to be up against a school that has complete choice over the students who attend - it is like a private school in that way.
Ivyspecial,
I am fortunate to find the time to work on many areas simultaneously. We just finished a month long committee study of our master schedule and recommended a new schedule for the 09-10 school year to our site based committee, which accepted the recommendation. This was quite a feat since it means reducing from 24 LA teachers to 20 and increasing from 12 math teachers to 20.
Now that the new master schedule is in place, I can begin to look at moving people into more appropriate positions. We are also adding three high school credit courses for our 8th graders next year. They are Health, Speech, and Keyboarding. This move will enable students to gain some high school credits before leaving us. They are already able to earn a foreign language credit (Spanish, French, and next year we are adding Chinese) and Algebra I.
All campuses in our district are open enrollment unless their they max out their numbers within their attendance zone. That happens more at the elementary level than at the secondary level.
Appolo,
Our school is a public school, not a charter or internal charter (a designation for some charters that come under the umbrella of the district in which they are established). Our students who live more than 2 miles from campus have transportation provided to them. We are allocated funding by the number of students on our campus. Since we are completely decentralized, my budget must accommodate all personnel units, overtime, extra duty pay, stipends, supplies, transportation (outside the normal day-to-day busing), substitutes, etc. It is rather daunting to be in charge of such a large budget, since this is my first experience with this type of set-up. In my other districts, we were just given a budget for supplies.
I am fortunate to be in a very active parent zone. My parents and community are actively involved and appreciate the hands on approach with their children.
The administrator investigated the teacher practices that middle school students attend to when evaluating their classroom is mastery goal structure. After students rated each item on the mastery goal structure scale, they wrote what their teacher did or said that led them to make that choice. Students' responses to open-ended questions were coded thematically. The categories mentioned most often involved the pedagogical and affective nature of teachers' interactions with students. Recognition and evaluation practices and teachers' use of time were were also salient to students. There were no differences in the practices that students attended to in classrooms with high, compared with low, mastery goal structure.
In what kinds of classrooms will students feel most motivated to learn and understand schoolwork? Achievement goal theory perspectives address the reasons students engage in the academic behaviors they do with most attention focused on students' desires to develop competence (mastery goal orientation) and to demonstrate competence (performance goal orientation). Whereas results of studies examining performance goal orientations are mixed, how can teachers create a mastery-focused classroom? Adding to variability in perceptions, students in the same classroom are often treated differently and therefore do not experience the same educational context.
Robin,
I sounds like your job is very interesting. However, I believe that this concept is what is needed in all school, but on the high school level the principal is out of the building on some occasions and we have over 100 teachers. I wouldbe nice to have the principal or the assistant principal visit your room on a constant basis. Again, our assistant principal are always dealing with discipline.
I am sure the children just love the fact that they get to see you often.
Does this approach cut down on negative student behavior? Hopefully, this will continue, even after you have moved.
mildred
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