Running Head: COMPETENCY RELFECTIONS

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Competency Reflections
Aundria Baumann
University of St. Thomas
EDUC 6331 KL44- Administrative Internship
Dr. Laird

Competency 001: The principal knows how to shape campus culture

by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and

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stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by

the school community.
Principals have the task of creating and forming the campus vision and culture. By
addressing the areas of needs that the school they are promoting successful teaching in order to
enhance student success. As instructional leaders we are called to lead a school to organizational
improvements, while working with staff to ensure their needs are being met, and provide support
to teachers as then ensure the vision of the school. As a principal we are called to have several
different capes, each one containing a superpower that will help the school survive and thrive.
Sometimes some capes are worn more than others. It is important to have a balance as a
principal and to ensure that all capes are worn everyday. In my opinion, being a positive
administrator you have to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the school. At this point one
is able to build upon the strengthen and dive in to conquering the weaknesses. Being able to
work collaboratively all stakeholders, to address the students needs, allows for goals to be
identified, best practice strategies to be implemented, and provides a framework to enhance
productivity.
During my time as an intern, I got to sit on many board meetings and observe the
missions of the school and worked with my principal on developing the strategic plan to make
improvements to the school. Through this we have come to work on several action plans to
ensure that St. Helens is a successful school. Although I would like to have more time focusing
on the strategic plan and working with the principal more one on one to develop specific
programs and goals for implementation. In addition to sitting on the school board and working
on strategic plans I was also involved in working on implementation of new plans to enhance the
schools mission. I work on action research plans that would explore block scheduling for the
junior high, create more effective admissions testing material, and assist with researching and
analyzing ways to extend the day. By being involved allowed me to get to know parents,
students, parishioners, and church counsels. These relationships alone allowed me to assist in the
campus goal and mission to continue to grow students in wisdom, age, and grace.
As a continued working goal I think that it is in my best interest to continue to focus on
the needs of any school that I am at. By analyzing the needs I will be able to develop a plan that
will address the needs of the school. Once articulation has occurred creating the proper
implementation process and supporting the stakeholders will allow for attainment of the mission
of the school. By being able to follow these steps and communicate the vision of the school
effectively to the staff will allow for the

Competency 002: The principal knows how to communicate and

collaborate with all members of the school community, respond to

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diverse interests and needs, and mobilize resources to promote

student success.
Becoming a principal it is part of the principals jobs to create a campus culture that is
effective and efficient for creating student success. In order to ensure students success, the
principal must be willing to work with all stakeholders that are involved. Forming a campus
culture that is welcoming, nurturing, and understanding; the principal has to be in close
communication with many people. They have to rely expectations that they have for staff
communication. They have to communicate effectively with parents. Last but not least they have
to communicate with the surrounding community. The school community is much larger than
what most people think it involves parents, in involves neighborhoods, politicians, restaurants,
and community leaders. When part of a school community you are part of a community that
shares the same set of values that entails all students being successful learners. Successful
students make hard workers, handworkers mean effective employees, effective employees mean
a productive and successful businesses. Each part of the school community has its part in
ensuring success for each student, the community allows for the school to thrive so that the
community can thrive in the end.
During my time as an intern I have really focused on the school community aspect. I
believe communication is one of my stronger aspects as a future administrator. I got involved
with many out of school activities. I became the volleyball coach, basketball coach, and ran
conditioning classes for each of these areas. Through working with these teams I learned the
school community. I began to work with the people to form relationships and to utilize them for
assistance with tasks. In addition to I have also been in charge of completing school happenings
which get posted on our website and gets distributed monthly to update stakeholder what is
taking place at the school. Furthermore, I had the responsibility of assisting the athletic coach in
creating fundraisers and create tournaments in which various student athletes could attend.
My goal is to always create open lines of communication. Forming positive school
relationships with the community is essential to the success of the school. Forming relationships
with the community allows a sense of sponsorship and partnership with the students lives. To
ensure that student success is possible, effectively collaborating with all stakeholders must take
place. I have to seek out ways to involve the community. This is a hard task due to the several
obstacles that can be in the way of effectively collaborating with the community. Addressing the
problems is not an easy feat, many of the stakeholders may not be willing to participate or be
involved with the school for various reasons it is important that I make sure that they have made
a point to talk to everyone of the parents at the school whether it be by setting up a meet and
greet at the school, cultural days, celebrations, making phone calls, sending emails, writing
letters, so on and so forth. In addition to I must be welcoming and efficient by nature. Contact
that that the principal has with the outside community allows for the students to receive a more
enriched education while the community receives the pleasure of providing community outreach
to the students.

Competency 003: The principal knows how to act with integrity,

fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner.

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Creating and equitable education for all students is a very important role in principal job
description. By creating and equitable education for all students you are acknowledging that not
everyone come from the same backgrounds and that not everyone has the same upbringing as we
often like to believe. The school, is what I like to call the hearty stew that you get when you go
to moms Sunday dinner. You get a little bit of everything, some foods work great with the recipe
but some just dont belong there. As instructional leaders we are faced with the same recipe but
have several different types of vegetables, meats, and spices, all combining to form the campus
culture of the school. In order for the students to succeed, and the stew to taste good, the teachers
and administrators must do their part to in understanding how they can relate to the student and
begin to form positive relationships. Creating positive relationships with students allows for the
teacher and the principal to better understand the students as well as the student feel the support
of the teacher through their educational journey.
In the ever changing world of standardized testing and ensuring that all teacher principals
are piled in mounds of paperwork, meetings, and assessing staff and students performance
levels. Principals and teachers can often forget to take the time to reflect that these students are
also human beings they are just like me and you and require needs that need to be met in order to
succeed. Students need to feel supported, loved, and nurtured. With meeting these feelings
students will feel the support that they need to academically succeed in the classroom. Needless
to say, these relationships are not formed over night nor are they easy to form. It takes a lot of
time, patience, and courage of all parties involved for it to work successfully.
By doing this, principals are reaching the standards that are required of their job, they are
being effective leaders of human capital, being positive instructional leaders that are meeting the
needs of their campus, and are facilitators to establishing and implementing forms for a positive
school culture.
Working at a Catholic School we are not as exposed to students will learning need or
disabilities. On the St. Helen Catholic School campus, we were fortunate enough to be able to
have a learning specialist that was able to assist, previously diagnosed students, with their
learning disabilities. I was exposed to this by sitting in on accommodation meetings, and
conferencing with various principals in the Houston area to talk about how these specific
programs work in their school. However, I would like to spend more time on this competency
area just due to not having more one on one/personal interaction with the subject itself.
My future goals would be to receive further training on making an equitable education for
all students. I would like to also work on legal issues that come up in the school setting. We did
not have any legal issues that arose this school year at St. Helen. I think that it would be very
interesting to sit in on these cases.

Competency 004: The principal knows how to facilitate the design

and implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance

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teaching and learning; ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction,

resources, and assessment; and promote the use of varied
assessments to measure student performance.
As instructional leaders we are called to lead a school to organizational and curricular
improvements, while working with staff to ensure their needs are being met, and provide support
to teachers as then ensure the vision of the school. Being and instructional leader it is important
to remember that you are working toward every student to be successful, as well as every
teacher. As a principal you are called to access the needs and growths of your school. In order to
successfully implement curriculum teachers must be informed of best practices and exposed to
the vision of the school. Not only does the principal have to be able to facilitate a collaborative
discussion and plan to strengthen student performance but must be readily available to assist the
teachers in any what that he/she can. Through my experience, having a supportive leader can
make the world of a difference. When teachers feel that they are supported and nurtured by their
principal they are more likely to feel comfortable approaching them in asking for assistance with
implementing best practices in the classroom, are open to positive criticism, and are willing to
assist the students in the best way that they can. Being supportive can lead the campus to
become a place of excellence where students and teachers lead to optimal growth. Through the
visions on a campus plan one must utilize the use of the strategic plan to continue to grow the
campus. The administrator completes this task by various assessments such as using test scores,
surveys, and evaluations.
Throughout my time as an intern I have worked on closely with my principal and school
board in creating and modifying the strategic plan. During the planning process the principal and
the school board discussed the needs and improvements needed in order to sustain an effective
and efficient school. Through these we came up with actions that needed to be done in order to
address the goals of the campus. Through these my principal utilize different professional
developments that would assist teachers in reaching the goals. She would also begin to
implement campus improvement plans as well. I would assist in the implementation plans and
learn from her and other outside source on how to effectively implement a campus improvement
plan. For example, the archdioceses is requiring all teachers to have a certain amount of hours in
order to teach in the Catholic School. Since Pearland is a suburb to Houston, many people have
trouble going into town. As a team we came up with ways in which people could utilize their
religion hours without having to go into Houston so regularly.
Curriculum is an ongoing assessment of the school. It is my goal when I become
principal that I am constantly assessing the students learning needs as well as the teacher
learning needs. It is my part of my job to run the school in and effective and efficient manner.
Addressing the areas of needs allows for the school to flourish, based of my observations made
during internship. As I continue to grow in the profession I must be sure that I am utilizing all
resources and ensure that all stakeholders needs are being met.

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Competency 005: The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and

sustain an instructional program and a campus culture that are
conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
All around the United States the educational facilities are changing. Through educational
change administrators are changing as well. The roles of dictatorship are not longer in site but a
new friendlier role has taken place. Administrators are called to be advocates for their students.
As I explore different administrative tasks and duties. I have come to feel that the
students that walk into the classroom are the last hope that we have for humanity. Working in
Catholic school we instill the values of educating the whole student, mind, body, and spirit.
Within these realms of administration, we encourage our students to become future leaders and
create an environment in which learning meets the needs of all students. Along with reaching the
students where they are at and instilling skills for students to be successful, teachers and
administrators strive to build character and instill gospel values amongst the students.
It is my duty to advocate for all students needs. Administrators are life long learners as part of
my role in administration to ensure that all students learning need are met. Administrators are
the creators and facilitators to an environment in which life can flourish and an abundant of
possibilities can be created.
As a principal I will spend time reflecting on ways to ensure that all students are
receiving a quality education, be open to change, and continually have a vested interest in the
student body and all stakeholder that are involved in the campus. I would like to create a
community of trust and understanding and be a supportive principal in anyway that I can be.
Being supportive means that you are willing to listen to the teacher with a problem, consider the
irate parents feelings, and show compassion and understanding to the bad student. All of these
task are not easy but with a little bit of courage and a lot of bit of love all student are born to be
successful. As an administrator it is our job to advocate for each and everyone of the students
that walks in and out of our schools.

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Competency 006: The principal knows how to implement a staff

evaluation and development system to improve the performance of
all staff members, select and implement appropriate models for
supervision and staff development, and apply the legal
requirements for personnel management.
Staff evaluation and develop is a crucial aspect in running and effective school. The
teachers are the soldiers for the school, without them student would not be able to gain the
content knowledge needed to grow. In creating evaluations for teachers one must be aware of
what they are being evaluated on and be clear of the expectations that are required from them. It
is the principals job to make these expectations clear. In addition to it is important to be
supportive of the staff as well. The role of the teacher is continually changing and new new and
improved pedagogical practices are being introduced. Upon the introduction of best practices one
must update their practice and utilize and attending meaningful professional developments and
providing support where support is needed.
Throughout the internship process I did not get to spend as much time on teacher
evaluations as I would have liked to. I never got to sit in on an evaluation due to time constraints
and personal issues. I would have loved to see how one is done and observe other teachers in
their element as they teach. Nonetheless, I was able to work closely with professional
developments. Dr. Coleman allowed for me to get pricing on various professional development
companies and assist in research. In addition to I created multiple surveys for teachers to
evaluate their own professional development experiences as well as assist in district wide
professional developments and getting things together for these special days.
There is still a lot of learning that needs to be done within this competency for me. I
would say that this is one of my weaker competencies, just to not enough exposure to all the
different elements in which it requires. In part of increasing my knowledge would be to attend
my own professional developments on how to be an effective evaluator and support the school
campus in which I work.

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Competency 007: The principal knows how to apply organizational,

decision-making, and problem-solving skills to ensure an effective
learning environment.
Creating an efficient work environment that embraces the school vision and culture
begins with how the administrator utilizes time management, upholds effect organizational skills,
and is an efficient problem solver/decision maker. Organizational and effective leaderships skills
allows routines, procedures, and systems to be established. Establishing routines allows for the
administrators to manage their time and decide where they are needed in order to promote
successful teaching and meaningful student learning. Developing relevant procedures allows for
administrators to establish new habits of action that will assist in the schools mission. From
knowing the silliest things as the number of times you had to call the copier repair man to the
more serious issues of assisting a struggling teacher, administrators have many daunting tasks
that requires them to give of themselves completely. As a principal I hope to utilize the skills of
time management to address the needs of the school by becoming a facilitator of the campus
vision, collaboratively working as an instructional leader, and encompassing campus culture to
create effective means for communication.
During my time as mentor I have had to prioritize from being a teacher to an
administrator. I found out that some days were more successful than others. With the crazy busy
schedule that I held I found it pertinent that I have a school calendar one to keep all my teaching
obligations together, as well as my intern obligations, incorporated my coaching schedule, and
on top of all of that I also had to accommodate my graduate school, GRACE program, and
personal schedule. It took a lot of calendaring and color coding to keep me on top of things. I
believe that once my life slows down a bit once I graduate, I will be better organized and be able
to function as a normal human being. Through my time I have learned through my mentor that
prioritizing the needs of the school has to take place. As different situations arose she was able
to adjust and rise her schedule that would best support the needs of various stakeholders
involved. She was quick to decision making and a very effective and efficient problem solver.
During my times I learned how to organize and prioritize my own personal life in a way that
would be effective and efficient to the school environment. My best experiences with this during
my intern ship was when I was in charge for the day and would be able to walk around and
assess the needs of the school and discuss with teachers their needs and concerns they may have
if any.
I think that one of my goals would be to work on becoming a good decision maker and to
work on the qualities that I would take to be and effective and efficient decision maker. As
educators we are faced with making on decisions every single day some easy some not so easy. I
think that I would benefit from working on ways to effectively make decisions that would be best
for the stakeholders at the school.

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Competency 008: The principal knows how to apply principles of

effective leadership and management in relation to campus
budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, financial management,
and technology use.
Understanding the operational budget is huge to help predict the future costs, incomes,
and understand the known expenses for the school year. When looking at the operating budget
allows for administrators to see if they are able to afford the teacher, benefits, instruction,
utilities, repairs, maintenance, and other miscellaneous expenses that occur throughout the year.
Many schools have financial managers that help them assist various budgets for the school. In
order to ensure that the school has proper financial budgeting on must know the projected
salaries of teachers, textbook cost, athletic fees, federal money allocations, and various other
budgeting items that a school needs to function. It is important to ensure that the school is
staying afloat and not financially getting into trouble.
This is where I wish I had more exposure. I think that alone I need to take a financial
class just to understand the basics of financing for a school. I was grateful to sit with the
financial manager for our school and discuss how a private school budgets for the school year. I
think that this was very interesting because we do not have any federal money to support us so
we are to sustain ourselves as our own entity. We rely mostly on tuition and fundraiser to ensure
that our school is successful. Most of the budget is based of these two aspects. It was interesting
to see and hear how all of it went into the fine details of the school. I would love to have more
exposure to the public schools and see how they utilize financials and see how they are required
to do things. Since I was not working in a public school I was not able to hear how they budget
for sustaining a successful school
As I continue to grow as an administrator one of my goals would be to take an
educational budgeting class so that I could really grasp what was going on. I think that it is
important to be aware of what money is coming in and out of the school and assure that funds are
allocated in the proper manner. I would also like to see how public school allocate their money
and how receiving federal money can change the whole dynamics of the educational world.

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Competency 009: The principal knows how to apply principles of

leadership and management to the campus physical plant and
support systems to ensure a safe and effective learning
environment.
Part of running and effective and efficient school is keeping the school safe and ensuring
that the school is cleanly and being maintained. The various ways to keep a school in tip top
shape is by having a cleaning staff come in and clean every night to ensure its readiness for
student to arrive the next day. Various procedures also need to take place in order to ensure that
students are safe. Running drills such as fire drills, lock downs, and bad weather drills allows for
the students to understand what to do in an emergency.
During my time as an intern I was allowed to assist in fire drill and ensure that the
students safety was the number one priority. I assisted with weather drill and lock down
procedures to ensure that all students were safe during these drills. I also will have to be
completely honest not much of my time was spent in this competency therefore I would need to
spend more time delving into the details of making a safe and efficient campus.
My goal would be to ensure that I make procedures that allows for school safety of all
stakeholders. By being able to create these procedures allows for guidelines and safety measures
to be put into place in order to make and efficient campus. I would also want to continually
support my staff to be able to ensure that all safety protocols and procedures were up to par.