An organizational profile (Baldrige 2007) is being constructed of J. Evans Middle School (JEMS) which is located in Greeley Colorado. JEMS is one of 7 middle schools in Greeley. This paper will focus on the organization culture of JEMS. An organization culture is “… an attempt to get at the feel, sense, atmosphere, character, or image of an organization” (Hoy & Miskel, 2008, p. 177). This information was obtained by interviewing Dawn Hillman. Dawn is the principal of JEMS and this is her first year as principal. The last two years she was the assistant principal. In this paper the writer will focus on the culture of JEMS. First the writer will talk about what a toxic culture is and will describe the culture of JEMS. Second the writer will reflect on the experience of conducting an organizational profile.
Culture of JEMS
Does JEMS have a toxic culture? Before we answer this question we need to define what a toxic school is. To do this lets start by discussing what a positive culture is. Small Schools Project states a positive culture is were shared sense of purpose and values that all staff have buy in, all staff is focused on continuous learning and school improvement and this norm is reinforced by the group (n.d.). A positive culture is where all staff believes students can learn and teachers are responsible for student learning. The school is a place of collaboration and all staff wants to become a better teacher so staff communication is about reflection and teaching strategy (Small Schools Project, n.d.). A toxic culture is the opposite of a positive culture.
What does a toxic culture look like? According to Small Schools Project a toxic culture is where staff of the school is very frustrated and sad that things are not ...
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School shootings and suicides result from continuous bullying. As a result, after time some side effects of...
In every institution the type of leadership style is important for a successful environment. In order to establish a successful school environment to compete globally, the leader should comprehend the basic leadership theories and styles (Glickman et al., 2010). The cultures at schools are important to the success of the students and overall of the school, but also can be very difficult to establish and maintain without the proper leadership knowledge (Waite, 1995). In United States many schools could be place in the categories of conventional, congenial, or collegial, because the strategies used for their leadership (Glickman et al., 2010).The chosen school could be classified according to different criteria and could be determine in which area their leadership pertains more. In order to analyzed and classify the leadership, it was imperative to observed the way the leader make decisions, the approached with the stakeholders, how the instruction is delivered, and how they realized their job (Marshall, 2005). In this analysis will be identify the category that this school will be, the school climate, the type of supervision and leadership.
Bullying, often dismissed as a normal part of growing up, is a real problem in our nation's schools, according to the National School Safety Center. One out of every four schoolchildren endures taunting, teasing, pushing, and shoving daily from schoolyard bullies. More than 43 percent of middle- and high-school students avoid using school bathrooms for fear of being harassed or assaulted. Old-fashioned schoolyard hazing has escalated to instances of extortion, emotional terrorism, and kids toting guns to school. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of all incidents of school violence begin with verbal conflicts, w...
school staffs are the people who are in most contact with parents and visible in the community. Therefore, a culture of cooperation,
Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.622-626. Print.
The first tier and arguably the most important is the students. Students should have an expectation of how to treat others and feel comfortable telling a teacher if there is a situation they need help with. Teachers should look out for early signs of bullying and think of an effective strategy to stop it. Personally, I believe that ‘team-based’ learning is the most effective method of reducing bullying. By creating a team atmosphere, students should be more encouraged to work together and give each other support to achieve a common goal. Offering incentives for everyone to perform well could distract students who are likely to bully their classmates. Next, administrators carry the important task of monitor student behavior trends and implement school policies to combat bullying. My suggestion for administrative policy against bullying is the ‘zero-tolerance’ method. Bullying in any form is unacceptable and should not be allowed on school
Some of the reasons why some teachers model the aggressive behavior they experience at home, might be due to education levels and years of teaching experience. In some states, when teacher are tenure, they cannot or hardly be fired. Three articles (See Table 8) directly tested the assumption that education and/or experience were related to bullying behavior. Zerillo (2011) performed a two-part study to see how teacher education and experience affected the way teacher perceived bullying behavior. In the first part, teachers were asked to answer a survey about the teacher perception about peer-to-peer bullying and teacher to student bullying (quantitative data). On the second part, two focus groups were made to discuss the same issues (qualitative data).
There is a very subtle difference between bullying and hazing. The subtleties lie in the intention of each act and the individuals subjected to the acts. Hazing is described as a ceremonial act of welcoming new individuals to a group through a series of rituals. In most cases, these rituals entail severe punishment, manifesting extremist tendencies. There have been reports all over America of freshmen be...
When our group was deciding what issue in education we wanted to do our project on, we wanted something that we all were really passionate about. A huge issue that is occurring throughout schools all over America is bullying. The definition of a bully is to use superior strength or influence to intimidate someone and typically force him or her to do what one wants. However, bulling is not just teasing children on the playground; it is much more serious and could leave negative lifelong long scars. When we discuss the kind of classrooms we hope to have we always describe that we want a “safe” and “welcoming” place for our students. Therefore this is a huge issue to address to make sure our classrooms can be this way. There is no reason why any child should ever endure such torment.
Taylor Lydotta M, the importance of school culture in the advancement f 21st century learning environment:a qualitative study,2011,Morangtown,westVirginia.
...drama going on in their lives. With the help of the teachers and the bullying awareness program after school, the adolescents will become comfortable in a school environment.
In education 2130, we are ask to volunteer our time and do field experience that in return would give back to the community. I choose to do my field experience at Lula Elementary School in Hall County. During my time there I got to observe and watch teachers teach, how they handle children’s behavior and also their classroom management. In the paper I am going to discuss my field experience and what I learned in my time spent in a classroom. I am also going to try and make connections to educational psychology and what I learned in my education class. Also I am going to reflect on my emotional and professional reactions.