Competency 6: Organizational Management 6.1 Related Task: Ability to develop alternate patterns of space, time, and child-staff groupings.

6.1.1 Specific Task: Develop a master schedule for Midland High School. Narrative Description of Task: Participate in the process of developing and implementing a master schedule. I will work collectively with Assistant Principal Amy Hutchinson and three counselors to develop a master schedule that takes into account graduation requirements, teacher qualifications, coteaching, class size, preferences, and teacher strengths. I will pay particular attention to co-teaching partnerships. Those that have been successful in the past should continue to work together where possible and successful co-teachers should also be teamed with those unfamiliar to co-teaching to strengthen its effectiveness. At Midland High School the job of developing to the master schedule falls in large part to the assistant principal, Amy Hutchinson. This is an enormous undertaking and begins in January with the course recommendations and selections. In January core content area teachers recommend courses for students, special education teachers meet with their case load students on an individual basis to choose classes, and regular education students complete their course selections and turn them in. I was able to spend some time with the special education teachers while they were working with students and asked their opinion of this process. While it takes them out of the classroom they felt it was necessary to talk to their contact kids and work with them to determine which classes they should take. In some cases parent involvement is absent and students need someone to guide them through the process. For core classes they likely go with the teacher recommendations but for electives this can be crucial. As students begin thinking about career paths the school has an obligation to make sure they are working toward their goals and this is another step to ensuring they are doing that. Soon after these processes are completed counselors meet with students to verify their selections and discuss discrepancies between recommendations and student selections. This entire process takes several weeks but once it is completed Ms. Hutchinson and I downloaded the report which is necessary to start determining FTE for the upcoming year. While this process was going on I was also able to work on count day information and ensuring that our count is accurate. Ms. Hutchinson is also in charge of this and an extensive amount of documentation is required to prove attendance. Any type of unique situation needs to be taken into account, including co-op students, part-time students, homebound students, and foreign exchange students. Ms. Hutchinson explained that getting an accurate count is important when considering FTE allotted for the upcoming year. Once meetings between counselors and students are complete the numbers are sent to the administration building where the actual FTE allotted to each school is determined. When total FTE is given to the building the next step is splitting these up among the various courses offered. While I was not able to participate in the actual scheduling due to sensitive information, Ms. Hutchinson gave me the FTE from the previous year along with the course requests and allowed me to develop my schedule

based on those numbers. This is a huge puzzle and she did give me some guidelines to follow but it was an enlightening experience. This was before I even began thinking about fitting teachers with subjects based on requests or co-teaching situations. I had to take into account class size and try not to schedule more than thirty to comply with the teacher contract and avoid paying teachers extra money for overloads. That being said, I also didnt want to schedule too few students in each class because that isnt cost effective either. Finally, I needed to remember that there would likely but some additions and subtractions throughout the summer as families tend to relocate between schools years. Needless to say I spent hours simply dividing the FTE among classes (Appendix A). The next step would be to then assign teachers to various positions, making sure that when possible teachers were given the same FTE in the building as they had had previously. In some cases this isnt possible and teachers would then travel between multiple buildings. I did not make it through this step in the scheduling process, nor has Ms. Hutchinson with this years numbers. I will continue to work on creating a complete master schedule. Reflection: While the impact administrators have on students seems to be less than that of teachers, decisions they make like decisions regarding the master schedule can have a tremendous effect. Deciding whether to give higher level classes rather than lower level smaller class sizes may or may not adversely impact one group or the other. Taking into account which teachers have good working relationships and work well in a co-taught situation can impact students throughout the year. While the main goal is to create an optimal schedule for the students and secondary rational is the satisfaction of the teachers. While it is expected that teachers are professionals and will embrace whatever schedule they get, the reality is that teachers are sensitive to what they see as perceived slights. Teachers that are always scheduled to teach low level classes may feel less valued, likewise teachers who are always given a seventh hour may grow resentful. There are a multitude of things to take into consideration when developing the schedule and as a teacher I have experienced all of these situations. As an administrator I hope never to forget the lessons learned during my time spent in the classroom. While administrators may not have an overt daily impact on students they can have a huge impact overall.