Vanessa Peak, Educational, Administrative Professional
Standard 3: Cultural Leadership
School executives will understand and act on the understanding of the important role a school’s culture contributes to the exemplary performance of the school. School executives must support and value the traditions, artifacts, symbols and positive values and norms of the school and community that result in a sense of identity and pride upon which to build a positive future. A school executive must be able to “reculture” the school if needed to align with school’s goals of improving student and adult learning and to infuse the work of the adults and students with passion, meaning and purpose. Cultural leadership implies understanding the school as the people in it each day, how they came to their current state, and how to connect with their traditions in order to move them forward to support the school’s efforts to achieve individual and collective goals.
Students are empowered by their native culture and this is promoted throughout the community. We have many students who participate in the local Pow Wow within the community.
Teachers were tasked to create a Pro/Con graphic as part of a jigsaw project. The premise behind this is to ensure to create a atmosphere of proactive educators who are actively sharpening the saw.
This picture spot lights teachers doing great things within the classrooms and school.
The picture below depicts the culture of Native American during times when families would come together as a community. Everyone considered themselves family and when one or two families did not have food, others would go into their gardens and pantries and find vegetables and spices. In doing this the community would come together to create in a black wash pot something called Wash Pot Soup. No one was left hungry and their was plenty of left overs for those families in need.
I created the banner for this event and invited the community to the unveiling of this special occasion. Persons invited include the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, board members, the artist, teachers, and a host of other community members.
The school received donations of school supplies from one of the community churches.