Practicum Weekly Journal

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Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology *

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MISC

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Nursing

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Nov 24, 2024

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docx

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Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 1 PRACTICUM WEEKLY JOURNAL Name Student affiliation Course Instructor Date

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 2 Week One As posited by Barretti (2004), For most students, the field practicum is the first setting in which they are able to integrate and apply social work theory, values, skills, and knowledge under the supervision of a professional social workerr and therefore is often taken very seriously. My overall practicum experience can be categorized as the past-the lessons I learned, the present-the treasures I took away, and the future-What I can bring forward. Most people if not all do not sleep very soundly the night before the first day of school. Memories of those first day fear flooded over me the week before my Practicum experience was to begin. More than anything, though, my excitement trumped my fears. Was I excited to learn how to be a great educational leader? Absolutely. Was I excited to apply classroom knowledge to actual working conditions and environment? More than anything. But was I terrified? Like any other person, yes. However, I heard learnt a lot in the courses and I was eager to apply my newly gained knowledge and so on my first day, I reported at the H.L. Johnson Elementary School at around 12.30pm to commence my practicum experience. For the day, I was scheduled to attend a department leadership meeting that dwelled on the discussion about playground safety. The experience provided a plethora of learning opportunities. Although most of the meeting’s agendas revolved around issues affecting kids around the playground, I did not fail to take away a few things. On observation, I was impressed with the way teachers built on the ideas of one another and avoided criticisms. If an idea presented at the meeting did not sound pleasing to another, they would respectfully and boldly thank the person for presenting their thoughts and later inform them why their idea wasn’t applicable. This reminded me of the lessons involving effective listening I heard learnt before. Most people would like to think that they are good listeners, or they believe that they hear what someone is saying and are able to take it and interpret it correctly, before

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 3 responding appropriately. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that most us overestimate our abilities in this area. As a matter of fact, research indicates that we generally only listen with about 25% efficiency. This means that about three-quarters of spoken communication is lost on the average person. Instead of giving the speaker our full attention, we may be formulating a reply, or making a judgement about what they are saying, or even being distracted by what we’re going to have for dinner. This ineffective listening leads to misunderstandings and a breakdown in communication. At the meeting although I couldn’t tell the percentage of how the teachers were actively listening, one would tell by the respondents that they knew a thing or two about active listening. The second day was not very different from the first. Today, I was scheduled to attended the first ever professional learning community conference. Along with the school leadership team of nine individuals, we attended the conference with expectation to gain a wide array of knowledge. It is worth-nothing that a leadership conference can truly encourage and inspire one. undoubtedly, I returned from the conference with new ideas and ways of establishing school goals. Together as a school leadership team, we also discussed how we wanted PLCs to look on our school and briefly big school procedures like student dismissal, lunches, arrival, dismissal and grade level learning. I benefited a lot by hearing the thoughts of other leaders and receiving practical advice from them. Walking from the meeting, to some extent, I felt that I had become a better educational leader. The third and fourth day of the week mainly involved class work. On 25 th I collaborated with some members of the school board committee to create PLC smart goals. Although my work at the meeting was minimal, I chipped in whenever required and gave professional advice on some goals. Later that day, I attended an unofficial teacher evaluation training at the school auditorium just to get a glimpse of what the process

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Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 4 entailed. On Thursday, I met with two 6 th grade math teachers to look at the STAAR data from 2018-2019. The main purpose was to identify the low and high TEKS, check leaner placement in 6 th PAP classes, since they have the option for open enrolment it is important to look at the scores in order to verify correct student placement. Parents of students with scores lower than 70% (enrolled in PAP) were contacted, informed of the rigor of PAP classes, and requested to make their decision accordingly. On the last day of the week, I joined two administrators in one of their offices to conduct a test data analysis and communicate the results to staff so as to provide a comprehensive picture of every child. The subgroup analysis allowed us to ensure that all student populations were achieving at similar rates. This attempted to eradicate the achievement gap, where one group achieved more than the other. We also looked for possible bias in data collection but none was found. Week Two The second week was exactly everything I expected it to be, perhaps even more. The previous week, I was assigned to facilitate a professional development session scheduled on Monday of the present week. The session was with elementary school teachers and so I walked in to the venue confident for I had prepared a lot to impart on these teachers who by the looks craved for knowledge. Just as teachers design lessons with leaner needs in mind, facilitators of professional development design learning experiences with adult needs in minds. During the session I majored on various growth areas such as innovation, communication, adaptability and pedagogical learning. Adapting one of Jennifer Gonzalez’s discussion strategies for adults, I provided teachers with protocols and structures for reflection time with colleagues. To comment on the session, I would say it was a great success something that I am more than proud of. With this newly gained knowledge, I hope to plan and implement regular professional developments for my staff and colleagues.

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 5 For the remaining days of the week, I engaged in other activities like participating in an ARD committee and facilitating a 6 th grade meeting and called parents about the online grade book. After the class meeting, I sat with one of the leaners who was struggling academically. The aim of meeting with the leaner was to try and figure out the issue he encountered that saw him perform miserably in his class work. Although all these experiences were fulfilling, none of them marched that of Wednesday 31 st May. As mentioned earlier on, school budget allocation and planning are not my strong suit. This is partly due to the fact that I am terrible with figures and I find math tiresome. So, on Wednesday when I met with the principal and dept. head for initial budget preparation, I was very skyed. A budget is a financial plan. In general sense is a projection (forecast) of what will happen financially if certain strategies and decisions are implemented. In the context of school management, the purpose of budgeting includes the following (i) a tool for decision making; (ii) a means to monitor school performance; and (iii) a forecast of income and expenditure. At about 10.00am the principal, his deputy, department heads and teachers and I began working on the initial budget preparation. Prior to the meeting, the principal noted that the school budget supported the day-to-day operations and development needs. He added that the basic resources and services needed, such as utilities, catering, teaching staff and ground maintenance must take priority. Funding to support the school improvement plan should be allocated once operational costs have been apportioned. In an educational environment, budgeting is an invaluable tool for both planning and evaluation. Budgeting provides a vehicle for translating educational goals and programs into financial resource plans-that is, developing an instructional plan to meet student performance goals should be directly linked to determining budgetary allocations. The link between instructional goals and financial

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 6 planning is critical to effective budgeting and enhances the evaluation of budgetary and educational accountability. During the meeting, the principal welcomed and supported suggestions/recommendations from teachers through Dept. Heads. The school budget planning is a cyclical process and each stage feeds into the next for a considered, informed and realistic budget. The process would follow five major steps begin from the review of the past budget performance and benchmarking. The process then heads to need analysis (day to day + strategic plan) and budgeting. After an analysis has been done, a forecasting and ‘what if analysis’ is conducted. Once these are done a final budget is set and implemented. Finally, the budget is evaluated for its effectiveness in attaining the organization's stated goals and objectives. Evaluation typically involves an examination of how funds were expended, the outcomes that resulted from the expenditure of funds, and the degree to which these outcomes achieved the stated objectives. This phase is fundamental in developing the subsequent year's budgetary allocations. In effect, budget preparation not only is an annual exercise to determine the allocation of funds, but also is part of a continuous cycle of planning and evaluation to achieve the stated goals and objectives of the organization. Although I only got to witness the first two steps, I am glad the principal worked me through the five steps of budget planning. Because the activity ended earlier for the administrators had to attend to other official business, I was referred to the financial secretary to gain more information concerning budgeting. Here I got to view some of the previous budgets and a few other documents that I thought would be helpful for my practicum experience. Week Three

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Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 7 Heading to the third week of my practicum I had actually learnt a lot of things and I was hungry to learn more. To begin the week, I attended and assisted with planning for tomorrow…today program at the PAC in Kyle. I assisted the director of Guidance with this evening program for 8th graders through 12th graders. We set up breakouts with ACC programming, booths with our CATE Teachers, and meetings with counsellors. The following day, in collaboration with the school principal and some few board members we worked on the school improvement project that aimed to eradicate some of the major issues encountered by both the teachers and the students. Generally, a schoolwide program is a comprehensive reform strategy designed to upgrade the entire educational program in a Title I school. Its primary goal is to ensure that all students, particularly those who are low- achieving, demonstrate proficient and advanced levels of achievement on state academic achievement standards. This schoolwide reform strategy requires that a school: (a) Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment; (b) Identify and commit to specific goals and strategies that address those needs; (c) Create a comprehensive plan; and (d) Conduct an annual review of the effectiveness of the schoolwide program and revise the plan annually or as necessary. A school improvement plan is aligned to the district strategic improvement plan and serves as the strategic and operational plan for the school. The school strategic improvement plan is developed and updated using a continuous improvement process. The following documents were the school SMART goals as identified in the school- wide improvement plan: Parent involvement, technology, language acquisition (defined for each grade level), Mathematics (defined for each grade level) and Reading (also defined for each grade level). On the issue of parent involvement, the school agreed to increase parent involvement. The school agreed to contact 5 or more parents/ guardians per week regarding positive feedback on student achievement &/or behavioral successes, to make at least 1

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 8 personal contact w/ a parent/ guardian per month regarding positive feedback on student academic &/or behavioral successes and to provide a minimum of 4 family enrichment opportunities per year ensuring that 50% (or greater) of the student body families are represented. Regarding technology, H.L. Johnson Elementary School teachers/staff will differentiate and personalize instruction to develop the skills of students to use technology effectively for problem-based learning, as well as maintain focus and involvement in the Language Arts and Mathematics lessons. For Math, All H.L. Johnson Elementary School students will show a gain of 1 rubric level (Grades K-1) per classroom assessment opportunity and/or earn a “3” (benchmark) by the end of the 2007-2008 school year. The following day as I had no official business, I reported at the school premises at around 10.00am with the sole aim of walking the halls. Today I took some time to simply walk the halls and look at classes with a simple question “what are students physically doing?” Out of 25 core academic classrooms, 23 had students sitting, taking notes; two were moving or having kids do something at groups cooperatively; of the unified arts classes 4 of 6 were moving around. On Thursday I sat in the principals’ meeting with two 7 th grade teams. This was a great meeting, because if the child study team was able to convey some of the goals and thoughts we discussed to the staff, it would definitely change the way many people view students and instruction. On Friday, with the help of the 7 th grade teacher, I put up alpha rosters for schedule pick-up for all leaners on the first day of school. Leaners would pick up their schedule and then report to their homeroom for the entire first day. Week four This week was more of an ‘’interaction week.’’ On Monday I met with the director of the senior project program to establish the calendar of the school year. The Senior Project has provided a great opportunity for those seniors who chose to participate in an internship during

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 9 the last term of their senior year. Three years ago, the principal worked with a voluntary committee to develop this program. People in the community who serve as “mentors” really enjoy having a senior work with them. This gave me a great opportunity to understand how a simple idea can be formulated into a strong program. Certain obstacles overcome. This experience showed me that when someone believes in a “special idea”, it can happen. The following day, to be able to understand the essence of school leader-parent communication, I was tasked with the duty of preparing the principal’s newsletter to be emailed to all parents. In collaboration with the Dept. heads, we were able to successfully structure the letter and got it signed by the respective seniors. The composition of this letter was wide and included such things as the student handbook, student behavior and conduct, school calendar and activities among others. I worked on formatting the letter and stamping the letters. I hope to apply my new gained skill in my educational leadership path. I also prepared agenda for faculty meeting, reviewed how the school promoted teaching and learning that recognizes learning differences, multicultural awareness, gender sensitivity, and appreciation of ethnic diversity. I enjoyed engaging on all the above activities, however, the most robust activity of the week in my learning experiences as a leader was networking with other school administrators and discussing conflict resolution strategies. Usually when people think of networking, what usually comes to mind is networking online or with people outside of their organization say an industry event or a tradeshow. But what about internal networking? Many leaders both organizational and educational, tend to ignore the power of internal networking. While external networking helps us grow our connections to professionals outside of our organization (of course that was among my aims), networking with coworkers helps us grow and strengthen connections with professionals inside our organization-with the added benefit of increasing productivity and engagement internally. Internal networking is something many

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Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 10 of us do naturally every day. As posited by numerous research, anyone looking to climb the professional ladder need to learn how to network. For school leaders, networking provides a sounding board for leading change and a safety net for providing support. Every line of work has its own unique roadmap to the top, and this school wasn’t an exception. However, learning how to navigate that road, with all its twists and turns, can be a daunting task. Keeping in mind the importance of a mentor in networking I took along my practicum mentor as well as supervisor Mr. Robert McLaurin. I knew that my mentor had already established a network of relationships with key professionals, so his role in my mentoring partnership stood very similar to the role of a personal manger or agent in the life of a Hollywood megastar. As my agent, my mentor had contacts that really helped me. He helped me develop connections with administrators some of whom I had earlier met – but where’s was the harm? After my interaction with the administrators, I opted to find out the various conflict resolution methods that they employed in their various departments. I have worked many jobs to know that whether you are a leader or subordinate workplace conflicts affect all of us. I was eager to find out various strategies used to manage and resolve conflict between teachers and school leaders. My findings indicated that major causes of conflict were either; institutional, work or leadership related. Major conflict management strategies included; building leadership skills, following rules and regulation, embracing change, wise allocation of recourses, involvement in decision making, providing opportunities for training, and understanding individual differences and roles, in case of disputes, techniques included; discussions, punishing, forcing, compromising, avoidance, and ignorance. My research concluded that school leaders need to understand the sources of conflicts and have a mechanism in place for staff to voice their concerns. Additionally, leaders need to

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 11 continuously build leadership competences, be open to change, involve and provide staff with opportunities for growth. Besides, schools’ leaders should look for ways to acquire and expand funding sources. Week Five For the final week, I conducted a program review of a special curriculum program by interviewing teachers and students who participated in the program. I later developed a practical action plan for evaluating the effectiveness of the program in improving student achievement. additionally, through informal class visits, I Conducted teacher observations and made suggestions for improvement in instruction. The following day I reviewed the school’s student achievement monitoring and reporting system including student-grading processes. The endeavors of public and private education to describe student learning have been awkward. Descriptions have included academic letter grades, numerical systems, conference reports as well as other procedures, none of this was successful. From yet another angle, the use of standardized tests to explain student progress has never been provided adequate definition of the educational product. However as posited by the school principal, a recent development shows some genuine promise- the student achievement monitoring (SAM) system. As I reviewed the system, I couldn’t stop myself from being amazed. This was no ordinary system, rather it was an approach to assessment that tailored test content to curriculum and reported data in small bits of information related to specific learning components. The school’s system doesn’t teach; it doesn’t restrict or determine curriculum; it doesn’t replace teachers; it doesn’t assess teacher; it does none of the ominous things often associated in the public mind with computers in education. It is a record keeper, an extensive holder of data about the past and present performance of leaners on a set of instructional

Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 12 objectives. Truly, the system was magnificent. The experience with the system changed my mindset on using standardized test to measure leaner progress and achievement. On Wednesday I did nothing but hold a ddiscussion with Principal on the reasons why teachers consistently reported late to work. I had observed that most of his staff members particularly the second-grade teacher came in late most of the time and at one time i walked on them in his office as he addressed the matter. My main aim for this wasn’t to be nosy but rather I opted to find out how the principal handled difficult conversations with teachers such as the issue of reporting late. According to Elizabeth Freedman, assistant principal at the institution, ‘’ the most challenging conversations with employees are the ones that go beyond simple fact-based discussions to touch on topics more sensitive or personal in nature – and ones that were left to fester over time. “These are often related to performance, lack of advancement, letting people go, aspects of behavior that are more nuanced like demeaner, hygiene or attitude,” she says. How a leader handles difficult conversations can have a huge impact on their relationship with their team. A poorly-handled conversation can erode trust, and negatively impact morale and productivity – and that means your team isn’t reaching their goals. As I learnt from the principal, a n important component of a difficult conversation is figuring out what you want to say and why – but you’ll also want to take a minute to think about the when and where. Once that is all done, the conversation becomes quite easier and it is unlikely that the person become annoyed. On Thursday I was lucky enough to be part of the committee chosen to plan staff development opportunities in the school. During the training session, I came to a realization that adopting a trauma-sensitive approach schoolwide requires significant and ongoing investment in professional development to ensure that the entire staff has the knowledge and skills to support students who are affected by trauma. I learnt that effective staff development

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Running Head: PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE REFLECTION AND SUMMARY 13 requires adequate facilities, including time, staffing, facilities, equipment and funding. On the final day of my practicum experience, I participated in perhaps the most significant process for any institution- the recruitment process. After reviewing the teacher substitute policy, I was invited to help conduct job interviews for teachers. During this process I noted that conducting teacher-interviews was not an easy task especially for first-time interviewers like myself. However, as I came to realize later, the most significant trait required to conduct an interview is self-confidence. One must be very smart and friendly. Because, on our attitudes and first impression, the candidates first impression and attitude changes.

Practicum Weekly Journal

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