An Interview with Sonia Aramburo

There is a lot that can be learned from others in your field. 

As a teacher I have grown the most when I visit other classrooms and observe other teachers. There practices are easier to implement once I have seen them in action, and there is more buy in because I am able to see their results. 

The same could be said for administrators. As a future administrator, I believe there is a lot I can learn from great administrators already in the field. I was given a great opportunity to interview a local administrator who has done great things for her school and the community. 

Mrs. Aramburo is a well-respected and effective principal in Monterey county. She successfully led a school out of program improvement. Mrs. Aramburo has single handedly transformed multiple school communities by bringing unique experiences like the Turnaround Arts initiative to her students.

I learned so much from this amazing administrator and would interview another principal without hesitation. Thank you so much Mrs. Aramburo for being an inspiration to me and others within the educational realm!


Below are some of the interview questions I asked Mrs. Aramburo and her responses:

How many years have you been a principal? Ten

How many years have you been at principal at this school? Six

How many years of experience did you have teaching before you became a principal? Seven

How many years of experience did you have as an assistant principal, counselor, or district coordinator? I had seven years of the counseling experience and four years as an assistant principal. 

In general, how much time do you have to make decisions? Most times there is not much time to make a decision. It depends on the decision. Sometimes you have more time but as a principal you have to make decisions quickly.

Do you have specific guiding principles? My guiding principles are I’m very collaborative with my staff and we always keep our students’ needs on the forefront.

If so, can you tell me more about these? Every child receives core content instruction, they are never pulled out during core content, and they receive universal access, the families are crucial to a child’s education, and at my school, reading is fundamental. Students needs to be able to read to access core content. 

What was the role of external influences on your decision making? Our leadership team plays a part. I believe in shared decision making although I do make the final decision. I have a great team that I work with, I take things before the team, we discuss it, and decide what we can do.

Force Field Analysis

On Monday the School Growth Team at my school held a meeting to discuss a Force Field Analysis. I thought the process was extremely valuable and wanted to share an overview of what a Force Field Analysis is and how it can be used in an elementary school setting. 

What Is a Force Field Analysis?

A Force Field Analysis is an effective technique used to analyze and drive change within a school. It was developed by psychologist Kurt Lewin, an innovator of the study of social organizational science. It is a tool that develops actions that help achieve a desired state.

What Is a Desired State?

A desired state is a goal. According to businessdictionary.com, “when reorganizing a business or an investment portfolio, it is crucial to keep its desired state firmly in mind in order to maximize the overall efficiency of the restructuring process.”

How Is a Force Field Analysis Conducted?

For a Force Field Analysis to work, a desired state must first be established. Once the desired state has been created, factors that impact the desired state are identified through a brainstorm. These factors are known as driving and/or restraining forces. Driving forces are those factors that promote change, while resisting forces maintain the status quo and inhibit change. These forces are always in play and affect movement toward the desired state.

In order to move toward a desired state, driving forces must increase and restraining forces must decrease. According to Lewin, the most effective way to move toward a desired state is to remove restraining forces. The driving forces already in place within the organization will naturally move the organization toward the desired state once restraining forces have been reduced or eliminated.

Once the driving and restraining forces have been identified, evidence must be cited as proof of a problem. Next, the actions of the organization will be determined. These actions need to take into account driving and restraining forces. Actions that help remove restraining forces are a top priority for an organization because once they removed, driving forces can propel an organization toward a desired state. Data can be used to progress monitor the actions thus ensuring forces are eliminated and/or developed.  

How Do You Use a Force Field Analysis Tool?

1. Describe desired state
2. Identify forces for change on left column
3. List forces against change on the right column.
4. Assign score to each force from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong)
5. Use evidence to verify forces
6. Plan actions

Should Headphones Be Allowed in the Classroom?

I allow students to use headphones in my classroom when they are working on assignments. When I am talking to the class I do not let them use headphones.

However, I know other teachers feel differently.

Debate.org has posted this same question. You can view peoples responses here.

What do you think? Should students be allowed to use headphones in the classroom?

Organized Classroom

For years, a secret weapon of mine is Organized Classroom.

Charity Preston started the Organized Classroom as a blog to share tricks of the trade.

I have used it to create:

• content my classroom website
• organizers for teacher binders
• parent letters 
• tags for classroom libraries

I highly recommend exploring her blog at: http://organizedclassroom.com/classroom-diy/

Literacy Stations: Debbie Diller

One of my favorite educators is Debbie Diller.

Early on in my career I read her books and she transformed the way centers were done in my classroom. Debbie is all about student led centers and independent activities for students. Once students are familiar with these stations you as the teacher are able to work and lead small group interventions without interruption.

My favorite of her books is Practice with Purpose Literacy Work Stations for Grades 3-6. I have literally ripped pages out of this book and refer to this book before teaching each year. Debbie's ideas are simple. If you teach literacy stations to your whole class and they became very familiar with activities, they will be able to do these activities independently without you!

Debbie just published a new book in February. It is titled Growing Independent Learners From Literacy Standards to Stations K-3. I just ordered the book on amazon and will have a review for you soon.

 

Classroom Themes

I have always known that one can tell a good teacher based on their classroom.

When I was a preschool student, we had Jurassic Night and the teachers transformed the entire room into a dinosaur dreamland. Vines hung from the ceiling and giant paper brontosaurus' roamed the room.

My second grade classroom hardly had anything in the classroom. It was a state of disarray with papers and boxes piled throughout the room. There were no art projects that adorned the walls.

If you were to ask me which class I remember more, it was preschool. I remember more content and was happier going to class. In comparison, I don't remember anything about second grade except that I didn't like my teacher. I don't actually remember her but you get the point...

SO every year I try to create a classroom theme that embodies my preschool experience. Two years ago I created a forest hanging redwood tree limbs from the ceiling. Anthropologie gave me hundreds of butterflies from their previous display and I pinned each butterfly to the wall with a seaming pins.

This year my classroom's theme will be Where the Wild Things Are. I have created a Pinterest board with different ideas of what the classroom will look like. I have already updated my classroom website to reflect the theme. I think my students will really enjoy how I transform the class. The Where the Wild Things Pinterest board can be viewed at:
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/where-the-wild-things-are/

Classroom themes from previous years include:
Superheros
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/superhero-classroom/
Harry Potter
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/harry-potter-classroom/

TeachingChannel

This past week I presented Collaborative Conversations to twenty elementary through high school teachers. This process was nerve wrecking and extremely intimidating however I was able to lead a great lesson because of one amazing resource: TeachingChannel.

TeachingChannel is a VERY useful resource. The website showcases videos of effective lessons in the classroom. Although I enjoy reading about how I can improve my teaching I found the most effective way to change my teaching is by observing other teachers. I work at a small school of only five staff members in a very isolated community. TeachingChannel allows me to watch teachers in elementary through high school classrooms in cities across the United States.

The video that helped me most in developing the Collaborative Conversations presentation can be found at https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/formative-assessment-example-ela-sbac
I lead these teachers through the process of answering questions collaboratively and establishing rules just as this teacher does with her fourth grade students.

Another great part of the website is the guide section of the side of each video. It guides your viewing through a series of reflective questions.