Journal #1
Three weeks into my summer, I have a great handle on what this summer will be about. Previously, I attended the two-day Foundations workshop with Education Pioneers and have been getting my hands wet in my new role at DC Public Schools, which is in the Office of Professional Development.
During the first two weeks here, I helped with a few projects my team was finishing up. It was really helpful to be working on a few random things prior to the big lift of my summer project, as this gave me a good sense of how the Central Office runs, as well as the landscape of the schools in the system.
At the start of my third week, I had a clarifying conversation with my supervisor about all the moving parts of my project, and from this I created my Project Plan, which includes a project scope, project deliverables, and a timeline/workplan that lays out specific weekly deliverables. I’ll be formally checking in with my supervisor on a weekly basis, but we talk informally when I have questions at least once a day. The team I’m working within is also extremely helpful, and I often go to them first when what I need is background information.
My project for the summer is to plan the second year of the School-Based Coaches program, which replaced the off-site, workshop style of professional development last year. I will be creating the presentations for the training the Office of Professional Development will give to these coaches, but I’ve added several elements to ensure that I am stretching my skills this summer. The first is that I’ve redefined the measures of accountability and effectiveness that the project will use. In conjunction with this, I’ve added P2P groups – a type of cohort experience for the school-based coaches – whose structure I actually took from the Social Enterprise Club P2P groups, though they’ve taken on a very different form and no longer closely resemble ours at school. I’ve also added a support binder and, most importantly, a budget that will map out how each expense effects the district’s overarching goals for students.
I’m also on an Innovation Team Project here at DCPS for which I’ll be doing that same budget mapping for the entire district budget, which is how I added the same piece to my larger project.
Finally, I have joined the strategy team for the internship program here (as a summer fellow at DCPS I am also part of their larger summer program, the Urban Education Leadership Internship Program). In this capacity, I will be spearheading the rebranding efforts.
I have clearly put a lot on my plate – and I haven’t even been to one of my weekly Education Pioneers workshops yet (that starts tomorrow!) – but one of my goals this summer is to get experience in as many roles as possible so that I can have a better idea about what kind of job I want to find for after I graduate, and I’m finding that exposure is the best way to do this.
Journal #2
With two weeks left in my summer, I have finished the bulk of my work and am working to pull things together and develop final presentations.
Last week I attended my last of the Education Pioneers workshops. The five workshops, over the course of the summer, addressed the topics: students and their families, human capital, urban school models, school choice, and out of school time. Each included a variety of discussions and group activities, a panel with leading DC practitioners, and a small group Innovative Action Project in which we take the theories from the day and develop a concrete action plan for implementing change.
In my placement at DC Public Schools, I have created most of the plan for the Instructional Coaches program. Having laid out a detailed workplan in the beginning of the summer, my progress throughout the summer was fairly constant. I did have to be flexible with the workplan, knowing that things would get moved around, added, and deleted, but having it enabled me to maintain focus and accomplish work at a steady pace. I have also managed this by meeting weekly to check in with my supervisor. During these meetings, we review any new documents or work I’ve completed. Additionally, I ask specific questions that have come up and we discuss the things I will be doing in the coming week.
My work with the Strategy Committee also revved up. As the lead on the branding efforts, I helped create a mission statement and core values. I have also been writing the content for a new website that the Urban Education Leaders Internship Program (the intern program at DC Public Schools) will host on the new DC Public Schools Web site. This has been an exciting opportunity to help connect the public image and recruiting efforts in a strategic way.
My project with the Office of the CFO has progressed and we are nearly finished. We recently presented our findings to the CFO and will be presenting an edited version of that to a group of the district’s chiefs at the end of the summer.
Journal #3
I was extremely pleased with the way my summer finished. The culmination of my work at DCPS was a final presentation to my supervisor, the summer program manager, members o f my department, and colleagues in the program, both from Education Pioneers and not. I felt that this was an important experience for me, as I have not had to present in a business environment in a while. The presentation went well, though, and the feedback from both my mentors (my supervisor and the program manager) was both positive and constructive.
For Education Pioneers, the final two events of the summer were very rewarding. Our Fellows Showcase was a great opportunity to celebrate all the work my cohort accomplished at their various placements over the summer, as well as an excellent opportunity to network with professionals (including Ed Pioneers alums) still working in education in DC. The one downside of this event is that I am hoping to work in New York City after graduation, and this was one of the first times when I felt that my placement location – which I had preferenced in order to work at DCPS for Michelle Rhee – was a disadvantage because I was not able to network with people who work in New York.
The second event was the Capstone event, which was a really great way to close out the cohort experience. I really do think that this aspect of the Education Pioneers Fellowship is its best selling point. This summer, I conversed with peers at other education organizations on a weekly basis. These relationships will be beneficial professionally, as I will encounter these individuals for the rest of my career in education. But they are also a real personal reward, and I made excellent friendships I hope to maintain throughout the coming years.
