School Instructional Leadership: Seminar and Practicum
T-330
10.14.15
Notes by student in the course
Class starts with Happy Birthday song to people who have had birthdays in the last
few days.
This is Class 6: Family Engagement, the second class of a 2 class unit on family
engagement.
Review of plus and deltas from last class
“ask for consultancy volunteers ahead of time” – the teaching team did ask ahead of
time. This is something that happens often and a stance to take as a leader is to
recognize that you have to say most things “nine times”
PAL 4 – we will talk to someone near you about your dive into PAL 4
Thinking of the project that we will complete is Step 4, but the PAL starts with
focusing on family and community involvement – trying to figure out learning needs.
Moving through the steps will help us access what already exists, and then together
with the working group we will create a plan. For this to be meaningful it takes time,
need to start early. The group we want to start convening this fall.
You will devise multiple strategies, but for the PAL you are only implementing 1
strategy.
Good advice has been to link PALs together. Can you invite group and families to join
the work you are already doing for another PAL?
Yes – but it has to be authentic engagement from the other stakeholders
Turn and talk, how are you thinking about this?
Michael S. – a struggle is going to be forming the working group.
Sarah – Who could you go to for ideas about how to involve families? There are
often a few teachers who have great working relationships with families.
Michael F. – in many communities there are organizations that are working where
families are already tightly connected, there may already be some organized set of
parents that you can tap into
Aleesha – office of family engagement in BPS has been very helpful, principal has to
invite them in and they ran elections for school parent council.
10.14.15
1
Annice – a member in the Ed.L.D. cohort has done a lot of work in BPS in family
engagement
You have time to start it, but if you haven’t started it before the December break it
gets harder.
Learning targets –
Working with families across differences
Applying concepts in role-play
Facilitation feedback
Reminder of revised norms, a follow up conversation about how we embody these
This course is intended to give breadth and not a depth of topics. Another goal of the
class is to give you resources you could use with staff immediately, many articles
from professional principal magazines to be used in practical ways.
Marques – Off topic, but Friday was a good day for SLP. Jim won second place in his
contest and OLS 3 was good shit.
Sarah – Thanks for sharing kudos. Set a new standard for OLS.
Family Engagement Across Differences
-discuss articles
Protocol for discussing articles – come up with a newspaper headline for each
article.
How do articles shed light on working with families across differences? What is
difference between co-producing with parents and seeking buy-in for
predetermined vision?
Groups posted different headlines from the articles we read.
Matt – there is a time investment with co-producing that you have to structure in.
People are worried about time investment of bringing parents “up to speed”
Nick – a lot of time we think already have a plan for what we think what needs to
happen, but if you don’t have the feedback from all stakeholders, then you wont
have buy in
Lorena – you can co-produce from parents by getting a true understanding of what
their vision is, as a school leader you have to be constantly working on hearing
parents stories
Danielle – you’re not the one setting the vision, you’re allowing the families to do it
since they should have a vision for their kids, not just saving the kids or schools
10.14.15
2
Alley – when I held a lot of IEP meetings and walked the long way to my office to talk
to them, an opportune time for co-producing
Tremain – producing allows things to grow, for something to grow you need a
thought partner for it to flourish
Mike R. – there are times when you may just want to seek buy-in for your vision.
There are times when you have a non-negotiable and when you need to just get buyin.
Sarah – the teachers said we need shared values that we teach in our school. The
teachers were all building in teams and committees, families not involved in the
process
Mike C. – context that schools by and large are failing students, there is already a lot
of distrust with schools and systems so I’m skeptical for a leader to sweep in and try
to get buy-in and not earning trust. How do you go about it without a co-producing
model?
Kristie – why not have them produce it with you? As a school leader, as much you
want the buy in from the community, you need to have some things slated as it
relates to your own vision for what you want to have happen. Reminded of TFA
vision of classroom, I wrote a vision that was different from my school. We can’t lose
who we are in our vision. You can be influenced by and motivated by other
stakeholders. Do people lose themselves in the co-producing?
Justin M. – a time when we all learned about integration of South Boston HS. If
leaders had tried to co-produce the integration would not have happened. Parents
often know more than us, but there are things that teachers know that parents don’t
know.
Sarah – when would that be?
Rachel B. – new math is a prime example, we know that this is deeper
understanding that parents don’t understand and often push back. I heard once a
radio show of a woman who was being killed by being pulled in different familial
directions. She was told to create her own culture. This applies to schools also. You
have to create your own culture in a school, the creation of a joint culture which is
where the power is.
Justin M. – if I knew that I wanted to experiential labs that’s a decision I’ve made, not
something that I want to co-produce
Alex – if we were to take sound-bites “parents don’t understand” what would that
sound like? The expectation is when you open that up and offer it then the
10.14.15
3
communication channel is freed. These are not mutually exclusive. I’m a white man
trying to start a charter school in Hawaii, and this is where I am. You have to be
about something and have a vision, though this vision, coproducing and weaving
together then we are able to work together to build a school.
Annice – think about what are your underlying assumptions when you are working
with people, family funds of knowledge; may or may not have the formal education
but when you’re working with people what is the self check
Justin M. – co-producing would be come together and lets create this experience
together, but for something like a curriculum model that would be too cumbersome
Justin R. – you should be weary of is only listening to parents who are showing up.
Seek voices still on norms?
Michael F. – even as people of color going into communities of color I have to put
mirror in my face and say that I don’t understand every aspect of the community.
Rachel A. – I keep thinking about who is the user of the school, who does the school
serve? It’s not there for the leader or the teachers. In whatever way it’s always
important to look at what they want to see there. Maybe not in how you teach but in
what you teach too.
We talked about dual-capacity framework, there needs to be respect for the
expertise in both the professional and the family. The problem is making sure we
maximize the space of co-producing.
Preparing for Simulations/Role Play
In small group (45 min)
Analyze case, discuss short and long term goals, feedback for facilitator
In case group (30 min)
Come together with all the people who read your case.
Role play scenario, debrief insights from role plays, discuss short and long
term goals
There are many different pieces, so we want to give you time to reflect. What are
your takeaways from these cases? What questions does this work raise for you?
What are dilemmas we haven’t solved that you see at your practicum? What are
implications for making your PAL 4 work meaningful?
The case included 2 questions to think about – what could I say to reduce the feeling
of vulnerability?
10.14.15
4
Preview Next Week
This Sunday your next unit reflection is due, a chance to connect with at least one
reading and connections to practicum sight.
Michael is showing exactly where to put the reflection. By Sunday night you have to
post your first unit reflection. And by Wednesday you need to respond to their
posting.
End of every unit should have 2 discussions.
It’s all exactly as listed in the syllabus.
You can put your name on the unit reflection.
Prepare for systems paper – opportunity for peer support.
Bring in whatever you have so far: an outline, an idea, questions
The assignment is not due until 10/30 but the more you can bring to share the more
helpful feedback you can get.
10.14.15
5