LSC 5531 Mod 10 Principal Strategies Worksheet

Student Name: Craig Kubiak

SECTION ONE: COMMUNICATIONS WITH MY PRINCIPAL Directions: List three topics that your principal is very concerned with and that may determine his/her success (i.e., student test scores, parents approval, etc.). 1. Student achievement 2. Student test scores 3. Parental concerns Describe how and when your Principal likes to communicate (refer to Hartzells Chapter 8). When would the issues you listed above be most appropriate to discuss with the Principal and why. While I have only known my current principal for a couple of months, he tends to be fairly informal when not in staff meetings (and not overly formal in those). He seems to communicate to the staff mostly through email or at monthly staff meetings, although if something pertains to one teacher or small group of staff, he will make a point to visit with them. The one thing that I am not certain about yet that I would like to know (thanks to Hartzell) is whether he is a morning or afternoon person. SECTION TWO: ASSESSMENT OF MY STRENGTHS (refer to Hartzells Chapter 3) Directions: List at least six characteristics about yourself that allow you to influence your principal. Elaborate as needed to be clear.
I value relationships with people. Same gender (while this seems inappropriate, it could lead to an increased camaraderie). Progressivism (he is progressive with educational philosophies while I am always up for trying something new). Adaptable, which is always beneficial in education. Generous, which would benefit the school because I would be available and wiling to serve where needed. Need to be free and not confined (ideally, a principal would want this in a school librarian because he/she would not want to worry about what is going on in the library).

LSC 5531: School Library Advocacy & Leadership, Module 10

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SECTION THREE: STRATEGY FOR INFLUENCING MY PRINCIPAL (reference pp.134-148 of the Hartzell text) Directions: Develop a strategy to influence your principal on a topic that is important to your principals success (from the first column). This can be a goal of the principal, a building initiative, or a district directive that the principal needs to carry out. Your idea needs to both meet a need of the principal and at the same time help you to assert your influence, gain the principals trust, and enhance library services. Include timing, language, and method of communication to be used. Issue to be Addressed: Student achievement What the Principal is Interested in Accomplishing and Why: Our school has a no fail policy that all students mandatorily achieve 70% proficiency or higher on each of Virginias Standards of Learning. He believes that it does not matter when a student achieves proficiency, but rather that they do achieve proficiency. What the School Librarian is Interested in Accomplishing and Why: Assisting with student achievement, which should be one of the core values in any educator. This can be done in a variety and plethora of ways. The Plan (summarized): To assist with student achievement, I would (as the school librarian) begin my focus with the obvious: reading/English/language arts. Scheduling time with students that struggle to read and learning about them, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they enjoy could allow me to help them find books that they would enjoy and are at their level. This is particularly important because the English teachers have 150 students and the reading specialist only works with the few that are in extreme need. As suc h, there are likely many students that can fall between the cracks. Further, and rather obviously, when the reading level and confidence increases, a students success may increase in other subjects. To accomplish this scheduling, I would have a short presentation for my principal detailing what I could do for these students, what current research shows (a necessity for him since he is research-based), and possible times that I could pull students during the school day. While there is a lot of time that this could be accomplished throughout the average school day, many times these are the same students that are working with a reading specialist, math remediation, etc. Therefore, detailing when a 20-30 minute block would be appropriate to pull students would be beneficial to have planned out to present to the principal. I could present this to the principal at any time that he can spare about 20 minutes.

LSC 5531: School Library Advocacy & Leadership, Module 10

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