"Education is a social process.  Education is growth.  Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself."

                                                                                                     -John Dewey

Next Steps and Last Thoughts

As I approach the end of the EDL program, I find this an appropriate time in my career to reflect on my past experiences and growth and to think about my future as an educator.  Although I have had the title of teacher for the entire thirteen years I have taught with the New York City Department of Education, I have taken on greater and greater leadership responsibilities in my schools.  These past two years have only accelerated that professional growth.  In a sense, I feel that I am already a practicing school leader.  Becoming an assistant principal or principal will only formalize this transformation.

Yet even after two years of intense study and practice in school leadership, I have areas in which I still need to grow as a professional educator and leader.  The area that I have the most room for growth is in clinical supervision.  I will need practice in better supporting teachers with their instruction.  I lack experience in both developing professional development and teacher observation and feedback.  While the EDL program has provided me the opportunity to develop in these ways, I need to continue to seek out these responsibilities at my current school.  My school is very open to informal and formal intervisitation; I need to take advantage of this openness, and practice giving other colleagues timely and actionable feedback.

Another aspect of my practice that I need to develop further is in building connections with families and other community organizations outside the school.  I regularly reach out to parents of my students, and I work with community groups as needed, but I want to begin to develop these connections into true school-community partnerships.   I want recast these as strategic partnerships that can yield resources for the school in a sustainable way.

Looking back on this e-portfolio now, I see that I have developed greatly as a school leader, primarily in the administrational aspects of school leadership, in the ethical and social considerations school leaders must grapple with, and in collaborative process of creating a strong school vision.  I intend to take the New York State licensing exams over the summer and early fall.  I plan on returning to my current school in the fall of 2014 in the same position I have now and use the next school year to practice the areas of professional growth I have outlined above.