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        <title>Reklawnitsua’s Neighbors</title>
        <link>http://reklawnitsua.vox.com/explore/neighborhood/library/posts/page/1/</link>
        <description></description>
        <language>en</language>
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        <item>
            <title>Don&#39;t be a heel</title>
            <link>http://coramia.vox.com/library/post/dont-be-a-heel.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(Coramia)</author>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:09:37 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;I notice a marked difference in my attitude between the days I wear heels and the days I don&amp;#39;t.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My attitude affects my kids&amp;#39; attitudes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their attitudes affect how my day goes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conclusion:&amp;#160; I need more cute flats.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://coramia.vox.com/library/post/dont-be-a-heel.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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            </description> 
            <category domain="http://coramia.vox.com/tags/">shoes</category> 
            <category domain="http://coramia.vox.com/tags/">heels</category> 
            <category domain="http://coramia.vox.com/tags/">attitude</category>   
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        <item>
            <title>fun in class</title>
            <link>http://anwmo.vox.com/library/post/fun-in-class.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(ms. m)</author>
            <comments>http://anwmo.vox.com/library/post/fun-in-class.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:09:12 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;Either I have become a very good actress, or I just imagine teaching to be worse than it is when I am not in the classroom...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;The teacher has fun when she is give the notes and things to you. I like that the teacher has fun with you when everyone talkin or doing something about the lesson.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;My student approval rating (gauged by looks, side comments, overhead hallway conversations, evaluations, journal entries, etc) is about 10 times what it was last fall right now, which is certainly making my life MUCH easier. Hang in there first-years, they will come around!&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
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            <title>Leadership Lessons from Principal Sweeney</title>
            <link>http://mtc.vox.com/library/post/leadership-lessons-from-principal-sweeney.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps)</author>
            <comments>http://mtc.vox.com/library/post/leadership-lessons-from-principal-sweeney.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:42:16 -0700</pubDate>         
            
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Participants/Bios/2008/Interns/70EliseTropiano.htm&quot;&gt;Elise&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://etropiano.vox.com/&quot;&gt;Tropiano&lt;/a&gt;, one of out eight outstanding &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Participants/Bios/2008/2008Interns.html&quot;&gt;interns&lt;/a&gt;, has written a fantastic paper about the leadership lessons she learned from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mtc.smugmug.com/gallery/5355885_C8u3f#337421672_vhGLU&quot;&gt;Principal&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.msu.edu/%7Esweene31/&quot;&gt;Sweeney&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;From
Holly Springs to Amherst:&lt;em&gt; Principles of Leadership Learned and Applied&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;Apple-style-span&quot; style=&quot;font-family: &amp;#39;Times New Roman&amp;#39;; font-size: 16px;&quot;&gt;Elise Tropiano&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;This summer I got to experience working with two
different summer programs.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In the
first part of my internship, I worked with Mississippi Teacher Corps’ Holly
Springs Summer School.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The school
serves middle and high school students who fail classes the prior year.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The summer school runs for two months
and upon completion, students receive credit for their course and can graduate
to the next grade.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Another central
purpose of the MTC summer school is to prepare its new class of MTC teachers
for their impending first year of teaching (as much as possible).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In the beginning, they work alongside
second-year MTC teachers until gradually they take over and teach the class
alone.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In addition to learning the
fundamentals of teaching, they also become acquainted with the difficulties of
teaching students from critical needs areas in Mississippi.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Many of the students attending the
summer school come from low-income or impoverished households throughout Marshall
County.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In addition to the
turbulence of teenager-hood, students deal with an array of issues that come
with living with very little means.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;I certainly got a huge glimpse into the difficulties felt by these
struggling students and every day I learned (in an often unsettling way) about
the grave problems in education especially as they relate to Mississippi.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;In my internship, I assisted, along with my
fellow MTC interns, the Summer School Principal and MTC alumnus Joseph
Sweeney.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;By working alongside
Principal Sweeney, I not only learned about education in Mississippi, but I was
also able to observe (and learn) the effective leadership that supports and
produces a properly-run school. Each day, Mr. Sweeney was responsible for an
infinite number of issues.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Issues
included those related to attendance, the collection of summer school funds,
coordinating with the Holly Springs School district, busing, teachers’ needs,
and student conduct.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Surprisingly,
these are only a fraction of items to which demanded Mr. Sweeney’s attention.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In addition, Mr. Sweeney often resolved
these issues not so much in a fleeting manner but with an amazingly careful
thought process.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;In the second part of my internship, I helped
run a summer program called Amherst Pipeline Project.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Amherst Pipeline Project is a year-round afterschool and
summer program funded by Amherst public schools and Amherst College.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Pipeline Project works with
underprivileged students from Amherst public schools grades 6-10.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The purpose of the program is to
prevent or mitigate the achievement gap that has been emerging in Amherst
public school between low-income students, who are disproportionately students
of color, and their more privileged peers.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The program is year-round with an afterschool component
throughout the school year and a program for the summer.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The program emphasizes the continued
membership of students with “class cohorts” (for each grade).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Each Pipeline cohort is meant to
graduate from one grade to the next until they successfully traverse the
“pipeline” into college.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;There are
approximately seventy Pipeline students who are attending the summer
program.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;There are three seventh
grade classes, two eighth grade classes, and one ninth/tenth grade class.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Each class is taught by an ARPS teacher
with an Amherst College student intern also contributing to teaching math,
reading, and science skills.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Last
year, I was one of the student interns and worked with the ninth and tenth
grade cohort.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In my second year
with the program (and the second part of my internship), I have been given a
greater leadership role.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;My role
is basically the intern supervisor as well as assistant to the Summer Program
Director.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I support the interns as
they gradually teach more material throughout the summer session, but more so,
I help Talib Sadiq, the Summer Director, with a lot of the managerial work the
program demands.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I found this part
of the internship, in considering my experience with the MTC summer school, has
allowed me to learn and utilize the various aspects of effective leadership
that I observed of Mr. Sweeney.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In
addition, I have also been able to learn about different leadership styles,
observing Mr. Sadiq as he managed the four-week summer program.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Because this entire internship has also
had the aim of learning about education, my two experiences, working in
Mississippi for the first part of my internship and then in Amherst for the
second half of my internship, have allowed me to learn and compare the
education problems that plague different areas of the country.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Specifically, my dual internship has
allowed me to find similarities and differences between the educational matters
of critical needs school districts in Mississippi (their students, their
parents, teachers, the organization of the schools themselves and those that
come with top-notch schools that nevertheless have a considerable population of
students that are under-achieving and/or under-privileged.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;For me, learning occurs best through a series of
experience and observation, repeated reflection, and application of lessons
learned upon reflection in a useful and effective manner. &lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;The following reflection describes the
lessons I learned from Mr. Sweeney while in Mississippi and how those lessons
were applied to my greater leadership position while at Amherst.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Although initially I planned to do a
project on corporal punishment, I found that once I got to Amherst and began
working hard (often working 10-11 hour days without even thinking about it), I
was constantly trying to find ways to organize and systematize tasks in a way
that was similar to Principal Sweeney’s leadership and organization at the MTC
summer school.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I felt that having
my writing assignment cover both experiences would ensure that I learned most
from both experiences and gave justice to the unique opportunities that my self-designed
internship allowed &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;At
the summer school, Principal Sweeney had a range of responsibilities.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;After trying to write these
responsibilities in one sentence, I realized it would inevitably turn into a
terribly long, run-on sentence.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;I’m going to instead enumerate them.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Each day Mr. Sweeney had to make sure that…&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;1)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Buses ran smoothly and both teachers
and students arrived on time&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;2)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Students were attending class on time
(not tardy as both attendance and tardiness affected whether students received
credit for their class)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;3)
Students were behaving because disciplinary actions against students,
detentions and suspensions, also jeopardized class credit&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;4)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The MTC summer school received payment
from students&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;5)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Records of student attendance,
tardiness, detentions, and behavior were maintained and updated daily&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;6)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The school schedule was properly
adhered to, the bells rang at the right time, and schedule transitions went
smoothly (from breakfast to class, class to lunch, class to afternoon
activities, and afternoon activities to departure)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;7)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;First Year MTC teachers were entering
the teaching world as best as they could and were receiving the proper
mentorship and advice from second year MTC teachers&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;8)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;School supplies, especially books and
photocopier machines, borrowed from Holly Springs school district were
sufficient for teachers&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;9)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Coordination with the Holly Springs
school district was performed as necessary&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;10)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Afternoon activities had a balance of
student preference for the activity options offered with also having enough
structure/organization to know where students were at all times&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;11)&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Teachers were communicated with about
the different protocols, scheduling information, facilities of the summer
school&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;I have even more to mention but for brevity’s
sake, I’ll stop the list here.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As
you can see, Mr. Sweeney had many things to worry about each day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I realized when I attended school I
never sat back and realized that all of these things were overseen by the
principals and executive personnel.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;You just assume that they these things just fall into place, they happen
without thought or prior planning.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;The principal just shakes students’ hands as they get off the bus, but
little else.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Boy was I wrong.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As Dr. Mullins said in a talk he gave
to the MTC first year teachers and interns, the job of a principal, being
responsible for so many decisions in one day is akin to the several decisions
dealt with by a heart surgeon.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;It
really is one of the most demanding jobs I’ve ever witnessed.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The above list does not even give
mention to all of the new one-time decisions that a principle also must handle
with—these are solely the expected, daily to-do list he has in his hand every
morning.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;Despite the task load, Mr. Sweeney, through his
formation of efficient systems, was able to take care of all of these items
every day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;For each item he had to
take care of, he created an organized system which allowed those items to be
taken care of in much shorter time.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;In doing so, it allowed for time to be better spent on those
unpredictable issues/problems/tasks that inevitably arose each day and for
which no system could be developed.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;These systems were set in place for almost every item on this list.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;For the bell schedule, he assigned this
task to fellow intern Philip.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Philip would be responsible for manually ringing the bells at set times
each day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;For attendance, Ashton
would distribute attendance sheets every morning and I would record each day’s
absences and tardy’s into a google document, a useful piece of software that
allowed for Mr. Sweeney to access the attendance records at any time during the
day even as I inputted new data.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;To maintain a peaceful lunchroom, he staggered classes’ lunch periods so
that the middle school went to lunch first while the high school lunches came
after thereby reducing the amount of traffic in the cafeteria and preventing
long lines (as best as he could) for lunch pick up’s.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;For afternoon activities, students chose voted for the
activity in the beginning of the summer school session.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Students were then assigned to a single
activity, location, and set of teachers for the duration of the session.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;This organization allowed Mr. Sweeney
to be able to know and find any student at any given moment during afternoon
activities, which was essential considering that students had different means
of transportation home (some took the bus and others were picked up).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;As Mr. Sweeney’s assignments to the interns
show, delegation was an essential part of his leadership.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Although Mr. Sweeney was aware of
everything that occurred in the school, he assigned responsibilities to interns
and teachers.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Those things that he
wanted to give his utmost control and attention to, he left for himself to
personally handle.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;For things that
could easily be handled by others, he readily gave those duties to us interns.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I realize now that delegation afforded
Mr. Sweeney two important things that principals and leaders always need a full
supply of: time and greater energy.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;If Mr. Sweeney had to put a ton of time into everything he was responsible
for, he would not be able to promptly or effectively handle the
unpredictable.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Delegation gave Mr.
Sweeney more time to handle those unexpected urgencies that inevitably arose
each day and needed to be handled solely by him.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;It also prevented Mr. Sweeney from running out of energy or
burning out.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;While I have almost
infinite confidence in Mr. Sweeney, it would have been impossible for even superman
to take care of everything he was responsible for and then some.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Mr. Sweeney was aware of his limits and
delegation was a tool for ensuring that those limits were not breached.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Although Mr. Sweeney often had little
if no time to eat lunch, certainly he was not falling to the ground by the end
of the day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-tab-count:1&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In
addition to these effective systems and delegation, effective communication was
also a key part of Mr. Sweeney’s leadership and management.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Mr. Sweeney’s manner of communication
was continuous, prompt, informative, and concise.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As a form of daily communication, Mr. Sweeney sent e-mails every
day with the simple but funny subject line “Summer School E-mail #_.”&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;They contained reminders, items that
teachers and interns needed to be aware of for the day ahead, and other
miscellaneous things that needed to be communicated to their students (procedural
protocols, school policies, etc.).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;It was an efficient chain of communication which followed from the head
(Mr. Sweeney) down to the student via teacher or intern.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Other forms of communication occurred
through daily and weekly meetings.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Every day Mr. Sweeney had “Intern wrap-up’s,” in which the interns met
with Mr. Sweeney for five minutes to recap on what went on that day and what
lay ahead.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Every week or as
circumstances warranted, Mr. Sweeney also held meetings for both teachers and
interns. &lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;These meetings were for
items that needed to be communicated in a direct way as opposed to e-mail whose
communication reception was uncertain (we actually incidentally came across a
teacher who had not been opening any of Mr. Sweeney’s e-mails as a result of
him leaving his e-mail account open on a library computer).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;One last form of communication occurred
through Mr. Sweeney and MTC teachers’ use of google software.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As I learned this summer, google e-mail
is not the simple e-mail account that I thought it was.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Instead, all Gmail account members can
also use its e-mail software and this summer, “google documents” is one that
Mr. Sweeney and MTC teachers and staff quite effectively used.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Basically, google documents is a word
processor that google e-mail account holders to use.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The special thing is that it allows for google account
members to share documents with one another.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Those members that “share” and/or “collaborate” on certain
documents are able to view or change the same word documents or spreadsheets at
any time.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Document “collaborators”
are even able to change the same document concurrently, seeing one another’s
modifications and even “discussing” the document if necessary.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;With google documents, documents could
be changed or updated without having to send that document out to teachers and
interns each time so update was made.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;This was especially helpful when inputting attendance or detention
information into a single spreadsheet.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Thus, anytime a student got another detention, any “collaborator” (or
teacher) could access the document and input that detention into a shared
spreadsheet without having to e-mail someone beforehand to retrieve that
document or having to e-mail that document out after entering that new item of
information.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Although some have
question Google’s seemingly cyberspace monopoly, google nevertheless allows for
unique and expedient communications and in my opinion, should be readily
embraced.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Putting
Learning and Theory into Practice:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt; Using what I learned from Mr. Sweeney in
Managing Pipeline This Summer&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-tab-count:1&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Before
returning to Amherst to work with Pipeline Project’s summer program, I knew it
would be a lot of work and was ready to toil away.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As soon as the first minute into Pipeline, I realized, just
as my observations of Mr. Sweeney should have warned me of, that I had to be
aware and take care of many more things than I originally foresaw.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The first day I was running around like
a maniac.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;From the classrooms, to
the office, to Valentine, to the gym, and then a few more loops, I felt like
all my limbs were disconnected from my body.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I then started to feel overwhelmed.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I had to communicate all different
things to the students, the teachers, and the interns and I began to make
errors, forget messages, assume certain things were communicated when they
weren’t, and then really started to become exhausted.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Every day would end at 2:00 p.m., but I wouldn’t stop
working until six or seven at night.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;After the first four days, I had calluses all over my feet and
blue-black crescents under my eyes.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;I really did not know how to make my job easier and more efficient, but
then I thought—wait a second, I did just work at a summer school—what am I
doing?&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I started thinking about
how Mr. Sweeney operated and used his techniques of delegation and
communication to do more with less.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-tab-count:1&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Within
a few days, I refocused and changed the way I was doing everything.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I started with delegation.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I looked at the many tasks I had to
complete each day and thought of ways I could delegate these tasks to the
interns I was supervising.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I
thought of the way Mr. Sweeney delegated—he did so in a way that was fair and
allowed for us to have some creative input into completing the tasks at hand.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;However, he also delegated tasks that
he could rely others to complete in a way that he would if had the time to do
it.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;So, I kept this in mind.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I wrote down everything that needed to
be done each day and each week.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;For things that were meant more for me to do, things having to do with
event planning or parent contacts, I left that up to me to do alone.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Things like attendance or Amherst
College facility reservations I gave to the interns.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I communicated some of my expectations for the task at hand,
but gave them the freedom to fulfill those expectations in a way they felt was
personally best.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;So, for example,
I told them that Talib, the Summer Program Director, needed to have the
attendance of every student each day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;At first, I tried taking attendance every morning during breakfast.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;However, students arriving late or
eating in a location away from everyone else made this system not work.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I sat down with the interns and
suggested that we have weekly attendance sheets with individual day
columns.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I suggested that I give
those sheets to them each day, they would take attendance in their respective
classes, and then I would somehow get those back before the end of the
day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;They really liked that idea
and then suggested that I give the attendance sheets to them each morning at
breakfast, they would take attendance within the first hour of class and put
those attendance sheets on the back of the door so I would not have to come
into class (and inevitably distract the students), and then I could input the
information into a spreadsheet and return the attendance sheets the following
morning.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The system worked and no
attendance errors were made.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;It
also freed up my time so I could handle things that made more sense for me to
handle alone.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I could really help
the student interns as they started to teach more and had the time to make sure
events, activities, trips, and valentine meals were well prepared for and went
smoothly.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-tab-count:1&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In
addition to delegation, I also focused on communication.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;After the first few days, I realized
that the channels of communication between Talib, the interns, teachers,
students, and myself were clogged.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Talib and I would know something that the teachers did not know of or
the interns were aware of some activity planning and the teachers were totally
out of the loop.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In many ways, it
had to do with the fact that Pipeline project is a collaboration of two
educational institutions—Amherst College and Amherst public schools.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The interns and I often knew how
something worked because of our roles as Amherst College students and the same
was true with the teachers and Talib as employees of Amherst public
schools.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In the first week,
especially, the teachers, interns, Talib, and I had multiple moments of, “Oh, I
had no idea that… or I didn’t know we had to do that beforehand...”&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I remembered Mr. Sweeney’s daily
e-mails and got right to it.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Although I neglected to use Mr. Sweeney’s subject lines, I started
sending e-mails every day.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The
e-mails were sent to everyone—Talib, the interns, teachers, and other staff—and
contained reminders for the following day, questions, updates, and things to
look ahead to in the upcoming weeks.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;They were in a bulleted format similar to Mr. Sweeney’s e-mails and I
tried to make them as brief as possible.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Although google accounts were not able to be set up (some teachers and
students were resistant), the effective communication through daily e-mails was
still able to be completed (though not in their best possible google
form!).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I’m currently creating a
list of improvements for next year’s summer program and I will be sure to put
“Set up google e-mail accounts for all interns, teachers, and staff” on there! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;In addition, Talib, the interns, and I had “end
of the day” wrap-ups similar to those that Mr. Sweeney conducted.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Teachers would also be included every
few days as their schedules demanded (due to their required work hours in their
contracts).&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Every day, we all
discussed what went well that day, what needed to be changed, and what to look
forward to in the next week.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Teachers
were also included in these discussions when necessary.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Usually, the interns and teachers discussed
some of their questions/concerns related to the summer programming and
scheduling while Talib and I would discuss some of the more logistical or
administrative issues we needed to resolve.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;A lot of the communication kinks that were arising were being
ironed out at these meetings.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;From
my sense, everyone felt their input was being heard and at the conclusion of
these meetings, we were all on the same page.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As a result, there was a smooth flow of communication from
the administration side of the program, Talib and me, to the teachers and
interns, and then finally to the students.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&lt;/span&gt;You saw
that it made a difference to the students.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The students appreciated the feeling of structure by being
better communicated with and felt like they had a voice when teachers and
interns could better address their needs.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center; text-align:center&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;This summer I learned that running summer
programs or more generally, educational administration and leadership, requires
a whole lot more work than I ever expected.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As a student, you never see what goes on in the background--
all of the planning and coordination that goes into running a school.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;It starts from the very beginning of
the school day—the buses, down to attendance, class schedules, lunch, trips,
recess and activities, and then an extra margin left for each day’s list of
unpredictable issues that need to be sorted out.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;During the MTC Summer School, I quickly learned
the great if not absolutely exhausting demands of being a school
administrator.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Busing of both
students and MTC teachers, meals, summer school payment, attendance,
disciplinary action were just a fraction of the things that needed to be taken
care of at the MTC Summer School.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;However, these demands were able to be met as Principal Sweeney
demonstrated.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In my observations
of Principal Sweeney, I learned just how a principal or any school
administrator is able to handle the numerous responsibilities that go into running
a school all in one day with also having time to take care of the
unexpected.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Principal Sweeney’s
use of delegation and communication led to the impressive, thorough, and
efficient management of MTC’s summer school.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Each day, he was able to do so much in such a smaller amount
of time because of these management tools and he made it look so easy and
painless.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;In fact, his
effortlessness in running the summer school allowed me to experience a sort of
leadership shock when I went to Amherst and had to help run a summer program
myself.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;For the first few days, I
was overwhelmed.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I was running all
over the Pipeline campus, delivering and relaying messages, calling parents,
talking to teachers, and more.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;By
the end of the day, I could do little more than lie down on a couch and hope
the humidity of the Amherst heat would go away.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I then thought of what Principal Sweeney did to make things
go so smoothly at Holly Springs.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;
&lt;/span&gt;Upon reflection, I soon adopted Principal Sweeney’s tools of delegation
and communication to increase the utility of Pipeline’s teachers, interns, and
staff.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I started sending out daily
e-mails and running brief wrap-up meetings to improve communication.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I then systematized daily tasks like attendance,
meal scheduling, and room reservations in a way that incorporated more delegation.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;As a result of the improved
communication, all Pipeline teachers and interns started to be more on the same
page and could provide insights on what needed to be done in a way that
considered students’ needs.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;The
administrative duties that Talib and I needed to perform were more swiftly
completed when we could meet with everyone more frequently.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;Delegation also became useful by
allowing Talib and I more time to deal with the unpredictable or other long-term
planning.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;text-indent:.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:&amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;&quot;&gt;In the end, Pipeline went much more smoothly
when essential tools of leadership were employed.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I thank Mr. Sweeney, Ben Guest, and the experience of
working with Mississippi Teacher Corps to give me the tools to more efficiently
running Pipeline Project.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;After I
returned from Mississippi, I thought I was entirely sated even overwhelmed by
what I learned in my four week internship.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun:yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I didn’t think my experience with Mississippi would carry
over so extensively into my internship in Amherst and I am so grateful it
did.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;If I learned this much in
four weeks while in Mississippi, I cannot even imagine what I can possibly
learn in two years!&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/span&gt;I’m hoping
this will be just one of the many chapters that will come in the future.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://mtc.vox.com/library/post/leadership-lessons-from-principal-sweeney.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">summer school</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">summer internship</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">mississippi teacher corps</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">elise tropiano</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">joe sweeney</category>    
        </item> 
 
        <item>
            <title>national anthem of the day</title>
            <link>http://patricklasseter.vox.com/library/post/national-anthem-of-the-day.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(patricklasseter)</author>
            <comments>http://patricklasseter.vox.com/library/post/national-anthem-of-the-day.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">http://patricklasseter.vox.com/library/post/national-anthem-of-the-day.html?_c=feed-rss-full</guid> 
            <pubDate>Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:35:48 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;I realize that I have posted two versions of &amp;quot;The Star Spangled Banner&amp;quot; recently.&amp;#160; Why stop now?&amp;#160; Today&amp;#39;s anthem:&lt;/p&gt;
    
    
    





        






    
    
    





        






    
    
    





        





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&lt;p&gt;

I don&amp;#39;t care if she lip-synced or not.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://patricklasseter.vox.com/library/post/national-anthem-of-the-day.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description>    
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        <item>
            <title>Okay, who saw that?</title>
            <link>http://coramia.vox.com/library/post/okay-who-saw-that.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(Coramia)</author>
            <comments>http://coramia.vox.com/library/post/okay-who-saw-that.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">http://coramia.vox.com/library/post/okay-who-saw-that.html?_c=feed-rss-full</guid> 
            <pubDate>Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:01:03 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;Michael Phelps is incredible, and that race was amazing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, it&amp;#39;s bedtime.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://coramia.vox.com/library/post/okay-who-saw-that.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description> 
            <category domain="http://coramia.vox.com/tags/">olympics</category> 
            <category domain="http://coramia.vox.com/tags/">phelps</category>   
        </item> 
 
        <item>
            <title>things to think about for first years</title>
            <link>http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/things-to-think-about-for-first-years.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(free like driftwood)</author>
            <comments>http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/things-to-think-about-for-first-years.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/things-to-think-about-for-first-years.html?_c=feed-rss-full</guid> 
            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:30:24 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;develop relationships with your department:&amp;#160; If you can ingratiate yourself with veteran teachers in your subject matter, it can only pay dividends.&amp;#160; Its more than being humble and differential.&amp;#160; Build positive sustainable relationships.&amp;#160; Chill with people at lunch or make an extra effort to build during off campus events.&amp;#160; They can hit you with old LPs and and materials, but, even more importantly, they will sing your praises to other teachers and administrators, which can make your life easier.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;be consistent with your rewards:&amp;#160; as everyone will tell you, being consistent with your consequences can be the difference between having a very difficult but manageable first year and having a edge-of-a-nervous-breakdown-everyday-is-miserable year.&amp;#160; Right up there with that, however, is being consistent with your rewards.&amp;#160;&amp;#160; Classroom management will ensure that order prevails in your classroom.&amp;#160; Rewarding your students will ensure that they will have a positive experience in your classroom, and, hopefully, they will understand that someone values their intellectual capacity and individual voice.&amp;#160; You&amp;#39;re training fragile young people to dream beyond whatever has been previously been expected of them, not automatons on an assembly line.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;decompress:&amp;#160; pick up something on the side.&amp;#160; Yoga, guitar hero, origami, street racing.&amp;#160; Schedule this activity for right after you get out of school.&amp;#160; Don&amp;#39;t try to grade papers or call parents or plan when you get in the door.&amp;#160; save your sanity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Download the new TI song:&amp;#160; It&amp;#39;s dope.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/things-to-think-about-for-first-years.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description>   
        </item> 
 
        <item>
            <title>The 2nd First days</title>
            <link>http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/the-2nd-first-days.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(free like driftwood)</author>
            <comments>http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/the-2nd-first-days.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
            <guid isPermaLink="true">http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/the-2nd-first-days.html?_c=feed-rss-full</guid> 
            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:27:26 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The biggest difference is power.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether real or imagined, the single greatest advantage of being a second year teacher is the power that your experience gives you.&amp;#160; As&amp;#160;soon as you step into the building you&amp;#39;re&amp;#160;a known entity.&amp;#160; Students who have never had you&amp;#160;see you interact with students who you have taught and realize that you&amp;#160;walk with some sense of history.&amp;#160; Your name rings bells; your&amp;#160;reputation procedes you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The most&amp;#160;visceral example I can think of&amp;#160;is&amp;#160;addressing a student in the hallway.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Last year, this was&amp;#160;always a somewhat delicate proposition and because you lacked the proper credentials from your novice status, your word didn&amp;#39;t carry much weight as far as checking the students behavior.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;This year, I find it much easier to stop a student in the hall and reprimend them for whatever infraction they have broken.&amp;#160; Respect is automatically given (most of the time).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Other than that, this year&amp;#160;has been pretty low key.&amp;#160; A lot less&amp;#160;stress, a lot more ease in the classroom.&amp;#160; The&amp;#160;job has become more enjoyable.&amp;#160; Obviously still a lot of&amp;#160;drawbacks and hangups, but teaching is an alright profession when you get the hang of it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Not that I&amp;#39;m a master teacher (I stay woke).&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://freelikedriftwood.vox.com/library/post/the-2nd-first-days.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description>   
        </item> 
 
        <item>
            <title>Hunter and Landon</title>
            <link>http://mtc.vox.com/library/post/hunter-and-landon.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps)</author>
            <comments>http://mtc.vox.com/library/post/hunter-and-landon.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:31:16 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;p&gt;MTC Summer Staff members &lt;a href=&quot;http://hatmtc.googlepages.com/&quot;&gt;Hunter Taylor&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://landon.pollard.googlepages.com/mtcportfolio&quot;&gt;Landon Pollard&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;
    
    
    
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&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">summer training</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">mississippi teacher corps</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">landon pollard</category> 
            <category domain="http://mtc.vox.com/tags/">hunter taylor</category>    
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            <title>once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more</title>
            <link>http://sabatier.vox.com/library/post/once-more-unto-the-breach-dear-friends-once-more.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(sabatier)</author>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:19:25 -0700</pubDate>         
            
            <description>    &lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;[ASSIGNED: FIRST DAYS OF SECOND YEAR]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    
    
    

    
    
    
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&lt;div&gt;Here I am again. Standing in front of a roomful of strangers.&amp;#160;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I&amp;#39;m in a new school where I once again have to find where things are, who knows what, who does what, and what matters.&amp;#160;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My schedule is a 4x4 block this year so I see every student every day in the course of teaching three 98-minute blocks. That&amp;#39;s &amp;#160;a long time, but I think I&amp;#39;m going to like it. Especially for English, which is really like teaching three classes in one&amp;#160;(reading, writing, grammar), it seems a natural fit to structure each block as three mini-classes.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Something I learned the hard way last year that I&amp;#39;ve fully embraced this year is that it benefits both the students and me to have as much structure and routine as possible. Within that basic structural framework I can vary the specific activities, but we still move from the Do Now review, to the short grammar lesson, to the main lesson that will involve both reading and writing. Monday and Tuesday are new vocab words. I understand, and have internalized, the concept of having the students do most of the work. As much as I fought against having them sit silently working on independent practice activities, I realized that this is pretty much what kids everywhere expect to be doing in school. It&amp;#39;s reassuring to them and easy on me. It leaves me with the energy I need to do the group, visual, and kinesthetic work.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My long class blocks have also slowed down my pace. When students finish their independent practice, instead of just handing it in they spend time sharing their answers, developing speaking and presentation skills I wasn&amp;#39;t able to take time with last year. I&amp;#39;m far less likely to try to overlap transitions or have students multitask. Each procedure is given its own time, and we move at a calmer pace. Again: payoff.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The biggest payoff of being a second-year, though, comes in my confidence to be able to get to group work, games, and having &amp;#160;students do the teaching right from the start. I had them in pairs the first day (completing and then presenting at the board Venn diagrams &lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/randomspaces/statuses/882702207&quot;&gt;describing themselves&lt;/a&gt;) and have done group work nearly every day since. Having the time to establish the procedure of moving and replacing desks has been a great boon. Yesterday I did the &lt;a href=&quot;http://sabatier.vox.com/library/post/hearing-myself.html&quot;&gt;spontaneous turnover of my teaching duties to a student&lt;/a&gt;, with my juniors and it was a huge success. Would I have tried this on the fifth day of school last year? Ha.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;So I&amp;#39;m hopeful this year will be smoother for me. Yes, the administration and faculty are far more organized and professional. Yes, I have books (even had them before the start of school) and lots of support materials from this century. My room is falling apart a little less. The students on the whole are worlds apart from those at SD -- both in their general comportment and academically. I&amp;#39;ve actually been shocked a few times at the creativity and coherence of writing samples I&amp;#39;ve seen. English 2 is well into their first informative &amp;#160;essay, and English 3 is finishing up an explication of a Eudora Welty short story.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;But the&lt;span class=&quot;Apple-style-span&quot; style=&quot;font-style: italic;&quot;&gt; real&lt;/span&gt; difference is in my classroom, and in me.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I stand, like a greyhound in the slips ... the game&amp;#39;s afoot.&lt;/div&gt;     &lt;p style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt; 
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://sabatier.vox.com/library/post/once-more-unto-the-breach-dear-friends-once-more.html?_c=feed-rss-full#comments&quot;&gt;Read and post comments&lt;/a&gt;   |   
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&lt;/p&gt;
 
            </description> 
            <category domain="http://sabatier.vox.com/tags/">teaching</category> 
            <category domain="http://sabatier.vox.com/tags/">classroom</category> 
            <category domain="http://sabatier.vox.com/tags/">mississippi teacher corps</category> 
            <category domain="http://sabatier.vox.com/tags/">classroom.management</category>    
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            <title>Growth and Development</title>
            <link>http://chimaobi.vox.com/library/post/growth-and-development.html?_c=feed-rss-full</link>   
            <author>nobody@vox.com(Chimaobi)</author>
            <comments>http://chimaobi.vox.com/library/post/growth-and-development.html?_c=feed-rss-full</comments>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:55:29 -0700</pubDate>         
            
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