Visionary Planner

Artifacts for Standard 2

Leaders engage others in establishing a vision, strategic plan and ongoing evaluation cycle for transforming learning with technology.

Education leaders:

  • Engage education stakeholders in developing and adopting a shared vision for using technology to improve student success, informed by the learning sciences.
    • Willard Middle School (WMS) Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math (STEAM) STEAM Day: As part of the innovative administration team at WMS, I had the pleasure of engaging educators in developing our first-ever STEAM Day event for the last day of the 2020-2021 school year. Our STEAM event encompassed all content areas, and students were able to show their success in multiple challenges depending on the classes they attended on the last day of school. Using vetted lessons that included coding software and computational thinking skills, our educators adopted a shared vision for a legendary day that is a tradition at WMS.
    • Willard WILD School Framework: WILD is an integral part of Willard’s brand and its shared vision. WILD stands for wonder, impact, lead, and develop. Our administration team came up with the instructional framework for a WILD school to brand district initiatives like personalized learning (PL) and project-based learning (PBL) into a Wildcat’s dream.Engaging our stakeholders in developing and adopting a shared vision for instruction that encompasses PL, PBL, performance-based assessments (PBAs), and relevant instructional technology has vastly improved our students’ success in collaboration and critical thinking skills.

 

  • Build on the shared vision by collaboratively creating a strategic plan that articulates how technology will be used to enhance learning.
    • Willard WILD School Toolkit: Our shared vision of a WILD school became a strategic plan. I created that WILD School Toolkit that includes an educator assessment to articulate how WILD school components can enhance learning. Educators evaluate to determine where they are on a professional learning continuum, set a goal, and use the toolkit of resources to achieve that goal.
    • 5C Teacher Continuum and Toolkits: The above idea led to a district-wide adaptation that I got the pleasure of collaborating with the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Deeper Learning Office. The linked resource for all educators is centered around the strategic plan of the Profile of a Graduate. This collaboration is now published to our district and allows educators to self assess where they are on the professional learning continuum for each of the 5Cs and offers a robust bank of resources to move along that continuum when integrating communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creation, and contribution into their lessons.

 

  • Evaluate progress on the strategic plan, make course corrections, measure impact and scale effective approaches for using technology to transform learning.
    • Belmont Ridge Middle School (BEM) Needs Assessment: As part of the school team that attended the Needs Assessment and School Improvement Planning session hosted by Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) for administrators, I was able to compile and analyze data from the School Climate Survey, BrightBytes Survey, Standards of Learning (SOL) scores, discipline data, and walkthrough data. Analyzing this relevant data from all school community stakeholders allowed the team to develop a needs assessment and create a strategic plan for successful learning and development at Belmont Ridge Middle School (BEM). This strategic plan led to creating a one-to-one classroom model for Chromebooks a year before LCPS provided this transformed learning experience to all students.
    • Willard Fall Learning Walk Guidelines: As part of Willard’s opportunities to measure the impact of the personalized professional development (PD) model, teachers found it beneficial to offer the activity of classroom learning walks. To facilitate this request, I created a schedule and guidelines for participating in learning walks with one other teacher colleague for the Fall/Winter 2019-2020 school year. Our aim in creating these guidelines was to provide a job-embedded opportunity for teachers to support one another in promoting transformative PL strategies in all Willard classrooms.

 

  • Communicate effectively with stakeholders to gather input on the plan, celebrate successes and engage in a continuous improvement cycle.
    • School Improvement Project: Fostering continuous improvement begins with empowering teachers to seek personalized job-embedded opportunities for learning and growth. My principal and I co-developed a playlist of PD options for the staff at BEM. I invented a website to help teachers locate PD opportunities and track their progress so that teachers could individually and systematically achieve outcomes envisioned for each of their students.

 

  • Share lessons learned, best practices, challenges and the impact of learning with technology with other education leaders who want to learn from this work.
    • Super Empowering Learning with Personalized PD Playlist: To develop the capacity for personalized PD options for teachers, I presented on BEM’s personalized PD playlist and website at the Virginia Society of Technology Educators (VSTE) Conference 2017. I gave this content in a personalized playlist format that allowed attendees to build opportunities and support for their teachers from multiple perspectives.