Respond to two colleagues with a different perspective on how the administrators handled the situation. Provide an additional suggestion or expand on your colleague’s post.

(Note: I posted two of my colleague’s responses to the discussion post below, please respond to their posts. You may begin the response with Hi Michael & Hi Nicole) (I need a half page response for each person).

Michael’s Post:

Let me first start by saying that I think that the way the superintendent has decided to handle this issue is all wrong. She really only accepts the input of one of the educators, and then immediately began to move forward with proposed solutions. I think that it is vitally important to hear all concerns so that the solution is more wide-reaching.

I will also say that the way in which she came off to the others in the meeting was very inconsiderate. You can see the looks on the faces of the employees as they are trying to grasp all that she is throwing at them. They seem frustrated and overwhelmed.

There are a few key things to notice. The first thing is that this seems to be an initiative that is up for little debate. According to the superintendent, the career week is something the must be implemented. For the above reason it is not fitting to accept Ms. Reyes’ position to only focus on upcoming curriculum and testing. Although Ms. Reyes’ concern cannot overthrow implementation it is still very appropriate to be concerned with her issue. If I was in this situation I would definitely assure Ms. Reyes that we will have time to adequately spend on test prep. I would also encourage her to marry many of the career aspects with portions of test preparation.

In terms of stakeholders, I do believe that the superintendent had it right. She was right that we should have business owners, as well as teachers involved with how this would look. I would even go a step further in making sure that we draw in students as stakeholders. Giving students surveys would be essential in finding out what kind of careers they were most interested in.

Overall my thought is that this process has to be very inclusive and the superintendent needs to figure out ways to draw more support rather than ruling from the top down.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015a).Bringing school and community together[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Nicole’s Post:

As usual I find it disgraceful that the director of special education told, not inquired about, but told the superintendent that she felt they were basically wasting precious time that should be spent on more important issues in her opinion.  This occurred because the superintendent has never been a true lead by example type of person.

In my opinion in order to successfully create a career week many different stakeholders need to be involved, such as the principals of all schools in the district as this will be implemented in their schools; the PTA as in my school they are the liaison between the community and the school; the guidance counselors as they are a major asset to grouping the students into possible careers they are interested in for their future, as well as some they may not have thought of; I would also involved the students, leaders of our schools, in my middle school they are called student council  and in the high school they are peer leaders, their involvement would ensure the rest of the student body getting on board with the initiative; finally I would ask the community to help and volunteer their time as they are the best at describing their professions and giving their first hand experience.

In order to achieve my goal of a successful career week I would use a robo call to connect with members of the community, I would send flyers home with the students, I would ask staff members to talk to their friends and all who respond would fill out a questionnaire to see who would best fit and match with the student body and their questionnaires as to get the most information out of the week as possible.

Students need exposure to some personal interests and some unknown careers that could spark their interest as to keep their minds open to opportunities.  Keeping things transparent with all involved again helps to get the message across of what we are as a district trying to accomplish with this week and getting the community involved will help with the relationship with the school and if a culminating activity, like a community day with rides and a party would end the week with even more of a celebration of community and sharing with gained knowledge and experiences for all involved.

References

Fullan, M. (2012). The six secrets of change: What the best leaders do to help their organizations survive and thrive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.