The three most important things I learned during Data Analysis and School Improvement were first how to look at Data through an objective approach with avoidance of bias. This is important as too many times as a teacher we look at the results and place blame, never truly looking at our instructional approach. But this leads to teaching in circles and never truly achieving the educational goals. By looking objectively at the data we can find the actual problems in our curriculum. This leads to the second most important thing I learned was how to create and use a Data Team. This team is important as we are made up of many educators and helping our faculty see what the results of our data our as well as how to create an Action Plan to help improve those goals. Finally I learned how to create an Elevator Speech, which sounds simple, but creating a speech that provides teachers the motivation to look through data to find their errors is not easy. But using the knowledge I gained from this course I feel confident I can address my faculty and help lead them to create Data sound instructional strategies to meet the needs of our students.
The most valuable field experience I had was the Data Overview. As I plan to move up in my career learning how to find the school’s Data and build and understanding of the areas we need to improve is invaluable. I believe that as a good leader you are always self-evaluating yourself as well as your school and using the tools from the Data Overview I now have the knowledge to do this when I make that next step in my educational career. However before I take that next step I plan on using the knowledge I have gained from working with the Data Overview to my fellow social studies teachers. By helping them see our current standings and where our scores lie we can hopefully come together to create a plan of attack to address our weak points. However, I do foresee challenges from some of the department members. Many of our teachers have been teaching for over 20 years and they have used many of the same methods over the course of their tenure. They struggle making necessary changes to their curriculum and at times aren’t very receptive to new ideas. However I believe that showing these teachers that the research supports the new strategies as well as providing them support and chances to observe, I believe they will be able to develop new opinions.
The most valuable field experience I had was the Data Overview. As I plan to move up in my career learning how to find the school’s Data and build and understanding of the areas we need to improve is invaluable. I believe that as a good leader you are always self-evaluating yourself as well as your school and using the tools from the Data Overview I now have the knowledge to do this when I make that next step in my educational career. However before I take that next step I plan on using the knowledge I have gained from working with the Data Overview to my fellow social studies teachers. By helping them see our current standings and where our scores lie we can hopefully come together to create a plan of attack to address our weak points. However, I do foresee challenges from some of the department members. Many of our teachers have been teaching for over 20 years and they have used many of the same methods over the course of their tenure. They struggle making necessary changes to their curriculum and at times aren’t very receptive to new ideas. However I believe that showing these teachers that the research supports the new strategies as well as providing them support and chances to observe, I believe they will be able to develop new opinions.