Professional Collaboration by Federico Quintana, M.Ed.

An inspiration for yall to work together to bring many levels of achievements for ASL teachings. There are two different types of teachers... A researcher and an innovator... A researcher digest and compare the studied data to provide the solutions for the learning or teaching problems. An innovator creates the meaningful learning or teaching activities by connecting the dots of interdisciplinary. Both can not successfully teach without collaborating. Like the hardware and software working together to bring the purposes of life. You need my skills and I need your skills. Growing foods but it doesn't cook itself.... Let's collaborate and thrive our ASL (L1 & L2) programs much stronger !!!

ASL MacGyver is at work ! Here is my latest ASL creation...."L1 & L2 ASL Classifiers Picture Story Worksheet" Including the Q & A's and rubric By Federico Quintana, M.Ed.

The purpose of my action research in Deaf Education by Federico Quintana (2012)

As a deaf educator, one main goal in my professional career is to advocate for deaf students and work with schools to find creative solutions to bridge the communicational gap between deaf students and their teachers through, not only better instructional practices, but also, through a better understanding of the deaf culture, greater parental involvement, and deaf professionals in the school.

I am firmly convinced that research is needed in order to identify, understand, and propose solutions to the various dilemmas that affect the deaf education programs. An urgent task to be addressed in research practices is determining the effectiveness of the current procedures to determine qualifications of teachers and interpreters working with deaf students, and means to increase participation of deaf professionals in careers related to education. A personal experience may further illustrate my point; two years ago, I attended a State Conference for Deaf Educators, however, only 11 of the 200 members were deaf (including myself). In addition, many of the “deaf/hearing educators” required sign language interpreters because they were not proficient in sign language. The question that had been bothering me since I was in elementary school came back to me in the same simple terms and unfortunately, remains without response; if deaf educators are not proficient in sign language, how are they able to communicate and teach deaf students effectively?

Research can bring new light regarding key questions; does our current educational regulation sets up appropriate procedures to qualify teachers to work with deaf students? Are there adequate workshops, trainings, and staff development activities that focus on improving sign language skills for deaf educators and enhance their knowledge about the psychology of deafness? Are our current teacher evaluation measures a true reflection of the teacher’s capacity to teach deaf students? School leaders need to take an active role in initiating a conversation about these issues and advocate for research that can bring new ideas about how to increase recruitment of deaf teachers and administrators, and ways to bring the parents of the deaf to become active participants in the educational process of their children.

I am convinced that action research is needed in order to identify, understand, and propose solutions to the various dilemmas affecting deaf education programs. My focus will be on determining the effectiveness of current teacher qualifications and interpreters working with deaf students, and identifying means to increase participation of deaf professionals in education-related careers.

This research may hold significant benefits for school leaders in charge of deaf programs. School leaders need to take an active role in initiating a conversation about such issues and advocate for research that can bring benefits to educators working with deaf students, such as new ideas for increasing recruitment of deaf teachers and administrators, development and implementation of effective staff development, and ways to have teachers of deaf students become active participants in the deaf students’ educational process for achievement at numerous levels.

Leadership for Accountability: Course Relfection by Federico Quintana (2012)

Think about your action plan from the Application assignment. What have you learned in this course about the continuous campus improvement cycle that will dictate your next steps?

What will be your next steps in the continuous improvement process? How will you carry the action plan forward and maintain momentum? Outline and reflect on your next steps in this process.

“Move forward in time to the end of the school year. Imagine that you and your staff implemented the action plan, which resulted in increased student performance on the latest Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports. Your campus has moved a step closer to becoming Exemplary, and you want to maintain the momentum. What will you do now?” 

Federico A. Quintana This course has provided me valuable lessons in techniques for gathering data information and using data to develop a solution to address any area of concern regarding students’ educational achievements and overall campus’ health.  There are many research-based tools for collecting and using data to identify areas of improvement in students’ academic and test performance. Using data on students’ tests and overall campus performance gives us the opportunity to identity areas needing improvement to fill the gaps in student achievements and then develop the action plan for on-going improvements in our campus. However, it should not be the only criteria to evaluate their progress. Even though my campus, Memorial High School, according to AEIS report, is rated “academic acceptable,” our job as administrators is to continue joining efforts to improve our campus in order to maintain momentum.  The next steps for continuous campus improvement cycle in our campus are to identity any areas that are in need for improvement by studying data information collected through appropriate research-based techniques. Then, I will develop and implement the action plan for improvement on our campus. The action plan will include (once again) research-based tools to develop a rigorous professional development trainig for teachers and administrators. This class provided me with valuable tools to put together an effective professional development by incorporating a “Team Dialogue Guide” and reflection guide (both tools are similar to assessments for evaluating data and determining the most effective steps for addressing concerns). Thomas wrote, “…the team emerges from the data analysis process with a clear plan of action for identified students and for class instruction…” (p. 42). He also wrote, “The reflection guide included in this article is a helpful tool for team members to analyze the current status of curriculum, instruction and assessment and to identify instructional changes for the next unit” (p. 42); this data analysis tool is beneficial for a school team to explore the ineffectiveness and effectiveness of instructional practices and curriculums. The benefits of “Team Dialogue Guide” and reflection guide in professional staff development is to provide teachers an opportunity to share input on student’ tests score improvements. This could be accomplished by sorting through data to identify areas of needed improvement. In general, the meetings would include discussion on data regarding students’ tests and overall campus performance to meet state standard requirements; this can be overwhelming and time-consuming.  Using the two guides Thomas provides, would bring about great relief for this data-driven dilemmas. These tools can help open dialogue with teachers and promote collaboration on data analysis of students’ achievements by presenting subgroups students’ academic performance and attendance rates. The data will be presented in a systematic way to point out strengths and weaknesses with combined data sources, and the factors contributing to low performance scores would be explained clearly. I would then provide recommended actions for improvementing, and opening the floor to input from the meeting participants. Additionally, on-going professional development for educators and administrators is also a key for continuous campus improvement cycle to thrive the excellence quality of education for every individual student. The last step, I will use formative assessment to monitor the students’ performance and ensure that an action campus plan is in the place.  Dylan William from “Changing Classroom Practice” explains the role of formative assessment as a professional tool to promote teachers into action by using formative assessments for student performance, “Meeting regularly in teacher learning communities is one of the best ways for teachers to develop their skill in using formative assessment” (William, p. 36).School leaders should use formative assessment as part of their action plans when they see challenges or issues. As William suggests, “Formative assessment has the power to produce unprecedented improvements in student achievement in our schools” (p. 39). Using formative assessment will help me evaluate my campus and students’ performances for efficacy. However, formative assessment is a cynical process that requires a length of time as William emphasizes: “Don’t treat formative assessment as just this year's quick fix” (p. 39). This course helped me gain a greater understanding of the necessity of effective data collection and use, along with various guidelines, implementing action tools to improve students’ academic performances. References: Thomas, R. S. (2006). How to survive data overload. Principal Leadership, 7(2), p. 42. William, D. (2007-2008). Changing Classroom Practice. Educational Leadership, 65(4), p. 36-41.

Human Resource Management -Ethic of Code- by Federico Quintana (2012)

I defined ethics as the principle of good morality behaviors. Myself as deaf educator, my personal code of ethics could be tested in a leadership position because I often faced numerous obstacles communicating with administrators, staffs and parents beyond the basic concepts.In my experience, conflict occurs and exacerbate when communication channels are not set in place or become disrupted. This situation is even more obvious when we are talking about deaf teachers (like me) and it interaction with the school administration and rest of the staff members. Only a great deal of effort and creativity (problem solving outside the box) and the commitment to improve communication can possibly help to solve the day to day situations and conflicts. For example, when it comes to emergency situations, in many cases I faced what I call “communication slowdowns” because interpreters weren’t always available at those times. This experience illustrates the example that my personal ethic will be ultimately tested regarding to challenges of communication barriers. However, my personal code of ethic guide my decision making as a school leader, I will ensure to review and implement policies and procedures, along with ethical codes, that promote professional educator compliance in decision making, actions and behaviors and model the highest standard of conduct, ethical principles and integrity in decision making. It is imperative for me as school leader to apply knowledge of ethical issues affecting education, follow laws, policies, and procedure in a fair and reasonable manner, and communicate effectively with a school stakeholders and appropriate authorities about the decision making process.

(2012) "What do you feel would be the most difficult aspect of evaluating teacher and campus staff? How do you overcome that difficulty? What criteria do you feel is appropriate in evaluating teacher effectiveness, and how do you ensure fairness and objectivity during the evaluation process ?"

I believe that the most difficult aspect of evaluating teachers and staffs is personal conflict of interest because some of them may be associates close friends or even relatives. The aspect that I would keep in my mind in order to overcome that difficulty would be consider the evaluation process as a meant to provide feedback and an opportunity for improvement instead of looking it as a mean to intimidate or punish. In my experience as high school teacher the performance evaluations can be nerve racking, and for this very reason may not be a fair demonstration of the teacher’s performance. Therefore, as an administrator, every time I plan to evaluate a classroom teacher, I would inform him/her in ahead of time about the mandatory for performance evaluation. I would set up a meeting with the teacher few days prior to formal evaluation to discuss what to expect during the evaluation and what observer is seeking for in teaching performances. The meeting will benefit teachers because as he/she would be learning and will enhance his/her skills and self prepared, more confidence and do their best at the day of evaluation. This criterion is appropriate in evaluating teacher effectiveness, and ensuring fairness and objectivity during the evaluation process.