ARMS Principal Forums #1

001you good afternoon and welcome to the first of three community forums to meet finalists for the Amherst regional middle school position I am Doreen Cunningham the assistant superintendent of diversity equity and human resources this virtual platform that you are viewing from YouTube has a chat feature where you are able to submit questions for candidate response questions were also submitted via email we will get to as many as possible during the allotted time we ask that communication via chat follow the norms that we would follow if we were in person meaning that we will use appropriate language and be respectful with our communication also this is a reminder that the sessions are being videotaped each candidate will begin by giving a brief bio and sharing why they believe that they are the best candidate for this

002position and why they are interested in Amer schools we will begin today with the Eagle Sharon so mr. Sharon please tell us about yourself and why you believe that you are the best candidate for this position and why Mr Schools thank you during and welcome to all of you who are watching from your computers at home first of all I'd like to just acknowledge the awkwardness certainly when I began this process in pursuit of this position I didn't anticipate that we would be doing this virtually so I can't see any of you and you can see me but I'm just putting that out there so my name is Diego Sharon I have been an educator for over 25 years about about 18 of those as a classroom teacher and the rest of them in various

003forms is administrative work during those years I have developed and had the opportunity to have a broad range of experiences not only in in school settings and in different communities but also in different parts of the world I had the great pleasure of working in South America and in and in Thailand to help develop as part of the team humanitarian educational projects that underscores my commitment to social equity as a way to work as as schools as a vehicle for social equity and I think that's a really important part of my career and my work and my passion throughout my time as an educator I've had the opportunity to develop great many programs and I found that social equity is always at the forefront of those my attraction to Amherst and my profound belief that

004I am the best candidate for this goes beyond my love of Amherst which I've developed over the past year and in particular of Amherst middle school which I've developed the past year as the Dean of Students I have a genuine regard for the professionalism and of the of the staff and faculty and also a high regard for the students and they're striving as well I I believe that I'm the best candidate because those experiences have given me a real insight into what the issues at play are some of the challenges that we collectively as a community face and as a professional community in particular and looking at the school and particularly at a time of tremendous change I think it's beneficial to have someone who has relationships established with students and with staff alike and

005who has the capacity of ability to call upon and leverage those relationships in order to build more trust and to develop clear goals and a teamwork orientation towards working on those so that's that's why I feel I'm the best candidate besides my broad experience my connection to the community thank you please tell us what do you like about middle school students that's a great question you know I have worked at all levels I've worked in elementary schools I've worked in mill schools I've worked in high schools and I've even taught college-level courses for educators and the thing I like and really appreciate about middle school well there are many of them but I think the primary thing is that it is a really critical period in the life and the biography of students and it's

006a time when students can be supported in a way that really helps them to develop resilience ease that can carry them through not only the rest of their schooling experience but also the rest of their lives and it's a really critical period for for the opportunity to affirm students of all backgrounds and to really create a culture that teaches all of us not only to respect ourselves and to strive but also to respect others and to really find benefit and growth in those differences that we encounter at that age and developmentally I think it's it's a really important time to help students develop a picture of what it is to be not only a leader and an educator but also just a person of integrity and modeling that for them with them is a really

007important part of why I enjoy that because I feel that they're very responsive and and there's there in certain ways aching for that kind of model in their lives in in their schools in in their communities and and that's one of the things I really enjoy about working with middle school students I also find them to be tremendously creative it's a when they retain some of the goofiness if you will of of being a child but there they're also developing the critical thinking capacities that will become more refined as their life progresses and so in that regard it's a it's a very powerful and potentially impactful time for them to to develop themselves and that's what I really love about working with middle school students thank you if you are chosen to become the next

008principal at the middle school how will you support students with mental health disorders you know I think one of the things that I always focus on has as an not only is it educator but specifically as an education leader is the development of a culture that's supportive to all individuals and I think one of the things that's a particular challenge is working in a community with so many people and recognizing that there are different needs that everyone brings with them and and so I think first and foremost developing and working really hard to develop a culture that is supportive of all students and their needs is really important that goes that's particularly true of our most vulnerable students and I think I think that speaks to your question the other thing I think is really

009important is to focus and into focus on relationships my experience is that relationships that students develop with adults and with one another are really one of the most important vehicles for learning in the middle school setting and and so to really work on supporting the development of relationships through a purposeful engagement of culture and and through really to really work on developing mechanisms that allow those relationships to shape how we interact with one another I I was having a conversation with a colleague who's a administrator as well and we were talking about the specific social emotional needs that are present for students during this time of so much uncertainty and and in talking about it we really were affirming this idea of relationships being that vehicle we've talked about teachers who are adapting to this

010new online learning environment and creating leadership and lessons that none of us thought were possible before this and and so being able to focus on those opportunities being able to engage students and really being able to deepen relationships are the things that I find inspiring and they can serve all students particularly the students that you mentioned thank you how how will you close the equity gap for students you know I think that's a one of the things that I feel is really important about my intentions and and my desire to take this position on at Amherst I think one of the challenges that Amherst no school in particular faces is that there doesn't seem from my experience to have been in place over an extended amount of time very clear goals around this particular issue

011or very clear understandings so my intention is to embody the role not only of school leader but also of lead learner and really to support the development of clear and transparent understandings about what those issues actually are what they look like how they manifest and and to really have clear ideas about what we as a community as a professional community in particular but also as a community as a whole community are doing to address these and I think it's a it's a situation where it's really important to be able to talk the walk in the sense that it's one thing to know what we're doing but to have everyone in the building be able to talk about what we're doing and use the same language and have clarity about what those things are is really

012important and and I and it's my goal and and my intention to really work as a team leader but also as a lead learner to identify the issues in play particularly around social equity and to name them and to to engage in a few initiatives because I think sometimes we can get muddled with too many a few very purposeful initiatives to address this particular goal and to revisit them in a team as a team regularly and to report out to the community about those the progress and to really be consequent with communication to be transparent with communication and to really have this goal of developing social equity and closing that gap be a a critical part of what we address in this team setting really bringing on the expertise that we have in the building

013and engaging it and and having a very intentional approach to doing that and so I think I think one of the one of the things that can be very frustrating about working with goals like this which are huge and and are multifaceted is that the change is incremental and and but the reality is that incremental change is is the only change it's available to us and so if we don't keep our eyes on the prize of this change and continue to report out and develop a movement around it then then I think we have the run the risk of losing the thread and I think to be quite honest one of the things that I've seen here is that is that there hasn't been that continuity or clarity of action on a consistent basis and

014so I would I would hope to bring that and I would hope to bring that in a way that allows us to work on this goal over many years with myself guiding and supporting that again not only as a school leader but also as a lead learner so that I could also model the kind of engagement and vulnerability that is an important part for all of us as educators to work on as we grapple with this difficult issue thank you what is your plan of action to ensure that english-language learners and students with special needs make significant progress you know that's again that's a great question and I and I think it's important to realize that whether we're talking about a teaming gap or we're talking about English language learners or regardless of what population

015we're talking about what we're seeing is that in the absence of a of a really comprehensive and cohesive plan of action action what we're seeing is that is that we're not continuing through with a a thorough and well thought-out process of school improvement and and so my I would assert that in the in the presence of this kind of cohesive plan this would be an improvement for all students and and so one of the things that I think is is difficult to recognize sometimes is that the beneficial things that are that are going to be happening need to be things that are seen school-wide as having the effect of benefiting all students and every single adult in the building needs to be on that same page and that that kind of teamwork and that kind

016of cohesion is critical to developing change in success in a school setting and in the absence of that what you might have very good things happening in different parts of the school but if they're not happening in all parts of the school then effectively what you're doing is you're you're having one hour of a student's day be supporting growth or a couple hours of student day supporting growth but in the absence of those things being manifest in every single part of the students day what you have is students having to learn different systems students having to learn different skills and instead of learning similar skills or the same skills that will benefit them in their math class in their science class in their history class in their art class and the PE class etc and

017so and so my plan of action is to work collaboratively with with a group of teachers and educators in the building who have a strong sense and a strong impulse to understand these ideas and to develop to develop tools and our to use tools that are available to us in order to and in order to make sure that equity at all levels is something that we're bringing and so so whether we're talking about the achievement gap with ëall students or with any other group of students this should be a concerted effort that's happening throughout the building and in our capacity to be able to understand what those solutions are collectively and to agree upon them and to implement them and to speak with not only with cohesion but also with clarity and with transparency about

018our progress along that network is I think what I would call my plan so I don't have a plan that's in place because I believe very much in the idea that every single school community has a plan that is the ideal fit for that and my goal is to work to develop that plan in concert with the tremendous professionalism and expertise that already exists in the building and and to work to implement that plan plan in a way that is that is like I said cohesive but also in a way that allows all students to understand and clearly what's what are the successful see what are the skills the word suggesting will help them engage them in success and of course part of that is revisiting the work and revisiting it in a way that

019that allows all of us to be able to understand where our strengths are manifesting and and what adjustments we need to be making in real time to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all the students thank you with change in administration comes changes in policy procedures and methodologies how do you plan to streamline existing systems and utilize staff feedback when implementing new initiatives you know one of the things that I have experienced in many places is that when there is a change in administration and particularly when there is change in administration that happens regularly it can become very confusing because if if a group of teachers were working very hard and purposefully five years ago to engage a practice that was being supported by leadership and they did a very good job of

020that and then two years later it's a whole different system I think I think that can be very dangerous for for the ability of a school to continually adapt and certainly there has been a lot of change in Amherst middle school I believe that it's really important to develop a a collaborative and clear approach to addressing the identified issues that are present in the community as a team and to very clearly state what those are not only to ourselves consistently and to one another consistently but also to the community and to have those goals and those methods engage and become part of what we talk about how we communicate to each other and what our expectations are for one another as professionals in the school building and so and so my goal for for implementing

021my leadership in the school isn't to throw out everything that came before and to say this is my system but to really have open and and and and trusting dialogues with professional stakeholders in the school whether they be parents or teachers or the the para staff or whoever and and really identify what are the things that are working what are the things that we see as as continuing to be a benefit to students and and and and and what are the things that we don't see and and so my goal would be in that setting to be able to determine what these are and to work with fidelity in order to make sure that those are things that are happening across the board and and the the positive attributes of that is that though if

022those are widely held and widely understood solutions that are being proposed too widely held and widely understood problems and those are gree agreed upon by all the professionals and and all the teachers in the building then it gives us all the opportunity to engage in continual renewal of what our goals are and when our roles are and the within those goals and also to to work at addressing them in a way that that is a benefit regard of the leadership that is or isn't in place it would be my goal to to become the principal and to be a long-standing principal at the middle school but in in the event that I was principal and something happened and I wasn't there five years later my hope would be that those goals would have been taken

023up by enough people in the building and understood to be positive and proactive and successful ways to work at our collective goals that they would continue to be worked on regardless of who sat in the principal's office thank you what is your experience with performing arts departments and what vision do you have for the role of Performing Arts in the middle school that's a that's a great question um you know I think I think one of the really powerful things about the arts in general and and Performing Arts in particular is that they give students an avenue and an opportunity to try different things on I myself and I'm an artist I'm I'm a mediocre musician and someone who has worked for years to become a painter and and so I really value the role

024of art and I really value the opportunities that can happen from that kind of outside the box thinking that is available to us when we engage that side of our brain that asks us to be creative and to not be self-critical and and I think that practice in and of itself of employing one's creativity and to do it in a way that is supported by peers and engaged in collectively by peers and adults is a really powerful model for for the kinds of successes in community that I feel really mark and that can have a long-lasting impact on not only who we are but we are in relation to to our world and others so in terms of of supporting the performing arts I think it's really important that arts be brought to students in

025a way that they can be appropriately managed I think I think if if someone has a drama class or someone has a chorus class and the way that it's it's done is such that that the classroom management is the most critical piece of the success of that you're setting yourself up for a lot of a lot of real challenges because of course being in a vulnerable space in student in a community of young people is not a comfortable space for a lot of middle school students so it has to feel safe if I'm going to elevate my voice and sing I want to feel that I'm not going to be made fun of if I'm going to take on a a certain role as a character and maybe act different than I normally would and

026and have that witnessed by a group of my peers I want to make sure that that's recognized as something that is a an attempt at art not not as something that that should be targeted or singled out and so and so I think it's really critical for the integrity of Performing Arts in particular that it be done in such a way that's supportive and supported I'm sorry and that really becomes that safe space for young people who are developing themselves who are developing themselves and not only as as thinkers and as doers but also as as people who whole human beings who are going to be trying different things on and and elaborating themselves and hopefully becoming more and more of themselves as time passes I think that opportunity to to feel safe in a

027performing arts space is absolutely and can be absolutely transformative and and and I don't mean only to an individual but also to a community and so I I you know I I feel like I have a very strong value for the arts and and I as a parent I have always made sure that my my kids are involved in the arts and one of the first things that I ask students when when I would meet them in my role as dean at Amherst middle school is I would ask them hey what do you like to do do you play an instrument do you like to draw and and I actually musically was quite a bit there were there are various different art projects that I engaged in with students at different times well I did

028painting with some students I and and I always marveled it and what it is and the power of having a young person make something beautiful genuinely beautiful and to watch the pride that creates in them and to and to watch how empowering those actions can be and so I I think I would I would like to work to further develop the role of Performing Arts and at Merce middle school and to have that be an important part of what everyone does at school thank you if we have a period of time next year when we have to rotate between in-person and online instruction what will you do to ensure that students are engaged in their learning and what will do you do to ensure that their social I can excuse me social emotional well-being is

029being taken care of or addressed yeah you know that's that's a really important question to be thinking about right now and and one of the things that's interesting about that is that all of us collectively who are educators but also your parents at home with our kids are engaging this question for the very first time you know when people say these are unprecedented times they're not kidding I have a daughter who's graduating from an architecture program next weekend and there's no graduation there's nothing really momentous to Demark this tremendous work that she's been committing herself to for a number of years and so and so I think I think this question of how we support students through this has a lot to do with demonstrating to them our willingness to work hard at being resilient

030being creative being thoughtful and being purposeful in these times and I and and Mme unfortunately there are students who have more natural or socialized capacities for this and there are students who have more abilities and supports for these things and so I think what's really an economic is in a school community the systems that are responsive the systems that are proactive and the systems that are beneficial in order to help students through this difficult time I I can't predict what's going to happen over the following school year because there are so many variables that are taking place in our community and in this nation and world at this time that will have a very strong impact on that I think we're all seeing that but as a school leader what I would what I would

031guarantee is then I would roll up my sleeves and work very hard with a group of concerned and engage educators in order to make sure that all students were not only being given the tools that they need in order to be successful but also the the the support from from people whether that means Vittorio didn't I know that district has worked very hard to make sure that everyone has access not only to a computer but also to a connection to the Internet and I'm very proud of the work that's happened at a district level to ensure that and and what that creates as they're known as for us as educators to be involved in the day-to-day lives of of all the students in the to the extent that that they need but also to the

032extent that's possible and and a lot of that has to do with creativity I've been very impressed and and and very touched by the kinds of work that I see teachers doing and offering and the opportunities for students to bring themselves to the classroom experience and even to see each other in in the quote unquote classroom the virtual classroom in a way that is affirming of their of their humanity and and and and fun as well and I think those things are and can be a part of what we're bringing to the classroom and and again the more we allow students to to be open to be vulnerable in in those settings that's going to enable learning and and and you know and I think the other piece is to like I said develop those

033systems that are in support of students we continue to week I'm sorry we continue to meet as a as a school in various ways through this whole situation and and part of that is to ensure that that there are students who are being left behind and and I know that I as well as others have done a lot of work over the past few weeks to reach out to students and their families who are who are not saying involved in learning as much as we'd like or not seeing them present in the in the classrooms or the synchronous opportunities to meet up with other students and and you know and sometimes those those communications end up giving us the opportunity to be creative and about developing systems or or adapting our systems to support parents

034and families and students who have needs that are outside of you know the the the most typical kinds of needs that we that we're seeing and so I think you know I think it's important to remain flexible to be creative and and to be diligent and bring our will to this work particularly now because because there are no you know there there aren't education departments that have been teaching us how to teach in this in this environment it's it's really about us as professionals bringing our skills and again our will to to this new work what are your new during I just want to there are some questions that I'm seeing here would it be appropriate for me to read those are those we're gonna get to them soon okay great I just wanted to

035make sure we didn't leave any out mm-hm so what are your fundamental beliefs as to what instruction should look like at the middle school level yeah I you know I think I think my fundamental belief is the instruction should be responsive and and I think that responsive instruction looks different in different settings I I have taught in a lot of different schools and as a teacher I have always taught differently because I have a different group of students in front of me I have even when I'm teaching at a school and my morning class they're gonna be different than the class that I might have been learning the exact same thing in the afternoon and so and so I I always really value the role of or I should say the value of being responsive

036to the students that you have in front of you and so any any I think any preset ideas that one has about what a classroom should look sound or feel like actually limit our ability to be responsive and so I'm not trying to be I'm not trying to evade that question because I think it's it's a it's a good question but but i but I do think that within a particular school there could be agreed-upon norms about how we're teaching certain things or are the skills that we see as being most beneficial and wanting to have those in place in across the curriculum in various classroom settings and things like that but again I think those those are elaborated in dialogue and they're in professional dialogue with teachers who are being responsive to the to

037the to the real needs of their students and and within that having the flexibility to acknowledge that there are different strengths that are present in in our in each of our students and so and so I think the you know the the most important thing is that classrooms are responsive to the needs of their students and the teachers are supported in being responsive to those needs in ways that enable learning by all students thank you what is your view about discipline in the middle school in your response please address issues such as cell phone use Halloween orbs and expectations around kindness you know kindness is is an undervalued trait sometimes oftentimes I would say and and I think kindness is one of the things that that any student who's had a conversation with me over

038this past year may have heard me ask if if I if they felt they were being kind when they engage in a particular action and the reason I say that is because I think I think it's it touches something very human in all of us when we experience kindness from another person that being said I also know that as and particularly having been the Dean over this past year there were many many times when when when when students were acting in ways that were perceived as being unkind and in some and in many of those cases they were they were actually being unkind and and I also admit that that can be a very subjective thing based on on people's experiences and and people's perceptions and so so it's a very complicated picture but but

039I do believe strongly that that middle school is a time for learning many different kinds of things and one of the things that we learn in middle school is how to behave in a way that's productive and inappropriate and also kind in various settings and and it's also a time when there are increased freedoms that students are are are coming upon and so I think it's very important to be proactively instructive I think it's very important to clearly state the expectations for behavior and I think it's also very important to work in a way that allows discipline to be instructive and and not purely punitive in my role is as Dean of Students I had the opportunity to work with teachers in developing ways that that students could be could be restorative in the way

040that they redressed actions that they engaged in that may have been unkind or may have been may have detracted from the learning environment of others or whatever and that wasn't always easy for a number of reasons but but I think it's it's really important to to have as the foot as the fundamentals at that middle school is a place for learning learning includes not only the facts that we learn and the skills that we learn but it also learns how we behave in different settings and you know that ability that that I have and that then that and that all of us as adults develop to be able to switch our behavior Minh and behave differently in different social situations is something that doesn't isn't instinctual it's something we all have to learn and I

041think middle school is a place to learn that and and to develop ways to help students see that to develop responses to students behavior that are appropriate clear and fair but also instructive I think is is a really important part of doing that and and to the extent that that we can as a professional community develop agreement about what those goals are and and what the appropriateness is related to to cellphone use to behavior in the hallways and to really clearly state those expectations and to be really consistent and thorough about implementing those and and supporting not only students but also teachers and all adults in and having that classroom that hallway space those all the spaces in the middle school will be part of what you know what what is our learning environment is

042a really important part of how I would see discipline being enacted you know I I have I certainly have my own experiences and my own values around the use of technology and and all those things and and I would be happy to communicate those but but what's more important I think is to be able to develop shared norms around what those things entail in a school community and and to recognize in discussion that we're not going to be developing a perfect system because such a system doesn't exist but to make commitments as adults in a school to one another about about these norms and to and to recognize that it's important that they be fair and to commit to those I think is what what I would seek to do as a school leader thank

043you the next question says and what is your vision or what thoughts or ideas do you have for bringing a sense of joy compassion empathy for each other and unity to the middle school at the student level staff level and for the whole school thank you for that question I think um you know I think one of the things that that I consistently experienced within myself this year is a wish for more joy when when I was in school I felt like there was a dearth of the kind of celebration that enlivens the culture of a school I think these celebrations happened they have been here and there but they but they weren't consistent and and so so I I have a lot of ideas for for how to celebrate people you know the the

044public address system is a fantastic way to have shared celebrations on an on a regular basis in a way that that honors the work of not only adults but students in the building I I was always surprised when I learned through the school grapevine or by having conversations with students or teachers about the accomplishments that students were engaged in outside of school and and and it wasn't surprising to me that students did those things it was just surprising that those things weren't really brought to the school you know one of the things I I mentioned earlier that I really love about this age of students middle school students is is their willingness to be goofy their willingness to to be joyous and and and I was you know I was wanting to have opportunities for

045that to be practiced in the school setting in a way that actually added not detracted to the learning environment having regular spirit weeks for example where students have the opportunity to dress up on certain days in and pajamas or whatever it is those are small gestures that just create an environment of joy I think as a school leader I would I would bring joy and celebration on a regular basis whether it was through through engaging and interacting with students in the classroom setting on the whole school setting but really enacting those things as part of how we how we live and how we how we engage in the development of culture we all have a need to to celebrate to identify things that are positive and and to recognize them as positive and in doing

046that you also create it you know it's it's it creates more more positivity and so it's it's a real win-win I believe to be engaged in doing that and and it's uh and it's you know was one of my a very common experience that I had wishing for more of that and and and unfortunately I think that was a shared experience of many people in the building shared and there was certainly plenty to be joyous about and to celebrate one of the things that's difficult about that is to do it it takes planning and takes follow-through by adults in order to make sure that it's done in a way that's appropriate and safe and and and fun for all and so to prioritize that to bring that to the forefront is is one of the

047things that I would seek to do in terms of really developing a culture that's supportive of learning of learning so but also supportive of of engagement and I think that engagement really needs to be brought through various methods and and an important part of that is by bringing fun and then I would really enjoy bringing more of that thank you as principal communication with families students and teachers is key how will you communicate communicate effectively with each of these stakeholders yeah I absolutely believe that and and you know one of the things that I had the opportunity to experience this year and at middle school is the need for those things I felt like there were really important things ideas principles but also really important celebrations that should have been shared could have been easily

048shared with the entire school community that weren't and so one of the things I've thought into quite a bit and and have already began enacting and practicing on developing and creating templates for is regular communication from the principal's office in the form of a newsletter to the to the school community I think having a regular and and continual communication that parents could could rely upon as a way to get information about what's going on in the school and there's a way to share in the celebrations of certain things and also to hear about the growth and progress that that were working on and experiencing as as a professional group of educators I think is really important I think communicating you know I think that that communication in the form of a regular newsletter would be

049something that they would have the audience not only of parents but also as students as well I think having regular announcements on the public address system in a way that respected learning times and learning but also in a way that gave information to students about important things that would be important and and I think really being creative about utilizing some of the communication methods that we have at our disposal there are some monitors and in the in the lobby that I think can be utilized more effectively to communicate important ideas there's an opportunity to have announcements when you have all the students in the cafeteria all the seventh graders and at one moment in eighth graders after that you know I think there are a lot of ways to really leverage the opportunities to do

050exist to to communicate and and I think not only having regular communications and effective communications but really creating those systems and conventions so that teachers and adults and students could reliably understand that they're there there are some communications that they can rely upon that that that are going to be happening on a regular basis and and I think in the absence of that what you experience is a lot of confusion and a lot of tension and anxiety because if there is an event that's happening let's say next week and there isn't an understanding about when communication about that event will be received and if it's not if it's not done in a way that's proactive and it's not done in a way that is respectful of all the changes that people have to manage in

051a building then you end up really undermining the ability of of adults to do their job and and of of people to do their job not only as teachers but also as students and so regular expectation after our regular communications about expectations about norms but also about the the challenges and successes that we're facing it's my hope that if I'm given the opportunity to be the principal to school that then all the all the parents in the community will will experience communications from from me about my thoughts and my hopes and wishes and and and also the recognitions of the challenges that we're facing on a regular basis so that it becomes a collective mission that we're all engaging in and then we're all working on in order to improve the school community for the

052for the benefit of all students thank you how do you foresee your leadership style influencing teacher instruction and how have you supported teachers in meeting the needs of all students so I'm a very collaborative leader and what that means to me is that I don't have the belief that I understand or know the solutions are the best way to do things I I do feel like if I was put in almost any situation I could come up with solutions for those things but but my commitment to collaboration as a leader means that at the very basis very fundamental of my leadership has to do with respecting the expertise and the experience of others and so I wouldn't be wanting to influence teacher instruction in a specific way but I would work very hard to engage

053and develop a shared vision of what is good teaching in this community in the school in the setting and how that should be enacted and to and and once those things are developed in a collective way then you have the opportunity to really bring then I would have the opportunity to really bring my leadership to bear on making sure that there's fidelity with that and so and and so in my role as as dean of students this year it was it was often challenging because I wasn't in the leadership role and I didn't have the opportunity to really be as collaborative or as as supportive as I would have liked to have been a number of times because I was supporting the vision that existed and that was being communicated from the leadership and sometimes

054that was that was genuinely frustrating not only for myself in the role of Dean of Students but also I think for teachers who were recognizing a need and and and perhaps in conversation with myself recognizing a way to address I need but maybe not necessarily feeling empowered to do that in a way that that that was supported throughout the school and so and so I think I think to answer that question I think it's important to recognize that my collaborative leadership style is one that would seek to to bring shared understanding about what is effective teaching and to bring that to bear in a way that that was supported throughout the school and to create support and accountability in a way that enables all all teachers in the community to really enliven their role in

055in that part part of that learning for the benefit of the whole school and so so I look forward to being able to engage and and really have the opportunity to hear those needs from teachers and students alike and to to be able to in some cases communicate that how those needs and fit into our shared vision of how we're engaging in improvement and and to really support the development and creation and and engagement of methods that will allow that to be enlivened in the entire school and I think that's you know at the heart of what I what I seek to do is to create partnership between the administration and the faculty in a way that allows all of us to really bring our efforts together and and to really work together as a

056team and and I think there's tremendous capacity in in the in the Faculty of this president at the school to do that there's tremendous expertise and and there's tremendous and genuine goodwill and I think when you have those things it really it really speaks to the potential that I see in in the school and something I'm genuinely excited for I I feel strongly actually that with with support with with collaborative guidance and leadership and with a willingness to be a learner and to enact that as a lead learner I I feel genuinely excited and hopeful about the kinds of growth that can happen in at merce middle school with my leadership thank you please discuss oops you may have taken or will take to include restorative practices at the middle school thank you you know

057earlier I spoke about the importance of having middle school be at a time of learning and and I think and I think that's that's the framework through which I see every aspect of of the middle school experience for students and and I think it's also at the heart of how I envision and see restorative practices existing in the school setting I had the opportunity this year as dean of students to really to really lead on the implementation of restorative practices and and what I mean by that is is just that that clear idea that that discipline has to be an opportunity for us to learn from our mistakes because all of us make mistakes and when we have the opportunity to understand how those mistakes impacted community and and to offer our energies in reparation

058of those offenses that we may have committed then then it gives us a an opportunity to turn something that could be otherwise in a different paradigm just a time of castigation or a time of being singled out and and and and and not and and not experiencing learning but perhaps developing resentment and those kinds of things I think that that does a tremendous amount of negativity to a community just like anything what that is that is involved in the in the development of social capital like getting in trouble punishment those kinds of things there's there's a real opportunity in the correct application of of discipline policies to actually grow and increase that not only the kindness but also the genuine goodwill that is present in a community I know that as a as a Dean

059I made mistakes I know that in my experience as a teacher I have made mistakes and and I know that if I'm afford the opportunity to be the principal I will also make mistakes and it's a commitment that I have to myself and not only in my professional life but also in my personal life to recognize that making mistakes is part of being human and and one of the most human things like I have found to do is to admit when I have a mistake and to make a genuine commitment to myself to not repeat that mistake because I understand how that mistake may have impacted others and and so and so I would really seek to broaden the reach of restorative justice and and restorative principles not only in the discipline and immersed in

060the school but also enacted in in every corner of the school and in the classrooms and and in all ways because I think it's very important that we have a to experience accountability as a growth experience and as something that is that is actually nurturing not just something that is painful and difficult to experience and and to the extent that I that I have been able to do that as dean I've certainly tried to do that imperfectly and and have a lot of ideas about how I could have been better at that work and and was constantly trying to grow from those but I don't I don't I don't think he could be underestimated how valuable and the other side of it how damaging it can be when a young person particularly someone who's genuinely

061learning something is punished without the opportunity to have that be a learning experience I think it's very damaging and I think we can see this president in in a lot of our systems that we have across the country they have to do with discipline and and the the supposed implementation of what's often called justice and I think and I think the the value in restorative justice is that it actually recognizes the short and long term impacts of of how justice has been implemented in a way that values all community members and and recognizes the role that we all have to play in the development of community thank you the next question has many parts after I asked these questions I will move to the questions in the chat so the first part says can you

062give an example of a change you have led in one of your schools what strategies did you use to engage staff and teachers and to bring people through the process well start there okay that was in too many parts thank you okay okay so so I'll start with those so I had I had a really I had the real privilege in Southern California to work at a school that as head of the middle school that was specifically trying to address a very underserved population the community and and and one of the things that we recognized was that these students in order to become part of the school you had to have been expelled from the school district and there's a very large school district in Southern California and so and so there are unfortunate a

063lot of students who had been who found themselves in that role and and we recognized early on that these students were not experiencing generally experiencing success in the classroom setting and so we really wanted to be thoughtful and and purposeful about how we brought learning to these students and so as part of that we spent a great deal of time in conversation with with teachers at the school and we explored different things or happening educationally in different communities and and we settled upon project-based learning as a way to upend the kind of normal paradigms that existed in the kind of didactic classroom setting that a lot of the students hadn't been successful in before but we knew the project-based learning was a very difficult reform to implement because it does fundamentally address or change the

064paradigm of teacher as giver of knowledge and student as receiver of knowledge which is a paradigm that to be fair many of us who are educators have have been brought up under and so and so and of course we bring that to our experiences educators as well our experiences students and and it just so happens that many of us who are educators were were successful students and so it's sometimes harder for us to to understand or to empathize with students who aren't successful because that wasn't our experience and that was certainly the case in this setting and so and so once we settled upon project-based learning as a way to try and address and and significantly alter the way instruction was delivered in the classrooms we knew that implementing that would be an another difficult

065thing I remember working with very successful teachers who said oh yeah I do project-based learning already because at the end of a unit students have to create a poster and and so there are all these assumptions that were in place my word project-based learning is I won't go into the details of it but I'll just briefly summarize it in in saying that the the in project-based learning the project becomes a vehicle for learning and through the enacting and and and and the the the through the project itself the learning happens so instead of for example having a unit on democracy you might work with students to develop a voter registration drive and through the work of developing a voter registration drive students are going to end up learning a lot of the same things that

066they would learn if they were sitting in class and reading books and documents and hearing lectures about the history of democracy and voting but they're doing that based on on the work of developing this project at the same time they're also developing collaborative skills and leadership skills and all these and citizenship skills and all these soft skills that that have tremendous value in our own communities but in workplaces these days and so and so thankfully we had a lot of support from the district and we had the opportunity to work over weeks in the summer on really understanding and developing capacities in teachers around what was and what was in project-based learning and there was a lot of learning that took place the part of teachers and and once we were able to develop clear

067and shared understandings of what project-based learning was and wasn't then we had the tools at our disposal ready to help us begin to implement this kind of learning with our students but then it was important to really make sure that this was met on an ongoing basis in a way that allowed all this energy that was being built up and all this excitement that was being generated over the summer that allowed it to have life and and so in my role as a middle school leader I had the opportunity to to to become trained in and to deliver regular professional development to the faculty about project-based learning but I think one of the most important things was that we developed a practice of using certain protocols so that teachers had the opportunity in a in

068a protocol setting had the opportunity to share their progress their insecurities and their and their and their triumphs with one another in a setting on a regular basis that allowed them to get useful and constructive feedback on where they felt they were falling short and and so these systems had to be developed but they also had to be carried on over over an extended amount of time and and and it was actually really amazing and and work that i'm very proud of that this school was able to implement over the over a you know a relatively short amount of time and by that I mean a couple years a very strong capacity and culture of project-based learning that was able to dramatically improve and address some of those same achievement gap issues that we talked

069about earlier in this conversation by giving students the opportunity to work with teachers who were engaged in continual professional growth and professional development and to celebrate those triumphs with one another to communicate those at regularity to the community and to involve the community in being able to see the work the fantastic work that was being done by students that that didn't that hadn't really had the experience of of being quote unquote successful in the school setting and and and so if if any one of those things weren't present if if it wasn't if it wasn't regularly reinforced if there wasn't agreed-upon norms and practices that that the teachers in the school felt were have a shared feeling of being critical to this growth if all those things weren't present then you wouldn't have had that

070kind of success and and you know and I'm very proud of the fact that that success continues and and and that the school has has had for for a number of years tremendous growth based on this implementation of project-based learning that continues to impact the way it's happening it that's cool thank you you seem to have addressed the other two parts of the question so I will move on to some of the questions in the chat thank you we have wonderful how well it says do you believe that a principal should know all the students names and how they are pronounced also what percentage of students do you know yeah that's um that's a difficult question in in the sense that you know one of the things that was my experience at at the middle

071school this year was that in in August when I arrived there were nearly five hundred people that I hadn't met before and and I think it was a really difficult thing for me personally to get to know all the students particularly because I was often viewing students in in the from from the perspective and the view of the Dean in working intensively with some students and not at all with other students I do think it's it's a it's a justified and valuable goal for a school leader to know all the students in a school and I would certainly want to do that and and I would seek to do that and I would admit to probably making mistakes around doing that you know even there there were a number of times when I when there

072were students who who I knew and and and you either because either because it was a name I wasn't terribly familiar with or it was a name that was or someone who I hadn't spoken to in a while I wouldn't immediately recall that name and at times it would be frustrating for me and certainly apparently from students as well but but I think I think that's a that's an admirable that would be that'd be a really valuable goal I can I can also say that one of the things that's a very strong influence on me is has to do with my first job as a teacher when I was when I was in my mid-20s I started teaching and and I was a teacher at a school in in California there was a high school

073and I had the really good fortune to work with the principal named our londo Smith was still a mentor and a friend and and one of the things that I found most inspiring about him was besides the fact that he spent so much time with me as a new teacher helping me understand what my role as a teacher was and engaging me in conversations and he seemed to have endless amounts of time for me even though he had so many demands on him but it was it was the fact that he walked around the school and he did know every single student and this was a school that was much bigger than it granted it had four grades it was in high school but it had about 1200 students and and he knew every single

074student and had developed relationships with with many of the students and and that left a really powerful impression on me and and I also remember how successful he was at communicating with students and and really being able to carry through and carry forward with us with those conversations and so one of the things that I have made as a commitment to myself is that if I'm given the opportunity to be the principal at the school is that I would spend spend time studying the yearbook and and getting to know all the students in the school so that I could really be able to speak to all of them and and and and not say excuse me or whatever but but actually address them by name and I think I think that that's that's a fair

075expectation and one that I would work to meet one of the one of the funny things that happen this year is that so my first name is Diego I think you can see that on the screen right here Letta but because I was Dean there were a number of students who called me Dean Sheeran and I think a lot of people thought that my first name was Dean and so from time to time I still get called Dean by people within the school and that's kind of a funny thing and and it's and it's one of the things that always makes me laugh but anyway yes that's I would I would love to know every student's name thank you so we have another student who said what would you change about the middle school if

076anything yeah well I I think I think I think there is a there are a lot there's a lot of change that's being that's happening that's not coming from within but it's coming from without and so so I think to a certain extent trying to keep as much about the middle school that then we value but really working hard to try and change the things that don't serve us is an important part of the work that I would like to try and do I think I think I would like to make it a place that's that that feels safe for all students I would I would love to make it a place where kindness is something that that we all express to one another and and I would really like to make it a place

077where everyone feels comfortable in every part of it and and the students who have our time with that have the recognition that there are places and and and adults that they can reach out to in order to to feel safer more secure and also to feel supported and all those things and so there's a lot of things that I think are really good about about arms and and what happens there and and certainly the students are an important part of that but I think just amplifying the good and and trying to work on making sure that the kindness rings through every hallway is an important part of what I would want to bring so yeah so and that's a lot thank you we have nine minutes left and our time that we have told the

078community that we would have this meeting and there are quite a few questions I will get to one that says how accessible will you be during the day for students to come and talk to you about issues they have that's a great question one of the things that I would like to do is to you know certainly as as principal and as and in any role that you play in the school there are certainly times when you can't be available for students but what I would like to do is is to have regular office hours so students know hey these are the three or four times a week when I know I can walk into the principal's office and and be heard and so again communicating those making those available to everyone so that it's

079understood and and and being consequent in following through with being present for those times is something that I plan to do thank you we have a question what identity do you want arms to have district-wide citywide statewide that's a that's an interesting question I like it I feel like I would like to I would like arms to be known as a school where all students are valued where kindness is an important part of the culture and where where students are challenged in a way that allows them to reach reach further to try harder but also supported in a way that makes them feel successful and so so for me I think I think the the those things will go a long way I also it's also really important to me that arms is a school

080that that is fair where fairness is an important value and I think that's an important part of kindness that that maybe I haven't stated as explicitly as I would like you know I think it's it's natural and developmentally appropriate for for middle school aged students to lament the lack of fairness but I but I also think that that they they are often speaking to things that are real and and appropriate for them to speak to when they're talking about things not being fair and so I so I think being a place of learning being a place where kindness is valued and being a place that's fairs is how I would like our school to be known but also I think a place that's fun you know I had a lot of conversations with students this

081year and and in many cases very successful students who who were you know eighth graders and who had been there and and they some of them didn't look forward to coming to school and and and I found that very sad I I want the school to have a reputation as being a fun place as well a place where students look forward to coming to in a place where they look forward to coming to because they have opportunities to demonstrate who they are and and to grow but also where they have opportunities to have fun and and that's something that's really important to me as well thank you there's a question how do you see the role of parent and how would you support their work thank you for that yeah you know I developed a

082tremendous amount of respect for Peres this year in my work it at the middle school and so how do I see the role I see it as absolutely essential and critical and and I think you know one of the things that is really important to support their work is to really listen to what their needs are to really understand how to support it from an administrative point of view and also to develop that same kind of dialogue that allows for for those shared values and that shared sense of purpose to be developed by by all the adults including bears in in the context of a school there were there were a number of times when when I was involved in engaging students about their interactions with Paris and I found that there were opportunities to

083engage restorative practices in those in those contexts that allowed Paris to feel like they were as valued as they should be in the context of the school I mean honestly there is so much important work that happens in arms that could not be done without the work of parents and and so to properly put that in context and to support that work I think is really essential and to give Paris ownership of what that work looks like and to develop practices that we agree are are are essential to their success as Paris but also as professionals in the building is an important part of that and and I think to the extent that then that that's done collaboratively will really support the success of all all parts of the school well thank you mister Sharon

084for telling us about yourself your beliefs and your qualifications for this position and thank you all for joining this forum once again the session was recorded and will be available for viewing at a later time we will return tomorrow Thursday May 7th at 11:30 to hear from our next candidate thank you very much thank you very much and thank you all of you for tuning in and for the questions and I look forward to continue to work in the community for the for the sake of all students and their families thank you Dorian for the conversation well take care of be safe and stay healthy I appreciate that same to you