I am a school social worker in a SBL program.
Imagine the perfect school one with no obstacles to success with ALL children. You are the principal of the Perfect (elementary, middle, or high) School. The overarching theme or guiding idea of your school is to effectively, efficiently, ethically educate all children to mastery performance levels and embody the tenets of a professional learning community. Your task is to create a narrative description of all facets of your school for an upcoming visitation by the Malcolm Baldridge Awards Committee.
You decide to create this narrative as if you were giving a guided tour of your school. Your narration should create a vivid, Technicolor TM picture of the school you wish to lead starting at the front curb and moving through every hallway and classroom. Speak to everything from how your school looks to how it behaves. Describe the artifacts we see displayed in every space. Describe the physical structure(s) of the building and property; the purpose behind every space and how it is used; the design of specific classrooms; the equipment in the classrooms; the instruction within the various classrooms: how all stakeholders behave and interact; etc. Use your imagination.
The goal is for you to begin creating a vision (a mental picture) of the school that you will lead in the future. Your vision should include some artifacts of the PSEL standards.
Required Texts: All required texts are available electronically through Pearson at https://myaccount.vitalsource.com/login You should have received your access code prior to the first class. You pay for your all of your texts at the first session of EDA 505 and 590 when you pay for your class.
DuFour, R., DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Hawkins, R. J. (Ed.). (2011). The EDA 505 Introduction to Educational Leadership: A Custom Multi Text for College of St. Rose and Center for Integrated Teacher Education. New York. Pearson
Collins, J. (2005). Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great. New York: Harper.
Supplementary Resources:
Many supplementary texts are available electronically through Pearson at https://myaccount.vitalsource.com/login under your course.
In addition, the following texts are also useful:
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Cottrell, D. (2002). Monday Morning Leadership. Dallas, TX: Cornerstone Leadership Institute.
Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., & Kleiner, A. (2000). Schools That Learn – A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education. New York, NY
