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Competency X: LEADERSHIP

Related Task

Job Shadowing

Specific Task

Spend two days shadowing the principal and assistant principal of Durand Area
High School.

Narrative Description of Specific Task

I will spend one day shadowing Dave Zuehlke, the Principal of Durand Area
High School, and assisting him when appropriate in accomplishing
administrational tasks. Document the experience by writing a reflective summary
of the day citing the tasks the administrator had to perform and who he interacted
with. Evaluate and assess the decision-making process and style used by the
administrator in responding to various categories of demands or problems. Reflect
upon several important lessons this task taught about school leadership and
administrative practices.

In addition, I will spend one day with Shannon Knapp, the Assistant
Principal of Durand Area High School, who is in charge of student discipline.
Assess the strategies used by the administrator in dealing with the various types of
disciplinary actions. Observe and assess the other responsibilities of the assistant
principal and identify the important lessons the day taught about school leadership
and administrative practices.

Narrative of Competency:

Job shadowing both of my supervisors was an invaluable experience to my


quest to become a successful school administrator. The numerous issues that arise
in the daily realm of a school day can be exhausting. All were handled flawlessly
and in a manner that promoted good educational relationships. I believe at the core
of education is the development of good relationships.

I had the opportunity to job shadow my principal, David Zuehlke, on


Wednesday March 14, 2018 and my assistant principal, Shannon Knapp, on Friday
March 23, 2018. These two days of insight provided me with opportunities to
witness numerous different administrative tasks, participate in a few of the tasks,
and gain meaningful understanding of what the day brings to both the principal and
assistant principal of our high school.

School begins for students at 7:40 am. On March 14, I met Mr. Zuehlke at
7:20 as he arrived. We immediately headed down to the cafeteria to help monitor
any troubles that may occur during breakfast. Breakfast is offered to students every
day at Durand Area High School. I spoke with a few students asking them how
things were. As time expired and students needed to head to class, they were
reminded to take care of their messes and push in their chairs. Most of them were
accustomed to doing so, but a few had to be reminded and were held back to take
care of matters. After classes had begun at 7:40, we began to do a building check
to secure the building. We went to every outside entry door to check to see that it
was locked and securely closed. After the building check, we were in Mr.
Zuehlke’s office and met with Justin Shankster, our art teacher and Robotics Team
supervisor. The reason for the meeting was two-folded. One, because the Robotics
Team was a brand new program, we had to develop a budget that is needed to run
the program and prognosticate it for three years. The district needs this type of
information to project their overall expenditures. The second reason for the
meeting was to do Mr. Shankster’s post-observation review. As we did the budget,
Mr. Zuehlke’s knowledge of line items and the districts budgeting ways proved to
make the task at hand very manageable and efficient of our time. Mr. Shankster
was very organized with the information that he brought showing the expenses that
the Robotics Team had incurred and revenue that has been generated from grants,
fundraising and donations. We were able to wrap the 3 year budget up in about 20
minutes, spending most of the time on working out different scenarios, with and
without the grant because we were unsure of its renewability.

The second purpose of the meeting was to go over the formal observation
done in Mr. Shankster’s third hour Beginning Art class. I was also a part of this
observation so I took advantage of this time to weigh in on my thoughts as well.
Everything went smoothly with his observation and Justin seemed quite relieved to
hear all of the compliments generated towards him. This portion of the meeting
was wrapped up in about 10 minutes. Mr. Zuehlke was very methodical in his
approach to this aspect. He basically had a script in which he personalized the
answers to questions to fit Mr. Shankster’s evaluation.

In the news, after the school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in
Florida where there were 17 people shot and killed, there is an organized national
walkout scheduled for students in school to get up and walk out at 10:00 to protest
gun control laws in the United States. Because of this, the high school
administration has come up with a flyer suggesting students not walk out, but walk
up to someone alone and invite them to sit with you or just to talk with them. This
is an attempt to alleviate the perceived bullying problem with today’s students.
#walkupnotout is a nationwide campaign.

At 8:30, Mr. Zuehlke called a meeting of Shannon Knapp, our assistant


principal, and Kurt Moffit, our liaison officer in the building. He wants them along
with me to be staged at main exits with the flyers to hand out to the students and
direct them into the cafeteria rather than outside which would be more dangerous.
He discussed his plan to address, after the daily announcements are read over the
PA at 9:30, the national walkout and the wishes of the administration for the
students to “walk out” to the cafeteria rather than outside. After the meeting
adjourned, I took it upon myself to include our athletic director and substitute
teacher that was filling in for me that day (he would be free because it was during
my conference period) to maintain an appearance in the hallways at that time near
other exits.

After that meeting, there were two girls that Mr. Zuehlke wanted to meet
with to try and resolve their anger towards each other. He previously had
conversations with each one of them independently, but wanted to meet with them
together. Mr. Zuehlke called them into his office and used what he termed
“restorative justice”. This is where you talk the students through the problem at
hand. He talked with the students authoritatively. He advised them to avoid each
other because of their differences and that if he had to deal with them again that
there would be consequences. He pointed out the different physical areas of where
possible conflict could be; on the bus to school, first hour, lunch, fourth hour, and
on the bus home. They are to sit as far away from each other as possible. I was
thinking to myself that I might have tried a different approach and get a little more
personal with them. I could tell that these two could be friends, they just were both
too stubborn to give in to the other.

At 9:20, Mr. Zuehlke took a phone call from the person who bought a
recently closed elementary building from the district. She contacted him about
getting a few strong football players to help move some things this weekend. He
took the information and immediately contacted the newly hired football coach and
passed the information on. Mr. Zuehlke said to me that I would not believe how
much time is taken up with small trivial issues like that phone call.

The announcements were read by Mr. Zuehlke as planned. They were read
along with him addressing the walkout to the cafeteria instead of leaving the
building. He then readdressed the assistant principal, athletic director, and myself
again to make sure of where everyone is to be stationed at 10:00. We had a total of
6 staff members that were to be staged for the potential walk out.

The staff involved was at their respective posts on time. There was a group
of 17 students that congregated in protest into the cafeteria without any problems.
They sat in silence for 17 minutes in respect for the 17 that perished at Stoneman
Douglas High School of Florida. A few of the students spoke up addressing their
rights and wanting to be heard. One student spoke to the lack of how their
generation doesn’t know how to deal with bullying. Explaining that bullying has
actually gotten better through the years but students haven’t learned how to deal
with it. Mr. Zuehlke let them have their time and listened to what they had to say
while Mrs. Knapp was trying to identify everybody that had walked out by writing
their names down. Finally, she just passed a piece of paper around and had the
students sign it. At 10:20, the light flashed indicating that students were to go to
fourth hour or “A” lunch. The students then got up and left without any further
incident.

Mr. Zuehlke and I stayed to monitor “A” lunch. A lunch is made up


primarily of 8th and 9th graders where “B” lunch is made up of 10th, 11th, and 12th
grades. Mr. Zuehlke stayed in one spot of the cafeteria. I got bored and started
roaming around the cafeteria and commons area and started talking with some of
them that I knew. I actually met a few students that I didn’t know before. I teach
mostly 10th grade, so I am more familiar with the students in “B” lunch. “A” lunch
ended with no student problems and 10 minutes later “B” lunch began. Again, I
began to start up friendly conversations with the students as they ate. I was still
monitoring what everyone was doing, but also made my way around where the
students were to make sure everything was fine. “B” lunch ended with no student
problems as well.

After “B” lunch, Mr. Zuehlke met with the superintendent. While they were
meeting, I monitored the halls by the main office and inquired about the different
issues that come up in the office with the secretaries. I learned quickly that if you
want to know anything about anything, ask the secretaries in the front office. Mr.
Zuehlke came out of his meeting at about 1:40 and directed me to go ahead and
take lunch and then go to the assistant principal to see if there was anything I could
witness from her.

After school ended, Mr. Zuehlke and I attended a meeting of the special
education teachers and Paula Dobson, Middle School Principal and Special
Education Coordinator for the district. This meeting looked into the problems that
the district is addressing with servicing all of the needs of our special education
students. The State is auditing the districts procedures and reporting. The group
went through the Federal Compliance checklist, reviewing a recent IEP that had
been done. Everything proved to be good and the checklist was signed to be in
compliance.

The high school, having a population of roughly 540 students, has nearly
100 students that require services (18.5%). There are only 4.5 special education
teachers to perform these services. Mrs. Dobson led the meeting by explaining that
everybody needs to be doing things the same way. There can’t be one or two
reporting one way and the others reporting a different way. We will be on the same
page starting the beginning of next year. Mr. Zuehlke listened but really had
nothing to say. I asked that isn’t 22:1 an awfully high ratio for serviced students to
special education teachers? Shouldn’t we look into ways to alleviate the workload?
Paraprofessionals? Hiring another special education teacher full time? Mrs.
Dobson informed the group that they’d be making the halftime position at the high
school a full time position, so they would have five full-time special education
teachers in place. The meeting ended and this concluded the job shadowing of my
principal, David Zuehlke.

On Friday March 23, 2018, I job shadowed our assistant principal (AP),
Shannon Knapp. At Durand, the assistant principal is mainly in charge of dealing
with student discipline. The day began by meeting with Mrs. Knapp at 7:00 to
learn that the first thing we were going to do is meet with a parent and student at
7:20 to discuss an incident in which the student was caught and accused of using a
vape on school property. This was actually his second offense. Before the two had
come in, Mrs. Knapp shared with me that a teacher had not only witnessed the
student with the vape, but a student shared with him video of the student using the
vape. The teacher did not want the accused to know the other students identity.

The parent and student were brought into the Mrs. Knapp’s office and
agreed that it was ok for me to observe the process. Mrs. Knapp began by asking,
“What is going on? This is the second time you have been caught using a vape on
school premises.” The accused acknowledged that it was the second time but he
didn’t know where this vape came from. He didn’t even know that it was in his
pocket he claimed. “Someone must have slipped it into my front left pocket
without me knowing about it.” Mrs. Knapp began to give him the benefit of the
doubt until we realized that it was the front left pocket of his jeans that we were
talking about. We were under the impression that it was his coat pocket and that
could be believable if it was his coat, but not his jeans pocket. The student
continued to explain that he didn’t even know how to use that vape. The mother
also commented that the last time the student was caught, the vape belonged to her
and her husband, the boy’s father, but this vape was not theirs at all. Mrs. Knapp
then enlightened the mother and student that there was a teacher that witnessed the
student with the device and a student brought forward a video of the accused using
the vape. Both the student and mother were silent. Mrs. Knapp then lectured the
student about being honest about something and coming clean versus doing what
he tried to do and lie about it making up some far-fetched story about someone
trying to plant something on him. Mrs. Knapp went on to explain that because this
is his second offense that he’s be receiving 5 days out of school suspension and
would have to write her a 3 page paper on the harms and effects of using these
types of devices. The mother was beside herself scolding the student, but she was
very apologetic for taking up our time when her child was actually lying about the
incident.

After classes started, a staff member reported to Mrs. Knapp that there may
have been a possible pass of something illegal into one of two lockers. We then
went to those two lockers and found nothing but a note. It was a false alarm. Mrs.
Knapp tells me that small things like this happen all of the time, taking up valuable
time, but still need to be investigated. Shortly after this, there is an issue with an
exchange student that relies on her phone for translation. The choir substitute took
it away from her and sent her and another girl to the office. The phone was
returned immediately and Mrs. Knapp and I went down and had a brief
conversation with the substitute teacher.
Upon returning to the main office, there was a student sent to the office for
wearing a bandanna. Mrs. Knapp told him that he had to remove it because it
strictly says in the student handbook that bandannas are considered to be gang
related clothing and are prohibited. She was quick on her toes to respond to this
incident. She told me that she almost has the entire student handbook memorized
because of the common infractions that occur.

Next on the agenda was an issue between two students, one male and one
female, in gym class that got into a pushing match. It was not witnessed by the
physical education teacher, but it was all caught on the newly installed cameras.
Mrs. Knapp and I watched the incident in which the female initiated the pushing
and the male pushed her back in which she fell to the floor during a volleyball
game. They were on the same team! They went right back to playing the game at
hand. The incident was then reported to Mrs. Knapp by the female student. Mrs.
Knapp’s initial thought was to put them into our Successful Intervention Room
(SIR) room for one-day. Then she asked for my opinion. I had thought about “in
loco parentis”. What would I do as a parent if this was to happen at home with a
neighbor child? I gave my response that I would give them both a stern conference
about getting along and how pushing/fighting is not tolerated. I would then contact
their parents to inform them of what had happened and how we handled it.

The male student was absent that day so the female was called into Mrs.
Knapp’s office to explain what had occurred. She exaggerated the incident a little,
but was fairly close to what Mrs. Knapp and I had witnessed on the camera
recording. Mrs. Knapp then began to firmly lecture the female student about
getting along and how pushing/fighting would not be tolerated. The student
definitely received the message clearly, was apologetic, and told Mrs. Knapp that it
would not happen again. She was released back to class without further discipline.
Mrs. Knapp then received a phone call about a foster child transportation
issue. Apparently, the student goes to school in Durand, but now lives in the
Owosso district. Mrs. Knapp informed me that it boiled down to that Owosso was
responsible for 50% of the transportation costs as well as Durand was responsible
for 50% of the costs. I had never heard of such a thing. She explained that this was
something that she has become familiar with on-the-job because she had never
heard of it before becoming the assistant principal either.

Mrs. Knapp then explained that she is involved in coordinating the Senior
Day field trip this year. She is lining up a field trip to go watch a Lansing Lugnuts
baseball game during the day. School busses and drivers are not available because
of another commitment, so she has contacted Indian Trails and has lined them up
to transport all of the seniors and chaperones to the game. She kept the cost down
to $2 per student which that would include a lunch provided at the ballpark. She
filled out some needed paperwork for the trip and we were on to the next issue.

A student was sent to the office for possibly skipping. She was brought in
and explained that she was consoling a friend. The two girls moved the friend’s
belongings from her locker to the others to avoid the drama that occurs with others
around her locker. They had gone to the library to talk about it and even visited the
counselor. Mrs. Knapp said that their teacher didn’t know where they were and
couldn’t be accounted for. She went on to explain that they need to get a pass from
the librarian and the counselor to show to her or they would both be written a
detention. The student responded with, “No problem” and later produced the
required documents.

We then monitored “A” lunch with no incident. During “B” lunch, we had a
student pass out at her table. This student has a history of this happening. We
immediately got her a wheel chair and transported her to the office. Her parents
were contacted, but were out of town for the day. We held her in the office for the
remainder of the day and she was monitored by the school nurse. Apparently, this
has happened before and this is how it was dealt with previously as well. Mrs.
Knapp explained to me the situation with the student and that they have a medical
card from a doctor to the precautions to take while at school if this were to happen.
I was a little surprised to this as I had no idea. I was ready to call an ambulance and
get professionals involved.

After this incident subsided, we had an issue with a student that was
assigned to our SIR room for that day. He was becoming disrespectful with the
supervisor of the room and needed to be dealt with. He was ready to just walk out
and quit school. The SIR room is right next to Mrs. Knapp’s office, so it was dealt
with quickly. It happened to be a student that I have a good rapport with, so I
volunteered to talk with him to calm him down and get him to stay the rest of the
day. I talked with him about there are always consequences for the decisions we
make. He eventually came around to sensible thinking and conformed. Mrs. Knapp
and I then went out for lunch to a local fast food restaurant. We discussed most of
the problems that she faces are a direct result of issues that are not dealt with on a
consistent basis by both the administration and staff of the building. As we
returned to the high school, we concluded that there is always today to try and
make things right. The last hour of school was incident free and this concluded the
job shadowing of my assistant principal, Shannon Knapp.
Reflection:

The two full days of job shadowing my two building administrators really
opened my eyes to the different roles that an administrator takes on. Parent,
counselor, custodian, police officer, detective, doctor, and referee are just a few
that come to mind. The job of an administrator forces an individual to attain many
skills. I feel that I have gained a lot of insight on an administrator’s responsibilities
and what they do on a daily basis.

The two administrators that I job shadowed have very different styles in
which I was more comfortable with our assistant principal’s style. I was able to
take on an active role as an administrator on both days, but was more frequent
during the assistant principal’s job shadowing. I learned the importance of staying
calm in situations that could be argumentative. The dealing of the different
situations when you know that the student is not telling the truth and then the
administrator turns it into a learning event trying to grow the student proves to be
very admirable. I learned that students responded more favorably when they felt
that they were dealt with fairly and with respect. The students feel more
comfortable around a staff member that treats them this way. My job shadowing
experience has been very significant in my preparation to become an administrator.
ARTIFACTS:

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