COURSEWORK | digitalportfolio

GSE Coursework

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Building Positive School Culture

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Student Voice and Choice

This course dramatically changed the way I conceive of the role of students in the development of all programs related to schooling, particularly curriculum development and social/emotional learning.

I reached out to former students to interview them about their experiences with IEPs, and to elicit their ideas about changing the IEP process to put students at the center of the dialogue.

Equity, Diversity, and Design Principles

This course had a powerful impact on my perception of my work, and in particular, the lens through which I view the IEP process.

For my Put-It-To-Practice, I explored the topic of access to the IEP process for non-English speaking families.

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In this course we honed and developed skills to effectively facilitate adult learning and group decision making.

For my Put-It-To-Practice, I chose to facilitate an action group around the topic of Professional Development for Inclusion Specialists.

In this course we explored and refined our perceptions of "progressive" education and "work that matters."

For my Put-It-To-Practice, I met with a group of teachers and Inclusion Specialists to discuss how to support students who are on a "modified curriculum" with the creation of meaningful work that matters.

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Leadership

for School

Change

In this course we identified and implemented one small step toward powerful leadership for school change.

For my Put-It-To-Practice, I interviewed my colleagues to try and find common ground regarding our dreams for Inclusion at High Tech High. A colleague and I then embarked on a journey that began by looking at "bright spots" and resulted in an exciting change at his school site.

School

Design

In this course we learned about five elements of school design by exploring the following questions: who are the students? who are the faculty? what are they doing? where are they? how are they governed?

For my Put-It-To-Practice, I designed The Community School, where students and teachers serve, support, and shape the surrounding community by engaging in projects that are co-designed by teacher and student.

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Mentoring and Coaching

In this course we explored the art of mentoring and coaching, and worked to articulate and define our own unique "style" as Instructional Leaders and Coaches.

For my Put-It-To-Practice I experienced being coached by my critical friend, and I also had the opportunity to act as her coach. Together we experienced powerful coaching moments and we had the opportunity to learn from our mis-steps!

Using Data to Inform Practice

This course involved an exploration of data. We explored our own answers to the following questions: What data matters? How can we use data to inform practice in our schools? How can we share data from our schools with various stakeholders? How can we facilitate dialogue to keep the focus on what matters most?

For my Put-It-To Practice I facilitated an action group to look at exit card data from a recent Professional Development meeting of Inclusion Specialists. We used the data to cleary define next-steps for our Inclusion website.

School

Budgeting

In this course we explored the complex world of public school finance. We explored California's complex school finance history, and we learned about strategies that saavy school leaders employ when developing a school budget. The timing of this course coincided with governer Jerry Brown's new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) which represents a dramatic change in school finance in California.

For my Put-It-To Practice I devloped a Local Control Accountability Plan based upon actual LCFF funds available to one of our schools! This was real-world learning at its finest!