EDLD 5344 School Law Maridale Still
Week 5: Reflection
Reflection
Throughout this course we have discussed a number of legal issues facing today’s public-school educators. For your final assignment, you will select three legal issues that you feel will be most relevant to you as a school administrator. One of these issues will focus on student management; a second on personnel management. The third can relate to any topic we’ve covered in the course. By giving your responses to the questions that follow, you will 1) record what you have learned in this course, 2) reflect on its significance in your professional life, and 3) develop a plan to further increase your knowledge and skills.
Follow These Steps
1. Reflect upon what you have learned about law and public education.
2. Use the guiding questions in each section to stimulate your thinking as you write three
150-word essays. The questions are meant to guide you, but you may not necessarily provide specific answers to all of them.
3. Write reflectively instead of in “question and answer” style, and feel free to add any
related thoughts that go beyond the scope of the writing guidelines.
4. Use formal writing style and cite Essential Readings and court decisions that support
your ideas.
5. Submit your three completed essays by the end of Week 5.
Rubric
Use this rubric to guide your work.
Week 5: Reflection / Accomplished / Proficient / Needs Improvement / UnacceptableReflection / Completes all 3 essays of the reflection assignment using the minimum 150-words requirement
(8 points) / Completes 2 essays of the reflection assignment
(5 points) / Completes 1 essay of the reflection assignment
(3 points) / Did not submit reflection assignment
(0 points)
Mechanics / No mechanical writing errors
(2 points) / One to four mechanical writing errors
(1 point) / More than five mechanical writing errors
(0 points)
Essay 1: Student Management
Respond to the questions in the red box. Your essay should:
· Use citations from the research when applicable.
· Use professional writing protocols.
· Use professional language.
· Which of the student-management issues discussed in this course is most relevant to you as a school administrator?· How have your views changed about the proper policies and procedures to employ regarding student management?
· How will the knowledge gained on this topic help you become an effective school leader?
· How will it help your staff and your students?
Type your essay in the space below.
As a school administrator, there are multiple issues that need to be addressed on a daily basis. Student management issues can become legal issues extremely quick, so these issues need to be addressed and handled with great care. During this course, we focused on parent and student complaints and I learned that these issues need to be taken seriously when they occur. In week three of this course, we discussed the incident with the special education student that felt the teacher was trying to single him out in front of the class because the teacher resented that she had to make accommodations and modifications for the student. These parent and student issues need to be addressed and handled with caution especially those involving special education issues. This course has assisted in changing my views about the proper policies and procedures regarding student management. I now understand that I need to give these issues appropriate attention and consideration when dealing with both parent and student complaint issues. To become a more effective school administrator and leader, I will need to focus on these issues and be sure to document so that I may refer back to them if they resurface at a later date. I will need to stay up to date and knowledgeable on new legal cases that occur so that I may also keep my staff aware and educated on how to deal with these situations as they arise. This will continue to keep our campus and students in a safer environment so that they may learn and grow.
Essay 2: Personnel Management
Respond to the questions in the red box. Your essay should:
· Use citations from the research when applicable.
· Use professional writing protocols.
· Use professional language.
· What have you learned about teacher evaluation and remediation that you did not know before taking this class?· How will the information presented in this course help you become a better manager of your school employees?
· What aspect of school personnel management do you feel you need to learn more about?
· How do you plan to gain this knowledge?
Type your essay in the space below.
Teacher evaluation and remediation are important roles that an administrator has to address. There may be occasions that an administrator needs to speak to a teacher about an area where the teacher needs improvement. It is important that the administrator takes time to document the area of improvement and communicate this to the teacher. Maintaining this open communication with teachers and staff is an important part of the teacher evaluation process. This information and documentation becomes crucial if needed for teacher termination. Proper procedure needs to be followed if the process of termination becomes a concern. In many situations, proper guidance and documentation by administration can help to make staff aware and conscious of appropriate and expected behavior. Through growth and mentoring of employees, they can have a better understanding of what is expected and work on any improvement areas. Additional staff development may need to be offered to educate teachers and staff of proper procedures and better teacher techniques. The teacher appraisal process can function better through the open communication process between the administrator and staff. Continuous walk through observations by administrators and feedback to the teachers immediately following these observations can keep the lines of communication open between teachers and administrators to maintain a better understanding of appropriate and expected behavior. This gives an opportunity for administrators to be better mentors and guide teachers through the appraisal process with greater success.
Essay 3: Improving Professional Practice
Respond to the questions in the red box. Your essay should:
· Use citations from the research when applicable.
· Use professional writing protocols.
· Use professional language.
· Select another legal topic covered in this course that you feel affects you as a school leader.· What have you learned about this topic, and how will this new knowledge affect your decision-making as an administrator?
· What professional development opportunities can you spearhead in your school to
inform teachers about this issue?
Type your essay in the space below.
The special education IEP process as a whole is extremely time-consuming. With the additional legal requirements of special education, the written documentation for the IEP process is overwhelming for staff members. It is crucial that an administrator assures that special education staff distributes the required paperwork, attends necessary ARD committee meetings, and attends to individual student needs in the classroom. The IEP process can be a legal area that needs to be carefully addressed to assure that proper accommodations and modifications are being met. This course gave me a better understanding of the special educations laws and legal requirements of the program. During our course assignments we worked with the fictional student, Joseph and setting up his IEP that can guide him in the classroom and require modifications and accommodations in standardized test setting. We found that the individualized IEP process can guide Joseph’s educational process so that he can be a more successful student. As an administrator, I will need to give the special education process careful attention to assure that the campus adheres to all special education requirements and procedures or we can be held liable for not meeting IEP requirements or not implementing students’ accommodations or modifications.
“IDEA now places a great emphasis on the subject matter that students with disabilities are to learn” (Walsh, J., Kemerer F., and Maniotis L., 2010, p. 106), so it is necessary to assure that all special education students’ needs are being met utilizing the most favorable accommodations and modifications. Since these students are required to obtain a large amount of subject matter required of them as is also required by general education students, it becomes mandatory that we as administrators pay close attention to the special education process to assure that all teachers and staff are following necessary special education requirements. This will assist in keeping all special educations as successful as possible and eliminate any legal issues that might arise.
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