Describe: The artifacts are the mini-observations and the clinical supervision project. Both assignments were individual tasks, with a few difficulties. It was required that pre and post observations be made of lessons taught by a teacher. It was very difficult for me to sometimes articulate what feedback I was giving however I was able to review the observation notes and identify the points I wanted to  address with the teacher. The videotaped lessons also provided another outlet that I was able to use and watched a few times before meeting with the teacher.

Analyze: These two artifacts relates to one ELCC standards with four sub- categories.

a.    2.1- Promoting Positive School Culture- How does one promote a positive school culture? These two artifacts shows the connection between the best practices for teaching and learning and the connection between the school culture specifically the ways that teachers and staff work together. It is obvious that the culture at this school is the close the achievement gap of all and in doing so has set up specific systems such as an open door policy, whereby teachers can observe teaching in various classrooms, also there is time set aside for common planning time together clear observational systems.  Moreover, the curriculum is defined as pedagogy; it is what teaching looks like in a classroom.

b.   2.2- Provide Effective Instructional Program- Curriculum and curriculum mapping makes one think of the big picture, there needs to be alignment throughout students learning and is a Unit of Study with lesson plans that are aligned to what the final project looks like. The question however is how were teachers being guided and supported in the structure of curriculum at this school; which is an inquiry based curriculum. For both artifacts the curriculum and outside consultants were the driving force providing an effective instructional program. Additionally, teachers spend a large amount of time in team meetings with discussions centered on making real world connections, but also connecting the learning goals to students learning and assessment. Review is also done using UBD (Understanding by Design), which begins with learning goals for the units, the evidence or final product with rubric and then the learning plan.

c.    2.3 Apply Best Practice to Student Learning- The instructional approach conceives of school as a community of academic discourse grounded in inquiry work undertaken by students, guided by learning targets that are aligned to standards of post-secondary readiness, and assessed by portfolios of student work, including public presentations of learning. Time is spent during common planning time, pre and post observations, and professional development to share strategies, shared lesson plans and using different protocols (Turning) to look at student work. I realize that these two artifacts clearly shows that student inquiry is the key feature of the curriculum here at FLHFHS. The inquiry curriculum, is designed around general notions that can be explored in multiple ways keeping in mind that the commitment of the faculty and staff at FLH is to have student-driven inquiry that requires honoring the ingenuity of each student while pushing their thinking to meet rigorous academic standards and providing them with a high level of career and college readiness. Also essential questions and student input refine these notions into specific problems. Critical student learning happens in the context of developing guiding questions associated with the problems, investigating these questions, devising solutions to the problem based on investigations, and using reasoning and evidence based on the results of their investigation to identify a solution. The curriculum may start with key notions, essential questions, central texts, and real world learning experiences that are shared by the learning community, but the core of this curriculum are the ideas and questions of individual students. At all levels of the inquiry curriculum the community engages with complex anchor texts, but students will also work individually or in small groups around texts personalized to their specific investigations.

d.   2.4 Design Comprehensive Professional Growth- It is very evident that professional development is aligned with the curriculum, student and teacher evaluations, and the vision of the school. Moreover, support if generated from other stakeholders, and again time is spend for continuous collaboration and looking at student work.

Appraise: My final reflections on these two artifacts addresses ways the curriculum is revised and evaluated. One such reflection is that there is a need for teachers to be supported first as they remove themselves from ways they have been taught. Also, teachers need to detach themselves from the ways they learn which in many cases we hear it to be very procedural. Teachers need to allow students to reason and proof or convince others of  their work, which shows deeper understanding. Therefore, I think as curricula goes through the process of being revised that principals need to understand that teachers should feel supported especially when the demographics of schools are changing so quickly. Principals should take into consideration the  culturally differences that can occur in classrooms, prior experiences, language barriers and social norms. In addition, there needs to be specific learning targets for specific students so that all students are given the opportunity to be successful.

Transform: One of the areas that I spend time critiquing were my skills in during the post- observation.  There a few things that I would like to work on for instance I heard myself saying I think rather than I recommend and it made me question whether my recommendations would be taken seriously. Also, there were missed opportunities where I asked "Matt" to discuss the big picture and I recommended that he shares that with the class but I did not provide a format of what that can look like or some form of resource to give to him at that moment. Moreover as I was looking at the video I realized that I gesture a bit too much and that can be very distracting. Finally, it can be very overwhelming for a new teacher to be asked to fix a number of items at one time. The net time I would only recommend two item,  follow up on those two and continue to work on the missing pieces. The two recommendations that I would suggest are having a clear picture for the class (Learning Targets) and to assessment.