Y.Elkarrimy Final LEAP Presentation

as I was thinking of how to describe who I am and what

it meant for me. Um

and looking through a template that really resonates with me. I stopped at this one

um during pandemic teaching,

I'd have to share my screen during

professional learning sessions or during remote teaching.

And the continuous comment that I always received,

whether it's from students or whether it's from staff members is whoa,

you have too many tabs open.

How do you even know which tab you're looking for?

What are you trying to get on and you know what I always knew which title I

was trying to open even in the millions of tabs that were open on my google chrome,

but

that's exactly what leadership is.

Leadership is having all of these post its or all

of these post IT notes with tasks to get done over

your laptop or having all of these tabs open on your

google chrome and juggling them all at the same time.

And while you're juggling and completing all of those tasks at the same time,

there's also a million other tasks that you're also completing.

Because you didn't have enough time to write it down on a post IT note

this year as an instructional visionary,

we have to use data strategically to ensure that

we're making academic decisions that are going to benefit all

of our students by triangulating the PS SM FN

P and Acadians data and desegregating it by race.

We saw that

we had to make our asian and latino students feel

more welcome to meet the same levels as their peers.

We also had to make sure that we re evaluated our first grade math units using a

culturally responsive lens to ensure that our instructional practices

affirmed our students needs and their personal interests,

making sure that we empower them and

giving them ownership over their individual growth.

We also had to make sure that we exposed and build awareness among students and staff

to learn and recognize the impact that marginalized

communities have had in our society Today.

A big part of the work with the first grade team was to

listen to what mattered to kids when making revisions to the math units,

we knew what's important to Children and how they enjoy learning was important.

So

we were able to identify and help students grow academically

by utilizing Cornelius minors kid listening protocol

and gathering data and revising that.

We make sure we made sure to

use what we learned about what matters to students into our,

into our math units

to build student awareness and exposure to the diverse community we have at P. S.

11, we revised the representation months trajectory

after collaborating with different stakeholders. We developed a K 25 curriculum

that made sure

exposed students and staff to the joy of

these marginalized communities.

Finally,

we made sure that expectations are communicated schoolwide and that

we offered support to either co teach or model lessons

as the chair of the racial equity committee.

Uh we learned that we've done a lot of work in the last four years,

but the data collected from the archaeological dig showed that

our school was still in the cultural pre competent stage.

So

we had to take a step back and review what we've done to

create common language with a new group of racially of racial equity members.

And then we had to think about, well, what do we do now,

What can we do that makes our work meaningful?

So we decided that we had to think about implicit bias.

And this time we knew that we had to make this work sustainable.

And

we also knew that we don't have a lot of time before the end of this year.

So we juggled a lot of different inquiry questions and

decided that for us to really interrogate our implicit bias,

we need to use a tri focal point of view.

Um

most importantly starting with ourselves.

So we started to list the individual beliefs,

the classroom practices and the schoolwide practices that we believe

impact our students and our students sense of belonging.

We knew that in order for us to make any type of gains,

we have to consistently be reflecting as individuals about our

own biases and how that might show up in our

day to day actions and our in our day to

day decisions when communicating with staff students and families.

Mhm

PS 11 has a strong P. T. A. However, we know that our latin X.

Black and asian families are not as involved as their white counterparts.

We knew that we had to cultivate

an inclusive community that starts with communication

since september all of our communication gets

emailed but also posted on class dojo.

This way we ensure that our families are

able to access information and the language that

is of their preference

and we saw immediate impact

right away.

Families whose english isn't their first

language came in as volunteers to chaperone

and even came into the building to

support activities surrounding the representation months.

Families were also updated on the name change process and their

involvement was important for the changing times in our community.

But the most important aspect of the work of a community builder was to

create an equity driven collaboration with our

black indigenous and people of color families

by creating affinity groups and

collaborating and receiving feedback from them allowed us to expose

our students to the impact that marginalized communities have had in

our society today and it allowed families to have a say

in how their Children are learning and what they're learning.

I learned that PS 11 is a community that insurers Children are learning.

They strive and are willing to create safe spaces um

to maximize

student learning and

allow for students to take risks

ensuring that first grade's math unit plans are revised to be more

complimentary of who our students are and what mattered to them,

giving teachers ample resources and time to plan for changes,

sending emails to staff meant putting on my teacher have and thinking how would

I read this email from my school leader as a teacher more than anything,

recognizing that teachers are working in a post pandemic era at,

at such a high caliber and sharing this and thanking them for it was necessary

a sustainable practice would be to recognize staff,

not just during teacher appreciation week.

Um, and especially during the pandemic post pandemic

Instructional leadership has changed post pandemic

because leaders have had to one

be planned for the unplanned and become adaptable during the last second of of the,

of the day.

Another sustainable practices that

more than ever leaders have had to

also become more apathetic towards all their stakeholders

and that might not have necessarily been the most important leadership

skill needed before the pandemic

family voice and involvement has been the most sustainable

contribution that I made as a leap apprentice by utilizing

zoom as a tool to allow for families to

join calls and engage with staff and other families,

allowed for more involvement

and ensured that we worked on creating a space that

is welcoming and affirming for all

of our students and families

by providing opportunities for them to be involved,

allowed for us to create better relationships with students

and also build stronger relationships with our families.

I have evolved as a school leader this year in many ways and this

was largely due to the opportunities that I was given as a leap apprentice

at large.

I evolved by thinking about the big picture

in every decision throughout the school year,

no matter how many skill it may have appeared

as an equity advocate.

This meant that during the racial equity meetings I had to be the influencer

if the big picture was to get our staff to be having honest

and open conversations about race and the implications of our implicit bias,

it meant that I had to model that and motivate others to do the same

as an instructional visionary.

I've evolved into thinking about the importance of presenting any initiative in

a way that shows the importance and urgency of why it's important,

teachers are the most integral part of making a mission and vision come to life.

And so during my math initiative, I did the work that

teachers would have had to do and presented the work to

explain why it was impactful using data and using student voice

that was important.

But what's more important is ensuring that teachers know that they are

supported and will be supported during every step of the instructional initiative

That way,

this initiative isn't just for teacher buy in but will ultimately lead for teacher

ownership

and finally,

as a community builder relationships mattered even more by giving space

and opportunities for families to come into affinity groups and share their

input and feedback around curriculum and how they think the school's

performances going was important because it gave us a different perspective.

It also allowed us for collaboration among families and, and staff,

but also

part of being a community builder allowed for

students to see themselves as agents of change.

And so while the name change committee was successful and made sure that they

stood up for what they believed in by changing the name of the school.

We've recently seen an influx of students feeling that

they are able to present an argument and present

ideas that will help them make changes that they think are important.

My belief is that in order for any school community to thrive,

it needs to have a servant school leader that's innovative and driven.

My job will be to serve students,

their families and the staff so that they all know and believe

that I will lead them to what's best for our community.

We know that schools need to be innovative in order

to allow each child to reach their fullest potential.

And that means constantly learning and growing

and modeling that for students and staff

by putting integrity at the heart of my leadership, I'll be the leader who is honest,

who is consistent and has a moral compass that is seen through my actions

This way,

I'm able to build trust with the entire

school community and inspire to always strive for better

Y.Elkarrimy Final LEAP Presentation

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