Final Reflection
Barba, Marisa
Final Reflection
Dr. Parachini
May 16, 2014
How have you identity as a Leader for Justice developed in the PLI?
I have always been able to master new skills with hard work, perseverance, and
patience. I remember thinking that if I can be good at anything as an adult, being an
educator would be the most powerful and influential career that I can choose because I
would be able to impact student’s lives forever and that is how I got here. The set of vision
that I had when I first started teaching before the PLI program was “how I can be the best
special education teacher for my students and parents”. I came to my first day at work
proud and ready to implement all of the best teaching practices that I learned from college
and student teaching from multiple subject and special education credential program. The
leadership role that I had in mind when I first started was how to be a strong teacher and
leader in my own classroom.
As I started teaching as a special education teacher, I was requested to attend the
training that would allow me to be an administrative designee when my administrators
could not attend any of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or Student Success Team
(SST) meetings at school. I was quickly thrown in this position and began leading meetings
with very little training and I remember scrambling through my notes and making sure that
I had my administrator’s phone number while I was trying to calmly lead a stressful
meeting. I was first doubtful of having this role being so inexperienced and young, but
quickly got used to the task by repeatedly making mistakes, asking questions, and clarifying
protocols. As I continued my role as a special education teacher with administrative
designee, the task became quickly more complicated as the budget decreased and we lost a
secretary and we only had a Vice Principal (AP) who was in charge of special education to
only two days a week. During this rough transition, I became the person that everyone
came to for assistance, advice, and information. In addition to the bumpy transition, we
also went through the special education accreditation and miraculously we were in full
compliance with zero inaccuracies. I played many roles in the special education
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department and although it was difficult, I found joy in making sure that the department
stayed in compliance, that parents were informed and involved, and that I could be
assistance to my whole department. With this role, I was able to have a positive influence
and impact not only to my students but also to parents, teachers, and more importantly to
the students. In addition, this role gave me confidence to apply to the UCLA Principal
Leadership Institute (PLI) program to earn a Masters of Arts in Education and
administration credential.
During the PLI program I conducted various projects. My leadership project was
how “to increase inclusion awareness for students with disabilities”. This project allowed
me to work with various individuals in the special education department as well as the
general education teachers. For example, I was able to work with administrators,
Occupational and Speech therapists, special and general education teachers,
paraprofessionals, students, and parents. In addition to the leadership program, I also
worked on projects that broaden my experience in working with general and special
education teachers and parents by putting into place various best practices such as coteaching, Project Based Learning (PBL), Principal Hiring Committee, Safety Committee, and
being a coordinator for the special education department. My experience through the
fieldwork program pushed my emerging leadership qualities and helped me ensure
that all of he different aspects of my vision to improve the special education
department took place. Such as the leadership project: increasing teachers’
awareness to inclusion, safety/anti-bullying committee, and co-teaching wit multiple
teachers, and starting projects such as PBL.
In addition to all of the fieldwork, the professors, content of the classes, guest
speakers, and talking to my classmates have also played a significant role to the shift of my
perspective on being a leader. The dialogues that I have participated in all have made me
think critically to examine my own beliefs, practices, and understand current issues in
education. More importantly, these discussions allowed me to fully understand what roles
that a social leader must play in order to provide high quality education for all students.
My perspective on leadership has changed in a way that I am now a firm believer
that leaders do not and cannot hide in the office to complete paperwork or work only in the
office. My leadership project in conjunction with fieldwork projects helped me understand
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the importance of being in the classroom and knowing the needs of the students and
teachers. More importantly, these experiences have allowed me to understand first hand
how difficult it is to practice what you preach. I feel like I could not have completed this
project and understand the aspects of it authentically if I had not done both (Inclusion PD
and Co-teaching). I really could not have preached about inclusion to teachers if I was
not co –teaching and doing PBL projects. I feel that my authentic experiences I the
classrooms “legitimized” my preaches about inclusion that although it is hard, it is
possible and the right thing to do because that is what our students need and
deserve.
There were challenges that occurred during the projects. First, the change in
administration caused some anxiety and minor delays to some of the plans. In the
beginning of the project we had an administrator who supported the program and
understood how much the staff could benefit from the projects. However, after she left due
to a promotion we had a temporary administrator who froze many programs and wanted
to wait until a new permanent administrator could take over the school. There were some
delays to some of the dates of the projects but as we proceeded, we were able to keep the
dates and conduct the projects with the new interim principal that supported the projects.
Second, communication lags between the teachers. There were times when I felt that some
of the projects were not going to continue to because of the lack of communication. I
remember e-mailing my co-teachers and regarding the projects and there were zero
responses. It even became awkward seeing the teachers at school and felt like there was a
big elephant in the room because of the lack of communication. As the weeks passed, I
visited the teachers in the classrooms and inquire about the remaining half of the projects
(which was very uncomfortable). After my visit to the teachers, we established
dates/activities and we followed through with it because we wanted the major projects to
take place before graduation activities.
Third, I understood how difficult it is to gain input from staff. During the program, I
learned the importance of representing everyone’s voice but it is extremely difficult to do
that when teachers do not attend committee meetings and fill out surveys (paper and
online). In the future, I will find a better way to gather data in a more efficient and accurate
way in order to make the data more accurate and representative of the school. Fourth, my
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partner for the anti-bullying and safety committee went on maternity leave, which left me
all the responsibility for this program. Preparing for the needs and for the parties for the
this committee was one of the main reasons why I would stay very after school because I
had to plan alone. Lastly, time was an issue in many aspects of my life, at work, and at PLI.
It became extremely challenging to balance homework, persona life, and work. Almost
everyday I feel very tired and exhausted from the beginning of the day until the end. During
the planning period of all the projects, it was always a challenge to find time to gather
materials and reflect on our teaching practices. Additionally, we did not have sufficient
time to conduct the PD’s, reflect on the topic, and have rich dialogues. Time will always be
an issue and this is an area where I need to learn to reflect and plan for more efficiently.
There were also many successes that occurred during the projects. First, we were
able to implement all of the PD’s for the leadership project. The collaborative aspect
continued despite issues with time and administration. For example, I was still able to
collaborate with other professionals, students, and parents. Special education staff were
able to be included in the process of the PD and their input were able to be presented to the
staff. Second, despite lapse of communication with Mr. O’Neil and other teachers, we were
able to complete all of the major activities for the PBL. For example, we now have a drought
tolerant school garden built by 4th and 5th grade students and the 5th grade students were
able to go the San Juan Capistrano Mission field trip. Third, to my surprise the Safety
Committee/Anti-bullying students did not want to stop patrolling the campus. Many felt
that their help was badly needed because it would disrupt the routine that they have
developed with the students and the cafeteria workers. Although I was always tired from
prepping for the needs of the students, hearing their loyalty and want to serve the school
community made everything worthwhile and I will definitely continue this because I feel
like I am teaching young children about civic duties and I think of how this could impact
them as they mature. Two teachers already approached and offered their assistance to this
project next year and other possible committees like a Student Body Committee.
Fourth, Mr. O’Neil who worked in isolation and often times a cynic told me that he
now enjoys and looks forwards to coming to work because of the PBL program and the
garden that we created. He stated that he felt joy in creating a garden because it was like
“therapy” for him. The card the he wrote for me I consider as one of the most important
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SUCCESS of my projects. Lastly, despite the stress and hard work, I would say that one of
the other success in my projects is finding real joy and love to everything that I
accomplished. In the beginning it was all challenging, time consuming, and frustrating. As
the projects unfolded, people getting involved, students getting used to the routines, and
teachers showing more enthusiasm to what I was promoting made everything worthwhile.
I feel that the true joy and love that I got from this will continue to push me to do more for
my school community whether I am a teacher or a leader.
What contributed to those changes?
I feel like that I would be untruthful if I said that one course or one fieldwork
contributed to the changes in my leadership quality. I feel like all of the classes pushed me
to think critically and to ask questions as to what social justice leaders must do to provide
equitable education, what is discriminatory education and what I can do as a future leader
to disrupt these inequities, and how I can bring the school community as a partner. The
courses taught me the importance of being a mediator to all sides (teachers, communities,
and teachers) in order to give voice to all. More importantly the courses taught me to not
forget about the students’ voice because essentially that is why I am in this field. If I want
students to be engaged in civic duties, I must teach students strategies on how they can be
involved in helping the community and creating changes.
The fieldwork on the other hand allowed me to put into practice everything that I
learned from the PLI courses. The leadership project along with projects contributed to the
change that I learned through the process that principals who spend time in the office and
in isolation contribute to the marginalization of students. An effective leader is an active
leader in the school community because he/she is engaged in school activities, present in
classrooms, and understand first-hand the needs of the students, teachers, and parents.
More importantly, a Social Justice Leader provides a welcoming environment where
teachers, parents, and student feel comfortable having discussions about
inequalities and ways to address the issues at school.
What are the next steps in your leadership journey?
My dreams and visions all start small and I feel like I need to grow in most of the areas in
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California Professional Standards for Educational Leaders. But one area that I would like to
explore as a future leader is S t a n d a r d 6: A school administrator is an educational leader
who promotes the success of all students by understanding, responding to, and influencing
the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context. I feel like this is one area
will allow me to create effective changes that can improve education for many students,
especially marginalized students. I often I admire the practices that we learn from Dr. Rogers in
class and how much of the budgetary plans he understood and how certain policies create
inequities. More importantly, I am often inspired to teach/give parents and students tools to
understand the system so they can fight with data, facts, and legal rights. As a future educator, I
would like to pursue an administrative position in the area of special education and apply in an
Ed. D program at UCLA because I would like to further my knowledge on Social Justice
Leadership to better serve my community and marginalized students.
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