Educational Administration Artifact Reflection

Artifact Title: Mini-Change Project

Date of Experience Completed: January-April 2016

Artifact Description:
My artifact is a Mini-Change Project that I assisted in creating for the
Darlington Community Schools during the Systems II Module of the
Educational Administration two-year masters program at the University of
Wisconsin-Platteville. Darlington Community Schools Athletic Code is
currently outdated and raises areas of concern. A team of administrators,
coaches, and supervisors have volunteered to make changes to the schools
athletic/activities code in hopes to offer greater amounts of positive
opportunities, strict guidelines, and equality for students participating in
extracurricular activities.

Wisconsin Administrator Standard Alignment:

This Mini-Change Project best aligns with Wisconsin Administrator Standard 7
which states: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes
the success of all students by understanding, responding to, and influencing
the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
This Mini-Change Project best aligns with Standard 7 because it
demonstrates competency in recognizing the importance of a variety of
ideas, values, and cultures in affecting education amongst decision makers
and the importance of continuing dialogue among the school community
concerning trends, issues, and potential changes in environmental school
operations. The artifact also demonstrates competency in modeling
strategies of change and conflict resolution as applied to the larger political,
social, and cultural impacts of schooling and the school community working
within the framework of policies, laws, and regulations enacted by local,
state, and federal authorities focusing on education as a key to opportunity.
As the artifact demonstrates, Darlington Community Schools
Athletic/Activities Code is an ongoing process with involvement from multiple
stakeholders, each of which having differing opinions regarding policies,
punishments, etc. Throughout the process of creating a new code, the
stakeholders have respectfully shared and discussed opinions and

suggestions to determine the most beneficial educational outcome for

students participating in extracurricular activities. When differing opinions
did arise during discussions, the stakeholders were able to model productive
change and conflict resolution strategies to arrive at consensuses. The initial
issue arose when the stakeholders attention was brought to the fact that
area schools codes were trending to be more contemporary to include
athletics and activities. The stakeholders engaged in multiple discussions
regarding Darlington Community Schools current code versus new trends
and how changes would affect school operations. It was determined that the
greatest focus should be on the impact of the stakeholders decisions on the
education of students participating in extracurricular activities. Keeping in
mind policies, laws, and regulations, the new athletic/activities code will be
examined by school attorneys before being voted on by the Darlington
School Board. Overall, this artifact demonstrates competency in recognizing
and respecting a variety of ideas, values, and cultures amongst decision
makers, continuing dialogue among the school community in regards to
school operations, modeling conflict resolution, and focusing on education
within the framework of local, state, and federal policies, laws, and
regulations.

What I learned about administration from this experience:

Through this experience, I learned the ability to delegate is key to
accomplish tremendous tasks. Creating a new athletic/activities code has
been a demanding task. It has been beneficial to assign team members
different tasks in order to accomplish more over a short period of time. For
example, we were each asked at the first meeting to read an area schools
athletic/activity code to compare with Darlingtons code at the second
meeting. Then, each person was asked to add thoughts and suggestions to a
working document on google docs. From an administrative standpoint, it
was beneficial to delegate these tasks to the team members for a couple
reasons; everyone feels valued and accomplishments are greater. Also as a
result of this experience, I learned about prioritizing as an administrator. It
has been difficult managing this project amongst my many other
commitments. Drafting the current athletic/activities code has fallen on the
backburner as a result of giving other tasks greater priority. An administrator
needs to have the ability to identify priorities and say yes/no to other
commitments that may interfere.

What I learned about myself as a prospective administrator as a

result of this artifact:
As a prospective administrator, I learned to have an organized plan when
entering into a new endeavor. While I have enjoyed this project, I wish there
was a little more organization and a more specific timeline. In the future, if I
begin new projects while acting in an administrative role, I will be sure to
have an organized, physical plan for development and implementation. It is
important to have an end goal in mind rather than float from meeting to
meeting with cyclical conversations. I also learned it may be beneficial to
bounce ideas off of a few trusted, nonjudgemental individuals. These
individuals do not need to be fellow administrators. They could be friends,
loved ones, coworkers, etc. In most cases, I am an indecisive individual. It
has benefited me in the past to bounce an idea off of a friend or loved one to
hear their responses. Sometimes their responses are simple agreements or
disagreements. More beneficially, sometimes they comment a change or an
I wonder. In my future administrative responsibilities, I hope to have
opportunities to look to others for constructive advice and opinions.