The Experience I Have to Offer You, the Site Administrator
Below is a snapshot of my 30+ years of educational experience. I am fortunate to have mentors who guided me into a wide variety of experiences that prepared me for my ultimate goal of working with instructional leaders at this very pivotal time in history for K-12 education to rebuild systems within the field
What follows are some details about my experience in education that will hopefully provide that “me too” connection with you. I began teaching high school science in 1987 (side note: I LOVE astronomy and space…look for Easter eggs in my posts :). I taught for 13 years and was a part-time release mentor as the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) legislation was brand new in California. It was a great experience and spurred me on to get my Administrative Services credential to work more closely with teachers.
In 1999, I left the classroom (even though it was some time ago, I STILL have back to school dreams in the late summer about getting my classroom prepared) and began an administrative career as a high school dean. I spent seven years in a variety of K-12 site admin roles. Next, I transitioned into district administrative roles in 2005. From there, I served as director of teacher support until 2008, when the program was discontinued. Finally, I served as an educational services director until June 2019. Throughout this time, I had the great pleasure of working with a wide range of K-12 school administrators, providing support to increase the impact of their instructional leadership.
With all the changes brought on by ESSA and the new California accountability system, my director role took me so far away from the heart and soul of education – what happens in the classroom. I spent many years (6 to be exact) working to earn my Ed.D. in Instructional Leadership. The focus of my study was on analyzing the impact of instructional leaders on supporting teacher practice.
I am PASSIONATE ABOUT EFFECTIVE TEAHER PRACTICE and the role the instructional leader has in ENSURING teachers are at their peak performance. I believe that teacher quality is an EQUITY issue that needs to be addressed head-on. I am here to help you, the school administrators to be well-equipped to provide targeted, actionable, formative feedback to your teachers everyday.
The most basic reason is that my initials are ARC.
The more symbolic reason has to do with how the word arc is used in science. It can be a noun or a verb and I love how both uses relate to what I hope to communicate on this blog.
As a noun, arc describes the apparent path above and below the horizon by a celestial body, such as the sun. As a verb, arc refers to the phenomenon when there is a discharge of electricity between electrons. I love the imagery each of these definitions brings to mind. You will see it throughout my posts (until I run out of really good photos, in which case I may switch to other things that have arcs 🙂
- Part Four of Building a Learning-Focused Culture in Four Parts: Evaluating Progress - September 20, 2022
- Part Three of Building a Learning-Focused Culture in Four Parts: One Classroom at a Time - September 30, 2020
- Part Two of Building a Learning-Focused Culture in Four Parts: Taking Stock - September 14, 2020