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Standard 6 Reflection

Seattle Pacific University's Standards for Teacher Leadership Standard 6 states that teacher leaders "communicate and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders".  Both within the classes "Communication and Collaboration" (EDU 6600) and in "Engaging Communities" (EDAD 6589) I realized the huge impact that partnering with involved parties can have on a school building.  Prior to my teacher leadership program work I felt as though I was very narrowed in on things that I felt directly related to my students and I: my student's families engagement with curriculum, communicating academics to parents, providing updates, etc.  It wasn't until I looked more broadly at the entire school community that I realize the more involved I am as a teacher and the more community outreach we do as a building, the more successful our students can be.  

One artifact that demonstrates my learning process when engaging with communities is my Community Engagement Project for EDAD 6589.  When viewing the CEP, you'll notice that I use my current school's data and surroundings along with researched based theory to analyse our community engagement, propose new areas of interest for engagement, and reflect about how culturally responsive teaching can impact our work with school and district stakeholders.  

Another artifact that demonstrates my learning in school community work is my reflection from EDU 6600, linked here.  While my Engaging Communities work looked primarily outside the walls of the school building to impact students, this reflection focuses more on working with stakeholders within the school building in order to create researched based and student focused professional development.  Linked within the reflection you will also find a school improvement plan that I created to work on some of those in-building professional development pieces.  

I have continued my work in both of these areas- both outreach from the community and student/parent centered professional development within our building.  This school year we were able to use some of the work done in the CEP to invite reading partnerships to our family literacy night.  King County library was able to attend our event and get members signed up for a library card right within our building without needing to travel to the library.  They also provided translators to assist with families that may not yet have a library card due to a language barrier.  I am also continuing to work on some items in my school improvement plan this year, especially around engaging parents in literacy with digital portfolios. I am continuing to seek feedback from parents to fine tune my literacy parent instruction to what is most effective.  Students are also continuing to goal set using digital portfolios and model videos of their reading goals for parents to see how they can support their child with reading at home.
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