Greg Miller

Final Reflection
MEL-580 Residency II

During this residency experience I feel I have had an opportunity to see a broad spectrum of
administration. My principal, CTE director, and superintendent have given me opportunities I think
many do not get. Some of the experiences I have had include being an intervener for a level three
grievance; working with the CTE director, Title I director, and the Director of RESA 2 on a large grant
opportunity; pitching ideas to the superintendent and local school board; and being subpoenaed to
appear in court on a bazaar illegal videoing case.
I have attended state meetings on CTE and creating a state sanctioned Robotics competition.
I have been through an OEPA audit and I was able to get a behind the scenes look at how the
administrator prepared for that visit. It was as rewarding as it was scary. I have learned an effective
way to prepare the School Monitoring Report. The process we used at the school appears to be a great
way to handle the process. At the beginning of the year, each teacher took the time to fill out the report
using their own judgment. From there each department met and worked through the report, collecting
the data each teacher used to justify their ratings. Next it went to the school leadership team where it
was once again aggregated and used to find a consensus about each rating. From there the principal
made final decisions about the ratings. Once it was completed, it was given back to the teachers to see
if there was anything they disagreed, and there was a discussion about those issues. I saw teachers who
had not been engaged in the school in several years become engaged again because they felt their
opinions mattered. The report was revisited again several times before the visit took place. When the
visit was complete we discovered we were rated higher in several areas than we had marked, and we
had no ratings lower by the OEPA team.
My personal goals for the year included helping set up a better system of communication for the
school. This was accomplished by using Remind. Remind is a software app which allows a teacher or

administrator to send out a text message that cannot be replied to. It also keeps a record of the texts.
This provides the teacher or administrator the security of knowing their phone number is not given out
to the entire community, and the messages are banked to show nothing inappropriate was ever sent
out. Two groups were set up. The first was for teachers, the second for parents and students. We have
discovered it is a very efficient way to send notifications to both groups. We had a lockdown situation
shortly after implementing Remind. Most of the teachers received notification through Remind to lock
down the school. Over three hundred students and parents can be almost immediately notified of
school closures, testing situations, emergency dismissals, or a downed tree on the way to school. It has
been a great success for our school.

The second goal was to help the math teacher develop a more diverse set of teaching strategies.
Three of the five math teachers have less than three years teaching experience. We have been able to
provide them with quality professional development and provide them in-school support to develop a
strategy to begin flipping their classrooms next year. They have completed their first units and will be
presenting them on May 9th at their PLC.
The third goal was to identify the students in the fourth quartile in reading and math on the
WESTEST. We were able to do that and provide the teachers a list of students who were at greater risk.
They were able to implement a stronger use of technology and differentiation to hopefully increase
their scores. We also identified those students in the third quartile, and pushed the teachers to give
them more support so they could achieve mastery this year.
With the little time I have left I try to keep as up to date as possible on current educational
issues. I am a member of AFT and NCTM and spend time reading their periodicals. Since I was the
facilitator of a Math/Science Partnership grant several years ago, I am a member of a MSP group. They
are continually looking for the most up-to-date research on STEM education. I have found many great
articles through the MSP grant.

I have found the residency process daunting but rewarding. Balancing the time needed to
complete the tasks of all of my classes while balancing what seems like an impossible schedule of all of
the tasks I have tried to carry at school. It has taught me a lot about what I will need to do in the future
if I decide to become an administrator. I found out I have to cut back, and some things have to be
sacrificed. I can no longer keep the pace I have in the past. Working until 9:00 -10:00 every night after
school trying to get students ready for a robotics competition is going to have to be modified. I must
prioritize my time and focus on what needs to be accomplished. That is probably my greatest weakness.
I am going to have to stop being consumed by too many projects at one time. I am not really someone
who looks for strengths. Maybe my greatest strength is survival.