Magdalena Villa

Competency Reflections
Domain I: School Community Leadership
Competency 1: The principal knows how to shape campus culture by facilitating the
development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared
and supported by the school community.
I was fortunate to complete my internship experience at a campus where the principal
shows evidence of shaping the campus culture on a daily basis. She emphasizes that working
together and collaborating is the best way to succeed and to contribute to the schools mission
and vision. As part of her leadership team, I was able to contribute in shaping this culture of high
expectations by collaborating with colleagues in setting goals, not only for students, but also for
teachers. During the Curriculum Planning and Development course, Dr. Landry stated one day
that having a vision was the beginning of the journey as leaders and showed us how to develop a
vision of learning involving the school community. Right after, my principal assigned me to
participate in the planning of the revision and update of my schools mission and vision
statement. Something that I learned from this experience was that setting high expectations was
not enough. School leaders must also provide teachers with the tools and support to implement
the strategies needed to reach those expectations. Establishing procedures to assess and modify
plans to ensure achievement of the campus vision is something that I needed to set as my long
term goal. How does one monitor progress and modify implementation while facing resistance
from some members of the school community? My short term goal to improve this competency
is to acknowledge and celebrate contributions from school community members towards
realization of the campus vision. It is something fairly easy to do but necessary in order to
improve peoples morale. After completing my internship experience, I feel confident that I have
a clear understanding on how to collaborate with all stakeholders to shape and support the
culture of my future campus to ensure that all are working towards the shared vision.
Competency 2: The principal knows how to communicate and collaborate with all members of
the school community, respond to diverse interests and needs, and mobilize resources to promote
student success.
This competency states that I must have communication skills and provide opportunities
for collaboration among all in the school community in order to promote successful student
outcomes. I agree that communication and collaboration are absolutely the most important skills
for achieving the campus goals. During my internship, I was able to provide meaningful
opportunities for parents to be engaged in the education of their children. One of my projects was
parent involvement where I offered monthly parent workshops to learn how we teach in school
and how they can help at home, make and take activities. Another of my internship projects was
the coordination of IAT-tier 3 interventions where collaboration among specialists, teachers,
interventionists, and parents occurred in order to help students achieve their goals. As an
instructional specialist, part of my job is to continually communicate with teachers and parents.
My principal is a great communicator and I have learned a lot from her. As a leader, I have many

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other goals to achieve. Monthly Coffee with the Principal sessions for families and community
members are a great opportunity for communication with stakeholders to occur. Developing
newsletters that include reflections, calendar events, reminders, instructional focus, campus
celebrations, best practices, birthdays, and shout outs are also great tools for communication as
are monthly Coaches notes from the principal with inspirational and motivational reflections
on the teachers work. In this world of technology, I believe that I need to do a better job
communicating through our schools website and social media platforms.
Competency 3: The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and
legal manner.
My internship mentor was a prime example of a leader with ethics, fairness, and integrity.
She modeled and promoted the highest standards of conduct. She promoted awareness of
differences and advocacy for all. She shared and applied her knowledge of issues affecting
education to ensure awareness and compliance. During my years of experience as teacher and
instructional specialist, and appraiser, I have had the opportunity implement policies and
procedures that promote professional educator compliance with the Code of Ethics and
Standards Practices of Texas. However, the application of laws and legal guidelines to protect
the rights of students and staff is an area that I need to keep myself informed and up to date in
order to ensure compliance. In my future role as an administrator, I will strive to model and
promote leadership of integrity, fairness and ethics by following district and legal guidelines.
Domain II: Instructional Leadership
Competency 4: The principal knows how to facilitate the design and implementation of curricula
and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment of curriculum,
instruction, resources, and assessment; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure
student performance.
In my role as instructional specialist I have had many opportunities to develop
comprehension of this competency. One of my main roles is the facilitation of curriculum design
and development. I have facilitated grade level planning on a weekly basis using the district
documents such as planning guides, scope and sequence, and pacing calendars. I have had the
opportunity to model best practices, co-teach, provide resources, and develop common
assessments aligned with the curriculum and instruction. Part of my job is to identify teachers
needs and provide feedback on instructional practices and lesson planning. I feel confident in my
ability to implement this competency effectively. However, I believe that there is always room
for improvement. Reflecting on my campus data, I believe that research-based practices for
English second language learners would help the design and implementation of a more fitted
ELA plan for teaching and learning.
Competency 5: The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and sustain an instructional
program and a campus culture that are conducive to student learning and staff professional
growth.

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 Magdalena Villa

This competency describes many of the duties that I have had the opportunity to practice
through my work as an Instructional Specialist. My role requires to support and develop teachers
through facilitation of professional development that addresses best practices and
implementation of instructional programs and curriculum. My work involves collaborative
planning, implementation, observation, feedback, and assessment that provides necessary
modification ideas to achieve successful student learning. Through PLC facilitation, I contribute
to the campus development of a vision that reflects students needs for academic achievement. I
help plan, develop, monitor, and adjust the student improvement plan as needed. I share best
practices with my colleagues as I coach them. During my IAT project, I was able to practice this
competency extensively. My future goal is to continue evolving as education changes and
promote educational programs that take students and teachers to conductive growth. As I reflect
on this competency, I feel confident assuming the role described in this competency.
Competency 6: The principal knows how to implement a staff evaluation and development system
to improve the performance of all staff members, select and implement appropriate models for
supervision and staff development, and apply the legal requirements for personnel management.
This competency represents the product of the work I do as an Instructional Specialist. I
support teachers continuous growth as effective educators. In this role I meet and set goals with
teachers. This is followed by a formative observation to identify a clear coaching focus
established with the teachers collaboration. After setting goals, I implement coaching strategies
and model new instructional practices. Coaching and feedback are provided to aid teachers in
perfecting new approaches. I provide teachers with professional development support, best
practices, modeling, and co-teaching opportunities. In addition to my Instructional Specialist
role, I also appraise a group of teachers at my campus. Being a Teacher Appraisal and
Development System (TADS) certified specialist provides me with the foundation needed to
implement staff observation to assist in improving their performance in the classroom. During
my internship experience I had the opportunity to participate in the recruitment, screening, and
selection of campus staff. Although I feel very comfortable with this competency, my goal for
improvement is to learn strategies to better diagnose the campus morale and provide ongoing
support to campus staff.
Competency 7: The principal knows how to apply organizational, decision-making, and
problem-solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment.
This competency refers to the skills needed to promote and facilitate decisions, change,
and solutions to ensure the campus nurtures and provides an environment conductive of learning.
My internship mentor is a huge advocate of this competency. She brings all stakeholders together
in an effort to address concerns and collectively come up with possible solutions and ideas for
change. Team building is involve with school community because parents, teachers, business
representatives, and community members are all involve in the decisions made through SDMC.
During the past two years, I have assumed the role of analyzing school data collected from
campus and district assessments, state assessments, and surveys parents, teachers, community,
and students opinion to assess the schools needs. Following the analysis of the data collected,
all stakeholders gather together to find solutions to possible concerns. I am currently part of the

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SDMC at my campus. I am at a comfortable level with this competency because I currently

contribute to data analysis that leads to decision-making, change, and problem-solving. My goal
is to improve my skills in facilitating discussions that positively help all members of the school
community to agree to the best possible solutions to our concerns concentrating on our main
motivation, students learning.
Domain III: Administrative Leadership
Competency 8: The principal knows how to apply principles of effective leadership and
management in relation to campus budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, financial
management, and technology use.
This competency relates to the management of the school as an institution. During my
internship, I have had the opportunity to manage the Race to the Top Grant. This grant funds
activities such as extra duty pay for teachers providing tutorials, professional development fees,
substitute teachers for teachers attending professional development (PD), materials and
resources, financial literacy field trips, college field trips, and parent involvement activities.
During my internship, my mentor invited me to participate in the planning and management of
the 2017-2018 campus budget. It was a great learning experience for me, however, I realized that
budget goes hand in hand with the specific campus needs in regards to learning programs,
personnel, and resources. My goal is to keep my knowledge up to date of the laws and policies to
ensure financial management compliance in relation to accounts, bidding, purchasing, and
grants.
Competency 9: The principal knows how to apply principles of leadership and management to
the campus physical plant and support systems to ensure a safe and effective learning
environment.
Safety should be a top priority for any school. A critical administrative duty for every
principal is the development and implementation of a crisis prevention and management plan. In
addition, procedures and practices for effectively responding to crisis. During my internship, I
was able to serve as a chair of the safety committee at my campus. In collaboration with all
members of the committee, we were able to develop a written crisis prevention and management
plan including procedures for effective responses in case of a crisis. We updated all evacuation
maps following local and state guidelines. At my campus, everyone is vigilant of adults in the
campus by ensuring that they have district budges or visitor budges on. Everyone is expected to
redirect anyone without a badge to the office to sign in to receive the necessary pass. Everyone
must contribute to a safe environment conductive of learning because the safety of our students
is high on the priorities list. Schools must have systems in place and conduct drills and mock
situation scenarios on a monthly basis to practice and prepare for situations such as fire,
lockdowns, and shelter-in-place. Although I am confident in my abilities in this competency, I
feel that I need to keep my knowledge up to date in regards health services.
During my Internship I reflection I stared that competency 008 and 009 were my two
areas for improvement. Since then, I consider that I have learned so much and that my skills in
these two competencies are stronger. I also stated my desire to improve my knowledge in regards

EDUC 6331-Administrative Internship II Fall 2017

 Magdalena Villa

applying legal guidelines in relation to students with disabilities, competency 003. This semester,
during internship II, I have had the opportunity to advocate for children with special needs
during ARDs by preparing myself learning one chase at a time. I have learned so much
throughout the both Internship courses, however, Internship II provided me a clear picture of
leading with purpose by adding the action research projects.

EDUC 6331-Administrative Internship II Fall 2017