Middle School Grade Level Leader (Grades 6-8)

A Grade Level Leader is responsible for conducting weekly grade level meetings, keeping team members abreast of information and facilitating communication between team members while promoting a spirit of collegiality.

Overview

Nicole served as Middle School Grade Level Leader for the 2013-2014 school year. In this role Nicole was responsible for conducting weekly grade level meetings with the Middle School team as well as organizing a Middle School Information Nigh. As part of her responsibility Nicole communicated regularly with administration and middle school faculty keeping all team members abreast of school, curricular and parent/student issues.

Middle School (MS) Team Members:

Alvin Castro - Physical Education (K-8)

Evelyn Cortez - MS Spanish

Carolina Gunter - Assistant Principal, 8th English

Jayna Jones - Music (K-8)
Sheryl Reyes - STEP (Support Team Education Plan) Coordinator , Technology Coordinator

Chris Sedik - 8th Math, 5th Grade Teacher

Lizette Strom - MS Math

Catherine Stula - 8th Grade Homeroom, MS Art and Social Studies Teacher, 7th and 8th Religion Teacher
Sneha Tharayil - 7th Grade Homeroom, MS Science, 7th Math, 8th English

Role

As middle school grade level leader Nicole first established a spirit of collegiality in which team members were able to openly communicate and collaborate with one another. She was able to establish this as a grade level leader by communicating openly with all team members via weekly meeting notes, informal conferences as well as formal conferences. Nicole focused on acknowledging and validating all team members and giving each team member a voice by delegating responsibilities to ensure cooperation and collaboration amongst team members.

Teamwork and collaboration were apparent during weekly grade level meetings for the middle school team, grades 6-8, on Monday afternoons conducted by Nicole. During this time Nicole was responsible for communicating with administration and middle school faculty to keep all team members abreast of middle school issues, ensuring constant communication to make sure that all team members were up-to-date and on the same page. Team meetings lasted an hour. Meeting notes were recorded by Nicole and sent out to all members to keep everyone informed.

In addition to implementing open communication as a middle school grade level team leader Nicole was MS Parent Information Night responsible for supervising the teachers and providing academic guidance. Academic guidance was given to teachers relating to the implementation of Common Core State Standards, student discipline issues, parent issues as well as other curricular issues. Nicole's guidance served the team members and approximately 87 middle school students and their families. In her role Nicole acted as a liaison between teachers on the middle school team and other shareholders to ensure mutual understanding, support and follow through.

Nicole was also responsible for organizing a Middle School Information Night. This evening was aimed at informing current and perspective families about the faith-based education St. John Eudes provides students in grades K-8 but emphasized the middle school curriculum, extracurricular activities, etc. For this evening teachers collaborated on presentations, materials and Nicole worked with the middle school team as well as with administration and individual teachers to help collect resources and materials to present to parents. Parents from within the St. John Eudes community as well as from outside the community attended the event. Middle School students were present to showcase their student work as well as answer parent questions and provide first-hand feedback regarding their middle school experiences.

As part of her guidance and implementing collaboration among the middle school team Nicole analyzed the curriculum as well as school policies. Along with her team Nicole worked to examine student work, benchmark and standardized assessment scores, textbook adoption, high and low achieving student assessments, etc. in order to use data to drive instructional practice, improve student learning and curricular decisions. In addition to the collaboration of the middle school team regarding curriculum the team worked collaboratively to example grade-level and school policies at meetings to ensure that policies were being implemented effectively, consistently and were in line with the school's mission and philosophy.

Reflection

This was Nicole's first experience acting as grade level leader for the middle school team at St. John Eudes. Nicole was excited about the opportunity to take on a leadership role and work with her colleagues in a collaborative as well as in a supportive way.

Cathy and Kids/Gerard

Nicole's organization has been an asset in keeping the team on task and up to date with current and upcoming information. As a result of the open communication she established with team members and administration Nicole was able to ensure equal participation from all shareholders.

In the future Nicole hopes to have access to more leadership opportunities where her dedication, organization will be able to impact not only grade level decisions but schoolwide policies that affect the greater student body as well. Nicole has learned the importance of continuously reflection on the school's mission, values and philosophy to guide all decision making and relies on them as a "moral compass".

As Nicole reflects on her first opportunity to serve as a middle school grade level leader she sees the importance of working democratically with all shareholders to validate, acknowledge and appreciate their voice as well as grow as individuals and an organization in the lifelong process of learning.

Supporting Documents

2013-2014 Middle School Meeting Notes

January 2014 St. John Eudes Heartbeat Newsletter - Focus on Faculty: Literacy Key to "Way Up"

Middle School Parent Information Night Powerpoint Presentation

CPSEL CONNECTION

Standard 1: Facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.

1.1 Develop a shared vision
1.2 Plan and implement activities around the vision
1.3 Allocate resource to support the vision

Standard 2: Advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.

2.1 Develop school culture and ensure equity
2.2 Guide the instructional program
2.3 Guide professional growth of staff
2.4 Create and utilize accountability systems

Standard 3: Ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.

3.1 Ensure a safe school environment
3.2 Create an infrastructure to support an effective learning environment
3.3 Manage the school learning-support system
3.4 Monitor and evaluate the program and staff

Standard 4: Collaborating with families and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.

4.1 Collaborate to incorporate the perspective of families and community members
4.3 Engage and coordinate support from agencies outside the school

Standard 5: Modeling a personal code of ethics and developing professional leadership capacity.

5.1 Maintain ethical standards of professionalism
5.2 Guide sound courses of action using pertinent, state-of-the-art methods
5.3 Model reflective practice and continuous growth
5.4 Sustain professional commitment and effort

Standard 6: Understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.

6.1 Engage with the policy environment to support school success
6.2 Interact with stakeholders
6.3 Incorporate input from the public

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