Supervision+Platform

Student Outcomes

 * What are your goals and hopes for your students?
 * What atitudes, skills and feelings do you want your students to possess?

Instructional Climate

 * How can you best support the desired student outcomes?

Teaching and Learning

 * How should instruction be organized to achieve the desired student outcomes?

Leadership and Governance

 * What is your leadership philosophy?
 * How will you create and lead an effective school?
 * What are your responsibilities as a leader?
 * How will you work with teachers, staff, students, parents, community and district officials?

Clinical Supervision, observation tools, social and educational education, supervision approaches, theories of learning and classroom instruction, differentiation of supervision, reflective techniques.

[|ELCC STANDARDS] __**Supervisory Platform**__ I believe that the core of any worthwhile educational system is the instructional process. Good instruction allows students to develop and refine the all important skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed for success in the outside world. One of the most important roles a supervisor must therefore play is to support teachers in their efforts to reflect on, and develop, their instructional strategies. As Sullivan and Glanz state, “Supervision is a potent process for facilitating instructional improvement.” Consequently, supervisors need to develop a variety of supervision and evaluation techniques to deal with the wide variety of teaching styles, experience and personalities present in the teaching profession.

The directive informational strategies of Clinical Supervision, suggested by Goldhammer and Rogan, might be useful for inexperienced teachers battling through the first challenging years in the classroom, whereas a more collaborative approach will empower the experienced teacher. Other teachers may find more value in a self directed approach that allows them to develop their own strategies for examination of the instruction process. There is tremendous value in differentiated approaches to teacher assessment such as the portfolio development, peer coaching, cognitive coaching and action research methodologies suggested by Danielson and McGreal. Empowering teachers, and giving them such choices, can be very useful in promoting teacher reflection on the teaching act. Whatever the approach, it is important that supervisors act as effective non-threatening, facilitators who provide constructive feedback, recognize and reinforce outstanding practice, provide a direction for professional development, and unify teachers and administrators around improving student learning.

Supervisors should be educational leaders, not just departmental managers. Supervisors need to shield teachers from the administrative minutia that can frustrate and reduce teacher effectiveness in the classroom. They need to develop departmental goals, preferably in collaboration with the teachers, and help move teachers towards a shared educational paradigm by providing relevant professional development opportunities. In order to be instructional leaders, supervisors need to stay abreast of new developments in professional development, curriculum design and instructional techniques. Although the more traditional instructional structure provided by Hunter lays a solid foundation for instructional excellence, teachers need to be exposed to the ideas of Backward Design (Wiggins and McTigue), Differentiated Instruction (Tomlinson) and to the instructional implications of the technologically savvy, “digital native” status of today’s students (Prensky). These ideas need to be presented in a manner that makes sense to the teachers. Supervisors need to find a way to incorporate these espoused theories, and others collected from readings, workshops, and collegial discussions into changes in teacher behavior. One way to achieve this is to design on-going professional development experiences that allow teachers the opportunity to explore, question and debate new ideas and experiment with them. Only then are they likely to integrate varied methods into their repertoire of instructional strategies. I agree with Danielson and McGreal when they argue that “encouragement of continued growth among mature teaching faculties requires active involvement within a collaborative culture.” Supervisors need to promote this collaborative culture by encouraging a collegial, professional dialogue about teaching. Teachers need to feel safe in asking for assistance without fear of judgment. This is true professional development, one of the most significant means by which teachers will improve their practice, and a vitally important role of a supervisor.

I believe there is merit in the suggestion that supervisors should teach in the district in some capacity. If supervisors are going to improve the instructional process then they themselves need to be intimately involved in the practices of reflection, inquiry, and collaboration that they require from their staff. Only then can they hope to effectively and collaboratively develop a departmental paradigm of professional development and on-going instructional improvement.