Critical Event Reflection

Analyze your performance during clinical practice of any nature (i.e., assignment, benchmark assignment,
internship activity). For all field work assignments and at least once a week during completion of
professional skill development activities in clinical internship, analyze the critical event. Complete and
submit all sections of the Critical Event Reflection below. Your course instructor will apply a rubric to
this reflection as a means of assessing your professional skill and dispositional development, and you and
your peers will use one another's responses as the basis for weekly discussion in the class forum.

A. What were the setting and circumstance of the critical event? (Describe any precipitating
events; identify the social structures at play; articulate any other essential contextual
information.)
Dr. Seybert attended the 7th grade Math PLC to discuss the curriculum. Mrs. Miller, Ms.
Howard and Mrs. Wihebrink are the members of the PLC. The discussion was geared
toward the changing of the sequence of TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge Standards), due
B. What occurred, and what choices were made? C. What were you thinking and
(Make a bulleted list, third-person perspective)
Dr. Seybert brought in past cycle Common feeling?
Formative Assessment Grades and discussed that (Make a matching list, first-person perspective)
they were too low from where they should be.
All PLC members agreed that they were not where When looking through their curriculum and their
they wanted them to be. CFAs that were made, I agree completely with
Mrs. Miller commented that too much content was the PLC. Too much information is expected to
be mastered in one test. Seventh grade math
chunked together and not spread out. She said that
does not allow students to use a calculator. I
there was too much to remember for one test.
agree that when they are doing their tests, there
Each teacher in the PLC feels frustrated with the
is too much to multiply and too many steps to
results of their hard work. do to get the test finished in time. When the
students feel rushed, they tend to just guess and

D. Reflect on what the event means to you now in the context of your research base. (Cite author,
year.) What do you understand more clearly about whether or not the chosen actions reflected
best practice?
As I observed the PLC with Dr. Seybert, I felt the frustration that everyone shared with how
poorly students were performing on CFAs. After the members of the PLC shared their
thoughts and feelings on changing the sequence of TEKS the suggestion was to chunk the
Geometry in several phases and not so close together. As and eighth grade teacher, we did
this with our curriculum and it went very well. I fully support the decision by the PLC, as
well as Dr. Seybert. I believe that by re-sequencing the TEKS for 7th grade will lead to less
E. Consider the implications these insights have for your practice. In other words, what
change(s) would be reflected in your disposition and your work, based on how you now
anticipate thinking and acting?
The job of a principal is to look out for the best of the school, teachers and students. They
want to help her teachers succeed in their teaching, which, in return, will lead to student
success.
 F. Aligned leadership skills and professional dispositions reflected and/or warranted in this
event.
(Briefly indicate the rationale for each alignment, including those not reflected but warranted.)
Even though the PLC will have to work harder to re-sequence the TEKS for the following year, the decision made by Dr.
G. Evidence/artifacts that align to school vision and mission. (List, describe, and briefly
indicate the rationale for each item. In cases where alignment is problematic, briefly discuss
how evidence/artifacts do not support fulfillment of vision and mission.)
The mission statement for our school district is, The Foundation exists to promote excellence in
education by generating and distributing resources for the benefit of MISD students and
employees. I believe that by the change in the sequence of standards will lead to a better
education by having achievable boundaries. Not only will the students benefit from this, the
teachers should have a smoother time of teaching the content with less frustration from being
overloaded. Dr. Seybert made the conscious change to do this in support of her teachers and her
students.

H. Notes/comments
Principals are not always faced with the easiest of situations. In this case, the principal had
to bring forward bad news about CFA scores. It is not always comfortable to deliver
negative thoughts on anything in the occurrence it may hurt someones feelings.
Other information:

I discussed the programs expectations and overview with Dr. Seybert. We discussed
fulfilling my other hours by taking off of work for a Monday, after our Standardized
testing is complete, to shadow her and the assistant principals. I explained to her I
wanted a complete look into what each role does as an administrator. I expressed that I
would be full of questions to her about many things, which she said would be okay as
long as I kept things confidential and used professional manner. We also discussed the
amount of practicum hours that I will need to complete during the course of the
program. We have started to set aside dates that I can come in and observe. She seems
very excited to teach me more about becoming and administrator.

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